Planned Parenthood Worried It’s The Target Of New Undercover Sting

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Bob F.

Planned Parenthood Worried It’s The Target Of New Undercover Sting.

Take a moment to read this article.  I think PP is perhaps right – with all of the disgraceful things already uncovered because of previous stealth visits to PP clinics, its leadership is wise to counsel its staff to be on their toes.

But, note that in this climate of diversionary tactics, PP is acting like only pro-life people conduct these stealth operations.  Any worker from one of our affiliate centers will tell you that nearly all of them have been the object of deception and deceit.

As far back as 25 years ago someone came into one of our Christian Life Resource centers with a camera hidden in a bag and taped the entire counseling session which was then broadcast over a PBS affiliate.  The counselor being tricked did an outstanding job.  So long as the truth is spoken neither side in this debate should fear anything.

Beware!  There clearly is a spirit of “if they can do it we can do it” out there.  Remember that our efforts will always be identified by the lowest pro-life denominator.  If others lie and deceive for our cause to protect life it reflects poorly on all of us.

It is imperative that we conduct all of our efforts in a manner that reflects love, honesty, patience and integrity.  That is how God deals with us and so also it is how we should deal with others.

Posted in Abortion, Pregnancy & Children, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Catholics Called to Witness – Inspiring Catholics to Live their Faith

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Bob F.

Catholics Called to Witness – Inspiring Catholics to Live their Faith.

Check out this video created to inspire members of the Roman Catholic Church to rightly establish priorities and to then act on those priorities.  A moving 3 minute video with no spoken words but a clear message.

Posted in Christian Faith, Church and State, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Before the Throne of God

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Bob F.

The full-time staffed national office of Christian Life Resources has been around since 1988.  Over the years we have hired 30 or so employees.  Today we mark the first passing of a former employee.  Joan Dwyer has died.

Joan was widowed in her early 50s.  She never learned to drive and lived a good 1.5 miles from the office when one day she asked if she could volunteer for us.  We got her on board and then she walked back home.  In fact every day she would walk 20 city blocks to and from our office.  Her value as a volunteer quickly made her irreplaceable so if weather threatened to prevent her from coming in one of us went out to get her and took her home.

Joan later admitted that when she started with us she was agoraphobic (a fear of going outside).   Volunteering forced her to face her fear and helped her greatly – but she especially was a blessing for us.

As a volunteer she was every much as reliable as a paid staff person.  She kept hours, took work home with her and accompanied us on a few conventions when they were outside of Wisconsin.

Meager economic times brought Joan to my office one day in tears.  The early death of her husband left her with little investment and she announced she had to scale back volunteering so she can find a paying job.  The timing was certainly more than coincidence.  We had just come off of a meeting of our national board where I received permission to add staffing to handle the growing workload.  I hired her on the spot as a part-time employee.

Being paid part-time inspired Joan to work all the harder – continuing to volunteer many hours above and beyond her part-time paid schedule.

Joan knew how to type but did not know how to use a computer.  She picked up that skill in no time at all.  She respected confidentiality which made her an ideal person to help us keep up our database.

Just a few years after starting with us God brought to Joan a fellow by the name of Don Dwyer.  Don was as kind and affectionate towards Joan as any of us had ever hoped one could be.  And in classic Joan fashion she and Don eloped in Las Vegas – we learned of it via a postcard.

Joan’s time with Don was painfully short.  I remember getting the phone call at about 3:30am from Joan that Don had died of a heart attack at his job working the late shift.  We all shared in Joan’s broken heart.

When Don died it left a void in Joan’s life.  It reminded her of how fleeting life was and how little time any of us have.  She worked awhile longer and then felt the time had come to retire.

Retire she did but she was not absent from the office.  Retirement just turned her back into a volunteer.  By then she had purchased her own computer and so from home she was doing a lot of volunteer work for us remotely.

Joan assumed the role of the staff mother at Christian Life Resources.  She was serious about God and could really laugh at herself and others.  She was so endeared to us that she served as the Maid of Honor when Diane and I were married.

Joan died of breast cancer.  The final days of her roller coaster life were spent in the hospice care unit at the Lutheran Home in Wauwatosa.  Diane and I visited her while she still was somewhat able talk, though she was heavily medicated.  Yet, her sense-of-humor remained intact.  She still chuckled at my sarcasm.

Joan would often tell people that CLR saved her after the loss of her first husband.  That was part of Joan’s humility.  Joan was instrumental in the work of this ministry.  She loved people and demonstrated it regularly by caring for others as they wrestled through maladies.  She especially loved her Savior.  She and I would tangle over Bible translations and she was eager to get more understanding of Scripture through our regular staff devotions and in private conversations.

Joan now stands before the throne of God.  A sharp contrast to seeing her lying in bed at the hospice.  At the moment of her death her eternity unfolded before her.  She is now reunited with those who have gone before her – her parents, Bill (her first husband) and Don.  Most importantly, Jesus is now her mentor.  He is now her counselor on the truths of Scripture.  The paradise we long for is what she now has and we are happy for Joan.

While we would have wanted more time with her, as she taught us so much, we rejoice that she is in the best of all places – with her Lord.  Thank you, God, for Joan and for the heaven secured for her through Christ!

Posted in CLR Resource, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Did you know World Down Syndrome Day was 3/21/2012?

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Bob F.

Watch the video – its tells its own story!

International Down Syndrome Coalition for Life WDSD March 21, 2012 – YouTube.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I Am Not Crazy!

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Bob F.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~ Albert Einstein

My wife and I have voted for 37 years.  A lot has changed in that time though our involvement in the democratic process hardly changed beyond casting a ballot. Ten years ago we decided to do more. We financially supported a number of candidates. Our reward?  Despite the punishing barrage of phone calls from political fund raisers, we found satisfaction that for relatively few dollars, we acted to support what is right.

Now we are doing even more.  We plan to host a campaign fund raiser in our home for a candidate running for the U.S. Senate.  One friend asked, “Are you crazy?”  Rest assured, we are not – or not yet!

People say that campaigning has turned ugly.  It is the competing forces of the human will striving for a goal that only has one “winner.”  It gets rough, and it is something we could not personally do.

Yet, in a democratic society the election of the right people for public office is one way a Christian serves as a “good Samaritan” to others.  While we are not fans of letting the government do our charity work there are things we can do collectively as a nation that are difficult or impossible to accomplish as individuals – so we elect candidates to act on our behalf.

Since we cannot run for office we are compelled for the sake of others to support someone who closely shares our values.  Is our candidate the perfect one?  No and neither are the other candidates.  To “perfectly” reflect our values we would have to run for office and that we cannot do.

It is not cheap to host this event.  We put off replacing the TV or getting that new tool for the workshop.  Skimping a little here and there enables us to do this without lessening our support for the church, for Christian Life Resources, for Wisconsin Right to Life or the other charitable causes we value.  We simply readjusted what we spend on ourselves.

What if the candidate loses?  Then he loses and we move on, looking for new ways and new candidates to support to help us help others.  For now, we like this guy and we decided we had to do more than just vote.  If we were to keep doing the same old thing, now THAT would seem insane!

Posted in Church and State, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Is Objecting on Religious Grounds Enough?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Bob F.

Watching from the bleachers as the Christian community gets increasingly agitated about the mandatory coverage of birth control in the national health care plan I become increasingly concerned.  Clearly the proposal crosses the line of the state interfering with religion and I can’t imagine it surviving a court test on those grounds.  What is concerning is how little we are willing to settle for.

Yes, it is quite alarming when Uncle Sam wants to tell us to do something contrary to our religious convictions.  But aren’t our objections missing the bigger picture?  If mandating coverage of birth control – especially that which is abortifacient – is so foundationally wrong why are we settling for the personal “opt out” entitlement under the guise of “conscientious objection” or “religious freedom?”  Is it not still wrong for one’s nation to pay for the ending of unborn lives?

Sometimes the Christian community acts like this is a mere issue of being told to worship on Tuesdays instead of Sundays.  This is not the government mandating that we must use only one Bible translation or must pay taxes on church property.  This is not even the government saying that only religious groups must pay for birth control even if it is abortifacient.  This is the government saying all of us as a nation, collectively, must pay for birth control (abortifacient or otherwise) because a pregnancy is being looped in as a preventable and presumably treatable “disease.”  It is grouped right in there with breast exams and colonoscopies.

I do believe the Christian voice must be heard on this matter but I also believe it is self-serving just to seek an “opt out” provision.  Didn’t we learn anything from the compulsory sterilization experience in early 20th century U.S. history and especially what occurred in Germany?  For the most part the Lutheran and protestant voices were silent if not endorsing of the 1933 German eugenics program that required sterilization when “a great probability exists that his (or her) offspring will suffer from severe bodily or mental hereditary disease.”

It was the Roman Catholic voice that held this program back – for a while.  Finally, granted by the Third Reich an “opt out” provision so long as they took take care of their own, the Roman Catholic Church dropped its full opposition and the program took off.  In 1934 compulsory sterilization was ordered in 56,244 cases.

It didn’t take long before this program included gathering up and institutionalizing these people into centers where most died by starvation and disease.

There is something foundationally wrong with treating pregnancy like a preventable disease.  It skips the need for moral responsibility.  It ignores the fact, acknowledged even by abortion-advocates, that life does exist at fertilization.  To simply ask for exemption based on religious grounds denies our calling to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” and to “consider others above ourselves.”  Treating pregnancy as a preventable disease is fundamentally wrong?

Think about – allowed to stand, what happens in the cases of “contraceptive failure?”  With abstinence still being the only 100% perfect form of birth control all other forms of birth control have failure rates.  What do you think happens when processes, procedures and protections provided in your health plan fail to do what is promised?

The current administration had promised in campaigning to pass a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which would codify abortion rights.  When a health care provision in treating a “disease” fails that provision still covers what it takes to treat or “heal” the malady.  It does with breast cancer – it does with colon cancer – and it logically would or should with contraceptive failure.

Some have claimed this provision found its roots in the requirement in many health plans to cover erectile dysfunction medicines for men.  This may not be an apples-to-apples comparison but maybe that logic should be revisited as well.

One thing that is clear – it is not in our best interest to consider pregnancy a disease.

At the same time I would counsel Christians to recognize that not all of the health plan is evil.  Provisions to care for those who need care is a worthy endeavor and it behooves Christians to support that which is commendable.  For now, however, we should strongly object to that which is wrong.  Getting an “opt out” provision based on religious convictions is not enough.

Posted in Birth Control, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Epitaph of a Debacle

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Bob F.

For those of you not staying current, I had suggested in my previous blog that Komen made its initial decision to defund Planned Parenthood without consideration of Planned Parenthood’s role as a premier abortion provider in America.  Now that it has reversed itself on that decision some hindsight analysis is in order or to ask the old Lutheran question, “what does this mean?”

It IS About Women’s Health

Komen is in the business of finding a cure for cancer.  They don’t seem to demonstrate any interest in abortion.  I think they are turning a blind eye about the abortion-breast cancer connection and I also think they are overlooking the established carcinogenic effect of hormonal birth control – a staple of Planned Parenthood’s operation.  Komen’s grants were for promoting breast cancer awareness and the value of regular checking through palpation or mammography.  The fact of the matter is that Planned Parenthood educates on both and qualified for the funding because they do so.

Komen’s field is narrow.  They are not advocating women’s rights, abortion, birth control, teenage promiscuity and all the things that we believe Planned Parenthood so shamelessly promotes.  Komen just wants a cure for cancer and is addressing that component of women’s health.

Pro-life Community Misses the Point

Related to the above point, Komen is also not looking to cure Down’s syndrome, Huntington’s disease, macular degeneration or heart disease.  Their field of interest is cancer and most specifically breast cancer.  Other than the doctor’s office where else or who else is doing substantial work on breast cancer awareness?  Like it or not Planned Parenthood has been able to prove that they do a sufficient amount of breast cancer education to qualify for support and I know of few other agencies that do – not the least of which is agencies of the pro-life community.

The problem that the pro-life community has is that we have allowed ourselves to be the criticizer without providing an alternative or a solution.

Think about it – Planned Parenthood gets a lot of money for its public health programs of providing mandated birth control services for indigent women.  This bothers the Roman Catholic community which is traditionally opposed to artificial birth control.  This bothers the conservative Christian community (which may possibly be more accepting of birth control within marriage) because it is dispensed to those sexually active outside of marriage.  And, this is troublesome for the pro-life community because of the abortion connection with some forms of birth control.

So all we are left with is the role of criticizing.  Counties have little option than to support their local Planned Parenthood affiliate because there are few if any viable alternatives.  Until the law is changed – and I don’t see that happening anytime soon – these services must be provided and Planned Parenthood is front and center of all options to perform this service.

To effect change the pro-life community either has to get the law changed, find a way to cost-effectively compete with Planned Parenthood in this field, or do more educating about the value of human life from fertilization forward in the long-range hopes that it would lead to some sort of policy change either in legislation or in the conscience of Planned Parenthood.

The Neglect of Prudency

Komen’s official position is that they were trying not to fund agencies under investigation.  That seemed like a rather odd reason because an investigation does not imply guilt.  Whether politically motivated or not it would seem to be more prudent to withdraw funding if guilt were established.

In an interview that the head of Komen gave with Andrea Mitchell the investigation reason was barely mentioned.  Rather, the representative said Komen was trying to move past the education phase and focus most specifically on diagnostic and treatment metrics.  I got the impression that it was not enough to just refer for mammograms under their new granting program – they wanted to support those who are doing the mammograms so that the results and treatment can be tracked.

I commend Komen for wanting to refine its focus.  I think it is time in their history to better focus on results.

I also think that if Komen felt Planned Parenthood no longer was meeting that refined granting criteria the more prudent thing would have been to wean Planned Parenthood from receiving annual grants over a period of time.  They had already reduced the amount of its support from the previous year.  Perhaps establishing a five year program of reducing their support would not have created the uproar.

Summary Thoughts

It is a shame Komen could not or did not find an alternate recipient of its grants than Planned Parenthood.  It compels many of us pro-life people to find other recipients for our cancer research support or to not try and do nothing.  If it is at all possible to do cancer research without ethical complications than that is where the money should go.

It is also a shame that we in the pro-life community have not provided alternatives other than the expected shrill that is heard every time the name of Planned Parenthood is invoked.

On the positive side I think the episode revealed to more people that Planned Parenthood is more than just a space in the strip mall but that it has a direct, primary and offensive role in the industry of terminating the lives of unborn children.

In this increasingly permissive society the ultimate solution is education and hearts motivated to please God rather than ourselves.  That happens when Christians share their faith and live their faith so that even when it is legal to kill someone – born or unborn – it is the least desired and never chosen selection of all options.

Posted in Abortion, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Komen Cancer Charity Halts Grants To Planned Parenthood

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Bob F.

Cancer Charity Halts Grants To Planned Parenthood | Fox News.

It probably comes as a surprise to many people that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure folks have been using donations to support work at Planned Parenthood.

The official position is that Komen was supporting breast cancer screenings conducted by Planned Parenthood centers.  A fine thing except – it is done at Planned Parenthood centers – the nation’s largest single abortion provider.

I cannot imagine a pro-life advocate who objects to cancer screening that might lead to the preservation of life.  Komen’s problem is that of the countless breast cancer screenings that occur throughout the United States that could be helped with Komen support, why pick Planned Parenthood and turn a blind eye to the millions of children Planned Parenthood centers have aborted.

Komen claims it is waiting to see the results of the congressional inquiry into Planned Parenthood.  The above Fox story suggests the congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood might be the malicious work of pro-life groups.  I think it begs the question of why the Komen for the Cure group was funding Planned Parenthood in the first place.

If news sources can be trusted then Komen’s position on this is entirely dictated by the results of the congressional inquiry.  You know what that means?  The people at Komen don’t get it!  There is a lot of noble cancer research being done without the waters being muddied with an agency like Planned Parenthood.

Maybe it is time for me to use my pink ribbon to distinguish my luggage in the airport baggage claim area and find another worthy recipient for my cancer research donations.

Posted in Abortion, Cancer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Time for a Change!

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Bob F.

On January 23, 1973, the media spotlight became diverted. The previous day, January 22, 1973, former U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson had passed away – on the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion through the nine months of a pregnancy.  In less than a month, the nation would bury its second former president (Harry S. Truman had died the previous December). So, in preparation of the burial of another former president, the abortion story became lost – relegated to a sidebar.

Yet abortion has left an indelible mark on America:

  • Economic Impact: The aging of America nags us with ways to cover the increasing health costs of our aging citizens.  Having 50 million extra taxpayers might have been helpful – if they had not been aborted.
  • Educational Impact: We have smaller families, smaller classes, fewer students and even less financial resources than desired for education.  Education once postured for growth has been slowly imploding.
  • Communication Impact: Abortion has become one of the most common surgical procedures in America (about 3,000 performed daily), and yet today we hide its reality with euphemisms.  Focusing on the right rather than the reality, the mantra for abortion rights has centered on “choice.”  It is a “choice” that means “death” for one party in every abortion choice that is made.
  • Eugenics Impact: At one time Jesse Jackson referred to abortion as “black genocide.”  Today I think the world is much more color-blind.  What marks one for termination is not as objective as race or color but rather the potential of being less productive or being unwanted.  That is eugenics – as repulsive as it was in Nazi Germany – sanitized by abortion!

Today leading abortion-rights advocates acknowledge that abortion is murder – the taking of a human life.  They now call it “a sad but necessary evil” in order for a woman to retain the right to control her own body.

The abortion mentality has permeated society.  “My body, my choice” has transformed the psyche of our culture into selfish entitlement at the highest cost.  Today we stand on the precipice of a new era without absolute standards of right and wrong in which any life lacking a subjective level of quality or desirability is at risk.

Most alarming is the apathy of Christians who should know better.  When abortion advocates now openly admit life is taken; when abortion is the most common solution in dealing with in-womb disabilities; and the abortion count is far beyond 50 million, why do a majority of Christians remain silent, unmoved and uninvolved?

Christians bring to the table consistent values, a culture of self-sacrifice, and unequaled motivation:

  • Consistent Values: God’s will reflects values that have historically crossed all religious boundaries.  It has been called the Judeo-Christian ethic and is simply what Scripture alludes to as the law written on our hearts – a natural sense of right and wrong that, though clouded by increased sinfulness, is nevertheless still present.
  • Culture of Self-Sacrifice: God’s Word teaches us to think more of others than ourselves.  While abortion is a ghastly act of extermination of the defenseless by the empowered, it behooves Christians to help mothers live with the choice rather than kill their unborn baby.  It is not enough to say abortion is wrong.  Christians ought to stand with mothers in helping them after they make the right decision.
  • Unequalled Motivation: We have the greatest motivation in the universe – God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.  Christians know what it means to be lost, useless, powerless, etc.  Our sinfulness would guarantee a pointless existence concluding in an eternity of suffering.  It is God’s solution to that problem in our lives that motivates us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.  When God sent Jesus to die for our sins; to take on our punishment and to pay our price He brought us eternal life.  Even death has no sting!

I like life-affirming judicial decisions and electing pro-life candidates.  The enduring solution to abortion, however, is found in hearts that are changed by knowing Christ and hearts that are moved by knowing Christ.  It permeates our culture with an ethic of modesty and chastity in a world hell-bent in moving in the other direction.  It practices forgiveness for those who do wrong and partners with them in turning their lives around.

These past 39 years have brought more than 50 million deaths.  It has eroded who we are as humans – the centerpiece of God’s creation –different from all else that was created.  It has been long enough.  It is time for us to recognize what abortion advocates now recognize – that in abortion a child dies.  Killing is not an entitlement given to us.  Christians must do their Christian thing and share the message of Christ as our Savior and practice His love in their dealings with all others.

Posted in Abortion, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Clearly Caring – Parish Edition for Churches

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Bob F.

Valuable Church Resource

Christian Life Resources has shipped its first quarter issue of Clearly Caring-Parish Edition.  The Parish Edition is a created in a 5.5 x 8.5 format and is 6 pages which can be inserted into the worship service bulletin.

This issue focuses on the words of Psalm 139 and what they say about the humanity of life in the womb.

More than 800 congregations order enough free copies of Clearly Caring – Parish Edition to insert in their bulletin on a life or family themed Sunday.  We shipped out nearly 69,000 of them.

Your congregation can sign up for this free resource by visiting www.ClearlyCaring.com and selecting: “Subscribe to Parish Edition.”  While on the website you can also click the Parish Edition cover and see a PDF of the content.

The 2nd quarter issue is scheduled for shipping on April 25th – in time for Mothers’ Day.

Clearly Caring – Parish Edition is a special smaller version of the regular magazine of Christian Life Resources called Clearly Caring-Home Edition – which is available by free subscription and to all donors to the ministries of Christian Life Resources.

Posted in CLR Resource, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment