Late Night Questions

As I have aged, my sleeping habits have become less...well, habitual. Some nights I find myself waking at odd hours, unable to get back to sleep. I usually get up, tiptoe out of the bedroom, plop down in my nice comfortable easy chair, and read until I once again get sleepy. Tonight, however, my mind turned from the book I was reading and began asking itself a series of presumably rhetorical questions. And so I reached for the iPad and began to tap them into its memory, which is far more reliable than my own memory.

One would think that the true welfare of children is not a very high priority among pro-abortion politicians. Abortion, after all, has an obvious, fatal impact on the unborn child. Why, then, do so many pro-abortion politicians inevitably claim that the economic and social programs and policies they champion are all done "for the children"?

Why do so many seemingly intelligent people turn to socialism when it has been an abject failure whenever and wherever it has been tried? And why do an even greater number of people assume that the government will be the best provider of needed services when all evidence tells us otherwise?

In both business and engineering, I found that problems inevitably recurred unless their root causes were addressed and eliminated. Most people would agree that illegal immigrants don't flock to this country because life is better where they came from. Why, then, is all the attention focused on this side of the border when the root causes of the problem are the corrupt governments, dysfunctional economies, and oppression on the other side?

Christmas Day, the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, was declared a national holiday over 140 years ago by both houses of congress and the president. The Supreme Court has not ruled this declaration unconstitutional. Why, then, do so many governmental entities, at all levels, attempt to prohibit employees and citizens from using the word "Christmas" in any public venue?

The First Amendment to our Constitution begins with the words, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Why have the courts expanded the "establishment clause" to include almost any mention of religion, while at the same time they have completely disregarded the second clause about prohibiting the free exercise of religion?

As dear Diane and I trimmed our tree and decorated our home in preparation for Christmas, I couldn't help but notice that almost every item -- ornaments, the large creche set, and most of the other decorations -- were made in China, a communist country with an official policy of atheism. What do the Chinese workers think when they design and make a ceramic Madonna or a Baby Jesus, or a rosary or crucifix? Does it cause them to question why so many people buy such things? I suspect so. Human beings are, after all, naturally religious and atheism is a rather modern aberration. I've, therefore, decided to pray for the conversion of all these workers, that the Holy Spirit will use these objects, these as yet unblessed sacramentals, to enlighten all those involved in their manufacture and lead them to the Way, the Truth and the Life.

At this point I've tired myself out once again...off to bed.