Category Archives: the foundation

Modernism and Moral Liberation

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Modernism is defined as character or quality of thought, expression, or technique, or a style or movement in the arts that breaks with classical and traditional forms. In the Church, it’s considered a movement toward modifying traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs in alignment with modern ideas.

What modern ideas? News headlines, movies, novels, classrooms and contemporary society in general bombard us daily with more than a few basic concepts of modernism.

It’s modern to commit adultery if both spouses give consent or if the adulterous spouse simply conceals it so that the other spouse’s “feelings” are not hurt.

It’s modern to condone homosexual behaviors because everyone is entitled to love whomever they choose.

It’s modern to celebrate assisted suicide if the person ending their life is making what they believe is a rational, conscientious choice.

It’s modern to enjoy sexual freedom outside marriage as long as the couple loves one another because even Jesus taught that love is the most important thing.

It’s modern to make a choice to be a woman or a man because individualism and feeling good about one’s self is important.

It’s modern to ignore certain religious convictions in the name of compassion, especially for pregnant women who don’t feel like having the child they conceived.

Modernism has given way to moral liberalism, a political philosophy or worldview founded on the ideas of liberty and equality. Moral liberalism agrees that if men can cheat on their wives, so can wives equally cheat on their husbands. If men and women can marry and have children, so can two men or two women marry and enjoy child-raising as well. If a woman becomes pregnant but doesn’t want to give birth it’s okay to procedurally end the pregnancy. The problem is the destruction of virtue.

In society’s quest for tolerance and equality in the name of love and freedom of choice, the things that build character—self-denial and moral courage—are sacrificed. We live in an age when our leaders become role models for compassion as they “modernize” our Constitution and ways of thinking. They convince us that we are being moral without the trials and sacrifices that go along with actually being moral and good. We risk exchanging moral conviction for tribal mentality and exchanging doing what is right for doing what feels good.

At the Stewardship Foundation, we promise never to exchange our original credo of working for the common good and being good stewards of God’s abundance for the temptations of modernism and moral liberalism. We believe that feelings are a poor replacement for decency and common sense. If you agree, we hope you will work with us and share our vision with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Here Comes Francis

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The Stewardship Foundation supports the right to life. We believe that the purposeful taking of the life of an unborn child, in fact all innocent human life whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. We actively support the charitable planning development offices of pregnancy crisis centers like Heartbeat International and others. And we rejoice with Pope Francis as he celebrates life with a special gift of “mercy” —the absolution of the sin of abortion for all women of the world who had abortions, and all those who assisted in some way in abortions, whether it be a spouse, medical practitioner, abortion provider, parent, or friend.

In the United States, bishops and most diocesan priests have for decades had authority to absolve the sin of abortion for those Catholics who have asked for it with a contrite heart. But in many places in the world, this is not so. So the fact that during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, starting December 8, 2015, all priests will have the authority to absolve the Catholic sin or abortion ushers in a wonderful year for spiritual renewal!

Please pray for the Stewardship Foundation as we continue to advise and council pregnancy crisis centers in matters of financial support for their mission, and pray for Pope Francis that his message this month in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia is fruitful for the faithful in the U.S.

As Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a top advisor to Francis, recently told an audience at Georgetown University, “Let us pray for the visit of our Pope Francis to the United States,” he intoned. “It won’t be easy, but it will be a great blessing.”

Official site for the Pope Francis visit to the U.S.

Our Call to Christian Conscience After SCOTUS Ruling

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The recent SCOTUS ruling, though far from unanimous, has significant impact on Christian conscience as it pertains to same-sex marriage.

For Catholics it’s especially difficult. St. Pope John II and Pope Benedict both condemned same-sex marriage saying that Catholics are “obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions” and where such unions are given the legal status and rights that belong to marriage, “clear and emphatic opposition is a duty.” (Considerations Regarding Proposals to give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, March 2003).

In 2010, Pope Francis (then Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina) said that a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage in Argentina was “destructive of the plan of God…a ‘move’ of the Father of Lies (John 8:44) who wishes to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

Then there was Francis’s famous “who am I to judge?” remark that gave hope to the LBGT community but was quickly dashed by later remarks in the Philippines. Pope Francis emphasized that support for same-sex marriage is “ideological colonization…that is trying to destroy the family.” In a speech in Ireland after that country voted in favor of gay marriage the Pope said, “The alliance of love between a man and woman, an alliance for life, cannot be improvised, and is not made in a day.”

Catholics have always been taught that homosexual persons “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

We at the Stewardship Foundation agree with the Church’s teaching on compassion, and with Pope Francis when he said Christians should not “lobby” for LBGT orientation. We remain steadfast in our support of marriage between one man and one woman and agree with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) who state that the U.S. Supreme Court decision on July 26 interpreting the Constitution to require all states to license and recognize same-sex “marriage” is a “tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us.”