Push for ‘Personhood’ Amendments Is New Tack in Abortion Fight – NYTimes.com

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Bob F.

Push for ‘Personhood’ Amendments Is New Tack in Abortion Fight – NYTimes.com.

There are a number of comments to be made on this article.  First of all, this is hardly something new.  In 1974, a year after the Roe v. Wade ruling legalized abortion throughout the U.S., a constitutional amendment was proposed to congress essentially establishing the same thing.  A couple of years ago I was asked to visit our congregations in South Dakota because they had a comparable referendum in the state.  So, error # 1 – this is not new.

Secondly, the article states that the initiative “would declare a fertilized human egg to be a legal person.”  What is a “fertilized human egg?”  Fertilizing an egg is an event.  A “fertilized egg” is convenient terminology to dehumanize the amazing change that has happened at fertilization.  At that moment the egg is no longer an egg but an expanding and maturing human life with a dramatically different biology than when it was just “an egg.”  So, error # 2 is the sloppy language to describe what has happened.  If allowed to stand then that would make me a 55-year-old fertilized egg.

Thirdly, the article does correctly point out that the pro-life community finds itself divided on how to take this initiative.  I know it seems odd that not every pro-life agency isn’t jumping on the bandwagon but the reasoning has to do more with politics and methodology than ideology.  It is difficult on the one hand not to get excited at the prospect of calling unborn life what it is – human and deserving of protecting.  It is also scarey to see what can happen when well-intentioned efforts like this falter and the consequences that result.

To learn more about the concerns of a failed effort read: “Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square” by Clarke Forsythe.  Clarke does an excellent and meticulous job of detailing the risks of such “all or nothing” efforts.

Finally, the author of the Times article ties the effort to birth control.  It has long been the claim that banning abortions is the Roman Catholic tool to also ban birth control.  Without a doubt the Roman Catholic teaching against all artificial birth control has been troubling in the public arena.  But, some forms of birth control (hormonal) are, in fact, listed in the pharmaceutical guides and on the FDA website as having the potential to act as abortifacients.  No one knows for certain if and how often they act in this way but there is no denying the statements that they can act in this way.  I have written on birth control numerous times.  Visit the Christian Life Resources website and search for “birth control” to view some of those articles.

So, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.  I tend to favor Clark Forsythe’s measured approach to correcting this moral wrong in society.  But, like slavery, it is clear the abortion issue will not be permitted to fall off the radar.  Such injustices need to be kept before the public for correction to occur.

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Sequenom’s Test for Down Syndrome Raises Hopes and Questions – NYTimes.com

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Bob F.

Sequenom’s Test for Down Syndrome Raises Hopes and Questions – NYTimes.com.

In the “old days” this used to be called “search and destroy.”  While undoubtedly there is benefit to knowing if your child will pose special challenges to the family upon birth that is not what is happening with an increasing number of prenatal tests.

In a 2007 article in the New York Times the author made this sad statement: “About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.”

That is “search and destroy.”

The proposition of a new test to provide greater accuracy (imagine 5% of those children aborted because of a false-positive test for Down’s Syndrome) does not negate what is happening.  As a society we are increasingly wanting to pick and choose the people who should live based on a criteria that is more presumptive that accurate, more selfish than sacrificial, more dangerous than beneficial.  Who is next?  Who are the right kind of people to eliminate?  Who would be the “useless eaters” of society?

Visit the website of Christian Life Resources to peruse a variety of articles that speak about the value of lives that face challenges – including the lives of children born with Down’s Syndrome.

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Women will be texted reminders about their abortion – Telegraph

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Bob F.

Women will be texted reminders about their abortion – Telegraph.

Advocates of abortion have evolved their position from saying abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue to now calling it a “sad but necessary evil.”  Any abortion-rights advocate worth their salt are at least honest enough today to calling abortion what it is, the taking of a human life.

Text messaging to streamline the process of carrying out “sad but necessary evils” is troublesome but not unexpected.  The view to protect the lives of unborn children is increasingly trivialized in our society.  In the United States, even with the knowledge that abortion ends the life of a human being, it is still being practices 1.2 million times each year – half of those times on women who have had one or more abortions.

Visit the website of Christian Life Resources for the following articles:

A Child Dies – A Look at the Dehumanization of Life in Abortion

To review recent statistics on abortion visit the Christian Life Resources website for the following article:

Sobering Statistics on Abortion

 

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Women who have abortions ‘face double the risk of mental health problems’ | Mail Online

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Bob F.

Women who have abortions ‘face double the risk of mental health problems’ | Mail Online.

In 2008 the American Psychological Association stated that a “single abortion” of an “unwanted” pregnancy for an “adult” woman did not “in and of itself” pose significant mental health risks.  It apparently was reflecting if not relying on a  New Zealand study (http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/193/6/444.abstract) which concluded “abortion may be associated with a small increase in risk of mental disorders.”  That was a study of over 500 women under the age of 30.

A new study, released in the September 2011 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry is far more comprehensive (studied more than 877,000 women, nearly 164,000 of whom had abortion) and it contradicts the notion that having an abortion results in a “small” risk of mental disorders.

The article, “Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009″  concluded, “Overall, the results revealed that women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 per cent increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10 per cent of the incidence of mental health problems were shown to be directly attributable to abortion.”

This observation will obviously not be welcomed news for advocates of abortion but really should not come as a surprise.  About 15 years ago the abortion-rights movement began making a startling confession: abortion ends a human life.  Leaders in the movement finally conceded that the biological evidence was undeniable.

With that concession, however, came the real face of the abortion-rights movement.  Abortion was now characterized as a “sad but necessary evil” that had to be permitted to protect a woman’s autonomy and right to control her body.  To read more on this confession of the abortion-rights movement read an article I wrote for the 1st quarter issue of Clearly Caring, the magazine of Christian Life Resources at: http://www.christianliferesources.com/?9242

Unless someone has truly been calloused to the natural law of the heart, this psychological outcome of abortion fits.  Terminating any life is crossing a line recognized by most cultures regardless of religious convictions.  It makes perfect sense that once one acknowledges that abortion takes a life, then having an abortion would have mental consequences.

To read more about this recent study visit: http://afterabortion.org/2011/abortion-and-mental-health-controversy-reignited-by-new-study/

While those of us who oppose abortion might be inclined to view this report with a sense of vindication I counsel to the contrary.  We have known from Scripture that abortion ends a life without any 15-year-old-realization of the abortion-rights movement.  Those of us who have counseled post-abortive women have seen first hand the mental consequences.  This report should further motivate us not only to protect women from these psychological effects of abortion but to make abortion the least desirable of all available options.  We should continue to work zealously to support alternative to abortion programs that help mothers and their children – such as our own New Beginnings – A Home for Mothers ministry.

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Blood Test Can Tell Fetal Sex at 7 Weeks, Study Says – NYTimes.com

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Bob F.

Blood Test Can Tell Fetal Sex at 7 Weeks, Study Says – NYTimes.com.

As the article explains, such a test has value to help parents prepare not just for a little boy or girl but to also prepare for some potential maladies that may be most associated with one sex over the other.  The premier problem is our propensity to gather information that we are not prepared to process so that in the end, if the news is different than what we want, the child will die.

Sex selected abortions occur.  While the article notes that companies try not to sell this product for that purpose, it happens nevertheless.

I favor any testing we can do to help in the treatments of any malady we uncover.  To use tests to “search and destroy” children that are not “perfect” is offensive to the Creator and to those of us who value life.  To abort a child because it is of the wrong sex is equally wrong and also extremely shallow.

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Archaeologists Excavate Biblical Giant Goliath’s Hometown – FoxNews.com

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Bob F.

Archaeologists Excavate Biblical Giant Goliath’s Hometown – FoxNews.com.

Archeology has always fascinated me.  Whenever I thought of being an archeologist (a passing notion from my youth) I imagined working on great biblical sites and making incredible discoveries.  The sad reality is that much more of the time is spent working patiently on sweeping aside dirt and sand to find old pottery and building foundations.  Every once in awhile, however, an incredible discovery is made,  It looks like this discovery  of the city of Gath was one of those.

You can read about David and Goliath at: 1 Samuel 17

You can read about the destruction of Gath in a single verse: 2 Kings 12:17

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Stem Cell Treatment May Relieve Angina

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Bob F.

Stem Cell Treatment May Relieve Angina.

Stem cell advancements have been receiving increased attention lately in the media.  In early July 2011 ABC News did a story on how stem cells repair hearts and, most recently, how they helped recreate the trachea that has been transplanted into a man.

What the media often fails to report is that these advancements come with stem cells from the patients own body – these are adult stem cells.  This most recent article on stem cells relieving angina is just another example of the promise and progress made with adult stem cell research – without the death of one human being in order to extract embryonic stem cells – which have yet to produce any comparable progress.

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Early Embryos Have The Ability To Correct Their Own Genetic Abnormalities, Reveals New Study

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Bob F.

Early Embryos Have The Ability To Correct Their Own Genetic Abnormalities, Reveals New Study.

Check out this article.  Think of all the times users of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) have selected human beings in the embryonic stage for termination because they appeared to “unhealthy” for implantation.

IVF has blessed many families with children who seem to otherwise have not been able to bear children – but at what price?  The picking and choosing of only the “best stock” has led to the deaths of countless human beings in the embryonic stage.

In light of this information consider how callous and reckless the latest action by the German government on genetic screening:  German Parliament OKs Genetic Embryo Tests

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Offensively On Target

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Bob F.

The dark and deceptive movement to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide shields its ugly nature with platitudes of compassion and dignity while avoiding the harsh reality.  Asking for the legalization of killing is clearly the most slippery of slopes endangering young and old alike for the most subjective of reasons under some misguided notion of the common good.  It challenges long-standing prohibitions, be they found in religious tradition, common law or just plain common sense.

And then, everyone once in awhile someone exposes the emperor’s nakedness – calling out the raw reality of what this is all about.  Such is done in a fascinating article found, of all places, on the website of The American Muslim.  It is written by the Rev. Frank Julian Gelli, an Anglican priest.  He exposes the dark underbelly of the pro-death movement.  Using candor, irony and satire Gelli attacks the notion that any good could come from allowing physicians to prescribe medicine so people can commit self-murder.

Following are the leading paragraphs from that article entitled: “Euthanasia: a Modest Proposal”

It is in the air. Eu and Thanatos. Two Greek words, meaning a ‘good death’.

Sir Terry Pratchett, science fiction novelist and Alzheimer sufferer, made a documentary about ‘assisted dying’. The aim: to make euthanasia legal in Britain. Sir Terry’s wife is not in favour, apparently, but he is. Golly! Verily, the Book of Proverbs is right, ‘a good wife is worth more than rubies’. I confess: If I had a wife, I would like her to be like Mrs Pratchett.

Euthanasia-talk is topical indeed. Elderly people in British care homes are victims of spending cuts. The quality of their care is deteriorating. Privatisation has resulted in falling standards. The financial crisis bites. State support is short. It can’t go on like this. And so on.

Good death fans of course swear up and down that it is voluntary euthanasia they are proposing. No one would be forced to top himself. Fair enough, conceptually. Still, when I was a parish priest I have dealt long enough in funerals and bereavements to be perhaps a wee bit sceptical of the happy concept. Where there is will, there is a way. Geddit?

That, however, you can argue, is carping. We must take the bull by the horns. Tackle the problem at the roots. Enough of pussyfooting. Time has time to be truly radical.

In 1729 the Irish writer Jonathan Swift published his pamphlet, A Modest Proposal for Preventing Children of Poor People in Ireland from being a Burden to the People or Parents…’etcetera. Simply put, Swift suggested that the large, excess child population of Ireland should be eaten. A one year old’s flesh was most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, the great man averred.

It was a brilliant, stupendous idea. Because it bypassed the matter of the child’s voluntary submission to his lot. At the age of one, children are not capable of consent, so the matter of their agreeing to being eaten could not arise. It was ideal, moral, socially useful cannibalism.  Swift was a genius.

So am I. A genius-like priest.  Immodestly, I propose something similar. Let us eat the old folks. It not fair they should feel useless cast-offs. Their dignity demands they should have a use. As food. Let us eat them.

To read the entire article go to: http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/euthanasia_a_modest_proposal/0018635

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Bully Tactics

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Bob F.

In a May 31, 2011 article on the Huffington Post, Michael Zimmerman goes on the offensive against Michele Bachmann’s belief in creationism.  It is a familiar tirade against the “primitive notions” that the presumed “uneducated” have about the start of all things.  Whenever I read articles from advocates of evolution about those who believe in creation they sooner or later resort to bullying to make their point.

Zimmerman calls intelligent design the “anti-intellectual offshoot” of creationism.  He considers it a “pseudoscientific” subject and venerates a Baton Rouge, LA high school student who is fighting to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act, which Zimmerman calls, an “atrocious stealth-creationism law.”  This student has challenged Bachmann to provide support for her statement “there is a controversy among scientists about whether evolution is a fact … hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel prizes, believe in intelligent design.”

Bachmann is hardly the first politician to be challenged to verify the facts stated in a speech.  Even if she has such evidence the issue never goes away.  The vitriol from evolution advocates remains condescending, demeaning and pompous.

It has long been a ploy in the pro-evolution rhetoric to posture opponents as uneducated Neanderthals (pun intended).  Consider the comments left by some readers of the Zimmerman article:

“What I find to be the most interesting, is the lack of media attention this story has garnered. This should be a dream topic for most talk show hosts; A high school student, from the ‘hurricane ravaged state of Lousiana (sic),’ speaking out against a notable (in the media anyway) politician.”

Translated: “A mere high school student is much smarter than a creation-believing politician.”

“The dogma of the religious is ‘Never confuse me with the facts!’ Wouldn’t want to have intelligence and common sense interfere with their fairy tales.”

Translated: “Religious people have no common sense, they believe in fairy tales and are unintelligent.”

“There’s a segment of the Republican base that is actually proud of its ignorance. They look at education as a bad thing, something that only liberal elites pursue. If I were an employer, I would never EVER hire anyone who still believes in creationism. That would tell me they’re delusional.”

Translated: “If you believe in creation you are ignorant, you are opposed to education, and you are unemployable.”

OK – I know this stuff has been going on for years.  What strikes me is how brutal and bullying the arguments are.  As I read them I tried to imagine talking this way against homosexuality.

“Even a child knows boy + boy or girl + girl is unnatural, how come those dumb adults can’t figure it out?”

“How can advocates of homosexuality be taken seriously?  It is simply their disillusioned way of thinking.”

“I could never hire a homosexual, because they are out of touch with reality.”

Attacks on the character of people are as old as the hills.  They have no place in any argument.  Arguments against the person (argumentum ad hominem) represent last ditch efforts to make a case when presumed facts have failed to be compelling.  They are out of place when it comes to talking evolution, gay rights or any matter for debate.

I do hope Rep. Bachmann produces some evidence to support what she says.  More importantly, however, I do hope everyone sees that in our society matters of faith are not simply accepted as personal convictions but are placed on trial as a test of intelligence.  “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is that first great miracle in any Christian’s life – the ability to believe the unverifiable.  It is the willingness to accept without proof.  It is taking God at His Word.  To suggest it is “anti intellectual” is to mix apples and oranges.  There are many wonderfully brilliant people who believe in God, sin, salvation and creation as there are also many not-so-bright people who believe in evolution.  We must never be intimidated by the bullying tactics of people who want to venerate theories to the level of fact.

Posted in Christian Faith, Creation vs. Evolution, Uncategorized | 1 Comment