Moore to the Point – Gospel or Justice, Which?: The prophets never divided up issues of righteousness as neatly as we do in the “personal” and the “social.” Isaiah speaks of God’s judgment both on personal pride and idolatry (Isa. 2:11) and the “grinding” of the faces of the poor (Isa. 3:14-15). Onward to Joel and Micah and Malachi right through John the Baptist the witness is the same.
The new covenant church continues this witness. Even after the public ministry of Jesus, his apostolic church continues a message of both personal justification and interpersonal justice. James directs the churches of the dispersion both in terms of their personal speech (Jas. 3:1-12) and the unjust treatment of wage-earners (Jas. 5:1-6).
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Friday, October 7, 2011
Human Cloning Research Breakthrough Is Unethical
Human Cloning Research Breakthrough Is Unethical » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: The Washington Post headline is misleading: “Scientists Report Possibly Crucial Advance in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research.” In actuality, this is a potential advance in human cloning research.(Scientists have long known how to create ES cell lines from destroyed embryos.)
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Compassion or consumerism?
Compassion or consumerism? | Current Debate | Theos think tank -> Euthanasia: compassion or consumerism?: People of faith feel instinctively that there is something disordered in helping or encouraging another human being to die. We will seek justification for that instinct in the catch-all and rather vague phraseology of “the sanctity of life”, an expression that is thrown back in our faces by euthanasia lobbyists, who have also misappropriated the word “dignity”.
So we must say what we mean. And it is this: We believe that everyone, without exception, is made in God’s image and that means that no life, however physically diminished or materially deprived, is worth less than another. That principle enjoys its recognition in the way we nurture, cherish and comfort those who have come to depend utterly upon the able-bodied.
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So we must say what we mean. And it is this: We believe that everyone, without exception, is made in God’s image and that means that no life, however physically diminished or materially deprived, is worth less than another. That principle enjoys its recognition in the way we nurture, cherish and comfort those who have come to depend utterly upon the able-bodied.
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No simple solution to Roe
At a Labor Day forum sponsored by the “Tea Party” for the Republican candidates for president, one of the panelists, Professor Robert George, asked the five candidates who participated whether, in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), they would support Congressional legislation to declare the unborn child a “person,” as that word is used in § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. . . .
The Supreme Court’s abortion decisions can be overturned only by an overruling decision of the Court itself or by a federal constitutional amendment. Congress has no power under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to define the unborn child as a “person” for purposes of § 1 of the Amendment, when the Court has held (in Roe) directly the opposite. Removal of the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction over abortion cases would not affect the binding force of those decisions and would actually prevent a differently constituted Court from overruling Roe and Casey. The proposals made to the Republican presidential candidates at their “Tea Party” forum do not offer a realistic means of overturning Roe v. Wade and do not deserve the support of the pro-life community.
Roe can be overturned only by a decision of the Court itself overruling Roe or by a federal constitutional amendment–neither a federal statute enacted under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment defining the word “person” as used in § 1 of the Amendment, nor a statute removing the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction over abortion cases would have that effect. LifeNews
The Supreme Court’s abortion decisions can be overturned only by an overruling decision of the Court itself or by a federal constitutional amendment. Congress has no power under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to define the unborn child as a “person” for purposes of § 1 of the Amendment, when the Court has held (in Roe) directly the opposite. Removal of the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction over abortion cases would not affect the binding force of those decisions and would actually prevent a differently constituted Court from overruling Roe and Casey. The proposals made to the Republican presidential candidates at their “Tea Party” forum do not offer a realistic means of overturning Roe v. Wade and do not deserve the support of the pro-life community.
Roe can be overturned only by a decision of the Court itself overruling Roe or by a federal constitutional amendment–neither a federal statute enacted under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment defining the word “person” as used in § 1 of the Amendment, nor a statute removing the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction over abortion cases would have that effect. LifeNews
‘Parent 1′ and ‘Parent 2′ to appear on passport forms
‘Parent 1′ and ‘Parent 2′ to appear on passport forms | News | The Christian Institute: UK Passport application forms will now feature options for ‘Parent 1′ and ‘Parent 2′ in a move to placate homosexual couples with children. Officials at the Identity and Passport Service said that they were working with homosexual lobby group Stonewall on the issue.
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House to take up Protect Life Act on Oct. 13
Federal Legislation - Legislative Action Center: The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the NRLC-backed Protect Life Act (H.R. 358) on or about Thursday, October 13, 2011. This bill would correct the numerous abortion-expanding provisions of the federal health care law ("ObamaCare") enacted in early 2010.
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Tiananmen memoir
Chai Ling went through such a reformation herself. Although written to appeal to freedom-lovers and freedom-seekers everywhere, she is very clear about who the only real catalyst of change is. In fact, I was very intrigued by how she had tried to complete her book many times during the 20 or so years since escaping Communist China, but it wasn't until she gave her life to Jesus Christ a few years ago that she could resolve all that had happened and come to any settled conclusions about it.
I was surprised to learn that, at the time of the student protests, she'd not been a long-time activist for reform in China, but seemed to have had the leadership of the student movement thrust upon her by virtue of her ability to clearly and forcefully articulate the desires of that vast, non-homogeneous group in the impromptu speeches she made. That leadership led to her being one of China's "21 Most Wanted" after students left the Square.
As I read, I thought the students seemed childlike and certainly harmless. They also seemed naive about human nature, and the nature of their government -- a government that would massacre unarmed students and civilians. It was important to see how a biblical worldview -- even one that the average American absorbs from the remain of Judeo-Christian culture in an increasingly secularized society -- helps make sense of these things.
Late in the book, she answers the question of why the Tiananmen protests had not succeeded. "I could see that just as Moses had tried to bring about justice for his oppressed countrymen by taking matters into his own hands, we had tried to bring freedom and justice to China in our own strength and wisdom."
She now sees what happened on the Square as "a milestone in God's redemptive plan for China. He allowed evil to happen -- the massacre -- to kill our belief in the Communist system." Just as God hardened Pharaoh's heart, so God may have hardened the Communist leaders against their own people in order to "reveal the true nature of Communism and kill the false belief and hope the people had in it." She reports that many Chinese people are now turning to Christ.
Sadly, many have also adopted a freedom that is not guided by morality. The result is an increase in the numbers of abortions on unmarried pregnant women. By law, Chinese women cannot legally give birth without a birth permit, and permits are not issued to unmarried women or any woman under 25. "According to Chinese government statistics for 2009 and 2010, 70 percent of the 16 million abortions each year -- that's 11.2 million women and children affected -- are for unmarried women." Family shame and social pressure also play into the coercion.
The one-child policy was supposed to end after 30 years, but it goes on into the indefinite future. Chai Ling reveals that those three little words -- one-child policy -- "have resulted in what amounts to an hourly Tiananmen massacre, for the past thirty years, in broad daylight, right under the world's nose." Despite protests and the occasional appearance of cracks in government support for the policy, she says banners are still hung in support of it, saying things such as, "We would rather have blood flow like a river than one extra child to be born."
Chai Ling now enjoys freedom in the United States, and is the mother of three daughters. She writes how remarkable it is that three recent American presidents have had only daughters -- Clinton, Bush, and Obama -- and these men are the epitome of success. This stands in sharp contrast to Chinese culture. Nevertheless, US tax dollars continue to support the one-child policy (see link below).
Today, as the founder of All Girls Allowed, Chai Ling works to reveal the injustice of the one-child policy by exposing the truth, rescuing victims, and celebrating "the work of God in bringing life, value and dignity to girls and mothers."
Disclosure: Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review.
Related:
US funds China's one-child policy
India's "two-child" policy targets "large families
Boycott China until they stop selling body parts
Council of Europe condemns sex-selection abortion but funds UNFPA
‘Like pigs in the slaughterhouse’: The day Chinese officials brutally murdered my unborn child
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Blurring the lines, shortening the playing field
It's football season, and those yardages are very important. What would you think if your favorite team's arch-rival fudged the lines a bit in their favor? That's exactly what Pat Robertson suggested for a man whose wife developed Alzheimer's disease. She's as good as dead; divorce her!
It's also what Canadian judges did when they threw out a murder conviction of a woman who killed her baby shortly after birth. It was just a very late, "fourth trimester" abortion.
The latest edition of Life Matters is ready for download from Baptists for Life. It's all about the beginning and end of life — and how those lines keep getting blurred by new technology, medical and scientific “advances,” and tough circumstances.
It's also what Canadian judges did when they threw out a murder conviction of a woman who killed her baby shortly after birth. It was just a very late, "fourth trimester" abortion.
The latest edition of Life Matters is ready for download from Baptists for Life. It's all about the beginning and end of life — and how those lines keep getting blurred by new technology, medical and scientific “advances,” and tough circumstances.
Babel Explains Our Differences Wall Chart
Babel Explains Our Differences Wall Chart - PDF Download - Answers Bookstore: The Tower of Babel helps to explain much, much more in our world today than just our differences in language. This exclusive wall chart available for FREE download lists seven specific topics that can be explained by the historical event at Babel. From striking similarities in human genetics to a wide variety of skin tones and the order of fossil layers to archaeological discoveries of stone tools, the Tower of Babel is the proper starting point for understanding human history and the many differences in our world.
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Quit Looking for the Perfect Presidential Candidate
Quit Looking for the Perfect Presidential Candidate | LifeNews.com: Political leadership is important, of course, but it is not a panacea. If only it were that easy! If the people are looking for salvation, they need to look in a mirror. Only a reclamation of essential virtues such as honesty, self-discipline, thrift and restraint can pave a path towards recovery from the many challenges we face. In short, what is needed is a second American Revolution: a return to the virtues that made our country great, that produced a vibrant economy and that made us a shining city on a hill.
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The hunger hoax
When the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Agriculture examined people from a variety of income levels, however, they found no evidence of malnutrition among those in the lowest income brackets. Nor was there any significant difference in the intake of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from one income level to another. . . .
We have now reached the point where the great majority of the people living below the official poverty level have such things as air-conditioning, microwave ovens, either videocassette recorders or DVD players, and own either a car or a truck.
Why are such people called "poor"? Because they meet the arbitrary criteria established by Washington bureaucrats. Depending on what criteria are used, you can have as much official poverty as you want, regardless of whether it bears any relationship to reality. Those who believe in an expansive, nanny state government need a large number of people in "poverty" to justify their programs. Thomas Sowell
We have now reached the point where the great majority of the people living below the official poverty level have such things as air-conditioning, microwave ovens, either videocassette recorders or DVD players, and own either a car or a truck.
Why are such people called "poor"? Because they meet the arbitrary criteria established by Washington bureaucrats. Depending on what criteria are used, you can have as much official poverty as you want, regardless of whether it bears any relationship to reality. Those who believe in an expansive, nanny state government need a large number of people in "poverty" to justify their programs. Thomas Sowell
Improving environmental stewardship while promoting the Gospel
Baptist Press - FIRST-PERSON: Improving environmental stewardship while promoting the Gospel - News with a Christian Perspective: Scripture also prioritizes the value of human life in the context of creation (Psalm 8:5-8). Christians concerned about fulfilling our stewardship responsibility cannot faithfully make environmental stewardship equivalent to evangelism and missions (Matthew 28:19-20). What will it profit us if we gain the whole earth, yet lose millions of souls (Matthew 16:26)?
Yet concern for evangelism does not rule out concern for the environment. Some of the most immediately pressing environmental problems dramatically affect the lives of people in the Third World: water pollution, indoor air pollution from cooking fires, and soil erosion are among the many environmental hazards that lead to disease, malnutrition and early death.
Christians can combine environmentalism and evangelism at the point of addressing the environmental issues that inflict the greatest immediate harm on the world's poor. In so doing, they win a more sympathetic hearing for the Gospel.
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Yet concern for evangelism does not rule out concern for the environment. Some of the most immediately pressing environmental problems dramatically affect the lives of people in the Third World: water pollution, indoor air pollution from cooking fires, and soil erosion are among the many environmental hazards that lead to disease, malnutrition and early death.
Christians can combine environmentalism and evangelism at the point of addressing the environmental issues that inflict the greatest immediate harm on the world's poor. In so doing, they win a more sympathetic hearing for the Gospel.
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When science isn't
Paul Greenberg: CERN's researchers have found that nearly half of the global warming observed of late isn't traceable to man's activities after all but to sunspots, specifically the fluctuations in solar cosmic rays that promote cloud formation. Whatever the scientific validity of the physicists' findings, it's dynamite politically.
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What the Temperance Movement and the Anti-Abortion Movement Have in Common
To explain why and how the prohibitionists were able to amend the Constitution requires an empathy for Christian moralism that does not come easily to secular liberals—a cohort to which the filmmakers (and, I imagine, most New Republic readers) happily belong. Burns and Novick dramatize this moralism well. But that is not the only virtue of their film; whether intentionally or not, the documentary also suggests a way to think about the fortunes of the right-to-life movement, the prohibitionists of our own time. . . .
The right-to-life movement has not existed for a century, as did the dry army, but four decades after Roe v. Wade, its influence is formidable. Nearly every Republican office-holder and many a Democrat opposes abortion, and few physicians in red states will serve a woman who wants one. In many ways, the prohibition movement was the precursor to the anti-abortion battle. Right-to-lifers also view themselves as crusaders for both Christ and the family, most are avid church-goers and get backing from the pulpit, and they have the numbers and resources to keep battling into the distant future. Like the Anti-Saloon League, they have also followed a careful, state-by-state strategy of cutting off opportunities for engaging in what they view as sinful behavior.
As the history of prohibition instructs, the surest way to defeat the right-to-life movement would be to make abortion illegal. Not solely because it would give the movement what it wants, but also because a firm majority of Americans still support the right to choose in all or most circumstances—just as a majority back in the 1920s probably thought it was all right to buy a drink (the polling business did not yet exist). A reversal of Roe (much less a “pro-life” amendment) would quickly make heroes and heroines out of health workers who violated the law—much as this film, and most histories of the period, glamorize tipsy flappers and gangsters wielding submachine guns. The long history of prohibition unmistakably demonstrates that a divided public will quickly turn hostile when protestors with decent motives elect officials who carry out indecent assaults on individual freedom. In America, a movement of moralists is never so vulnerable as when it succeeds. The New Republic
The right-to-life movement has not existed for a century, as did the dry army, but four decades after Roe v. Wade, its influence is formidable. Nearly every Republican office-holder and many a Democrat opposes abortion, and few physicians in red states will serve a woman who wants one. In many ways, the prohibition movement was the precursor to the anti-abortion battle. Right-to-lifers also view themselves as crusaders for both Christ and the family, most are avid church-goers and get backing from the pulpit, and they have the numbers and resources to keep battling into the distant future. Like the Anti-Saloon League, they have also followed a careful, state-by-state strategy of cutting off opportunities for engaging in what they view as sinful behavior.
As the history of prohibition instructs, the surest way to defeat the right-to-life movement would be to make abortion illegal. Not solely because it would give the movement what it wants, but also because a firm majority of Americans still support the right to choose in all or most circumstances—just as a majority back in the 1920s probably thought it was all right to buy a drink (the polling business did not yet exist). A reversal of Roe (much less a “pro-life” amendment) would quickly make heroes and heroines out of health workers who violated the law—much as this film, and most histories of the period, glamorize tipsy flappers and gangsters wielding submachine guns. The long history of prohibition unmistakably demonstrates that a divided public will quickly turn hostile when protestors with decent motives elect officials who carry out indecent assaults on individual freedom. In America, a movement of moralists is never so vulnerable as when it succeeds. The New Republic
The Role Non-Monogamy Will Play in the Future of Marriage
The Role Non-Monogamy Will Play in the Future of Marriage - Rachel R. White - Life - The Atlantic: Is marriage on the way out? "Forty percent of Americans think that marriage is 'becoming obsolete,' and 50 percent of younger Americans believe this, according to 2010 Pew research. I think that marriage is in a brainstorming phase. It's trying to find its footing in the new realities of the 21st century. It seems to me that we still believe in marriage -- we still want to give it a try -- but the reality is, we don't always do it according to spec. We're improvising.
"The bottom line is that I think both arrangements are challenging. It's challenging to have a non-monogamous, committed relationship; it's challenging to have a monogamous, committed relationship. Forever is a long time. It pays to be flexible."
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"The bottom line is that I think both arrangements are challenging. It's challenging to have a non-monogamous, committed relationship; it's challenging to have a monogamous, committed relationship. Forever is a long time. It pays to be flexible."
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Americans Still Want 2 or More Children but 1 Million Births Postponed/Foregone Since Recession Began
New Report: Americans Still Want 2 or More Children but 1 Million Births Postponed/Foregone Since Recession Began: Dr. Sam Sturgeon finds that the ideal family size for Americans of childbearing age (18-46) rose to 2.66 in 2010, even as the U.S. total fertility rate fell to 1.91 children per woman in 2010. In 2007, the total fertility rate was 2.13. According to Sturgeon’s analysis, parents considering a second, third, or fourth child have been particularly likely to avoid having a child since the recession began in December of 2007.
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Church Awareness Project for Post-Abortion Healing
Church Awareness Project for Post-Abortion Healing: Learn how you can raise awareness of unwanted abortions and other abortion-related risks. Turn your church into a place of support, compassion and respect for the dignity of both women and unborn children. Learn how your church can foster healing for women, men and families who have been hurt by abortion.
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Abortion: The Hollow Men and the Culture of Death
Abortion: The Hollow Men and the Culture of Death | LifeNews.com: Today’s society reflects the emptiness and disillusionment so vividly expressed in The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot. This famous poem depicts a world of “stuffed men” who do not fully live life, who go through routine motions awaiting “death’s twilight kingdom.” The lack of hope in today’s secular culture is evidenced by broken or non-existent family life and relationships, a breakdown of manners and common courtesy in social interaction, and indulgence in lavish lifestyles, sex, food, and media as ways to escape the emptiness.
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Birth control mandate based on ‘cherry-picked’ data
Birth control mandate based on ‘cherry-picked’ data: experts | LifeSiteNews.com: Proponents of an impending federal mandate to provide birth control drugs for free have not only relied on an ideological presumption that contraception amounts to “preventive” health care, but also on an inaccurate portrayal of birth control’s impact on unintended pregnancy rates.
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Population to reach 7 billion this year? ‘Relax!’
Population to reach 7 billion this year? ‘Relax!’ says new Overpopulation is a Myth cartoon | LifeSiteNews.com: The Population Research Institute just released the fifth episode of their highly popular YouTube cartoon series—just in time for the world’s population to reach 7 billion people, according to UN data. The series is designed to humorously refute the idea of overpopulation with stick figure animation.
The latest video, available at Overpopulationisamyth.com, is about two minutes long, and it deals with the issues surrounding our population’s latest milestone. It aims to show that the world’s population is not skyrocketing out of control, but rather slowing to a standstill before plummeting downward again.
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The latest video, available at Overpopulationisamyth.com, is about two minutes long, and it deals with the issues surrounding our population’s latest milestone. It aims to show that the world’s population is not skyrocketing out of control, but rather slowing to a standstill before plummeting downward again.
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Statement by World Vision U.S. President Richard Stearns on Today's Decision by U.S. Supreme Court Rejecting Case Affecting Religious Hiring Rights
Statement by World Vision U.S. President Richard Stearns on Today's Decision by U.S. Supreme Court Rejecting Case Affecting Religious Hiring Rights - Christian Newswire: "Today's action by the U.S. Supreme Court represents a major victory for the freedom of all religious organizations to hire employees who share the same faith - whether Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, or any other religion.
"I am pleased, relieved and gratified with the court's action. After four years of litigation, we at World Vision U.S. may now put this matter behind us, and continue our policy of hiring Christians."
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"I am pleased, relieved and gratified with the court's action. After four years of litigation, we at World Vision U.S. may now put this matter behind us, and continue our policy of hiring Christians."
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Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Betrayal Trauma: Hard questions from Walter Hoye
Conflict Of Interest: "Could the depth of our responsibility for the death of our own children be so deep, that we can no longer fathom right from wrong? Could the blood on our hands be so rich and red, that we blind ourselves to the truth? Could the pain from helping to perpetrate the genocide of our own people have left us blind, deaf and dumb? Could the cost of the silence in our pulpits have left us morally bankrupt? Could the results of our own betrayal of our cherished Christian values be so traumatic that in order to maintain relationships with institutions, and social authorities, we deliberately turned a 'Blind Eye' to the realities of abortion all around us and in plain sight?"
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The inherent racism of population control
The population control movement of today is the result of a long line of scientific racism, an ideology that drew its essential ideas from Malthus’ belief in the inherent inferiority of the poor and uneducated of society. LifeSiteNews
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India ‘two-child policy’ state bill to target 'large' families
India ‘two-child policy’ state bill to target large families, religious leaders | LifeSiteNews.com: Religious leaders in the Indian state of Kerala are fighting a bill proposed by the government that would crack down on families with more than two offspring, as well as ban religious leaders from encouraging families to have more children.
The draft bill includes fines of up to 10,000 rupees ($203 USD) or three months’ jail time for parents that have more than two children. A third child will not be be eligible for services from the government.
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The draft bill includes fines of up to 10,000 rupees ($203 USD) or three months’ jail time for parents that have more than two children. A third child will not be be eligible for services from the government.
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Boycott China until they stop killing for body parts
Since there are not nearly enough organs to meet local needs, much less the demands of all these rich visitors, they are being procured from executed prisoners. The Chinese government has admitted that some executions may have even be timed for the convenience of a transplant recipient.
Without greater international pressure, killing for parts won’t stop. Killing prisoners for their parts is unethical on its own, but the practice is even more heinous given that prisoners in China can get death sentences for their religious or spiritual beliefs, political views or relatively minor crimes. MSNBC
Without greater international pressure, killing for parts won’t stop. Killing prisoners for their parts is unethical on its own, but the practice is even more heinous given that prisoners in China can get death sentences for their religious or spiritual beliefs, political views or relatively minor crimes. MSNBC
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