The Scriptures command a reverence for life. Embedded in every book and interwoven into every doctrine is the unwavering standard of justice and mercy for all: the weak and the strong, the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the lame and the whole, the young and the old, and the born and the unborn. This truth is at the very heart of the Gospel.
The Bible declares the sanctity of life in its account of God's creation:
Woe to him who strives with his Maker. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it, "What are you making?" Or, shall your handiwork say, "He has no hands?" Woe to him who says to his father, "What are you begetting?" (Isaiah 45:9-12).
The Bible declares the sanctity of life in its description of God's sovereignty:
For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your Book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13-16).
The Bible declares the sanctity of life in its discussion of the incarnation:
The thief does not come except to kill, and to steal, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
The Bible declares the sanctity of life in its explanation of Christ's redemption:
But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:10).
The Bible declares the sanctity of life in its exposition of ethical justice:
I call heaven and earth today as witnesses against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).
The Bible declares the sanctity of life in its exhortation to covenantal mercy:
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, "Surely we did not know this," does not He who weighs the heart consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? (Proverbs 24:10-11).
From Genesis to Revelation (Genesis 2:7; Revelation 22:17), in the Books of the Law (Exodus 4:12; Leviticus 19:16), in the Books of History (Judges 13:2-24; 1 Samuel 16:7), in the Books of Wisdom (Psalm 68:5-6; Proverbs 29:7), in the Prophetic Books (Amos 1:13; Jeremiah 1:5), in the Gospels (Matthew 10:31; Luke 1:15; 41-44), and in the Epistles (Galatians 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:22), the pro-life message of the Bible is absolutely inescapable.
It is this "Word of Life" (Philippians 2:16) that we have believed--and it is this Word that we must act upon faithfully.
This is why the early church was so adamant about the connection between the Gospel and the sanctity of life.
The Didache was a compilation of Apostolic moral teachings that appeared at the end of the first century. Among its many admonitions, it asserted an unwavering reverence for the sanctity of life, "There are two ways: the way of life and the way of death, and the difference between these two ways is great. Therefore, do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant."
The Epistle of Barnabas was an early second century theological tract that was highly regarded by the first Christian communities, Like the Didache, it laid down absolute strictures against abortion and infanticide, "You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not slay a child by abortion. You shall not kill that which has been given life by God."
In the third century, the brilliant and prolific Tertullian composed his Apology. There he connected the sanctity of life with the very integrity of the Gospel, "Our faith declares life out of death. Therefore, murder is forbidden once and for all. We may not destroy even the fetus in the womb. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man killing. Thus it does not matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth."
Ambrose, the renowned and revered bishop of Milan, was forthright in his condemnation of those engaged in child-killing procedures, "They deny in their very womb their own progeny. By use of parricidal mixtures they snuff out the fruit of their wombs. In this way life is taken before it is given. Who except man himself has taught us ways of repudiating our own children."
Athenagorus and Augustine, Athanasius and Basil, Cyril and Jerome: the fact is, every father of the early church was unanimous in their defense of the sanctity of life.
As we celebrate Christmas, let us remember that at the heart of the message of Bethlehem is the fulfillment of the promise of God to destroy the final enemy: death.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Calvin on the Sanctity of Life
John Calvin, the leader of the Swiss Reformation said:
“The unborn child...though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being...and should not be robbed of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy an unborn child in the womb before it has come to light.”
Defense of the innocents, he argued was so integral and indistinguishable from a defense of the Gospel that believers ought to be just as willing to risk severe persecution for the one as for the other:
“Now to suffer persecution for righteousness' sake is a singular comfort. For it ought to occur to us how much honor God bestows upon us in thus furnishing us with the special badge of His soldiery. I say that not only they that labor for the defense of the Gospel, but they that in any way maintain the cause of righteousness suffer persecution for righteousness. Therefore, whether declaring God's truth against Satan's falsehoods or in taking up the protection of the good and innocent against the wrongs of the wicked, we must undergo the offenses and hatred of the world, which may imperil either our life, our fortunes, or our honor.”
“The unborn child...though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being...and should not be robbed of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy an unborn child in the womb before it has come to light.”
Defense of the innocents, he argued was so integral and indistinguishable from a defense of the Gospel that believers ought to be just as willing to risk severe persecution for the one as for the other:
“Now to suffer persecution for righteousness' sake is a singular comfort. For it ought to occur to us how much honor God bestows upon us in thus furnishing us with the special badge of His soldiery. I say that not only they that labor for the defense of the Gospel, but they that in any way maintain the cause of righteousness suffer persecution for righteousness. Therefore, whether declaring God's truth against Satan's falsehoods or in taking up the protection of the good and innocent against the wrongs of the wicked, we must undergo the offenses and hatred of the world, which may imperil either our life, our fortunes, or our honor.”
Saturday, December 11, 2010
TR: Pro-Life Stalwart
“Never will I sit motionless while directly or indirectly apology is made for the murder of the helpless.”
Theodore Roosevelt was convinced that the family was the fundamental cornerstone of society. Anything that eroded the family’s strength or vitality, anything that sought to undermine its authority or integrity, and anything that subverted its holy purpose or virtue was a dastardly threat to everything that he held to be good and right and true.
In his State of the Union message in 1905, he highlighted his grave concern for America’s deteriorating moral climate in general and the family’s diminished cultural relevance saying: “The transformation of the family is one of the greatest sociological phenomena of our time; it is a social question of the first importance, of far greater importance than any merely political or economic question can be.”
He went on to describe a rather simple agenda for protecting the family against the encroachment of those men and women he called “the foes of our own household.” He said: “There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality. All else is immorality. There is only true Christian ethics over against which stands the whole of paganism. If we are to fulfill our great destiny as a people, then we must return to the old morality, the sole morality.”
His analysis was utterly scathing: “All these blatant sham reformers, in the name of a new morality, preach the old, old vice and self-indulgence which rotted out first the moral fiber and then even the external greatness of Greece and Rome.”
In a very real sense, Roosevelt was the original family values social conservative.
It is not surprising then, that when a new wave of Eugenic Racists and Child-Killing Abortionists made their way onto the American scene and into the public arena, Roosevelt was one of their chief opponents—in fact, apart from the hierarchy of the Catholic church, he was one of their only opponents.
He railed against their “frightful and fundamental immorality,” calling their cause a submission “to coldness, to selfishness, to love of ease, to shrinking from risk, and to an utter and pitiful failure in sense of perspective.” As he argued: “Artificially keeping families small inevitably involves prenatal infanticide and abortion--with all its pandering to self-indulgence, its shirking of duties, and its enervation of character.”
But he did not simply hurl invectives their way--he acted. He was instrumental in mobilizing Republicans, Democrats, and Progressives against the awful specter of Eugenic Child-Killing—building a solid coalition that was to resist the siren’s call of abortion for another three-quarters of a century. As he said: “The foes of our own household are our worst enemies; and we can oppose them, not only by exposing them and denouncing them, but by constructive work in planning and building reforms which shall take into account both the economic and the moral factors in human advance. We in America can attain our great destiny only by service; not by rhetoric, and above all not by insincere rhetoric, and that dreadful mental double-dealing and verbal juggling which makes promises and repudiates them, and says one thing at one time, and the directly opposite thing at another time. Our service must be the service of deeds.”
He went on to assert: “The most dangerous form of sentimental debauch is to give expression to good wishes on behalf of virtue while you do nothing about it. Justice is not merely words. It is to be translated into living acts.”
The infamous Eugenic Racist, Margaret Sanger, who founded the vast Planned Parenthood abortion network, rightly saw Roosevelt as “a holdover from the old Christian religion,” and thus a serious obstacle to her revolutionary program which called for “no Gods and no masters.” She railed against him as “a disgraceful blight upon any modern scientific nation’s intent to advance.”
For a leader who had staked his reputation and risked his career for the sake of traditional family values, that was high praise indeed. For, no commendation can be greater than the condemnation of one’s fiercest sworn enemies.
Theodore Roosevelt was convinced that the family was the fundamental cornerstone of society. Anything that eroded the family’s strength or vitality, anything that sought to undermine its authority or integrity, and anything that subverted its holy purpose or virtue was a dastardly threat to everything that he held to be good and right and true.
In his State of the Union message in 1905, he highlighted his grave concern for America’s deteriorating moral climate in general and the family’s diminished cultural relevance saying: “The transformation of the family is one of the greatest sociological phenomena of our time; it is a social question of the first importance, of far greater importance than any merely political or economic question can be.”
He went on to describe a rather simple agenda for protecting the family against the encroachment of those men and women he called “the foes of our own household.” He said: “There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality. All else is immorality. There is only true Christian ethics over against which stands the whole of paganism. If we are to fulfill our great destiny as a people, then we must return to the old morality, the sole morality.”
His analysis was utterly scathing: “All these blatant sham reformers, in the name of a new morality, preach the old, old vice and self-indulgence which rotted out first the moral fiber and then even the external greatness of Greece and Rome.”
In a very real sense, Roosevelt was the original family values social conservative.
It is not surprising then, that when a new wave of Eugenic Racists and Child-Killing Abortionists made their way onto the American scene and into the public arena, Roosevelt was one of their chief opponents—in fact, apart from the hierarchy of the Catholic church, he was one of their only opponents.
He railed against their “frightful and fundamental immorality,” calling their cause a submission “to coldness, to selfishness, to love of ease, to shrinking from risk, and to an utter and pitiful failure in sense of perspective.” As he argued: “Artificially keeping families small inevitably involves prenatal infanticide and abortion--with all its pandering to self-indulgence, its shirking of duties, and its enervation of character.”
But he did not simply hurl invectives their way--he acted. He was instrumental in mobilizing Republicans, Democrats, and Progressives against the awful specter of Eugenic Child-Killing—building a solid coalition that was to resist the siren’s call of abortion for another three-quarters of a century. As he said: “The foes of our own household are our worst enemies; and we can oppose them, not only by exposing them and denouncing them, but by constructive work in planning and building reforms which shall take into account both the economic and the moral factors in human advance. We in America can attain our great destiny only by service; not by rhetoric, and above all not by insincere rhetoric, and that dreadful mental double-dealing and verbal juggling which makes promises and repudiates them, and says one thing at one time, and the directly opposite thing at another time. Our service must be the service of deeds.”
He went on to assert: “The most dangerous form of sentimental debauch is to give expression to good wishes on behalf of virtue while you do nothing about it. Justice is not merely words. It is to be translated into living acts.”
The infamous Eugenic Racist, Margaret Sanger, who founded the vast Planned Parenthood abortion network, rightly saw Roosevelt as “a holdover from the old Christian religion,” and thus a serious obstacle to her revolutionary program which called for “no Gods and no masters.” She railed against him as “a disgraceful blight upon any modern scientific nation’s intent to advance.”
For a leader who had staked his reputation and risked his career for the sake of traditional family values, that was high praise indeed. For, no commendation can be greater than the condemnation of one’s fiercest sworn enemies.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Crafting a Winning Plan
Samuel Taylor was a proto-typical mild mannered small town pharmacist in the mid-nineteenth century. A family man, community leader, and life-long Methodist, he had a natural Midwestern aversion to controversy.
But when the daughter of one of his customers was nearly poisoned by a dose of mail-order abortifacient pills, he sprang into action. He discovered that the abortifacient business was booming all over the United States--and that it was an entirely unrestricted, unregulated, and unmonitored industry.
Without the benefits of a government agency, an institutional largess, or a corporate sponsor, he began a one-man educational campaign--first with his fellow pharmacists, later expanding to physicians, and finally with state legislators--to alert the public to the physical dangers and the moral liabilities of the child-killing trade. Taylor testified before the Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana legislatures--winning their support for a ban on the sale of all chemical parricides and abortifacients--and he drafted model legislation that was approved by fourteen other states.
But when the daughter of one of his customers was nearly poisoned by a dose of mail-order abortifacient pills, he sprang into action. He discovered that the abortifacient business was booming all over the United States--and that it was an entirely unrestricted, unregulated, and unmonitored industry.
Without the benefits of a government agency, an institutional largess, or a corporate sponsor, he began a one-man educational campaign--first with his fellow pharmacists, later expanding to physicians, and finally with state legislators--to alert the public to the physical dangers and the moral liabilities of the child-killing trade. Taylor testified before the Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana legislatures--winning their support for a ban on the sale of all chemical parricides and abortifacients--and he drafted model legislation that was approved by fourteen other states.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
New Hate Groups!
File this one in the You've-Got-to-Be-Kidding-Me Department: the Southern Poverty Law Center has now listed most of the nation's most prominent and respected pro-life, pro-family, Christian organizations on its roster of dangerous "Hate Groups."
The notoriously Off-the-Left-Side-of-the-Political-Chart organization is now targeting such mainstream ministries as the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, Liberty Council, Family Research Council, Traditional Values Coalition, and the National Organization for Marriage.
According to Gary Cass, of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, "The SPLC has been reduced to a far left propaganda organization that uses hype and hysteria to enrich a few liberal attorneys at taxpayer expense and has long out lived its usefulness."
Indeed. In fact, increasingly the SPLC has itself become so entranced by its marginal prejudices against Christians and Conservatives that it may very well qualify as a "Hate Group" itself--in accord with its own definition.
Surely, they've set themselves up to be "hoisted by their own petard," as Shakespeare might put it.
The notoriously Off-the-Left-Side-of-the-Political-Chart organization is now targeting such mainstream ministries as the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, Liberty Council, Family Research Council, Traditional Values Coalition, and the National Organization for Marriage.
According to Gary Cass, of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, "The SPLC has been reduced to a far left propaganda organization that uses hype and hysteria to enrich a few liberal attorneys at taxpayer expense and has long out lived its usefulness."
Indeed. In fact, increasingly the SPLC has itself become so entranced by its marginal prejudices against Christians and Conservatives that it may very well qualify as a "Hate Group" itself--in accord with its own definition.
Surely, they've set themselves up to be "hoisted by their own petard," as Shakespeare might put it.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Dr. Sproul's Must-Read Book
In the two decades since this landmark book was first published, four different presidents have occupied the White House, seven justices have come and gone on the Supreme Court, and eleven sessions of Congress have held sway in the Capitol.These federal magistrates have faced economic booms and busts. They have weathered terror attacks and foreign wars. They have witnessed the collapse of the Soviet empire and the rise of the al Qaeda menace. They have wrangled over corporate bailouts and health-care reforms. They have endured Tea Party protests, campaign scandals, personal embarrassments, and policy failures. They have been plagued on every side by mounting demands, frustrated expectations, declining resources, and diminished prestige.
Through it all, the divisiveness of the abortion issue has remained constant. The many and varied political turns of events during the past twenty years have done nothing to ameliorate it—much less, to resolve it. If anything, the divide over abortion has become more pronounced, more acrimonious, and more entrenched. While political gridlock on nearly any and every other issue ultimately has been overcome, no rapprochement on the issue of abortion is anywhere in sight.
Of course, matters have not exactly been helped by the fact that the politically protected international abortion business has grown into a multibillion–dollar industrial complex. Utilizing its considerable wealth, manpower, and influence, the abortion industry has proven itself adept at muscling its way into virtually every facet of modern life. It now plays a strategic role in the health and social-services community. It exerts a major influence on education, providing the majority of sex-education curricula and programs in both public and private schools. It carries considerable political clout through lobbying, campaigning, advocacy, and litigation. It is involved in publishing, broadcast media production, judicial activism, public relations, foreign aid, psychological research counseling, environmental policy-making, sociological planning, demographic investigation, pharmacological development, contraceptive distribution and sales, mass advertising, and public legal service provision.
As if that were not enough, the current Democratic administration in Washington—aided and abetted by the Democrat-controlled Senate—is the most ardently pro-abortion in American history. With a bevy of executive orders, appointments, and administrative policy changes—to say nothing of its 2,407-page monolithic, partisan “health–care reform” legislation, which removed the longstanding ban on federal funding of abortions in favor of a much more easily overturned executive order—the abortion industry has logged more gains during this administration’s short tenure than in the rest of its history combined.
Yet the great divide persists. Despite its obvious cultural clout, its cavernously deep corporate pockets, and its carefully crafted public relations efforts, the abortion industry has yet to prevail in the battle for the hearts and minds of most Americans. Public opinion polls conducted during the first year of the Obama administration found that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion, while only 42 percent call themselves “pro-choice.” In addition, the number of Americans who favor making it more difficult to obtain an abortion is up six percentage points in just five years. In 2005, 59 percent of respondents agreed it would be good to reduce abortions. Today, 65 percent take this view. One poll also found that fewer Americans, and fewer pro-life advocates, are willing to compromise on abortion by finding some “middle ground.” Indeed, support for finding a middle ground on the abortion issue is down twelve percentage points among conservatives and six points among all Americans. Yet another poll found that 58 percent of Americans say abortion is morally wrong most of the time. Just 25 percent disagree, and the rest have no opinion. The poll found women are more strongly pro-life than men, with 64 percent of women asserting that most abortions are morally wrong, a view shared by just 51 percent of men. Meanwhile, still another survey found a majority of Americans, 52 percent, think it is too easy to get an abortion in America. That's up seven percentage points from two years ago, when 45 percent thought it was too easy.
As a result, Dr. Sproul’s incisive analysis in Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue is as relevant and necessary today as it was in the last decade of the twentieth century. Indeed, he points the way to the only possible resolution of this deeply emotional issue.
This is has always been an enormously helpful book. Now it has been brought completely up to date and is more useful than ever. It is my prayer that God may be pleased to use this book as a means to provoke the church to boldly stand for truth, justice, and mercy in the midst of this poor, fallen world.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Mildred Jefferson: Pro-Life Stalwart
Mildred Jefferson, pioneer physician, teacher, reformer, mentor, and friend to an entire generation of pro-life leaders has gone home to be with the Lord at age 84.Born in Pittsburg, Texas, in 1926, the daughter of a schoolteacher and a Methodist pastor, she was raised in the beautiful East Texas town of Carthage and graduated from Texas College in Tyler. She earned a master’s degree from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Then, she went on to become the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and the first woman to be a surgical intern at Boston City Hospital.
Dr. Jefferson gained renown as a clinical professor of surgery at Boston University Medical School--and over the years was awarded honorary degrees by 28 colleges and universities.
She was one of the early, visionary founders of the modern pro-life movement. A tireless servant-leader, she helped to establish more than 30 pro-life organizations, boards, and committees including the National Right to Life Committee--of which she remained the at-large director to the day she died.
Her credo was unequivocal, "I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live."
Dr. Jefferson was a dear and gracious friend to me, a ready counselor during the days when I first was researching and writing Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood, and a faithful supporter of LifeNet, the organization we established together to stem the rising tide of RU-486 and other pharmaceutical abortifacients.
Though we mourn the loss of one of America's greatest heroes, we rejoice that Dr. Jefferson is now in the presence of her Savior, beholding the glory of the risen Christ.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Komen Betrayal
It is sad that organizations ostensibly committed to very worthy causes align themselves with the insidious child-killing industry. But, that is just what the United Way and the March of Dimes have done for years. Now, add the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to that list.As the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, Komen is committed "to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures." Largely thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the organization has become the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.
Alas, it has also become a significant contributor to the abortion monolith, Planned Parenthood. Indeed, during the past five years breast cancer donors have, unbeknownst to them, poured nearly $4 million into the already bloated coffers of the organization responsible for more than a quarter of all the abortions performed in the United States and perhaps a third of all the child-killing procedures world-wide. Rather than focusing on saving lives, Komen has become a cozy partner with Planned Parenthood in the nasty business of snuffing out lives.
October is the month for breast cancer awareness, but it has become increasingly difficult for those who actually care about women's health issues to lend their support to the cause because of this brazen betrayal by Komen.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Making a Difference
January 22, 2011 marks the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. On January 3rd, the 112th United States Congress will open with newly elected representatives in the Senate and the House of Representatives joining the incumbents. This is an important opportunity to influence our nation’s leaders on the critical issue of abortion. To coincide with both of these dates, Ligonier Ministries will send R.C. Sproul’s Twentieth Anniversary special edition of Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue to every member of Congress. Won't you help? Ligonier's goal is to raise $6,000 to fund this effort. Every $10 donation will send a book to one of our representatives.
May God be pleased to use this resource, along with a letter from R.C. Sproul, to make an impact on the hearts and minds of our representatives in Congress.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Abortion Vote Alert!
There is a critical vote coming up regarding abortion in the US Senate, probably this coming Tuesday, September 21. It's a vote on the "National Defense Authorization Bill" and Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying an end run to get some "thank you gifts" and "election incentives" to his core supporters. How? By adding three very controversial amendments to this defense bill:
The first would allow abortions to be performed on any military base in the world, utilizing personnel, supplies, and facilities paid for with our tax dollars, which, under current law, has been prohibited since 1966; another provision in the law which would be changed prohibits the use of DOD funds for abortion except to save the life of the mother;
The other two amendments would repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, which will impose open homosexuality upon the U.S. armed services, without waiting for the pending military report which is analyzing the effect of such a policy; and add a very controversial immigration rider, the so-called "Dream Act." This would legalize and offer a path to citizenship to some 2.1 million "young" illegal immigrants initially and then, by using chain migration, will legalize and offer a citizenship path to their parents which would then total 6.3 million.
So, what do any of these three amendments have to do with defense spending? Umm, well, nothing. Absolutely nothing--which epitomizes what is so, so wrong with our current Congress and why the upcoming election is so important.
But, before November we still have work to do--and fast. This week, in fact.
Senator John McCain plans to lead a filibuster against the bill. He needs 41 votes in order to sustain the filibuster, which is possible if all the pro-life Senators stick together and refuse to invoke cloture (a procedure to cut off debate and bring the bill to the floor for a vote) as Reid will request.
An avid supporter of the military, Senator McCain knows that the needed military funding can easily be provided with a continuing resolution minus these extremist maneuvers. If the amendments are voted on individually, grassroots pro-lifers would have to rally 51 votes to defeat each them--and it is not likely that we'd be able to muster them in the current Senate configuration. Thus, sustaining the filibuster (only 41 votes needed) is our only realistic chance to stop them in the Senate!
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Please contact your two US Senators and urge them, particularly if they have professed to be pro-life in the past, to stand firm with Senator McCain as he tries to keep this bill with its non-germane, politically-motivated amendments from coming to the floor of the Senate, where we would be forced to endure yet another pro-abortion debacle.
This is a huge diversion from the normal rules of the Senate and is a real desperation move by Reid to try and ram these "payback" amendments through before the Democrats stand to lose their majority in the November elections.
1-202-224-3121 is the Capitol main switchboard for all Senators.
Time is short--please flood the Senators with your phone calls. Be knowledgeable, polite, but firm in your request that they stand with Senator McCain and vote against cloture. It is probably our only way to stop these additions to the bill.
The first would allow abortions to be performed on any military base in the world, utilizing personnel, supplies, and facilities paid for with our tax dollars, which, under current law, has been prohibited since 1966; another provision in the law which would be changed prohibits the use of DOD funds for abortion except to save the life of the mother;
The other two amendments would repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, which will impose open homosexuality upon the U.S. armed services, without waiting for the pending military report which is analyzing the effect of such a policy; and add a very controversial immigration rider, the so-called "Dream Act." This would legalize and offer a path to citizenship to some 2.1 million "young" illegal immigrants initially and then, by using chain migration, will legalize and offer a citizenship path to their parents which would then total 6.3 million.
So, what do any of these three amendments have to do with defense spending? Umm, well, nothing. Absolutely nothing--which epitomizes what is so, so wrong with our current Congress and why the upcoming election is so important.
But, before November we still have work to do--and fast. This week, in fact.
Senator John McCain plans to lead a filibuster against the bill. He needs 41 votes in order to sustain the filibuster, which is possible if all the pro-life Senators stick together and refuse to invoke cloture (a procedure to cut off debate and bring the bill to the floor for a vote) as Reid will request.
An avid supporter of the military, Senator McCain knows that the needed military funding can easily be provided with a continuing resolution minus these extremist maneuvers. If the amendments are voted on individually, grassroots pro-lifers would have to rally 51 votes to defeat each them--and it is not likely that we'd be able to muster them in the current Senate configuration. Thus, sustaining the filibuster (only 41 votes needed) is our only realistic chance to stop them in the Senate!
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Please contact your two US Senators and urge them, particularly if they have professed to be pro-life in the past, to stand firm with Senator McCain as he tries to keep this bill with its non-germane, politically-motivated amendments from coming to the floor of the Senate, where we would be forced to endure yet another pro-abortion debacle.
This is a huge diversion from the normal rules of the Senate and is a real desperation move by Reid to try and ram these "payback" amendments through before the Democrats stand to lose their majority in the November elections.
1-202-224-3121 is the Capitol main switchboard for all Senators.
Time is short--please flood the Senators with your phone calls. Be knowledgeable, polite, but firm in your request that they stand with Senator McCain and vote against cloture. It is probably our only way to stop these additions to the bill.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Planned Parenthood Celebrates Child-Killing
This week Planned Parenthood celebrated four thousand years of child-killing, child-sacrifice, and infanticide on one of its Twitter sites. If anyone ever had a shadow of a doubt, the organization's gleeful public endorsement of the lurid Four Thousand Years for Choice art project has sent the clear and unambiguous message to all the world that Planned Parenthood is hardly "pro-choice." It is now, it always has been, and it certainly intends to continue to be ardently, unapologetically, and apoplectically "pro-abortion."
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Judicial Activism and Prop 8
Judgment begins at the House of the Lord--not with Congress or California. We are where we are because the church is not acting like the church. We are what we are because the church is asleep in the light. The culture war is only a second or third order consequence of the great battle in the heavenlies. And in that battle, pastors, churches, deacons, elders, SS teachers, Christian dads and moms have simply been AWOL.
"Evidence" from the "Experts"
"Because the evidence shows same-sex marriage has and will have no adverse effects on society or the institution of marriage, California has no interest in waiting and no practical need to wait to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples." In the ruling of U.S. District Judge Vaugh Walker, one of only three openly gay federal judges, in the case of Perry v Schwarzenegger
Oh really Judge Walker? And what "evidence" is that?
Oh really Judge Walker? And what "evidence" is that?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The End of the World As We Know It
”It is not necessary to imagine
The world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities:
One is paperwork,
And the other is sentimental nostalgia.” Frank Zappa
The world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities:
One is paperwork,
And the other is sentimental nostalgia.” Frank Zappa
Friday, June 25, 2010
Margaret Sanger's Racism
On this day in 1939, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood announced the organization’s new “Negro Project” in response to requests from southern state public health officials—men not generally known at that time for their racial equanimity. “The mass of Negroes,” her project proposal asserted, particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among Whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit.” The proposal went on to say that “Public Health statistics merely hint at the primitive state of civilization in which most Negroes in the South live.”
In order to remedy this “dysgenic horror story,” her project aimed to hire three or four “Colored Ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities” to travel to various Black enclaves and propagandize for birth control.
“The most successful educational approach to the Negro,” Margaret wrote sometime later, “is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Of course, those Black ministers were to be carefully controlled—mere figureheads. “There is a great danger that we will fail,” one of the project directors wrote, “because the Negroes think it a plan for extermination. Hence, let’s appear to let the colored run it.” Another project director lamented, “I wonder if Southern Darkies can ever be entrusted with . . . a clinic. Our experience causes us to doubt their ability to work except under White supervision.” The entire operation then was a ruse—a manipulative attempt to get African Americans to cooperate in their own elimination.
The program’s genocidal intentions were carefully camouflaged beneath several layers of condescending social service rhetoric and organizational expertise. Like the citizens of Hamelin, lured into captivity by the sweet serenades of the Pied Piper, all too many African Americans all across the country happily fell into step behind Margaret and the Eugenic racists she had placed on her Negro Advisory Council.
Soon taxpayer-supported clinics throughout the South were distributing contraceptives to African Americans and Sanger’s science fiction dream of discouraging “the defective and diseased elements of humanity” from their “reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning” appeared at last to be on the road to fulfillment. Planned Parenthood had its first real success in social engineering.
In order to remedy this “dysgenic horror story,” her project aimed to hire three or four “Colored Ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities” to travel to various Black enclaves and propagandize for birth control.
“The most successful educational approach to the Negro,” Margaret wrote sometime later, “is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Of course, those Black ministers were to be carefully controlled—mere figureheads. “There is a great danger that we will fail,” one of the project directors wrote, “because the Negroes think it a plan for extermination. Hence, let’s appear to let the colored run it.” Another project director lamented, “I wonder if Southern Darkies can ever be entrusted with . . . a clinic. Our experience causes us to doubt their ability to work except under White supervision.” The entire operation then was a ruse—a manipulative attempt to get African Americans to cooperate in their own elimination.
The program’s genocidal intentions were carefully camouflaged beneath several layers of condescending social service rhetoric and organizational expertise. Like the citizens of Hamelin, lured into captivity by the sweet serenades of the Pied Piper, all too many African Americans all across the country happily fell into step behind Margaret and the Eugenic racists she had placed on her Negro Advisory Council.
Soon taxpayer-supported clinics throughout the South were distributing contraceptives to African Americans and Sanger’s science fiction dream of discouraging “the defective and diseased elements of humanity” from their “reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning” appeared at last to be on the road to fulfillment. Planned Parenthood had its first real success in social engineering.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Sarti and Immolation
Born in Northern Ireland to a wealthy Presbyterian family, Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) became one of the best known missionaries of the first half of the twentieth century. Her ministry took her first to Japan, then to Ceylon, and finally to the Dohnavur province of India.
Although the brutal Hindu traditions of sarti and immolation—burning widows alive on the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands—had been legally banned, to her horror she discovered that ritual abortion and female infanticide were still quite common. In addition, many of the young girls that she had come to work with were still being systematically sold off as slaves to the nearby pagan temples in order to be raised as cult prostitutes.
She immediately established a ministry to protect and shelter the girls. Although she had to suffer the persecution of various
Hindu sects and the bureaucratic resistance of the British colonial government, Carmichael built an effective and dynamic ministry renowned for its courage and compassion.
Sadly, many of her fellow missionaries in India—having partially accepted the presuppositions of Planned Parenthood’s Malthusian thought—believed that her effort to build an orphanage and school was actually a "worldly activity" that distracted her from the "saving of souls." To such accusations she simply replied, "Souls are more or less firmly attached to bodies."
Since her death in 1951, her Dohnavur Fellowship has continued to carry on ministries of evangelism, education, and medical aid among the poor and helpless. It remains one of the most dynamic Christian work on the Indian subcontinent.
Although the brutal Hindu traditions of sarti and immolation—burning widows alive on the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands—had been legally banned, to her horror she discovered that ritual abortion and female infanticide were still quite common. In addition, many of the young girls that she had come to work with were still being systematically sold off as slaves to the nearby pagan temples in order to be raised as cult prostitutes.
She immediately established a ministry to protect and shelter the girls. Although she had to suffer the persecution of various
Hindu sects and the bureaucratic resistance of the British colonial government, Carmichael built an effective and dynamic ministry renowned for its courage and compassion.
Sadly, many of her fellow missionaries in India—having partially accepted the presuppositions of Planned Parenthood’s Malthusian thought—believed that her effort to build an orphanage and school was actually a "worldly activity" that distracted her from the "saving of souls." To such accusations she simply replied, "Souls are more or less firmly attached to bodies."
Since her death in 1951, her Dohnavur Fellowship has continued to carry on ministries of evangelism, education, and medical aid among the poor and helpless. It remains one of the most dynamic Christian work on the Indian subcontinent.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
¡Felices Pascuas de Resurrección!
Señor Jesucristo
Tú eres el Autor de la Vida,
Quien murió y ahora vive para siempre.
Haz que aquellos que trabajamos y oramos
Para que los niños en el vientre sean protegidos Siempre, saquemos fuerza, confianza, y gozo
De Tu victoria sobre la muerte,
Porque Tú eres Señor por siempre y para siempre. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the Author of Life,
Who died and now lives forevermore.
May we who work and pray
That children in the womb may be protected
Always draw strength, confidence, and joy
From Your victory over death,
For you are Lord forever and ever. Amen.
Tú eres el Autor de la Vida,
Quien murió y ahora vive para siempre.
Haz que aquellos que trabajamos y oramos
Para que los niños en el vientre sean protegidos Siempre, saquemos fuerza, confianza, y gozo
De Tu victoria sobre la muerte,
Porque Tú eres Señor por siempre y para siempre. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the Author of Life,
Who died and now lives forevermore.
May we who work and pray
That children in the womb may be protected
Always draw strength, confidence, and joy
From Your victory over death,
For you are Lord forever and ever. Amen.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Not Now. Not Ever
"Americans do not want a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care stuffed with tax hikes, Medicare cuts, taxpayer subsidized abortion, and giveaways to Washington special interests. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever." House Minority Leader John Boehner
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Perversity Propounded
A brazen new report issued by the International Planned Parenthood Federation asserts that children as young as ten must be given extensive sex education, including an awareness of sex's pleasures, on the basis of essential "human rights."
Shamelessly redefining "right and wrong," "morality and immorality," the report, Stand and Deliver, specifically charges religious groups with perfidy in denying their young free access to comprehensive sexual programs and education.
A PDF of the full document may be found here:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25001940/IPPF-Stand-and-Deliver-sex-education-for-children
Shamelessly redefining "right and wrong," "morality and immorality," the report, Stand and Deliver, specifically charges religious groups with perfidy in denying their young free access to comprehensive sexual programs and education.
A PDF of the full document may be found here:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25001940/IPPF-Stand-and-Deliver-sex-education-for-children
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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