With all due respect, when your comments reflect your feelings and become an argument as to why abortion and war are the “same,” you are not honoring Mother Church and Her teachings.

It is very easy to lead others astray and when you put forth arguments such as you have, you give others a reason to think that abortion and war are equal, which the Church teaches they are not. You may not intentionally give weight to such thinking but you are nonetheless. So while your feelings can’t be dictated by the Church, what you do with them certainly can be and as faithful Catholic ought to be as Scripture calls us all to such authority.

Like you, I have personal interests in Iraq and so my passions and convictions run deep but still must follow Church teachings.

2. I certainly am NOT saying that those killed before the war were less valuable than those who died after. In fact, it is MY government that put Saddam Hussein in power. It is MY government that created Osama Bin Laden. I was what I thought a well-informed adult, and I participated in those things through apathy.

I have appreciated the respectful way you have conducted this discussion with me. It has given me many things to think about. I hope that I have maintained the same tone; perhaps we will converse again some time.

1. Study Church teaching on abortion versus war. Once you read Church teaching, if you choose to not be under the authority of the Catholic Church and her teaching, that is your business but it is best not to lead other Catholics astray.

2. Are you saying that the people killed by the regime in place prior to our involvement in Iraq were less valuable than those who died afterwards?

I feel the way you do about abortion as it applies to the war in Iraq, where so many thousands have died for a war that was, in my opinion, unnecessary. That is blood on my hands that I deal with every day. We all have these issues to deal with as administrations change, and I know it is difficult for me to not attack the person, but the policy.

It is quite commonly known that the plans being implemented by this administration will burden future generations with unbearable debt. To even imagine that any short term gains that will have such consequences can possibly be worth it is, in my opinion, selfish.

Additionally, even if my own personal wealth were to quadruple within the next year I would consider it blood money because of the obama pro-abort stand, appointments, and use of federal monies for such atrocities as stem cell research and the reversal of the Mexico City policy.

I do not want that sort of money in my pocket or on my conscience.

Cheryl’s point being we focus on it because it binds us to our transgressions that require the wrath of God to be brought forth in punishment as is just reward for our sins and Jesus was the target of that wrath.

What it also should do is show us how in being like Jesus we should not ever shirk doing the right thing even if it is not our wrong to fix. Jesus made one plea (all be it in three different moments of prayer) at the Garden of Gethsemane for His Father to let the cup pass but not because He was unwilling to go to the cross but because He did not desire it. There are many things in our lives we are called to do that we did not play any part in its need to be done and like Jesus we are not required to desire our participation we should be willing to participate. And without doing all the spin doctoring to lay the blame somewhere else if it fails but take all the credit if it succeeds.

Take up the cross should carry two messages: 1) Own up to our part in the need for the cross to be a tool of God’s wrath. 2) Do our part to carry out the reparation of sinful acts in the world no matter our culpability.

Jesus on this Good Friday as you hang upon the cross suffering let all our suffering join unto yours as a glorifying gift to our Father in heaven. That Jesus might make this suffering Holy so that all souls may be led to heaven.