The Obama Administration's plan for Immigration Policy

Hi Ladies! Here are some links to articles and blogs that I thought were of interest considering our topic. This first one is some good reference material for how our current administration sees the issue of immigration...

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/

Also, we all know that the economy has been at the forefront of conversations these last few months, but now with the swine flu outbreak how might people be changing their priorities when it comes to who comes into our country? As far as I know, people are only being randomly monitored as they enter the US, but this could change if our cases go up.

http://www.examiner.com/x-9270-LA-Border-and-Immigration-Examiner~y2009m4d27-Swine-flu-what-travelers-must-know

Okay, this last one might get your blood pressure up. Please don't think that I'm agreeing with anything that's being said, I just think that these will be interesting things to bat around when we get together...

http://www.americanconservativedaily.com/2009/04/swine-flu-crisis-proves-danger-in-refusing-to-enforce-immigration-laws/

Questions to consider as you read.

If you've lost the e-mail, we're reading "The Geography of Happiness" by Eric Weiner for the April Blue Moon and keeping personal happiness journals... While you're reading and writing, here are a couple of questions to ponder:

1. Which of these societies is most appealing to you? Why?

2. If you grew up in a nation unmentioned in the book, how is happiness defined? Now that you live in America, how do you perceive those ideas? Are they "better" or somehow more nourishing than those in the US?

3. If you grew up in the US but moved from region to region (or city to city), how did the notion of happiness change?

4. Are we as Americans now happy?

5. What is your personal definition of happiness? How has it changed as you've aged? As you're writing in your happiness journal, are you surprised at the things that do--and don't--make you happy?

your link to happiness

Here's the nonprofit dedicated to happiness that Weiner mentions in "Bliss:" www.happiness.org.

Name That Sin Game

Here's a little test to see if you have been paying attention :) Can you name that Sin?

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

Answers (A. Envy, B. Lust, C. Gluttony, D. Wrath, E. Sloth, F. Greed, G. Pride)

Still Wanting More? Ha ha... Here's Pride!

I found this thought provoking article here: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2002/08/Pride-The-Anti-Self-Esteem.aspx?p=1

Pride: The Anti-Self-Esteem

We're supposed to instill pride in our children to make them stable people. But humility works even better.

Here's why we hate those family newsletters we get during the holidays: "It's been a great year for the Lamplighters! Greg had been hoping for a promotion, but what a surprise when the CEO came to his desk and begged him to take over the company. The whole office chipped in and gave the family a week in Paris to celebrate. Wasn't that nice?

"Of course Jeanne has been busy as well. You probably saw that news item about how she rescued a school bus full of children from a kidnapper, armed only with a plastic comb. Nice to think, too, that the poem she wrote for last year's holiday letter will be chiseled into the wall of the Library of Congress. The twins did so well at the state tap-dance championship that Spielberg is crafting a movie around them, while Greg Jr.'s science fair project was the topic of much excitement in the New England Journal of Medicine."

Pride: we hate it. When we look at the Lamplighters, we sympathize with the ancients who called Pride the chief Deadly Sin.

But here's a modern complication: Isn't pride a good thing when we're proud of our country or football team? Don't we want our kids to be proud of themselves? Isn't it lack of pride, low self-esteem, which causes people to make self-destructive choices in life?

The confusion stems from trying to stretch the little word "pride" over two far-flung meanings. What we dislike in the Lamplighters is narcissism--self-promotion, showing off, vanity. Let's call that Pride One. What we want for our kids is more akin to confidence. We want them to have a healthy, balanced sense of self that won't be tipped over by setbacks or peer pressure--Pride Two. This is a quiet, centered pride that is compatible with modesty because it doesn't have a fretful need to show off.

The difference between Pride One and Pride Two is that the first kind is obsessed with comparisons. Pride One is always asking anxiously, Am I smarter than they are? Richer? Better-looking? This isn't really pride at all, but a fragile shell laid over a pit of self-doubt. The reverse can also be true: a person who appears to have no pride, to be filled with self-loathing, may actually be so convinced of his superiority that he finds his normal human failures devastating. It's a shadow form of Pride One.

Pride Two, on the other hand, is content to refrain from comparative judgments, knowing how meaningless they are. Pride Two's strength comes not from measuring yourself against others, but against your own inner standards. These standards can't be based on arbitrary personal preference; many a bloody tyrant has slept with a tranquil conscience, because his homemade moral standards signed off on his behavior. Pride Two is never so complacent. It has a "workout" quality, as we honor the values of our faith community--honesty, generosity, courage--and keep pushing to meet them. Failures are taken in stride, because we didn't have an exaggerated idea of our abilities in the first place. We learn from mistakes, get up and try again, like a runner always trying to beat his best time.

Pride Two means self-respect, not rootless self-esteem. What's the difference? Self-esteem is like a happy-face sticker; self-respect is like a genuine smile. It can't be acquired by repeating over and over what a swell person you are. You earn it by seeing yourself, day after day, year after year, trying to behave like you believe a swell person should.

Pride Two people are not just admirable, but likeable. They are confident enough to care about others and strong enough to give themselves freely. Because they are familiar with their own shortcomings they don't draw attention to others' faults. They're both strong and kind. When we think about our kids, this is what we want for them--the gentleness that springs from self-assurance, and blooms into compassion.

The funny thing is, when you meet a person like this, you wouldn't think, "My, she certainly is proud!" Pride Two isn't really the right name for this; it doesn't seem like Pride of any sort. It's more like Humility.

Which brings us back to the Lamplighters. If you look at their holiday letter again, you'll notice that it isn't really showing off. They describe events straightforwardly, without embellishment or boasting. They're telling you these things because they thought you were their friend. If you are, you're happy for them and rejoice with them. Their joys do not detract from your own. Their success does not make you a failure.

It turns out the Lamplighters weren't exhibiting Pride One--we were. They simply recounted what happened to them, but we immediately began comparing ourselves with them and feeling angry and put down. A dark, snake-headed bitterness reared up the instant we started reading. We wished that somehow we could prove ourselves better and more important than they are, and see them reduced and humiliated. We judged them, hated them, wanted them hurt. This is why we need a Savior. We look so nice on the outside, but in the caverns of the heart vicious Pride is always brooding, ready to spring. Humility smashes our defenses, enables us to admit these dark emotions that frighten us, and admit we need help to be the people we long to be. No wonder Pride has long been called the great foe of spiritual health. No wonder they call it "Deadly."

Ready for some more sins?

I am apologizing in advance for the flurry of posts that are going to be coming at you in the next few days... but having chosed the SEVEN deadly sins as a topic, I feel obligated to provide info on all seven. I found the following information on Envy contained within the Catholic catechism.

ENVY

Envy and The Tenth Commandment

You shall not covet . . . anything that is your neighbor's. . . . You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.317

2539 Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
St. Augustine saw envy as "the diabolical sin."327 "From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity."328

2540 Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity; the baptized person should struggle against it by exercising good will. Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to live in humility.

Envy causes a person to find a perverted kind of happiness in the misfortunes of others. Since this amounts only to a counterfeit happiness, it inevitably leads to a dark form of sadness, a weighing down of the heart that breeds hatred, theft and even violence. This may help us understand why it is we, as a society, delight in the fall of celebrities.

The definitions of the following sins I found in the Catholic Encyclopedia at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/

Sloth
Sloth is the desire for ease, even at the expense of doing the known will of God. Whatever we do in life requires effort. Everything we do is to be a means of salvation. The slothful person is unwilling to do what God wants because of the effort it takes to do it. Sloth becomes a sin when it slows down and even brings to a halt the energy we must expend in using the means to salvation.

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas said Sloth is "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds." (2,35, ad 1)

Anger/Wrath

The desire of vengeance. Its ethical rating depends upon the quality of the vengeance and the quantity of the passion. When these are in conformity with the prescriptions of balanced reason, anger is not a sin. It is rather a praiseworthy thing and justifiable with a proper zeal. It becomes sinful when it is sought to wreak vengeance upon one who has not deserved it, or to a greater extent than it has been deserved, or in conflict with the dispositions of law, or from an improper motive. The sin is then in a general sense mortal as being opposed to justice and charity. It may, however, be venial because the punishment aimed at is but a trifling one or because of lack of full deliberation. Likewise, anger is sinful when there is an undue vehemence in the passion itself, whether inwardly or outwardly. Ordinarily it is then accounted a venial sin unless the excess be so great as to go counter seriously to the love of God or of one's neighbour.

Gluttony

(From Lat. gluttire, to swallow, to gulp down), the excessive indulgence in food and drink. The moral deformity discernible in this vice lies in its defiance of the order postulated by reason, which prescribes necessity as the measure of indulgence in eating and drinking. This deordination, according to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, may happen in five ways which are set forth in the scholastic verse: "Prae-propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose" or, according to the apt rendering of Father Joseph Rickably: too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily.

Clearly one who uses food or drink in such a way as to injure his health or impair the mental equipment needed for the discharge of his duties, is guilty of the sin of gluttony. It is incontrovertible that to eat or drink for the mere pleasure of the experience, and for that exclusively, is likewise to commit the sin of gluttony. Such a temper of soul is equivalently the direct and positive shutting out of that reference to our last end which must be found, at least implicitly, in all our actions.

At the same time it must be noted that there is no obligation to formerly and explicitly have before one's mind a motive which will immediately relate our actions to God. It is enough that such an intention should be implied in the apprehension of the thing as lawful with a consequent virtual submission to Almighty God. Gluttony is in general a venial sin in so far forth as it is an undue indulgence in a thing which is in itself neither good nor bad. Of course it is obvious that a different estimate would have to be given of one so wedded to the pleasures of the table as to absolutely and without qualification live merely to eat and drink, so minded as to be of the number of those, described by the Apostle St. Paul, "whose god is their belly" (Philippians 3:19). Such a one would be guilty of mortal sin. Likewise a person who, by excesses in eating and drinking, would have greatly impaired his health, or unfitted himself for duties for the performance of which he has a grave obligation, would be justly chargeable with mortal sin.

St. John of the Cross, in his work "The Dark Night of the Soul" (I, vi), dissects what he calls spiritual gluttony. He explains that it is the disposition of those who, in prayer and other acts of religion, are always in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who "will feel and taste God, as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communion but in all their other acts of devotion." This he declares is a very great imperfection and productive of great evils.

Avarice/Greed

Avarice (from Latin avarus, "greedy"; "to crave") is the inordinate love for riches. Its special malice, broadly speaking, lies in that it makes the getting and keeping of money, possessions, and the like, a purpose in itself to live for. It does not see that these things are valuable only as instruments for the conduct of a rational and harmonious life, due regard being paid of course to the special social condition in which one is placed. It is called a capital vice because it has as its object that for the gaining or holding of which many other sins are committed. It is more to be dreaded in that it often cloaks itself as a virtue, or insinuates itself under the pretext of making a decent provision for the future. In so far as avarice is an incentive to injustice in acquiring and retaining of wealth, it is frequently a grievous sin. In itself, however, and in so far as it implies simply an excessive desire of, or pleasure in, riches, it is commonly not a mortal sin.

Let me first say that I am not Catholic – I am not trying to convert anyone to Catholicism. But since it was the Catholics who developed the list of Seven Deadly Sins, I thought studying their catechism might help us get started.

What is sin?

According to the Catholic Catechism:

II. THE DEFINITION OF SIN

1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."121

1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight."122 Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods,"123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God."124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125

1853 The root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man."128 But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds.

IV. THE GRAVITY OF SIN: MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN

1854 Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture,129 became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.

1855 Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.

Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.

1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."131

V. THE PROLIFERATION OF SIN

1866 Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called "capital" because they engender other sins, other vices.138 They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.

1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
- by protecting evil-doers