LifeNet

Is Faith the Hope for Addicts?

There is never one answer, but we welcome proven methods to help alcoholics and addicts achieve sobriety and peace. Their restored personal dignity is a gift to themselves and to the communities in which they live.

The Wall Street Journal on March 28, 2014 ran this piece on addiction recovery:

Can Faith Rewire an Addict's Brain? New evidence shows that 'God consciousness' can keep young people off drugs and alcohol.

By

Byron Johnson And

Maria Pagano

Young people who regularly attend religious services and describe themselves as religious are less likely to experiment with alcohol and drugs, a growing body of research shows. Why? It could be religious instruction, support from congregations, or conviction that using alcohol and drugs violates one's religious beliefs.

Moreover, frequent involvement in spiritual activities seems to help in the treatment of those who do abuse alcohol and drugs. That's the conclusion of many reports, including our longitudinal study of 195 juvenile offenders that will be released in May in Alcohol Treatment Quarterly.

Fewer and fewer adolescents today are connected to a religious organization. Young people are less affiliated than previous generations, with 25% of the millennial generation unattached to any particular faith, according to a 2010 Pew Research report.

The problem is more fundamental than missing church on Sunday. Young people in our study of juvenile offenders seem to lack purpose and are overwhelmed by feelings of not fitting in. Meantime, the legalization of marijuana in several states, the flood of prescription medications, and the availability of harder street drugs gives youth wide access to mind-altering substances.

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There are two key elements of the 12-step program AA uses: helping others and God-consciousness. Those who help people during treatment—taking time to talk to another addict who is struggling, volunteering, cleaning up, setting up for meetings, or other service projects—are, according to our research, statistically more likely to stay sober and out of jail in the six months after discharge, a high-risk period in which 70% relapse.

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Nearly half of youth who self-identified as agnostic, atheist or nonreligious at treatment admission claimed a spiritual affiliation two months later. This change correlated with a decreased likelihood of testing positive for alcohol and drugs during treatment.

A connection with the divine and service to others both seem to enhance sobriety. That's because they provide what young people like Katie have been missing: a deep sense of purpose, opportunities to provide help to other people, connections with others, and the chance to make a difference in the world. This reduces self-absorbed thinking, something AA cites as a root cause of addiction.

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As a teen we will call Ben told us, "I am aware today in sobriety that my thinking has drastically changed. You take a telescope and move it a centimeter, and your whole world changes. Now I ask myself: What can I bring to the table? How can I help?"

How does a person rewire their own brain? There are many paths, but some adolescents agree with "Allen," who told us, "I need a power greater than myself to enter my life."

Mr. Johnson is a professor of social sciences at Baylor University. Ms. Pagano is a professor of child psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University

 

WSJ: "ObamaCare vs. Religious Liberty"

The Wall Street Journal editorial from March 26, 2014 is hopeful that the abortion/contraception mandate will - and should be - overturned.

ObamaCare v. Religious Liberty. A majority of Justices seem skeptical of the contraception mandate.

The Affordable Care Act returned to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, as the Justices heard a major challenge to the law's birth-control mandate. Five and maybe even six Justices across ideological lines seemed discomfited by the Administration's cramped conception of religious liberty.

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Trying to distinguish between for-profit and nonprofit corporate forms for this regulatory purpose is constitutionally unprecedented. Corporations are often treated as "persons" for legal purposes, such as protecting free speech, and prosecutors can indict entire corporations for breaking laws. As Chief Justice John Roberts observed, minority-owned businesses can bring racial discrimination lawsuits. So why can't Christian- or Muslim-owned businesses exercise religion? Solicitor General Donald Verrilli had no good answer.

Liberal Justices rolled out a parade of dubious hypotheticals, arguing that if a business can invoke religion to refuse to pay for abortifacients, couldn't it also refuse to pay for blood transfusions or vaccinations? "Could an employer preclude the use of those items as well?" asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the day's first question.

Yet no one is "precluding" anything. Contraception is cheap, plentiful and covered by most health plans. Most corporations are run for profit, not piety. Mr. Verrilli claimed the mandate is necessary to promote public health and gender equality, but HHS could have aided those goals without forcing a minority of business owners with moral aims to implicate themselves in what they consider to be grave moral wrongs.

HHS itself recognized religious sensitivity to the mandate by exempting some businesses but not others, and it could have extended the same conscience accommodations to for-profits as it did to nonprofits. Congress also could have created a free birth-control program for the poor or employees of religious institutions, or increased subsidies for Planned Parenthood. Even liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wondered whether the mandate was "the less restrictive way" to provide birth control, while Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that HHS believed "the health-care coverage was not that important" if some organizations already get an exemption.

The courts can also assess on a case-by-case basis which corporations really do operate on religious principles and thus deserve RFRA free-exercise protection. They will be the few Hobby Lobbies, not Exxon.

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The real purpose of the mandate was to minister to the secular left and the so-called coalition of the ascendant, which is why the White House has fought this case up to the High Court rather than simply creating a waiver for religious minorities. The tenor of oral argument suggested the Justices will rebuke this threat to a religiously diverse society, and they certainly should.

Pro-Life Lalor Named Assemblyman of the Year by NYS Young Republicans

Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor 

For Immediate Release
March 28, 2014

Contact: Chris Covucci - (845) 309-2654

Lalor Named Assemblyman of the Year by NYS Young Republicans

Albany, NY - (3/28/14) - Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor (R,C,I - Fishkill) has been named Assemblyman of the Year by the New York State Young Republicans. He will join fellow honorees Sen. William Larkin, State Senator of the Year, and Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, Municipal Official of the Year, at Saturday's Teddy Roosevelt Dinner in Albany to accept the award. 

"I'm honored to be recognized with Senator Larkin and County Executive Mangano," said Lalor. "Thank you to the New York State Young Republicans for their support and recognition. I'm proud to fight for New York taxpayers every day in Albany. Unlike Governor Cuomo and Sheldon Silver, New York Republicans aren't blindly loyal to the party and the party line. I've been an independent voice in Albany and the New York State Young Republicans are supporting that. I may have had a 100% rating from the Conservative Party, but I also voted against the Republican and Democrat Assembly leaders more than any other Assemblymember. In Sheldon Silver's world, that kind of independence would earn you a basement office. But the Young Republicans are celebrating principled leadership. Sheldon Silver could learn something from them."

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Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor, a former teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes in Poughkeepsie, is a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel. Lalor is of counsel to the law firm Gaines, Novick, Ponzini, Cossu & Venditti. He is a graduate of John Jay High School, Providence College and Pace Law School and lives in Fishkill with his wife Mary Jo and their four young children Katie, Riley, Mikey and Kieran Jr..

www.KMLNY.com

 LifeNet congratulates Assemblyman Lalor, an outstanding example of principled and conservative values in action!

Abortion mandate/religious freedom oral arguments at Supreme Court seem to have gone well

This is the cautionary opinion expressed in a posting on LifeSite news (Of course if the Court upholds the Obamacare abortion mandate requirement it will be a disaster for religious freedom). They also have links to pro-abortion sites who are not too happy with the tenor of the questions from the Justices.

The posting after the Court proceedings discussion has great pictures of the pro-life rally outside the Supreme Court!

“No one should be forced to give up their constitutionally protected civil rights just to open a family business,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and counsel for Hobby Lobby. “This case demonstrates in no uncertain terms that the government’s efforts to strip this family business of its religious rights represent a gross violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.”

Meanwhile, liberals think Justice Kennedy will decide that the HHS mandate forces companies to pay for abortions and that he will vote to overturn the mandate as a result.

“Shortly after Kennedy made this statement, Justice Kagan’s face dropped. It appeared that she’d just figured out that she would be joining a dissenting opinion,” a liberal blog said.

As I left the Supreme Court building, I ran into one of the nation’s leading advocates for reproductive justice. We smiled at each other, and then I said “Kennedy thinks this is an abortion case. The government is going to lose.”

“That’s right,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s right.”

Justice Roberts, who upset some conservatives with his Obamacare decision, appeared ready to side with Hobby Lobby ...

Here's the scene outside the Court - plenty of pictures if you hit the link -

Pro-Lifers Rally at Supreme Court for Hobby Lobby, Religious Freedom

Here's one -

And one more - great turnout from multiple groups, in bad weather ...

Take a Lenten break with Mother Teresa and friend

 

VERY ENTERTAINING AND INFORMATIVE.  ENJOY !!!
 
This is Doctor George Lombardi who treated the late Mother Teresa in the 80's in Calcutta. It's laced with humor, in his inimitable style, but you can see the  hand of God all over this story.

 

http://youtu.be/vD9RI2Bm69U

 

 

 

From "The New Yorker": abortion kingpin Steven Brigham exposed

The New Yorker is a pro-abortion publication and this article is written by the son of an abortionist. But even they must be a taken aback by this guy's record.

A Botched Operation. Steven Brigham’s abortion clinics keep being sanctioned for offering substandard care. Why is he still in business?

This is not a short article. But we urge you to read it - there's much to learn from it.

Here's one excerpt which would be laughable, if the situation wasn't so tragic.

... not all of his peers view him as a rogue provider. Among the expert witnesses at his trial was Gary Mucciolo, an abortion provider and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at N.Y.U.; he argued that Brigham’s conduct did not deviate from medical norms. During a break in the proceedings, Mucciolo, who received fifteen hundred dollars from the defense, told me that he considered the trial “a witch hunt.” (Later, he added, “Does Brigham have a good track record? Frankly, I don’t know.”)

 

Sebelius dissembles & propagandizes on Planned Parenthood Obamacare recruiting tie-in

40 Days for Life Spring Prayer & Witness Campaign Begins

Friend and coordinator Gerald Young brings us up-to-date on 40 Days for Life...

"A rousing outdoor rally was held just a couple of blocks away from the Planned Parenthood in Greenburgh/White Plains on Saturday afternoon, March 1.  About 35 hardy souls came out in the winter sunshine to open the Spring 2014 40 Days for Life Campaign, which began on March 5 and coincides with the Christian season of Lent.  Offering prayers on behalf of the people in attendance were Fr. Ralph Berg, C.M.F., pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in White Plains, and Fr. Christopher Monturo, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church in West Harrison.

This is the fourth consecutive 40 Days for Life campaign in White Plains and is one of 251 local campaigns taking place across four continents this Spring.  The mission of the campaign is to "bring together the body of Christ in a spirit of unity during a focused 40 day campaign of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism, with the purpose of repentance, to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion", said Gerald Yeung, the local coordinator of the White Plains 40 Days for Life.

All prayer vigil participants are asked to sign a statement of peace, pledging to conduct themselves in a Christ-like manner at all times.  "When we come here (in front of the abortion clinic), we are transported in time to Good Friday.  Like Jesus, these unborn babies are unjustly condemned to death.  We feel helpless and powerless in the face of this evil because we can’t do anything legally about it, but like Mary and John at the foot of the cross, we keep company with Jesus in his time of suffering and death", said Luis Jacome in Spanish.

Photos and video footage of the rally are available at https://40daysforlifewhiteplains.shutterfly.com. For more information or to get involved, please visit 40daysforlife.com/whiteplains or call Gerald Yeung at (914) 837-7008."

Annual Center for Life PRO-LIFE BREAKFAST Saturday, April 26, 2014 - Mount Kisco

The Northern Westchester & Putnam Center for Life Educational Trust invites you to their 14th annual Pro-Life Breakfast on Saturday, April 26, 2014 at the Holiday Inn in Mount Kisco, NY, 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. - Registration begins 8:45 a.m.

Guest Speaker Stefano Gennarini, J.D., Director of the Center for Legal Studies, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) will speak on Defending Life and Family at the UN.

Honorees this year are Tom and Susan Gmuer of the Church of St. Mary in Katonah and Eileen Peterson of Rockland Right to Life and Rachael's Vineyard.

$50/person - $40 Early Registration prior to April 18th. Checks payable to the "Center for Life" may be mailed to CENTER FOR LIFE, PO Box 111, Katonah, NY 10536-0111; 914.232.1168. Please include name address, phone, e-mail and number attending.

Thank You!! See you there for this always-great event!