There are religion blogs and then there are religion blogs.

The Civil Religion blog is civil, the writing is good and the posts are frequent.

(1) When we were discussing the set-up of this blog, religion reporter Tim Townsend suggested we look at the Washington Post religion blog, On Faith, to see what a religion blog looks like. I found it confusingly laid out and not appealing and said so to Tim. Today I have another reason to stay away. Look at this from the Dallas Morning News blog:

“Sally Quinn, the Washington socialite and journalist, attended Tim Russert’s funeral.

Russert was Catholic. Quinn isn’t. In fact, as far as I can tell, she isn’t demonstrably religious at all, despite being one of the founders of the On Faith blog published by Newsweek and The Washington Post.

She decided to receive Communion at Russert’s funeral Mass.

In some churches, this would be no big deal. In the Catholic Church, it is.

…..Some Catholics found Quinn’s explanation as galling as her action. As quoted by Father Martin, she said on the On Faith blog:

‘I had only taken communion once in my life, at an evangelical church. … I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday I was determined to take it for Tim … . I’m so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it.’”

(2) You may have seen this on TV, a story about “throwaway children” in this disturbing news from the AP:

“WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21 children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of networks of pimps who force children into prostitution…..”

(3) The Spanish Parliament has decided to extend rights to apes:

“Parliament’s environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

‘We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening,’ Pozas said.

…..Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence under Spain’s penal code.

Keeping an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, but supporters of the bill say conditions will need to improve drastically in 70 percent of establishments to comply with the new law.

Philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri founded the Great Ape Project in 1993, arguing that ‘non-human hominids’ like chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured…..”

(4) According to the Star-Ledger, New Jersey has beaten a silent retreat on stem cell research:

“Eight months after state officials broke ground on New Jersey’s new center for stem cell research, the once-heralded $150 million project has quietly been put on indefinite hold.

Despite continuing assurances that the 18-story tower in New Brunswick would remain on track — even after voters rejected proposals last year to finance $450 million in stem cell science grants — state officials behind the scenes pulled back millions in construction funding for the research facility late last year. They now acknowledge they are re-evaluating the entire project……”

LifeSite News reports:

“Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life, has encouraged pro-life advocates to continue to remind government officials that they must abandon the project completely.

‘Please continue to contact your state legislators and urge them to permanently abandon this project and use the $150M to pay down the debt. Remind them that the people have spoken through the defeat of the $450M stem cell referendum,’ Tasy told supporters. ‘The New Brunswick facility was slated to perform research on human embryos derived from fertility labs and the [somatic cell nuclear transfer] cloning method which is immoral as well as impractical.’”

(5) The Quebec Health Ministry admits abortion is a source of suffering:

“The diagnosis of a serious disease obliges [the parents] to undergo the mourning of a child in perfect health, to accept to have a different family life, notably on the social and economic level; and to deal with the sadness and anxieties linked to the health of the child and the treatment he will need. A medical termination of pregnancy can also be envisioned. However, this option brings on a series of painful questions, and plunges the couple into uncertainty, feelings of guilt and eventually, grief.”

(6) And an opinion piece from the UK “where innocence is a dirty word….”

“Not long ago, my daughter came home from school after yet another lesson in Personal, Social and Health Education. I told her she could ask me any questions she had about sex if she liked.

‘No thanks, Mum,’ she sighed. ‘I know quite enough about that stuff already.’

My girl is not some world-weary courtesan who has tired of men. She is 12 years old…..”

(7) And the last bit of today’s news, also from the UK, where we find an ill man killing himself after finding there was no funding for a drug that would have prolonged his life.

“Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith commented on Baxter’s death, comparing the situation to that of an Oregon woman, Barbara Wagner, whose health provider refused to cover a cancer treatment, but offered to pay for her to kill herself.

Smith observed that in many cases life has been given a monetary value and death is now considered a treatment:

‘Look at the total picture that is emerging! Extending life is being redefined as medically inappropriate or not worth paying for, while at the same time, killing is being redefined into palliative care.

…..This is abandonment: If we legalize assisted suicide, one consequence would be to make treatment denials more palatable - since we will always offer abandoned patients “death with dignity,” which is really just another way of saying, “one-way street.” Caveat emptor!

What is amazing to me is that assisted suicide advocates would probably respond, “He should have had a doctor available to do it!” More to the point, this story again shows the money nexus between treatment denials and euthanasia, in which treatments needed by those with a low “quality” of life in order to stretch limited resources are denied - even if it would extend life - supposedly in order to allow greater access to the more deserving of care,’ concluded Smith.