The Good Catholic Life #0153: Monday, October 10, 2011

Published: Oct. 10, 2011, 9 p.m.

b'Today\\u2019s host(s): Scot Landry\\nToday\\u2019s guest(s): Collin Raye, multi-platinum country music star and spokesman for for the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nToday\\u2019s topics: Collin Raye, national spokesman for Terri Schiavo\\u2019s Life\\nSummary of today\\u2019s show: Multi-platinum country music star Collin Raye talks with Scot about his conversion to Catholicism as a young, musician seeking truth as well as his experiences as a husband and then a grandfather seeing loved ones on life support that led to his decision to become a spokesman for the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network.\\n1st segment: Scot said issues concerning human life are coming to the forefront in Massachusetts, especially with a new ballot initiative on assisted suicide. As Christians, we need to be clear and informed on these issues. Our guest, Collin Raye, is a multi-platinum country music artist who recently joined the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network as National Spokesman.\\n2nd segment: Scot said he\\u2019s been a fan since the early 1990s when he was living in Cincinnati. Collin said he never really fit in with the country music scene because he didn\\u2019t wear a cowboy hat and his style was more pop and ballads. But he has tried to put out songs that have some meaning to it. He thanked God for his ability to make hits of songs that have something positive to say about life.\\nScot said the song \\u201cWhat if Jesus Came Back Like That\\u201d made his look at every person he met on the street in a new way, because Christ comes to us in distressing disguise sometimes.\\nCollin said even for songs he didn\\u2019t write himself, his mission was to find songs that he could sing from the heart. His first hit came out when he was 30, but he was working in music since he was 15 in many rough places. He made a commitment to the Lord in those years that he would always strive to build up the Kingdom of God and give him glory. While he would sometimes stray from the path and get caught up in pride, he would catch himself and recognize that the Enemy was at work in him.\\nCollin said music is one of the most powerful tools given by God to worship Him (which was the original purpose of God) and to bring healing and clarity, sometimes clarity for things which Christians already know. When \\u201cWhat is Jesus Came Back\\u201d came out, some people criticized him for saying Jesus could come back as anything other than the Lord in glory. Scot said one of Cardinal Sean\\u2019s favorite stories is of how a demented person entered New York Cardinal Spellman\\u2019s office years ago and the cardinal got a call from his secretary saying a man claiming to be Jesus was there and asked what to do. The cardinal said, \\u201cLook busy.\\u201d\\nScot asked Collin if other country music stars would find it odd for him to step out on a controversial issue like those represented by the Life & Hope Network, including euthanasia and assisted suicide. Collin said publicists and others would tell him to not speak out or be controversial, but he was always a square peg in a round hole, speaking out on things. They always wanted him to go out there for \\u201csafe\\u201d charities, like cancer research. He was always sure that he wasn\\u2019t trying to milk his celebrity for publicity. People in the industry are probably saying that his current position is understandable.\\nCollin said he doesn\\u2019t understand why euthanasia and assisted suicide are controversial because it seems so apparent what is right. He\\u2019s had family members who were on life-sustaining equipment and their situation turned out differently because they didn\\u2019t have a Michael Schindler trying to unplug.\\nCollin said he never expected God to use him, but that\\u2019s pretty much what the apostles said about themselves.\\n3rd segment: Scot asked Collin to share his own story of how his wife in 1985 when she was 6th months pregnant, she had a cardiac arrest and simultaneous stroke. She was dead for 20 minutes. She ended up in a coma for 9 weeks. He reminded us that Terri was never in a coma, but was awake the whole time. His wife, however, was in a full-blown coma. Doctors said she wouldn\\u2019t make and the boy wasn\\u2019t going to make. But Connie, his wife, and his son, Jacob, are both alive and well today.\\nBut that first week, he was already hearing from social workers and doctors about the need to institutionalize her. Then a few weeks later, they started hearing that as the husband he could pull the plug. \\u201cDo you want to keep her like this\\u201d and \\u201cWhat are you doing to her?\\u201d He realized that as a husband of three years, her parents had absolutely no say so in any decision. Obviously, he refused all those offers. She woke up eight weeks later and had to re-learn everything, including walk and talk and eat. He noted that Terri Schiavo was awake the whole time over the course of years.\\nHe doesn\\u2019t understand people say he had a right. Michael Schiavo didn\\u2019t have a right to state-sanctioned murder. He said the case is still relevant because it\\u2019s a microcosm of something that\\u2019s occurring every single day in America. Scot said he\\u2019s sure it\\u2019s getting worse because of the pressures of health care costs and with the new Obama health care regulations putting even more pressure to ration health care.\\nHe said people couch it in terms like, \\u201cAre you sure you want to keep her suffering?\\u201d This must be happening even more considering the state of society today.\\nCollin said over 1,000 families have contacted the Life & Hope Network for help. The network is attorneys and doctors committed to life and fighting for life. Those in the situation similar to Terri\\u2019s family now have help and guidance in 47 out of the 50 states so far. Collin said Obamacare is so much more than health care. Members of Congress themselves said they didn\\u2019t even read it. Government now has control over who gets healthcare. Now it won\\u2019t even be family members making these decisions, but bureaucrats.\\nThis isn\\u2019t about extraordinary care, keeping heart and lungs pumping. Terri and Connie and Jacob were all on feeding tubes. Collin had a granddaughter who died in 2010 from neurological condition who was on a feeding tube. That\\u2019s just food and water. Terri was starved and dehydrated to death over the course of 14 days. We would never tolerate a murderer on death row being starved to death.\\nScot said Terri was even able to speak. It should have been obvious to everyone. Collin recommended that everyone read the Schindler family\\u2019s book that show how everyone in St. Petersburg, including government officials mistreated the family. It reminds him of the Third Reich and how it slowly started to dispose of people that it saw as flawed and a burden on society, including the sick and Down syndrome children. They even did it under the guise of compassion, saying they were taking them off the hospitals, but instead gassing them.\\nScot said it makes assumptions on the value of people based on how productive they are. He pointed out that the organizations pushing assisted suicide in Massachusetts are called \\u201cCall to Compassion\\u201d and \\u201cDeath with Dignity\\u201d which are euphemisms. They claim that the right to life comes from the state, not from God. We can\\u2019t give that right to anyone but God, including families. Once you place that right anywhere else, you open to the door to insurance companies, doctors, governments, and anyone else.\\nCollin said some would say comparing it to the Nazis is too much, but he is saying that the principles behind it is the same. It is wrong to hand over that control to anyone else. Even if he didn\\u2019t believe in God, he would still see it as wrong, because it\\u2019s just logical.\\nCall a spade, a spade. If the other side is so sure of themselves that what they\\u2019re doing is right, then call it what it is, like Planned Parenthood and abortion.\\nScot said if we went back to the early 1960s and told them that more than 55 million babies had been aborted in this country since 1973 and we allowed husbands to put their wives to death and that doctors were participating in people\\u2019s early deaths, most people would think we were crazy. Collin noted that John F. Kennedy would be rolling in his grave if he knew our country had devolved to this point. JFK wasn\\u2019t about government control of life and as a Catholic he would reject all of this. Scot added that in his inaugural address he emphasized that our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness came from God, not the state.\\nCollin said we can\\u2019t let someone else decide whether we can live or die. It\\u2019s easy to say it\\u2019s okay for someone else when we\\u2019re walking around healthy, but if we have an ailment or accident and are cognitively impaired, it is very different. It\\u2019s easy to say we\\u2019d be okay with it when we\\u2019re healthy, but when we\\u2019re laying there sick, it can different.\\nCollin said Terri\\u2019s mom asked her to say she wanted to live and even though she made sounds that sounded like it, the government didn\\u2019t give it credence. Shouldn\\u2019t any reasonable doubt have been enough.\\nHe said it wasn\\u2019t government-assisted suicide, it was government-sanctioned murder.\\nNo one knows when that person wants to die. His own granddaughter could do nothing for herself, but she did smile at them. And he\\u2019s known other children with similar neurological ailments who could smile, yet some people say that their lives aren\\u2019t worth living.\\nScot said regardless of her condition, she was a gift to her family, the presence of JEsus in their lives, opening their hearts to God. Collin said what would Mother Teresa have done. She would have cared for that person until her natural death.\\nGod allows suffering and there is a value in suffering. How do we know that Terri laying there isn\\u2019t paying a spiritual bill for someone else who needs spiritual help? God hears our prayers every time we ask, but He doesn\\u2019t always heal every ailment because He has a plan. Collin said his own granddaughter was so precious and perfect, she wasn\\u2019t made for this world. When she had done everything God had called her to do in this life, He called her home. Collin rejects those who say that ailments can be cured only if you prayed enough. God can answer prayer.\\nHe has a new inspirational CD coming out in a few weeks with a song called \\u201cI Don\\u2019t Always Get What I want, I Get What I Need\\u201d.\\n4th segment: The reason that song, \\u201cI Think About You\\u201d, appealed to Collin was that he\\u2019s an over-the-top dad when it comes to his kids. (They\\u2019re 28 and 25 now.) That song is about how men look at women, even in an innocent way. We all quietly, privately notice a pretty girl and check her out. He\\u2019d never heard someone in a song remind everyone that this is someone\\u2019s baby girl. It wasn\\u2019t a big statement, just that we all do this and when he sees it happen, it makes him think of his baby daughter. He was shocked it was as popular as it was, he thought people would be offended. It affirms his belief that the majority of people in this country are good people who want to do the right thing.\\nScot noted that Collin was a convert to Catholicism in his early 20s. He was raised in northeast Texas, Texarkana. It was very much in the Bible Belt with 20 Baptist churches for every Catholic parish. He grew up Southern Baptist and knows his Bible and is grateful for that upbringing. He always felt there was something more though. He felt like something was wrong with the common Protestant doctrine of \\u201cOnce saved, always saved.\\u201d He felt like conversion should be something that happens every day. Being Christian was a tough proposition but the doctrine made it seem kind of easy.\\nIn his early 20s he was looking for a church to fit him better, but none of the Protestant churches were enough. But there was a couple who kept coming to his shows and he saw their crucifixes. He finally asked them if he could go to Mass with them and he went. He walked into the church and felt an overwhelming blessed heaviness in the air that he\\u2019d never experienced before. Other churches of his experience were nice pleasant meeting halls, but this had a peace that he found out later was the Presence of Jesus Christ in the tabernacle. That\\u2019s all it took for him to want to learn more and took instruction over the next few months. Every time he was presented with a Catholic doctrine, he would ask \\u201cWhere is it in the Bible\\u201d and he would be shown where, much to his surprise.\\nHe is very grateful for finding his Catholic faith. He has a new album coming out at the end of October called \\u201cThrough It All His Love Remains\\u201d, and will be available at Catholic bookstores and on Amazon and iTunes.\\nFind out more about Collin Raye at his'