Tag Archives: education

Investigating NFP: An Ob/Gyn’s Point of View

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If the following podcast had a text transcript I’d consider using it for the last post of this series.  Since it doesn’t, I’ll just point you folks to it so you can listen at your leisure.

Today we have a conversation with Dr Paddy Jim Baggot, MD. He is a Catholic Physician board certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Geneticist specializing in preconception health and NaProTechnology, which is a new reproductive science for assisting couples to conceive naturally without the use of artificial reproductive techniques.

He has studied at the Pope Paul VI Institute, a health science research insitution dedicated to following Catholic teaching in all aspects of Human reproduction.

Dr Baggot talks about Humanae Vitae, Donum Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s call for Doctors and Men of Science to "considerably advance the welfare of marriage and the family and also peace of conscience, if by pooling their efforts they strive to elucidate more thoroughly the conditions favorable to a proper regulation of births", the Church’s teaching on artificial contraception, In Vitro Fertilization, new ways to treat infertility, Natural Family Planning, etc….

Paddy Jim Baggot on Obstetrics/Gynecology and Catholic Teaching

Investigating NFP: Preface

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Recently, all hell broke loose (At least, that’s what I call 100+ comments on a small-time blog like mine!) when one of my contributors wrote a post questioning the Church’s position on NFP. Rather than taking the more common stance that NFP puts undue burden on couples and artificial contraception should be permitted, Lightwave seemed to be suggesting that NFP is on a moral plane with certain artificial methods of birth control. I found myself siding with Lightwave, if not with the same tone or delivery, at least with similar sentiment. Neither of us could not understand how NFP does not frustrate "the procreative potential of the marriage act". Furthermore, the arguments that NFP is somehow not a contraceptive because it is natural and involves the omission of an act, rather than the commission of one, seemed spurious. In order to alleviate my ignorance, I’ve decided to find out what the learned teachers and evangelizers of NFP had to say in defense of the practice. I began with Couple to Couple League International (CCLI). They seemed as competitent in this area as any organization I could find. They are well-known and well-respected.

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The Demography Wars (Dance Mix)

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Following Mark Steyn’s excellent expose of the affluent West’s demographic suicide in It’s the Demography, Stupid, Phillip Longman presents an intruiguing piece at Foreign Policy entitled The Return of Patriarchy. Longman writes:

"Throughout the broad sweep of human history, there are many examples of people, or classes of people, who chose to avoid the costs of parenthood. Indeed, falling fertility is a recurring tendency of human civilization. Why then did humans not become extinct long ago? The short answer is patriarchy."

For those who equate patriarchy with misogyny, go get an education. For those who think of parenthood more as a consumer choice (wittingly or otherwise) than a sacrificial commitment to transcendant goods, go take a peek at your future.

Update 03/19/06:  Annie Gottlieb (Ambivablog) has tossed in her two cents on this matter.

Something to Be Proud Of

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Here’s one of Pitt’s finest talking about the riots after the Superbowl.

"“I expect nothing less from the city of Pittsburgh. I love it, it’s just crazy. People were uprooting little trees in front of the Cathedral and passing them around, and they had a keg up on the Cathedral front balcony and people were doing keg stands. It was awesome." – student Lauren Judy

Any other Pitt students or graduates out there get warm fuzzies from this?

Bud Beer Pong

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Last month, various Christian groups, mostly Evangelical, got their burlap undies in a twist over a Budweiser advertising campaign.

"The Anheuser-Busch Company says it is pulling the plug on its promotion of a drinking game called ‘Bud Pong.’ However, a Harvard researcher is predicting the game will continue to wield damaging influence among college students."

"Bud Pong, a game distributed by beer wholesalers to bars in 18 U.S. states, is played by bouncing ping pong balls into cups, with players taking a drink if they lose a point. Anheuser-Busch claims the game is supposed to be played with water — not beer. And now, since the New York Times has reported that many players are filling the cups with beer instead of water, the company has announced that it is ending the promotion."

Both are full of crap. "Bud Pong" is really beer pong and it’s probably been around as long as beer and ping pong have. Budweiser didn’t invent it and isn’t some new social evil that’ll ruin college students for life. Bud knew damn well that folks would put something stronger than water in the cups, and Evangelicals should have visited Google before announcing the Next Big Disaster in Liberal Education™. Oh, and a big "Duh!" goes to the Harvard researcher for predicting that a game that’s been played for several generations will continue to be popular. What a bunch of ass hats.