feminine-genius

In shock from the pressure

Nothing justifies such a sentence, ever:

A Sudanese woman, believed to be around 20, has been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery, and is being held near Khartoum, shackled in prison with her baby son, rights groups and lawyers said on Thursday.

Campaigners condemned the ruling, saying it violated international standards and raised concerns that Sudan might start applying sharia, or Islamic law, more strictly following the secession of mostly non-Muslim South Sudan last year.

The woman, Intisar Sharif Abdalla, was sentenced by the Ombada criminal court on April 22, court documents seen by Reuters showed.

Two lawyers assigned to her case, who declined to be named, said they were launching an appeal adding Abdalla appeared to be under severe psychological strain.

"She's in dire need of a psychiatrist because she appears to be in a state of shock from the social and family pressures she's under," one lawyer said.

Abdalla was illiterate and did not have a lawyer or interpreter in the courtroom, although Arabic is not her native language, the lawyers and activists added.

Arabic is the main language in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation, though a wide range of smaller languages are also spoken, particularly in tribal areas. It was unclear where Abdalla came from.

For those who decry the legislation in this country (the US) that bans the application of Shari'a law in resolving disputes, kindly ask them about this portion of the code. This is exactly the sort of thing that Our Lord stopped -- for nothing is worth this punishment. One would also hope that the feminists would speak out against this mysogynistic attack on women and choice. Waiting...  

And in the meantime, prayers for this young woman -- and her baby. A culture that would mete out this punishment would likely tar him for life with the shame.

A vile persecution

There are many ways that Christians can be persecuted -- losing friends, losing jobs, losing access to services, etc. But then there is the most reprehensible way of attacking a family:

Burmese troops gang raped and tortured a grandmother in a church in the latest reported case of abuse by Burma's military against the predominantly Christian Kachin minority, Christian rights activists said Monday, May 21.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an advocacy group investigating the attacks in Burma, told BosNewsLife that the grandmother of 12 was sheltering on May 1 alone in a church after other villagers had fled the country's northernmost Kachin State near the border with China.

"Burma Army troops entered the church where they beat her with rifle butts, stabbed her with knives, stripped her naked and gang-raped her over a period of three days," CSW said.

On May 4, she was taken to hospital by villagers and reunited with her children "however she is now suffering from mental health problems," the group added in a statement.

She is not alone, and another indignity that the victims share is a blind eye by the government, which never charges the perpetrators.

CSW’s East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said it was "an appalling case" and shows that "despite all the signs of change in other parts of the country, crimes against humanity continue to be perpetrated by the Burma Army against ethnic nationalities, particularly the [predominantly Christian] Kachin."

President Thein Sein has made clear he wants a ceasefire with different ethnic groups demanding more rights. However "if the reform process is to really mean true change for Burma, the military must stop raping, torturing, enslaving and killing civilians," argued Rogers.

Our prayers go out to all suffering from injustice. May this woman and her family, in particular, feel the consolations of the Holy Spirit.

God's perfect timing

Crescat's heart-rending post about her hidden abortions cannot go without comment, for she is offering the exact witness mentioned in the previous post. As the comments below it indicate, she has the total support of her readers, who extend their love and understanding -- as it should be (while clarifying that we can never really understand the suffering others).

One comment in particular must be noted:

Your story is my story. Two abortions, one miscarriage. Your honesty has power though. I have sat debating abortions with people over and over again and they ignore what I'm saying - apparently I only think like this because I'm Catholic!

Kindly remember that we will always be marginalised: if it's because we're Catholic, we're brain dead; if we're not, ours is just a private opinion; if we've had an abortion, we have no room to talk; if we haven't, we don't understand what leads women to it. It doesn't matter how the argument is framed, the messenger must be indicted so that the message can be dismissed. That's how a malformed conscience operates.

Arguments won't work -- only grace can prepare hearts, soften wills and make the truth known. Now is the favourable time, now is when we are called to speak out. Love and prayers for Kathleen, and let's do all we can to make her confession one for the ages. The world needs such stories shouted from the rooftops, and let her witness be the sign of contradiction to illuminate the confusion of her generation.

Behold the modern woman

  

The entire message is so sickening that I'm appalled for the entire family. What lies behind the surface of every sentence, every thought, is the fact that nothing can be accomplished without "medication" that will sterilise intimacy, without the ability to engage in sinful behaviour. My daughter cannot join the military without birth control pills. My daughter cannot enjoy her life without uncommitted sex. My daughter will be less of a person if she doesn't tamper with her reproductive capacity -- for God's physiological design and the exciting dreams of women are radically opposed to each other.

This woman has sexualised two dear little girls, for the subject matter distracts the observer into extrapolating: "Now what's the relationship between setting that alarm clock and this ad?" or "What will keep those smiles alive as the wind tousles their hair?" Ah yes, sexual licence. And children. God forgive her.

She is entirely right about the ubiquitous pills in the medicine cabinet. Such is the culture in which we operate. Such is the battle to be fought at every turn -- for Christ despises the corruption of his little ones. Our challenge is to love this mother while renouncing Every. Single. Word.

The issue of religious liberty aside, our culture has enshrined uncommitted, sterile copulation as a birthright, and is trying to make it the measure of a woman's freedom -- ignoring the fact that it allows every woman to be used as an instrument of other's pleasure. Keep this in mind as you encounter the world. It has rejected the very meaning of existence, and traded it for a mess of pottage.

Pray without ceasing, be faithful, and remember that you are the living sign of contradiction -- simply by remaining in God's embrace. Courage!

UPDATE: this comprehensive piece nails it -- well done!

The value of a woman in China

No matter what the Chinese state says about its citizens, the women are not feeling valued, and why would they? Granted, it's not Communism that says boys are of more value than girls, but when a draconian policy interferes with natural fertility, forcing families to have but one child, the cultural preference for boys means that girls are caught in the cross-hairs.

“A woman takes her life every three seconds in China,” and men outnumber women by 40 million because of the “systematic elimination of girls” through forced abortion and sterilizations resulting from China’s one-child policy, Chai Ling, founder of the human rights group All Girls Allowed, said Tuesday.

Ling testified during a House Foreign Affairs Subcommitte on Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist who was imprisoned by the Chinese government and fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He is waiting to complete paperwork so that he can travel to the United States.

This is the nature of "human rights" in China that Chen has documented and protested--for which he has been made a folk hero. This is the message that China wants buried. And this is the sort of embarrassing detail that the US abhors, because trade is more important than such rights.

And what do the large, unwieldly numbers hide? Individual stories like this:

“I would like to share some of the stories and images that will show you what is happening in China even as we speak. I should warn you that these stories are disturbing,” Ling said.

Ling shared the story of Deng Lourong, the second of three girls, whose parents wanted a boy desperately enough to violate the one-child policy only to have Chinese officials demolish their home and confiscate their belongings.

Lourong’s mother disappeared three days after giving birth to her third child, and her father fled too, giving the girls over to the care of their grandmother. “Undeterred, officials detained the girls’ grandmother in 2002 and left them without a guardian,” Ling said.

“During the night, a man broke into their room and raped the 12-year-old Lourong. Her sisters managed to obtain the release of their grandmother after this, but the elderly woman died a month after she returned home,” Ling said. Lourong’s rapist only received five days in administrative detention.

Lourong was sold as a child bride three years later to a man twice her age, and her sisters were sold by traffickers and have yet to be found, according to Ling.

“When a German reporter and Chinese volunteers found Lourong’s father last November, he told them that Lourong’s husband had turned her into a prostitute to earn income for him. He beats her frequently and sold her body to bachelors in that area. Deng was in poor mental state. She would roam the mountains for over a week sometimes before returning to the house,” Ling said.

Multiply that by millions and you have a world of hurt. God sees, no doubt, but he also wants us to see and act. God wants us to weigh our imports against these broken lives, for us to weigh diplomatic protocols against cries of anguish for those dismembered bearing the divine image, for us to consider the price of our silence.

True Empress of China, intercede for these, your dear children!

"My faith is my life"

Sister Mary Sylvester is about to celebrate both 83 years of religious life and her 100th birthday. She sounds like a delightful person:

For nearly 100 years, Sister Mary Sylvester has offered a countless number of prayers of thanks to God. Still, her most enduring legacy is that she has lived her life as a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

The gratitude shows in the way she fondly recalls those horse-drawn wagon trips with her siblings and other children to their Catholic school—her first journey of faith with others.

Her happiness also flows in the memories of her students, and the care she has extended toward people in need—including the way she stuffed 47 pillows last Christmas, hoping to bring a touch of comfort to military veterans at a hospital.

And perhaps most of all, her appreciation for her life has always been reflected in her joy of being part of a religious community dedicated to God. She comes to all the meals, and attends all the events, Masses and celebrations within the community.

How beautiful that her own vocation was inspired by her first-grade teacher, Sister Pauline. Subsequently, Sister Sylvester taught for 50 years, touching an astounding number of lives -- people for whom she has faithfully prayed ever since. Ad multos annos, dear Sister, and thank you for your generous spirit!

The Last Line of Defense

There's far more to the Hilary Rosen comment than met the eye -- for we have to consider the deeper question: what is the value of motherhood? My latest on CL includes the illustration of the all-out war on smokers, that has dominated its corner of the culture:

If impressionable children can be insulated from smokers for their own benefit, why not music lyrics that glorify gang violence, promiscuity peddled through the entertainment and fashion industries, and the emotional shredding attached to broken families? These influences aren’t decried for two simple reasons. First, there is a significant portion of our population that simply doesn’t care about the impact of those things; but moreover, there is a smaller but more insidious population that does care—but encourages them anyway for a variety of reasons. These are the Hilary Rosens of our landscape.

Read it all.

35,000 per day

That's the average daily abortion rate in China, and you can be sure that the great majority of those abortion--13 million yearly--are targeted at baby girls. That is the impetus for this firm reminder from US Rep. Christopher Smith:

“The war on women is very real, and it’s being employed by the Chinese government every day of the week against Chinese women, including mothers, but also against unborn baby girls who are killed simply because they happen to be female,” Smith said.

“And the number of sex-selection abortions in China has no parallel,” Smith said. “It is the direct consequence of the one-child-per-couple policy, and unfortunately, the Obama administration has given money to the very organization – the (United Nations) population fund – that defends to the hilt the one-child-per-couple policy and says it ought to be replicated around the world.”

A 2011 report by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy states that in 2000 more than half of abortions in China were a result of prenatal sex selection.

Smith called the Democrat charge [that Republicans are waging a war on women] “nonsense” and said that the Obama administration should be helping Chen and his battle against the Chinese government’s forced abortion and sterilization policies.

“They ought to be standing firm with Chen Guangcheng and fighting for his asylum and, on an every day basis, be fighting against China’s forced abortion policy,” Smith said.

Instead, the Obama administration is following China's lead on family planning programs--not only at the UN but in the US--which begin with free hand-outs and end up with coercion on the government dime.

And to the Church's shame, a “Catholic” institution will give a soap-box to the head of the program for one of its graduation events:

Former governor of Kansas and current secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, will be addressing the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.

That explains why when Chen risked everything to escape to the US embassy in China, he saw for himself what our government prioritises:

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who has suffered years of imprisonment and beatings for objecting to forced abortions and sterilizations in his native country, thought he could find shelter and friendship in the United States embassy following his recent escape from house arrest. He is now learning the hard way that the pro-abortion Obama administration, which helps to finance the same “one-child policy” that Chen is fighting, would rather see him disappear.

Pray, friends, and keep your lamps lit.