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Archive for the ‘Life issues’ Category

It was predictable.  The “chattering atheist class is once again mocking those of us who believe in God,” writes Chuck Colson.  In the wake of the earthquakes and tsunami, they ask: Why would our so-called good God permit such a catastrophe?  Colson observes, “It’s amazing how much time some people spend railing against a God they don’t believe exists.”

My son, Jon, notes, Christianity isn’t for dummies.  We don’t have to leave our brains at the door in order to have faith in a creator God.  Look at what’s happening.  The earth and the physical creation — reflecting its rational creator — is behaving according to observable laws.  Observe these laws and principles, encourages Colson, and you’ll know much about plate tectonics and how earthquakes occur.  They are a result of natural processes.

Can we stop earthquakes?  No.  But, as rational beings created in God’s image (although fallen to sin), we enjoy the opportunity to use the gifts of knowledge God has entrusted to us.  We, as Colson points out, can use that knowledge and good sense.  Perhaps we should not be so arrogant as to build cities on already-known fault lines.  Or homes in hurricane zones.

When an earthquake, tsunami, or tornado claim the lives of thousands, can we complain that God let it happen?  When a hurricane wrecks havoc in a community, can we question or blame God? No.  “Hurricanes are a natural phenomenon that occurs because of climactic changes and shifting winds and temperature gradients,” notes Colson, “all of those things which can now be clearly demonstrated to be physical laws of the universe.”  Has it always been this way?  Nasty upheavals of the earth and killer storms?

No.  Such things did not exist in the beginning.  But, in a perfect Garden, man and woman rebelled against God.  (I hear you atheists… go ahead and scoff.)  When the created thought itself better than the Creator, sin entered the world.  Now we live with the consequences of that sin: an earth in turmoil.

What can we do?  Mourn with those who mourn.  Love our neighbors as ourselves.  Help those in need.  Share our resources.  Give up a new pair of shoes, a steak dinner, or a round of golf and send the money to world relief.

Then, listen.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell  me, if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements — surely you know!  Or who stretched the line upon it?  On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone . . . Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place . . . Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt . . . Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion . . . Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?  He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

(Job 38:4-6; 12; 25; 31; 40:1-2)

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While union members and politicians are “acting up” in Wisconsin, perhaps 10,000 men, women and children have died in Japan.

While we use our time to worship at the altar of “me,” the very earth is groaning.

Even as the earth groans, we seem obsessed with either disposing of or putting our children at risk, destroying marriage, weakening the family, legitimizing all manner of unnatural behavior, collectively bargaining for Viagra, serving ourselves rather than our neighbor, and doing whatever is right in our own eyes.

This is only the third month of a new year.  Think of what has already happened in 2011:  The shooting in Tucson, continued murders along our southern border, civil unrest in Egypt and Libya and Saudi Arabia, a massive earthquake in New Zealand and, last Friday, the deadly tsunami which followed a 9.0 earthquake in Japan.

Even the rocks cry out.   Yet, Planned Parenthood unashamedly begs funds to abort more children.

I wonder what the parents of five-month-old Baxter Gowland would have to say to that.  Baxter was the youngest to die in the Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake.

I wonder what the Creator and Father God thinks.  After all, He so loved the world that He sent His only Son to value each human life — on a Cross.

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My grandparents had common sense, and generally used it.  It served them so well that they faithfully passed it on to my parents.  It served them well, too, so they shared with me.   But, whenever I’m about to use the term these days, I hesitate.  Sense isn’t so common anymore.

Tonight, while sitting at the intersection of six lanes from four directions, I looked at the traffic lights with new appreciation.  (I was also grateful for my driver’s ed instructor who had schooled me in how to properly navigate my vehicle in the midst of other vehicles.)  And yet, when it comes to healthy and safe relationships between boys and girls, there is this ridiculous notion that we should take down the traffic lights and let the children do whatever “feels right.”  (Planned Parenthood, is there something about children you don’t like?)

Oh, silly me.  I forgot that Planned Parenthood is the same organization that has helped abort 50 million of this country’s sons and daughters.  Unfortunately, the very generation that ushered in legalized abortion could very well be ushered out by euthanasia.  It’s impossible, you know, for aborted people to support 76 million aging baby boomers.

No wonder the AARP is driving Congress and pushing for national health care.  My generation forgot about tomorrow!  We were so focused on our rights, our pleasures, OURSELVES… that we didn’t want to be inconvenienced by the very people that would have generated new households, jobs, labor, goods and services, consumers, investment, innovation, new life… well, you know, all the things necessary to keep civilization moving along in the direction of hope.

Can anyone even imagine the impact of 50 million lost Americans?  Maybe, as we begin to recognize that choices have consequences, we’ll pray for Common Sense: 101 to be mandatory for graduation.  It will bring new life!

Think on this, won’t you, next time you’re stopped at a traffic light.  Then say a little thank you to those who had the common sense to put it there.

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Hitler once said to the parents of Germany, “What are you?  You will pass on.  Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp.  In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.”

Much of the older generation in Germany kept quiet.  Good Germans trusted authorities, minded their own business, and steered clear of conflict.  But do you know who spoke up?  Do you know who publicly went on record to oppose Hitler?

It was the  young people!  One of the few organized public efforts to oppose the Third Reich was a small group of university students who called themselves the White Rose Society.  These students had been politically indoctrinated from childhood; some were trained as Hitler youth.  Nevertheless, these young people resolved to take a stand against evil.  How is this possible?  How could these young people resist the Nazi culture?  Because they were idealistic and willing to rebel against bad ideas; they were influenced by families who opposed Hitler; they were medical students who knew about medical atrocities; and most had Jewish friends or classmates.

Two of these students were executed — beheaded — for their resistance.  They were a Lutheran brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl.  Hans and Sophie knew the time had come to act.  The printed and distributed leaflets called Leaves of the White Rose, telling others about the mass extermination of human life and calling for resistance.  They called for a “freedom from evil” and a “rebirth of German life devoted to truth.”  One of the leaflets read: “We seek the revival of the deeply wounded German spirit.  For the sake of future generations, an example must be set after the war so that no one will ever have the slightest desire to try anything like this ever again . . . We shall not be silent — we are your conscience.  The White Rose will not leave you in peace.”

You and I know young people like this who speak to our conscience and who could rise up to oppose evil.  They are the generation who knows exactly what abortion is, and they don’t like it.  They have witnessed the failures of modern feminism and sex education, and they want something better.  Their souls long for truth.

It’s no wonder Planned Parenthood is afraid.   The younger generation could demand that America cease its barbaric ways.  The younger generation could demand that the Church be the distinctively different Church it is supposed to be.

There are generations of hope.  Though God has promised His judgment on the third and fourth generations, His mercy is to thousands of generations.

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Do you have a friend, professor, or neighbor who claims to take the moral high-road, yet stubbornly defends abortion?  Take a breath, and keep your composure.  Don’t make statements; rather, ask questions.

Mike Adams (Townhall.com 3/7/2011) offers 35 questions he gleaned in large part from Scott Klusendorf (www.prolifetraining.com).  Here are 18 of those questions:

  1. If abortion is not murder because the fetus is not a person then why make it “safe, legal, and rare”?
  2. If a woman were raped and got pregnant, which one would you kill: a) the baby, b) the rapist, or c) both?
  3. Are you comfortable with the fact that “a” is the only answer you  may choose according to (the present interpretation of) the Constitution?
  4. Abortion advocates frequently focus on the size of the fetus.  Why is that relevant?
  5. Do tall people have more rights than short people?
  6. Is murder permissible when the victim is sleeping and hence unaware of the surrounding environment?
  7. Should a woman abort a baby because it may be expensive and time-consuming to raise a child to adulthood?
  8. Should a woman be able to kill a puppy because it may be expensive and time consuming to feed and care for a dog?
  9. What gives human beings more value than dogs?
  10. Who do we expect better behavior from humans than from dogs?
  11. Which one of these is not like the others: a) Adult, b) toddler, c) unborn baby, d) dog?
  12. Does secular humanism assume that humans are inherently different from other life forms?  If not, why is it called humanism?
  13. Can a thoroughly materialistic (or Darwinist or secular humanist) worldview explain how or why anything has value or a right to life?
  14. Does the “right to choose” come from man or from God?
  15. If man grants rights can he also take them away?
  16. It has been said (by three Supreme Court Justices) that “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”  Does that mean a woman can define a baby’s rights out of existence because a woman is more powerful than a baby?
  17. Or does that mean a man can define a woman’s rights out of existence because, in a patriarchal society, a man is more powerful than a woman?
  18. Rights often confer power.  Should power also confer rights?

A long time ago, I learned the wisdom of asking questions.  Questions don’t condemn.  They just help people think.

I want to be a thinking person, don’t you?  (Thanks Mike!  Thanks Scott!)

(Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts “Womyn” On Campus.  Scott Klusendorf is a Summit Ministries faculty member and vibrant pro-life advocate.)

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There are a lot of us who are afraid to speak up about “social experiments” gone bad.  Part of the reason is because we believe the lie that faith should be kept in a corner off by itself never to interact with science, psychology or real life.  But, separating faith from everyday life places civilization at risk.

Rather than letting “social experiments” — unnatural choices and behaviors — rule the day, it seems to me that we should be taking every opportunity to enter into sane and civil conversation.  In doing so, we shouldn’t be afraid of using the Word and Wisdom of the Creator.

I learned a powerful lesson last week.  A Christian who goes public with Word and Wisdom may discover that even non-believers come to many of the same conclusions as believers.  The old phrase “don’t tamper with mother nature,” while not Biblical, is logical and sensible.

God created men and women to be equal, but  not the same.  Nature agrees.  Biology agrees.  Psychology agrees.  So, whether we’re talking about girls who want to wrestle boys or two men/two women who want to marry, we’re talking about a “social experiment.”  A social experiment breaks away from what is natural.  Healthy.  Hopeful.  A social experiment may scream “equality,” but it denies the complimentary differences of male and female and, in so doing, leads civilization to destruction.

Christians are given ample opportunity right now to engage others in sane and civil conversation.  If we don’t, our children and grandchildren may suffer greatly.  Focus, for a moment, on the institution of marriage.  Marriage predates any known human government.  But, the U.S. government (specifically, the President and Department of Justice) have announced they will no longer defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

DOMA defines marriage in all federal laws as the union of a man and woman, and protects the ability of states to not recognize same-sex marriages from other states.  But, DOMA has been attacked by the very government that is supposed to protect this constitutional law.

I hope to post some sane and reasonable, but also civil and respectful, comments about marriage in the coming weeks.  Countless people out there — much smarter than me — have already offered “talking points” for those of us who want to engage our family, neighbors and co-workers in uncompromising yet gentle conversation.

For now, consider this: The social experiment of “gay marriage” goes against life itself.  I encourage you to do some research of your own.  Visit the web sites of Exodus International, Regeneration Ministries, The Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, and Focus on the Family.

Then, remember.  Sane and civil conversation — using science, psychology and God’s Word — salted with kindness and respect for others is always a good thing.

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Jane Russell was a Hollywood personality of my parent’s generation.  She recently died at age 89.  She was beautiful, but did anyone know what she thought about abortion?

John Smeaton, Director of The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), posted a blog on March 2 that explains why this Hollywood film star of the 40s and 50s spoke out against abortion.  At 19, she resorted to an illegal abortion which almost killed her and left her infertile.  Jane did not conclude that abortion should be legalized.  Instead, she said, “People should never, ever have an abortion.  Don’t talk to me about it being a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body.  The choice is between life and death.”

I don’t pretend to know much about Jane Russell, but it doesn’t surprise me that her opinion of abortion was kept under wraps.  I wonder how many people know that Jane Russell founded an organization called WAIF (World Adoption International Fund) to help people adopt unwanted children from various parts of the world.  She, herself, adopted three children.

John Smeaton points out that Jane Russell isn’t the only celebrity to have “stuck out her neck by making comments in support of unborn children or the dignity of motherhood, for example:

  • Charlton Heston gave the introduction to Eclipse of Reason (1986), the second of the late Dr. Bermard Nathanson’s documentaries on the reality of abortion
  • Jennifer O’Neill, an actress from the 1970s onwards, now speaks out about her abortion experience on behalf of the Silent No More campaign
  • Justin Bieber, the 17-year-old pop star, last month said that he doesn’t “believe in abortion” because “it’s like killing a baby.”  (He was attacked for being “too young” to have opinions on abortion!)
  • Natalie Portman, who won best actress in this week’s Oscars, has been attacked for describing her motherhood as “the most important role in my life.”  She also described pregnancy as “a miracle” giving meaning and importance amidst superficiality.

Together with John Smeaton and the SPUC, Lutherans For Life, Priests for Life, The National Right to Life, and all individuals, organizations, and ministries that speak up for life, I encourage you to pray for courage to defend our littlest neighbor and his or her mother.  Jane Russell’s first and only child died at the hands of an abortionist.  Jane was hurt by abortion and could never again bear another child.  But, she was encouraged by the truth that choosing life is always better than choosing death.  And, so, she welcomed children into her life and home through adoption.

In memory of Jane Russell and her stand for life, please consider giving a donation to your local caring pregnancy center.

 

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Want to help make a difference?  Join other voices on March 8 and call or e-mail your Senators.  Respectfully urge them to defund Planned Parenthood.

Why?  We have known for years that Planned Parenthood (PP) is the largest abortion provider in the country.  It endangers the health of women.  Recently, Live Action Films exposed PP officials aiding and abetting individuals posing as criminal sex traffickers seeking abortions for underage girls.  You can view  the YouTube by visiting Live Action Films, Concerned Women for America, or The Susan B. Anthony List.  (See below.)

PP uses our tax dollars to do its work.  But, on February 18, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to defund PP.  In anger, PP has thrown down the gauntlet and is using its significant war chest to batter members of Congress into submission.

Do you realize that PP:

  • Is a $1-plus billion business that rakes in one-third of its budget from government grants and contracts at both the state and federal levels?
  • Makes an $85 million profit?
  • Fails to report many cases of sexual abuse and statutory rape involving girls under the age of 16?
  • Aggressively advises pregnant girls under 18 on how to avoid telling their parents about visiting their abortion clinics through a process known as “judicial by-pass”?

On February 18 — and with all common sense — members of Congress voted against giving our $363 million (tax dollars) to the largest abortion provider in the country.

Years ago, two other members of Lutherans For Life and I “toured” PP in Des Moines, IA.  I have no doubt that many who work at PP truly believe they are helping women.  That day, during the tour, our “guide” expressed thankfulness that young girls, married and unmarried women, and even older mothers could be “helped” by way of an abortion.  Today, I could share with you countless stories of friends and acquaintances who were “helped” by PP, but then fell to depression, eating disorders, alcoholism, sexual promiscuity, and anger.  Some distanced themselves from God.  Others wrote letters to their aborted children asking for forgiveness.  All confess to me that abortion did not improve their lives; rather, quite the opposite.

A woman entering a PP clinic in 2009 was 42 times more likely to have an abortion than to receive either prenatal care or be referred for adoption.  Through its “award-winning” website, Teenwire, PP normalizes teen sexual activity, peddles their “family planning” services, offers homosexuality as a “choice” and form of birth control, practically ignores the physical and moral consequences of abortion, scoffs at the psychological consequences of abortion, and actually helps build a wall between parents and children.

So, on March 8, please call your Senators and respectfully encourage them to defund Planned Parenthood, the taxpayer-funded organization that does not respect women, protect children, or  honor the Creator of Life.  You can find more information by visiting Concerned Women for America, Susan B. Anthony List, Focus on the Family, and The Family Research Council.

Then, please pray that we all have mercy on our littlest neighbor — the unborn child — and his or her mother.

After all, Jesus Christ calls us to mercy, not sacrifice.

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Did I get carried away with too many blogs about girls and wrestling?  Just when I was beginning to think so, I received a surprising e-mail from a man I’ve never met.  This gentleman (I’ll call him Bill) has a PhD in biology.   Apparently he pays close attention to any and all discussions of boys and girls on the mat.  Somehow, he found ezerwoman.

It’s important that you hear from this gentleman, not only because he agrees that “equal” does not mean “the same,” or that he encourages me to continue mentoring Biblical manhood and womanhood, but because he proves that Christians help build bridges for the benefit of the human race when we ask questions that help people think.  When we enter into dialogue on moral and ethical issues.  When we appeal to what was once called “common sense.”

This gentleman wrote,  “I am an arrant agnostic — a self-styled poet-philosopher-canary-priest-with my spiritual roots in nature.  But I could not agree more vigorously with your objections to the decadence — as in Roman — of allowing (or more accurately) of forcing boys to wrestle girls.  I have been following this issue for at least ten years.”

It was obvious that Bill had carefully studied the most physically intimate of all contact sports.  He offered many sane and sensible reasons why boy/girl wrestling is a terrible idea.  He is concerned that civilization is wounded by such foolishness.  He wrote,  “I believe in self-sacrifice for others, in kindness, in consideration for others before myself.  I remember the mantra of our YMCA boys’ camp:  God first, others second, me third.  Today, as we watch boys and girls in violent combat on wrestling mats, that mantra seems to have become ‘Me first, me second, me first.'”

Then, he really caught my attention.  “The values you mention in your blogs are simply ignored in our modern culture,” wrote Bill.   “Even as an agnostic biologist, I think your Christian values are essential to any civilization that wants to live above the animal level of material-sensual gratification.”

I thanked Bill for taking the time to write me.  He responded with a second e-mail, explaining that he had become a writer after leaving the scientific community.  But, after some time passed, he wanted to get back in touch with biologists.  For a few months, he subscribed to the blog of an evolutionist.  Bill found the site “instructional in professional matters,” but disappointing in its Christian bashing.  “Christianity was dismissed as sheer stupidity without any redeeming value.” Bill explained to me that he felt “uncomfortable in this steady current of arrogant meanness,” so he unsubscribed.  He didn’t agree with such hatred being poured upon an institution (Christianity) “that embraced all of life, from birth to death, from reason to faith, from beauty and goodness to ugliness and evil.”

Then, wrote Bill, “this wrestling incident occurred, and because the young man cited his Christian faith, it catapulted the small, cloistered world of wrestling into the national spotlight and presented to view the grotesque, distorted values that have evolved there.  It seems like a microcosm of society at large and the moral decadence we have enshrined as moral good.  And against all this, the best aspects of Christianity began to emerge from the smoke — the dignity, the calm, the pure, measured decency of 2000 years of Christian ‘evolution’ (can’t help myself!).  Anyhow, just wanted to express this to you.”

Thank you,  Bill.   You remind me that Christianity is needed in this hurting world as much today as yesterday.  I’m so sorry that we Christians do such a poor job of following Jesus Christ and are more easily influenced by false teachings.

But, I am encouraged to stay the course by a secular biologist who sees that good and evil, right and wrong, morality and decadence really do exist.  Each rises from a core belief.  Each has a consequence.

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In January, a trial opened for Faleh Almaleki.  Mr. Almaleki is an Iraqi immigrant accused of murdering his 20-year-old daughter, Noor.  Noor’s father was upset that his daughter dressed and behaved like a Westerner.  He was angry that she was about to marry, not the man he had chosen for her, but an American.  And, so, on October 20, 2009, he ran over her with his Jeep in a Peoria, AZ., parking lot and injured her so badly that she died.

Noor’s father killed her because she had dishonored her family.  Her murder is called an “honor killing.”  It is justified by Muslim tradition.

Abigail R. Esman, a self-defined “liberal,” wonders why her liberal peers, journalists and activists, are not reporting this “honor killing” as well as thousands of others.  Esman writes, “U.N. statistics of 5,000 honor killings per year are generally recognized to be grossly understated.  In the Netherlands alone, the official number of honor killings per year stands at 13, or more than one every month — and that does not include the growing trend of ‘honor suicides’ — girls and even boys who take their own lives knowing that if they don’t do it, others will, that they’ve been marked for death.  In England and Germany, the numbers are about the same.”

Esman continues, “These are not — as often is claimed — your standard cases of domestic abuse.  Honor violence, unlike the domestic abuse we know, is often supported, sanctioned and even encouraged by the local Muslim community.  Indeed, parents frequently feel they have no other choice.”  (The Washington Times Weekly Edition, 2/14/11)

There is another way.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.  Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life . . . (Deuteronomy 31:19-20).”

Jesus Christ does not call us to “honor killings.”  He calls us to honor Him with our defense of human life, no matter the circumstances.  No matter the failures or disappointments.  No matter the inconvenience.  No matter the embarrassment.  After all, He died in our place — to remove the failures, disappointments, inconvenience, and embarrassment. To remove the stain of sin.

We disobey our Father with our daily sins, but He does not attempt to kill us.  Instead, He has mercy on us.  His mercy is new every morning.  It is given and shed for us.

Jesus sacrificed Himself on our behalf.  We are created, loved, and redeemed by God.  We are treasures of great value.  For this reason, Jesus says:

Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

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