Some really interesting developments going on in politics.

The whole saga around John Banks and anonymous donations was a good sideshow for a while, and whether he will resign or be forced out is yet to be known. However, the real consequence of the Banks circus is the revival of the NZ Conservative Party.

It received around 2.65% in the 2011 election, but failing to reach the 5% threshold or win an electorate seat, the Conservatives didn’t make it into Parliament. A shame really, as 2.65% is nothing to sneeze at. That’s around three seats in Parliament, and a worthy tax-funded budget to boot. The Conservatives (funded by Colin Craig’s private wealth) spent a whopping $31.23 per vote in 2011. This is compared to National’s $2.19 and the Greens $3.15

With the future of ACT seriously tarnished and Banks in the doldrums, the prospect of Craig’s Conservatives joining National in coalition has become a very real prospect.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Homosexual marriage is back on the agenda, with US President Obama declaring his support – a politically cowardice move, however, as he’s had four years to do something about it and has done zilch, so all we have at this stage is his empty words (which is all the pro-gay marriage lobby needs, apparently).

And then here in Godszone we have the issue of contraceptives and beneficiaries.

I’m sure you’re all aware of the story. What surprised me, however, is that the way the media reported it, you’d think that women were getting pregnant on their own.

Err, how about all those promiscuous men. Bad fathers have a lot to answer for in this country. They shed their responsibilities and flee at the first sign of trouble. Pathetic.

Check out Craig’s interview on Q+A and see what you think.

St Thomas Moore, patron saint of politicians, pray for us

I’ve long been calling for a change in the way the Church delivers its messages on moral issues – not change the position, but the way its communicated.

Seems young women in the US are already doing it.

McGuire, 26, of Alexandria is part of a movement of younger, religiously conservative Catholic women who are trying to rebrand an often-ignored church teaching: its ban on birth control methods such as the Pill. Arguing that church theology has been poorly explained and encouraged, they want to shift the image of a traditional Catholic woman from one at home with children to one with a great, communicative sex life, a chemical-free body and babies only when the parents think the time is right.

Women who practice natural family planning say the subject can be explosive even in traditional parishes. They describe feeling judged and judging one another about the number of children they have and why. Support groups, while widespread for breast-feeding, are almost nonexistent for natural family planning.

In a day and age where social media and the internet has all but reduced tradtional forms of media and communication as inferior, its time the Church caught up with the way it talks to young people. Particuarly about issues around contraception which is a battle the Church is losing.

I don’t support contraception, but I do support these young women taking control of their bodies and rebelling against the traditional Christian idea that you have to have as many children as quickly as you can. Its just not realistic in the 21st Century.

Its really worth reading the whole article.

St Agnes, patron saint of young women, pray for us

Happy Easter

Really interesting piece on Ones News last night:

Study finds religious revival. A NZ study found significant group of young people are committed to religion all year round.

St Francis, pray for us.

Last week the New York Times ran a remarkable opinion piece “The Fertility Implosion” by long-term Op-Ed columnist David Brooks.

This article was remarkable not so much for its content per se (which is what Catholics has been saying for years) but for the fact that the liberal literati are finally waking up to the fact that the planet is not doomed by pending overpopulation.

Some extracts:

“If the 20th century was the century of the population explosion, the 21st century, as [Nicholas] Eberstadt notes, is looking like the century of the fertility implosion. Already, nearly half the world’s population lives in countries with birthrates below the replacement level…This leads to what the writer Philip Longman has called the gray tsunami — a situation in which huge shares of the population are over 60 and small shares are under 30.”

“…According to the United States Census Bureau, Iran now has a similar birth rate to New England — which is the least fertile region in the U.S. The speed of the change is breathtaking. A woman in Oman today has 5.6 fewer babies than a woman in Oman 30 years ago. Morocco, Syria and Saudi Arabia have seen fertility-rate declines of nearly 60 percent, and in Iran it’s more than 70 percent. These are among the fastest declines in recorded history.”

Brooks also mentions Russia, Japan, China and Europe. Even India, which will continue to produce lots of young workers, faces problems:

“…India faces a regional challenge. Population growth is high in the northern parts of the country, where people tend to be poorer and less educated. Meanwhile, fertility rates in the southern parts of the country, where people are richer and better educated, are already below replacement levels.”Only South America seems to be countering this global trend.

The article flies in the face that the world is overpopulated and therefore we need to curb the size families and introduce more contraception. In fact, Brooks very nearly concludes (I doubt he could bring himself to write it down) that the fallacy of overpopulation is what is leading to the dramatic demise in replacement levels.

Full article is well worth a read. (H/T www.mercatornet.com)

St. Gabriel the Archangel, on this Feast of the Annunciation, pray for us.