When charity goes bad

Among the many cultural and political travesties of our time, one of the most painful to behold is the decline of charitable causes. Used to be, charitable and religious organizations could be counted on to be forthright and transparent in their goals and practices. Deception was rare, and, when discovered, was cause for much shame, publicity and scandal. Sadly, those days seem to be past.

Life Decisions International (LDI) has identified over 80 non-profits who are linked to Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda. In most cases, (e.g. American Cancer Society, Girl Scouts, Rotary Club) the organization's support for PP and the abortion agenda bears no apparent relationship to its stated purpose. In some cases (e.g. Save the Children, March of Dimes, UNICEF), the connection seems grossly antithetical. This web page contains some more examples and an interesting conversation, and my "Pink deception" post of a couple years ago tells of an especially galling case.

So, when Catholic Charities and others recently gave public support to Obamacare, I was saddened but not terribly shocked. It seems that money talks, and having a prominent place at the the political power table is more important than the Gospel.

What to do? I suggest signing up for LDI's CFP list, which keeps an up-to-date tally of corporate and non-profit PP sponsors for our awareness. We should, sadly, jettison our naive trust, and form a habit of carefully vetting each charity before donating.

I hope to write soon of a couple organizations that I believe have proven themselves clean and worthy of our wholehearted support.

Pink deception

There has been a recent spate of 'pink' promotions in support of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In the grocery store or discount mart, a brand-name product will sport a pink ribbon on its package, with the promise that a percentage of sales will go to this foundation. Baseball players swing pink bats and NFL teams promote pink memorabilia, all for this same promotional goal.

Now, promotions of this sort may be noble and laudable. The problem is with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The days when charitable organizations could be counted on to be simply charitable are, sadly, days long past. In this case, the Susan G. Komen foundation is a significant sponsor of Planned Parenthood, which is, of course, the world's leading abortion provider and advocate for legalized abortion. The pitiful irony here is that there is significant evidence linking procured abortion and breast cancer - that is, that women who end their first pregnancy by abortion set up conditions in their body that highly elevate the risks of developing breast cancer. Yet SGK has chosen to ignore or facilely dismiss this research. One may legitimately ask whether its alliance with Planned Parenthood has derailed the SGK foundation from its pure stated goal of seeking cures and preventive measures for breast cancer.

I encourage you to research this for yourself. Some relevant links can be found at this Abortion and Breast Cancer site. You may also want to run a Google search on, say, breast cancer abortion to find many more links, both pro and con, regarding the possible connection between abortion and breast cancer, and a search on Susan G. Komen Planned Parenthood for links regarding the alliance between SGK and PP. The honest folks at Life Decisions International have also researched this alliance in a very accurate and balanced manner.