Dear kids: sex is good! | LifeSiteNews.com: Between spouses in a sacramental marriage, sex is beautiful and pleases God—and it’s a very good thing. I emphasized to the older children later that conjugal love has the potential to transmit life to create a family. When intercourse is disordered and not what God intended through marriage, society must face a host of consequences, such as unwanted pregnancies, neglected and fatherless children, and worst of all, the murder of unborn babies through abortion.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Obama Appoints Architect of Roe v. Wade to Appeals Court
Obama Appoints Architect of Roe v. Wade to Appeals Court | LifeNews.com: President Obama has appointed Andrew Hurwitz to the 9th Circuit Court, the most liberal appeals court in the country based in San Francisco and covering laws approved in western states. According to the Daily Caller, Hurwitz was instrumental to providing some of the legal framework for Roe, which resulted in 54 million abortions.
ACTION: Contact your senators at http://www.Senate.gov and urge opposition to the Hurwitz nomination.
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Chromosome analysis increases IVF success
BioNews - Chromosome analysis increases IVF success: Aneuploidy is the biggest cause of miscarriage and is more likely to occur in the eggs of older women. The technique, known as array comparative genome hybridisation, allows scientists to detect chromosomal abnormalities that can be missed under the microscope. Scientists can then transfer the healthiest embryos, increasing the chance of a successful implantation.
Editor: So, what we have here is the God-like ability to know which embryos are more prone to miscarry, sparing the women one stressful IVF cycle.
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Who's got a belief that hinders?
I Don’t Believe in Mutations? | Dr. Georgia Purdom's Blog: Dr. Marcelo Gleiser blogged, "Religious belief interferes with people’s understanding of what the theory of evolution says.”
Dr. Purdom answers: "First of all the 'theory of evolution' doesn’t say anything (this is the fallacy of reification). However, scientists do say things about evolution, and what they think about the unobservable past is greatly influenced by their “religious belief.”
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Dr. Purdom answers: "First of all the 'theory of evolution' doesn’t say anything (this is the fallacy of reification). However, scientists do say things about evolution, and what they think about the unobservable past is greatly influenced by their “religious belief.”
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Alaska Lt. Governor Treadwell Inspires Pro-Life Advocates
Alaska Lt. Governor Treadwell Inspires Pro-Life Advocates | LifeNews.com: “We do so much to protect life – from seatbelts in our cars, EMT’s in our firehouses, support for our hospitals, search and rescue, air traffic controllers, firemen and policemen and much, much more. We do all that, and then, do just the opposite for the unborn.”
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A pro-life plea this election season
Leslie Leyland Fields: 20 percent of all women obtaining abortions self-identify as evangelical, charismatic, fundamentalist, or born-again, according to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute. That's somewhere around 200,000 believing American women a year ending the life of their child.
Can this be true? While I was speaking on a talk show about the topic, a woman called in and said, "I work outside an abortion clinic, trying to save lives, and you wouldn't believe how many cars in the parking lot have Bibles in their front seats and Christian radio stickers on the back. The women are almost always alone, and they're really scared."
Can this be true? While I was speaking on a talk show about the topic, a woman called in and said, "I work outside an abortion clinic, trying to save lives, and you wouldn't believe how many cars in the parking lot have Bibles in their front seats and Christian radio stickers on the back. The women are almost always alone, and they're really scared."
I understand that fear. And I think local church culture bears at least some responsibility. We've so spiritualized the fight for life, we may be losing lives because of it. We know God is the maker of every human being. We know that premarital and extramarital sex is contrary to God's Word. Our beliefs on this front are passionate and unbending, and they should be. But I fear that our conviction and certainty can lead to lack of compassion when women make mistakes.
I attended a church a few years ago whose (male) leaders would not support a church-sponsored baby shower for a pregnant teen unless she repented of her sin—publicly. If there is no room for error, no message of grace, women in crisis will continue to drive out of church all the way to abortion clinics, their Bibles on the front seat, scared toward death.
I fear as well that the politicization of "pro-life" has desensitized us to seeing the people involved.
I attended a church a few years ago whose (male) leaders would not support a church-sponsored baby shower for a pregnant teen unless she repented of her sin—publicly. If there is no room for error, no message of grace, women in crisis will continue to drive out of church all the way to abortion clinics, their Bibles on the front seat, scared toward death.
I fear as well that the politicization of "pro-life" has desensitized us to seeing the people involved.
The Vision of a Pro-Life Generation
The Vision of a Pro-Life Generation - Interview - National Review Online: "I try to remind people that our movement is similar to the slavery-abolitionist movement. It’s not a quick fight, but a long battle that will be victorious. You can change the culture; it’s difficult and it requires many things to happen first, but it’s possible."
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Stem Cell Fraud: A 60 Minutes investigation
Stem Cell Fraud: A 60 Minutes investigation - CBS News: Dr. Dan Ecklund claims he can treat dozens of diseases using stem cells. But there's a problem. Ecklund is a disgraced doctor whose medical license was revoked in 2005. That hasn't kept him from founding a company and a website that offer hope where science cannot. Scott Pelley investigates the lucrative business of miracle stem cell "cures." It's 21st century snake oil being peddled to desperate people, including the parents of one young boy, Adam Susser, who has cerebral palsy and is blind and quadriplegic.
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Libertarianism: Pro-Life Philosophy, Pro-Abortion Movement
Libertarianism: Pro-Life Philosophy, Pro-Abortion Movement | LifeNews.com: To mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, leading libertarian magazine Reason has posted a small yet diverse sampling of competing libertarian perspectives on abortion, concluding with a short video in which Reason editors Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie ask, “what’s the libertarian position on abortion?”
They conclude that there isn’t any one correct libertarian answer to the issue, but they definitely leave the impression that libertarianism would leave abortion just the way it is. Both express their personal support for keeping abortion legal, and Welch claims that only around “30% of self-identified libertarians are also strongly pro-life or anti-abortion.”
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They conclude that there isn’t any one correct libertarian answer to the issue, but they definitely leave the impression that libertarianism would leave abortion just the way it is. Both express their personal support for keeping abortion legal, and Welch claims that only around “30% of self-identified libertarians are also strongly pro-life or anti-abortion.”
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Black American perspectives
Conflict Of Interest: We have entered into the fortieth year of legalized abortion in America and the Pro-Life movement has few strategies or tactics that appeal to or are supported by the Black community. Even though Planned Parenthood has been exposed, over and over again, as a criminal organization, she continues to be difficult to defund and next to impossible to dethrone. Why? Because Planned Parenthood invested in the Black community, she now (illegitimately) enjoys an air of "credibility" as the only organization working hard to meet the needs of poor and disenfranchised women struggling to realize the American Dream.
Walter Martin's words just keep ringing in my ears. "Are we willing to do for the truth what others are willing to do for a lie?"
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Walter Martin's words just keep ringing in my ears. "Are we willing to do for the truth what others are willing to do for a lie?"
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Black speaker at March for Life: abortion is ‘genocidal,’ ‘the Destruction of a People’
Black speaker at March for Life: abortion is ‘genocidal,’ ‘the Destruction of a People’ | LifeSiteNews.com: Pastor Luke Robinson of the Quinn Chapel AME Church in Frederick, Maryland, gave the final speech on the Mall before marchers dispersed for the annual walk to the Supreme Court. He was joined on the platform by other community leaders who held signs proclaiming, “Stop Black Genocide” and “Personhood for All.”
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Why the mainstream media ignores or distorts the March for Life
Why the mainstream media ignores or distorts the March for Life | LifeSiteNews.com: Every single year, at least half a million people around the country protest for the same cause. Does that happen for any other cause besides abortion?
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Nazi extermination of thousands of disabled children featured in new Berlin museum exhibit
Nazi extermination of thousands of disabled children featured in new Berlin museum exhibit | LifeSiteNews.com: Berlin’s “Topography of Terror,” museum, which features exhibits on the murderous crimes of German police forces during the Nazi era, has begun a temporary display on the thousands of children euthanized during the same period as “life unworthy of life.” The exhibition displays photos and documents related to various Nazi projects concerning the murder and torture of children, such as Action T4 and Lebensborn.
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What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism
Aryeh Spero: What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism - WSJ.com: Many on the religious left criticize capitalism because all do not end up monetarily equal. . . . But the Bible's prescription of equality means equality under the law, as in Deuteronomy's saying that "Judges and officers . . . shall judge the people with a just judgment: Do not . . . favor one over the other." Nowhere does the Bible refer to a utopian equality that is contrary to human nature and has never been achieved.
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Afghan woman killed 'for giving birth to a girl'
BBC News - Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl': A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter. The murdered woman's husband, a member of a local militia, is also suspected of involvement but he has since fled. The murder took place two days ago in Kunduz province. The baby girl, who is now two months old, was not hurt.
The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden. Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country. Late last year a horrifying video emerged of the injuries suffered by a 15-year-old child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband.
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The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden. Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country. Late last year a horrifying video emerged of the injuries suffered by a 15-year-old child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Should churches observe SOHLS?
Ligonier Ministries: Sanctity of Life [Human] Sunday is as fitting, as sensible, as reasonable as observing the Incarnation from the pulpit. Just as we must preach the glory of the incarnation, sometime, if not in December, so we must preach the horror of this evil sometime, if not in January. To be silent is to be complicit.
Editor: Of course, he's right, but he takes the most roundabout way of getting to the point. Who cares about church calendars? Certainly not Baptists! But the point is, the sanctity of human life is a thread woven throughout scripture. It's not too hard to find, and the subject doesn't always have to be abortion. In fact, I think we can do better than proof-texting the way this speaker does.
Why does Occupy Wall St. support Big Abortion?
Why does Occupy Wall St. support Big Abortion? | LifeSiteNews.com: They are the merchants of death who have exploited human suffering for their private, temporal gain. If OWS protesters wanted to stand with the powerless, they would have marched to the Supreme Court on Monday alongside Atheists for Life and others across the political, religious, and ideological spectrum who understand the fundamentals of biological science and human rights. Until they confront the reality of the innocents their activism harms and the atrocities it aids, they will continue to share the tactics and the moral sensibilities of the brownshirts.
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Young father's concern for abused children brings sex trafficking conference to Grand Rapids
Young father's concern for abused children brings sex trafficking conference to Grand Rapids | MLive.com: As he works with kids at Wedgwood, Andy Soper weaves in lessons about modern day slavery and trafficking. Meeting recently with a group of teens, he brought in mug shots of young women who had been prostituted.
“Who are these women?” he asked the teens. “Whores,” a boy answered. There was snickering.
“Who are these women?” he asked the teens. “Whores,” a boy answered. There was snickering.
Soper asked what they think happened to the women. “They started really looking at the pictures, saying, ‘This one got beat up.’ And ‘This one looks like she’s on meth.’” He asked them to write the girls’ stories. The meeting went from boys laughing about the young women to them somberly talking about girls at their school who had gone through stuff like this. He teaches kids how pimps work, by preying on kids’ insecurities. Buying them nice shoes. Telling girls they’re pretty.
Why the fuss over sex selection abortion?
NRLC: If a woman wants an abortion, whatever her reason for deciding that, she may have an abortion. And pro-choice advocates argue that that’s how it should be, as women have the right “to absolute reproductive freedom.” That means abortion is a private matter between a woman and her physician, just another medical decision; it’s nobody else’s business and certainly not society’s or the law’s; and the fetus is “just a bunch of cells,” part of the woman’s body not a separate being, a “parasite” she is entitled to get rid of.
So why is there this huge fuss about sex-selection abortion? If one can have an abortion for any reason or none, why not because a baby of the opposite sex is strongly preferred?
So why is there this huge fuss about sex-selection abortion? If one can have an abortion for any reason or none, why not because a baby of the opposite sex is strongly preferred?
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Apple’s iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China
Apple’s iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China - NYTimes.com: Workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems. Bleak working conditions have also been documented at factories manufacturing products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba, and others.
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Increasingly, Young Americans Are Pro-Life; Marriage Is a Another Story
Increasingly, Young Americans Are Pro-Life; Marriage Is a Another Story | Daily News | NCRegister.com: A 2009 survey by the Gallup organization reported that “younger Americans have typically been much more supportive of same-sex ‘marriage’ than older Americans, and that is the case in the current poll. A majority of 18- to 29-year-olds think same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, while support reaches only as high as 40% among the three older age groups.”
A variety of studies also confirmed that Catholics were more likely than Protestants to support same-sex “marriage” and regular churchgoers were more likely to oppose it.
Yet, at the same time that college students have become more accepting of same-sex unions, traditional marriage has hit the skids. A Pew Research Center report released last month confirmed that barely half of adults in the nation are married—a drastic decline fueled by the postponement of marriage among college graduates—and increasing numbers of high school graduates beginning families outside of wedlock.
A variety of studies also confirmed that Catholics were more likely than Protestants to support same-sex “marriage” and regular churchgoers were more likely to oppose it.
Yet, at the same time that college students have become more accepting of same-sex unions, traditional marriage has hit the skids. A Pew Research Center report released last month confirmed that barely half of adults in the nation are married—a drastic decline fueled by the postponement of marriage among college graduates—and increasing numbers of high school graduates beginning families outside of wedlock.
Editor: Even the Washington Post reported on how youthful the recent March for Life was. And it certainly is encouraging to welcome youth-oriented, youth-led organizations into the pro-life movement. But is there a crack in the foundation if the biblical principle of the sanctity of marriage is not equally upheld? Does the disconnect reflect that their convictions are rooted not on Scripture but on emotions? Is this a teachable moment?
Related: Youth and the Pro-Life Movement
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Related: Youth and the Pro-Life Movement
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I used to be pro-choice, but then the partial-birth abortion debate happened
I used to be pro-choice, but then the partial-birth abortion debate happened | LifeSiteNews.com: I asked myself if partial-birth abortions were any worse than dilation and extraction (D&E) procedures in the second trimester, where forceps are used to pull apart the babies arms, legs and head with no fetal anesthesia, as if that would make it palatable. Was a D&E more abhorrent than violently vacuuming out the baby or chemically inducing its demise in a first-trimester abortion?
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Adoration Fights Abortion
Adoration Fights Abortion | News | NCRegister.com: “I want to promote Eucharistic adoration to fight abortion,” Father Imbarrato said. As the director for Project Life, he said everything he does to promote life involves the Eucharist. “The chapel is the spiritual center of all our pro-life work,” he stated. By setting up a Eucharistic chapel, Jesus has a close, permanent presence right next to the enemy. “Our Lord has been across the street from the Planned Parenthood clinic here for almost 12 years,” Father Imbarrato said.
Editor: 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?" We don't need a shrine; we are one.
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The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe
The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe « Public Discourse: It is almost too much to contemplate: the prospect that we are living in the midst of, and accepting (to various degrees) one of the greatest human holocausts in history. And so we don’t contemplate it. Instead, we look for ways to deny this grim reality, minimize it, or explain away our complacency—or complicity.
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Urge Congress to end the torment of unborn babies in the Nation's Capital!
National Right to Life: Did you know that in our nation's capital, unborn children daily are subjected to terribly painful deaths, even during the sixth and seventh months of pregnancy, or even later? Did you know that these practices are perfectly legal -- because in the District of Columbia, abortion is now legal at any point in pregnancy, for any reason, as long as someone is willing to pay the abortionist for the gruesome "service"?
One abortion "clinic," situated not far from the Capitol Mall and the White House, openly advertises abortion on demand up to the beginning of the seventh month of pregnancy -- payable by a credit card. ("Checks and money orders are not accepted.") This facility mentions the method used for its late abortions -- "dilatation and evacuation," also known as "dilation and evacuation" or "D&E." However, they do not explain that in a D&E -- shown in this medical illustration -- the abortionist grasps the little arms and legs of the well-developed unborn baby and literally tears them off, one by one, by brute manual force.
Another abortionist advertises abortions "in Washington, D.C.," even in the seventh and eighth months. He describes using a different method -- employing ultrasound while thrusting a needle into the heart of the unborn child, and then injecting a lethal substance (either air, or a drug). This "service," he advises, is "not inexpensive," and that "payment can only be made by a bank electronic transfer."
One abortion "clinic," situated not far from the Capitol Mall and the White House, openly advertises abortion on demand up to the beginning of the seventh month of pregnancy -- payable by a credit card. ("Checks and money orders are not accepted.") This facility mentions the method used for its late abortions -- "dilatation and evacuation," also known as "dilation and evacuation" or "D&E." However, they do not explain that in a D&E -- shown in this medical illustration -- the abortionist grasps the little arms and legs of the well-developed unborn baby and literally tears them off, one by one, by brute manual force.
Editor: Reading this, and this, do we really deserve the "Christian nation" label? Click the NRL link above to take action.
Related: Trent Franks leading effort to restrain abortion in D.C.
Related: Trent Franks leading effort to restrain abortion in D.C.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Rachel Maddow bemoans Democrats lack of enthusiasm for abortion
Rachel Maddow: Democrats Must Do More to Promote Abortion | LifeNews.com: A clearly worried Rachel Maddow commiserated with former congressman Alan Grayson on her MSNBC show Monday: "[E]ven Democrats who are not opposed to abortion rights [translation: those who will vote to maintain them] have not been very willing to stand up and say that, much less to campaign on being pro-choice." Grayson agreed he heard "very few other Democrats" telling people abortion is a "fundamental right."
Planned Parenthood Purchases $35M National HQ in NYC
Planned Parenthood Purchases New $35M National HQ in NYC | LifeNews.com: New city records reveal Planned Parenthood purchased a commercial condo unit at 424 West 33rd Street for $34.8 million. According to The Real Deal, a New York City real estate news web site, Planned Parenthood originally signed a 20-year lease for 104,000 square feet of the 200,000-square-foot former industrial building that was converted into an office and condo building in 2002. The building had rented at about $35 per square foot until the abortion business purchased the commercial condo from Vectra Management Group, a real estate firm that had owned the building since 2000.
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Abortion Has Claimed the Lives of 17 Percent of Americans
Abortion Has Claimed the Lives of 17 Percent of Americans | LifeNews.com: The roughly 53 million children aborted since 1973 equals about 17 percent of America’s current 312 million-plus population. Nearly one-fifth of us, simply taken out of the equation. How would any of us begin to estimate the cost of losing not just the lives, but the extraordinary impact of one-fifth of our nation’s people?
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WH 'addicted' to abortion
WH 'addicted' to abortion (OneNewsNow.com): According to Paul Rondeau, executive director of the American Life League, "This administration has a contraceptive mindset. They are abortion-addicted, and this is simply one more 'kick the can down the road until after the election,' where Obama is not up for re-election and then his even truer colors will come out." He says church-affiliated institutions are looking for an exemption from the mandate -- not an extension for compliance beyond the November election.
Social Issues Pocket Guide - eBook 99 cent download
Social Issues Pocket Guide - eBook - Answers Bookstore: What does the Bible have to say about morality for today? When does life begin? What about stem cells, homosexuality, euthanasia, same sex marriage, and racism? Huge social questions abound in today’s culture. Be ready with answers that are based on the authority of God’s Word!
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Flood Event Does in a Day what "Mother Nature" Would Take Hundreds of Years to Do
Ken Ham: Once again, a “tiny” catastrophe in the present has given us a glimpse of the power of water in a Flood situation.
Why we have abortion-on-demand
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano Roe vs. Wade itself does not define the right to an abortion, but it does unambiguously declare that the baby in the womb is not a person, and that the right to privacy protects the mother's decision to kill the baby.
. . . If the baby in the womb is a person, then all abortion is unlawful. That's because of the constitutional protection for all persons. The Constitution unambiguously prohibits the government from impairing or permitting others to impair the life, liberty and property of persons without due process. Here's my political beef with so-called pro-life politicians in both parties. In the years in which the pro-life Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush were in the White House, from time to time, both chambers of Congress had pro-life majorities. Did you see any legislation passed that declared a baby in the womb to be a person? No. This could have been done by a simple majority vote and presidential signature, and Roe vs. Wade, and all the killing it spawned, would have ended.
How scary is this? The Supreme Court declares a class of humanity not to be persons, and then permits people to destroy the members of the class. That's what happened to blacks during slavery; that was the philosophical argument underlying the Holocaust; that's what is happening to babies in the womb today; and that might become the basis for the government killing persons it hates or fears in the future. It will declare them to be non-persons.
Is the baby in the womb a person? Of course babies in wombs are persons. From the moment of the union of egg and sperm, there is present a fully actualizable human genome; meaning all the genetic material necessary for post-birth existence is there. And the parents of that union are human beings. With human parents and a human genome, what else could a baby in a womb be but a person? If you have any doubt, why not give the benefit of that doubt to life, rather than to death? Unless you prefer death to life and killing to nurturing and misery to joy, I expect you agree.
Since you have been reading this essay, 10 babies have lost their lives, as abortions occur in the U.S. about two and a half times a minute. How long can a society last when we cannot protect the weakest among us, and when we destroy them out of convenience, and when we make that destruction legal? Who will be destroyed next?
. . . If the baby in the womb is a person, then all abortion is unlawful. That's because of the constitutional protection for all persons. The Constitution unambiguously prohibits the government from impairing or permitting others to impair the life, liberty and property of persons without due process. Here's my political beef with so-called pro-life politicians in both parties. In the years in which the pro-life Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush were in the White House, from time to time, both chambers of Congress had pro-life majorities. Did you see any legislation passed that declared a baby in the womb to be a person? No. This could have been done by a simple majority vote and presidential signature, and Roe vs. Wade, and all the killing it spawned, would have ended.
How scary is this? The Supreme Court declares a class of humanity not to be persons, and then permits people to destroy the members of the class. That's what happened to blacks during slavery; that was the philosophical argument underlying the Holocaust; that's what is happening to babies in the womb today; and that might become the basis for the government killing persons it hates or fears in the future. It will declare them to be non-persons.
Is the baby in the womb a person? Of course babies in wombs are persons. From the moment of the union of egg and sperm, there is present a fully actualizable human genome; meaning all the genetic material necessary for post-birth existence is there. And the parents of that union are human beings. With human parents and a human genome, what else could a baby in a womb be but a person? If you have any doubt, why not give the benefit of that doubt to life, rather than to death? Unless you prefer death to life and killing to nurturing and misery to joy, I expect you agree.
Since you have been reading this essay, 10 babies have lost their lives, as abortions occur in the U.S. about two and a half times a minute. How long can a society last when we cannot protect the weakest among us, and when we destroy them out of convenience, and when we make that destruction legal? Who will be destroyed next?
Questionable Publication of Embryonic Stem Cell Results
FRC Blog » Questionable Publication of Embryonic Stem Cell Results: Turning a blind eye toward both good science and good ethics, the embryonic stem cell and cloning company, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), has published a very preliminary online report regarding their first two patients injected with embryonic stem cell derivatives. The two patients, one who has age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness, and the other with a rare form of blindness called Stargardt’s disease, were injected with retinal cells made from human embryonic stem cells only 4 months before the report was submitted. This makes it far too early to know whether these embryonic stem cells will actually be safe or effective. In fact, it’s surprising that any reputable scientific journal would publish such very preliminary data, given the early stage of the clinical trial (which is supposed to last at least two years), the short period of time after the patients were injected, and the low numbers of patients and lack of controls.
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Most Americans want abortion restrictions
KOFC: Results of a new poll show that many Americans (79%) continue to believe abortion should be significantly restricted. This includes 51% who want, at most, to allow abortion only in cases of rape, incest, to save the life of the mother, or who think abortion should never be permitted.
"Wrongful life" in Israel
Be'ad Chaim: Since 1948, the beginning of the modern state of Israel, estimates show that the lives of over 2 million babies have been snuffed out by abortion. This number is huge when one considers that our present population is 7.4 million. Every one of these unborn children would have been a unique jewel in the treasure box of the people of Israel.
The prevalence of these lawsuits has caused doctors to become overly concerned that a child may have a
disability or any abnormality. Israel is first in the world in the number of prenatal tests done during pregnancy. In cases where a problem is suspected, doctors will recommend abortion 75 percent of the time (as compared to US doctors who recommend abortion 25 percent of the time). More testing means more false positives, which mean more abortions.
The preponderance of prenatal testing has also created a confusing situation for mothers who have been
persuaded that “good motherhood” means protecting your child from being imperfect in any way. . . . Mothers say that they would feel guilty for allowing a baby “to suffer” if allowed to be born with a handicap or deformity.
. . . In Israel, we are seeing a growing number of “wrongful life” lawsuits – over 600 since 1987. A “wrongful life” lawsuit permits parents or a child to sue the doctor for allowing the child to be born rather than recommending abortion. In the U.S. and Canada, it is primarily parents who sue, but in Israel, the child demands compensation for his disability and basically for being alive. Imagine the consequences on the soul of the child who hears his parents testifying that they would have aborted him had they known about the handicap.
disability or any abnormality. Israel is first in the world in the number of prenatal tests done during pregnancy. In cases where a problem is suspected, doctors will recommend abortion 75 percent of the time (as compared to US doctors who recommend abortion 25 percent of the time). More testing means more false positives, which mean more abortions.
The preponderance of prenatal testing has also created a confusing situation for mothers who have been
persuaded that “good motherhood” means protecting your child from being imperfect in any way. . . . Mothers say that they would feel guilty for allowing a baby “to suffer” if allowed to be born with a handicap or deformity.
This same mindset of what is considered “good motherhood” applies to the adoption issue. When we’ve asked clients who were not interested in keeping their babies if they would consider giving it up for adoption, they almost always responded “What kind of mother do you think I am?” The general mindset is that adoption or handicaps are greater evils than taking the life of the child.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Blessed by the dozen
WORLD Magazine | Blessed by the dozen | Alicia Constant | Jan 28, 12: "The moment my politics changed was the moment I accepted Christ. I couldn't write a treatise on Christianity that day, but I found out I didn't believe in reincarnation, I didn't believe in abortion anymore. God opened up that dark, musty closet of my heart and let the light shine in."
What we must do before abortion is illegal
What we must do before abortion is illegal | LifeSiteNews.com: The idea that more information is what we need, in the age of Google, Facebook, and Youtube, is absurd. We need education – not just information, but instruction in what to do with that information, and that includes moral instruction.
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What About Eugenics and Planned Parenthood?
What About Eugenics and Planned Parenthood? | Dr. Georgia Purdom's Blog: "This is the title of a chapter I wrote for the New Answers Book 3 that is now available for purchase online and in the museum bookstore. I tell people that it was literally one of the most difficult book chapters I have ever had to write. The research for the chapter required a lot of reading about the horrific philosophy and practices of the eugenics (meaning good in birth) movement and Planned Parenthood. What I found probably most disturbing is that eugenic practices are still alive and well even today through such organizations as Planned Parenthood."
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The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out': A neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.
“Our experiment found that the realm of the sacred – whether it’s a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics – is a distinct cognitive process,” says Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University and lead author of the study. The results were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits.
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“Our experiment found that the realm of the sacred – whether it’s a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics – is a distinct cognitive process,” says Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University and lead author of the study. The results were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits.
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Black conservatives talk about gaining strength
JWR: Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. A pastor, Cleaver noted that "the black church is the most conservative institution in the black community." Cleaver told the crowd that he also wouldn't budge on some social issues. When asked by a woman in the audience whether he would vote to slash the budget of Planned Parenthood, Cleaver said no. He told the woman that federal money to pay for abortions doesn't go to Planned Parenthood, the reproductive health care service that has been a target of anti-abortion activists. It provides critical health care to poor people, Cleaver said, and he'll continue to support budgeting federal money for those services.
Abortion: "As American as apple pie"
Albert Mohler: With chilling candor, [some activists] defend abortion as abortion, they defend the decision to abort as a morally superior decision, and they lament the evasiveness of their colleagues in the abortion rights movement.
Just recently, Merle Hoffman, a major voice in the abortion rights movement and founder of Choices, a major center for abortions in New York City, has written a memoir, Intimate Wars. In telling her story, Hoffman calls for her colleagues in the abortion industrial complex to defend abortion as a moral choice.
. . . As she explains, the pro-life movement thought that, if women really knew what abortion was — the killing of an unborn human being — they would decide to keep their babies. She rejects the argument.
Hoffman argues that women do know what an abortion is. Abortion does stop a beating heart and that it is not “just like an appendectomy.” Her conclusion is that women know that abortion is “the termination of potential life.”
She then makes this statement: “They knew it, but my patients who made the choice to have an abortion also knew they were making the right one, a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart. Sometimes they felt a great sense of loss of possibility. In the majority of cases, they felt a great sense of relief and the power that comes from taking responsibility for one’s own life.”
Rarely do we see abortion defended in such unvarnished terms — “a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart.” Merle Hoffman goes on to explain how she can speak of abortion so directly. She has, she tells us, no conception that life is sacred.
“Abortion is as American as apple pie.” Hoffman made that statement in a recent interview about her book. She laments that abortion is the cause of shame in some women and that shame attaches itself to abortion in the larger culture, even now. In her view, if women would start talking more honestly and directly about their abortions, the shame would be removed and women would discuss their abortions like they speak of “a bikini wax.”
Just recently, Merle Hoffman, a major voice in the abortion rights movement and founder of Choices, a major center for abortions in New York City, has written a memoir, Intimate Wars. In telling her story, Hoffman calls for her colleagues in the abortion industrial complex to defend abortion as a moral choice.
. . . As she explains, the pro-life movement thought that, if women really knew what abortion was — the killing of an unborn human being — they would decide to keep their babies. She rejects the argument.
Hoffman argues that women do know what an abortion is. Abortion does stop a beating heart and that it is not “just like an appendectomy.” Her conclusion is that women know that abortion is “the termination of potential life.”
She then makes this statement: “They knew it, but my patients who made the choice to have an abortion also knew they were making the right one, a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart. Sometimes they felt a great sense of loss of possibility. In the majority of cases, they felt a great sense of relief and the power that comes from taking responsibility for one’s own life.”
Rarely do we see abortion defended in such unvarnished terms — “a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart.” Merle Hoffman goes on to explain how she can speak of abortion so directly. She has, she tells us, no conception that life is sacred.
“Abortion is as American as apple pie.” Hoffman made that statement in a recent interview about her book. She laments that abortion is the cause of shame in some women and that shame attaches itself to abortion in the larger culture, even now. In her view, if women would start talking more honestly and directly about their abortions, the shame would be removed and women would discuss their abortions like they speak of “a bikini wax.”
Related:
First Hints That Stem Cells Can Help Patients Get Better
First Hints That Stem Cells Can Help Patients Get Better : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: Two women losing their sight to progressive forms of blindness may have regained some vision while participating in an experiment testing a treatment made from human embryonic stem cells, researchers reported today.
The report marks the first time that scientists have produced direct evidence that human embryonic stem cells may have helped a patient. The cells had only previously been tested in the laboratory or in animals.
Related:
Results on ESCR - To be determined
David Prentice questions the results
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The report marks the first time that scientists have produced direct evidence that human embryonic stem cells may have helped a patient. The cells had only previously been tested in the laboratory or in animals.
Related:
Results on ESCR - To be determined
David Prentice questions the results
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The Nuremberg Code is routinely ignored
The Nuremberg Code, set up to protect the human subjects of research, is being routinely ignored. - Slate Magazine: Today, the Nuremberg Code is the most important influence on U.S. law governing human medical research. Even so, marginalized groups have frequently been coerced into studies that violate their right to consent. A recent review of the bioethics of human research in the U.S. offers little prospect for change.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Obama's Pro-Abortion Extremism Would Worsen in Second Term
Obama's Pro-Abortion Extremism Would Worsen in Second Term | LifeNews.com: Given four more years, Mr. Obama will further pack the courts—including and especially the US Supreme Court—with litmus-tested pro-abortion judges perched to retain the infamous holdings of Roe.
Unhindered and unfettered by any concern over a future election, Mr. Obama will aggressively use the coercive power of the state to compel abortion conformity and complicity. The predictable consequence: more dead babies, more wounded moms.
The 2008 election gave America the “Abortion President.”
The 2010 election gave America the most pro-life House of Representatives ever. The 2012 election is the most important watershed election ever.
Make no mistake about it; with so much at stake, we don’t have the luxury of disunity or nominee disappointment or apathy. No one who values life can sit this one out. Failure to unite and mobilize sends the abortion industry’s enabler-in-chief — Barack Obama — back to the White House. For the sake of the innocent, failure is not an option.
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Unhindered and unfettered by any concern over a future election, Mr. Obama will aggressively use the coercive power of the state to compel abortion conformity and complicity. The predictable consequence: more dead babies, more wounded moms.
The 2008 election gave America the “Abortion President.”
The 2010 election gave America the most pro-life House of Representatives ever. The 2012 election is the most important watershed election ever.
Make no mistake about it; with so much at stake, we don’t have the luxury of disunity or nominee disappointment or apathy. No one who values life can sit this one out. Failure to unite and mobilize sends the abortion industry’s enabler-in-chief — Barack Obama — back to the White House. For the sake of the innocent, failure is not an option.
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Roe vs. Wade's Slippery Slope
Roe vs. Wade's Slippery Slope: Human Cloning, Experimentation | LifeNews.com: Roe v. Wade did more than just legalize abortion across the Unites States. By denying the human embryo any rights, it has enabled the current practices of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. These, in turn, are just stops on the way to reproductive cloning.
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To twin or not to twin? That is the (unasked) question
BioNews: A recent spate of articles celebrating the birth of an IVF 'twin' five years after her brother left me perplexed. Why was this news, when embryo freezing has been in use since the mid-1980s? And as the children were not identical, by what definition were they twins?
For the first question, I still have no answer. . . . The press called the children 'twins' because, like naturally-occurring fraternal twins, they were produced from the simultaneous fertilisation of two separate eggs. In this sense, twinship is based on the technological mimicry of a natural process.
However, if we consider all the fertilised embryos created from a single cycle of egg retrieval we would logically be talking about more than twins. In this case the two children become quintuplets, as the cycle produced five embryos. And what about two embryos conceived in the same Petri dish, but carried by different women? Where one couple offer their 'spare' embryos to another, would those two children be separated twins? Both scenarios lead us into areas which are deeply uncomfortable.
For the first question, I still have no answer. . . . The press called the children 'twins' because, like naturally-occurring fraternal twins, they were produced from the simultaneous fertilisation of two separate eggs. In this sense, twinship is based on the technological mimicry of a natural process.
However, if we consider all the fertilised embryos created from a single cycle of egg retrieval we would logically be talking about more than twins. In this case the two children become quintuplets, as the cycle produced five embryos. And what about two embryos conceived in the same Petri dish, but carried by different women? Where one couple offer their 'spare' embryos to another, would those two children be separated twins? Both scenarios lead us into areas which are deeply uncomfortable.
Roe v. Wade: A Constitutional and Moral Tragedy
FRC Blog » Roe v. Wade: A Constitutional and Moral Tragedy: More babies in America lose their lives to abortion every two days than American service members have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.
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Justice Scalia says legislatures, not courts, should be forum for abortion rights
Justice Scalia says legislatures, not courts, should be forum for abortion rights - The Washington Post: The 75-year-old justice calls himself an “originalist” in interpreting the text of the Constitution as it was understood by the people who adopted it. In a colorful attack on those high court colleagues who don’t share his approach, Scalia said it’s “absolute madness” to allow the nine justices to decide the Constitution means whatever they say.
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Are We an Erotetic Pro-Life Movement?
Walter Hoye: As we enter the fortieth (40th) year of legalized abortion in America, the Pro-Life movement has been looking for ways to end abortion. For almost four decades we have painstakingly devoted ourselves to logically and pragmatically analyzing ways to end abortion. We have employed the best minds in the world to carefully, diligently, meticulously work through the data to discover a way to end abortion. We have wrestled with the principles that guide the presuppositions at the root of the abortion debate and over the course of 14,245 days fought to elect Presidents, Representatives and Senators to hammer out a solution. As I look back at our efforts to end abortion and ponder why an abortion minded woman, only steps away from having the life of the baby in her womb terminated is asking the question … Will you take care of me and my baby? … I wonder if after all of our sermons, prayers and sacrificial giving, the reason why an abortion minded woman, is asking … Will you take care of me and my baby? … is simply because,she is in need of someone to care for her and her baby?
Is pregnancy unethical? UK bioethicist says, Yes
Artificial gestation, or ectogenesis, is currently science fiction, but it may be possible. Pregnancy and childbirth are so painful, risky and socially restrictive for women that public funding should urgently be directed to the development of artificial wombs. This is the only way to achieve true equality between men and women for then neither women nor men would then be limited by having children and the burdens of reproducing the species would be shared equally. This is the radical suggestion made by a leading British bioethicist, Anna Smajdor, of the University of East Anglia. BioEdge
Millennials Divorce Marriage (Part 2)
Millennials Divorce Marriage (Part 2) - Forbes: In Millennials Divorce Marriage (Part 1) we looked at the facts generated by the Millennial lifestyle and discovered that love, sex, and power are being unbundled. We also saw that men are becoming increasingly un-necessary and the nuclear family is likewise changing drastically. That’s drastically, as in disappearing! And that brings us to the big question: What happens to society when the “traditional” family disappears?
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Religious leaders blast HHS over contraception mandate
Religious leaders blast HHS over contraception mandate :: Catholic News Agency (CNA): On Jan. 20, Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the administration would not expand a religious exemption for employers who object to its “preventative services” mandate.
The policy, originally introduced in an Aug. 2011 interim rule, requires health insurance plans to cover contraception – including drugs that cause abortion – and sterilization free of charge.
To qualify for a religious exemption under the policy, religious organizations must employ and serve primarily members of their own faith and must exist for the purpose of teaching religious values.
Many religious organizations objected to the rule, saying that they would not qualify because they provide education, health care and other services to people of all religions.
But the Obama administration dismissed their requests, saying that the religious exemption would not be expanded.
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The policy, originally introduced in an Aug. 2011 interim rule, requires health insurance plans to cover contraception – including drugs that cause abortion – and sterilization free of charge.
To qualify for a religious exemption under the policy, religious organizations must employ and serve primarily members of their own faith and must exist for the purpose of teaching religious values.
Many religious organizations objected to the rule, saying that they would not qualify because they provide education, health care and other services to people of all religions.
But the Obama administration dismissed their requests, saying that the religious exemption would not be expanded.
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A man’s post-abortion testimony
The curse of Adam’s silence - a MAN’s post-abortion testimony | LifeSiteNews.com: I self-medicated my pain with pornography and alcohol and searched for ways to find my voice when really what I needed to hear was the voice of God. I was a broken man with a broken wife, two children in heaven, and was trying to pick up the pieces of what my indifference had done. I watched Kelly find healing from the abortions and eventually decided I needed help, too.
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The Gospel in an Abortion Culture
Russell Moore: Every time pastors and church leaders speak [about abortion], they are speaking, at least potentially, to these men and women, the aborting and the abortionists. Many of these people don’t argue that the “fetus” is a “person.” Their consciences testify to that, and they’re either tortured by this or violently trying to sear over that persistent internal message.
The answer, for the church, is to preach the gospel to the conscience.
For many evangelicals, to “preach the gospel” seems to be obvious and ineffective because they think this means to, by rote, prompt people to accept Jesus and go to heaven. But the gospel speaks right where the abortion culture is in slavery, to the conscience.
For one thing, those guilty of this silent atrocity often don’t think we’re talking to them. For some, the demonic structures have helped them to conceal this secret, and to convince them the safest thing to do is to try to forget it altogether. Others are so burdened down by guilt, they really don’t believe they are included in the “whosoever will” of our gospel invitations.
Speak directly to these people. To the woman who has had the abortion. To the man who has paid for an abortion. To the health care worker who has profited off of tearing apart the bodies of the young and the consciences of their parents.
Speak clearly of the horror of judgement to come. Confirm what every accusing conscience already knows: clinic privacy laws cannot keep all this from being exposed at the tribunal of Christ. When the Light shines, there’s not enough darkness in which to hide and cringe.
But don’t stop there.
The answer, for the church, is to preach the gospel to the conscience.
For many evangelicals, to “preach the gospel” seems to be obvious and ineffective because they think this means to, by rote, prompt people to accept Jesus and go to heaven. But the gospel speaks right where the abortion culture is in slavery, to the conscience.
For one thing, those guilty of this silent atrocity often don’t think we’re talking to them. For some, the demonic structures have helped them to conceal this secret, and to convince them the safest thing to do is to try to forget it altogether. Others are so burdened down by guilt, they really don’t believe they are included in the “whosoever will” of our gospel invitations.
Speak directly to these people. To the woman who has had the abortion. To the man who has paid for an abortion. To the health care worker who has profited off of tearing apart the bodies of the young and the consciences of their parents.
Speak clearly of the horror of judgement to come. Confirm what every accusing conscience already knows: clinic privacy laws cannot keep all this from being exposed at the tribunal of Christ. When the Light shines, there’s not enough darkness in which to hide and cringe.
But don’t stop there.
Obama Celebrates Roe vs. Wade Decision
LifeNews: On Sunday, President Barack Obama released a statement celebrating the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that allowed for 54 million abortions. The decision, handed down on January 22, 1973, overturned pro-life laws offering protection for unborn children in most states across the country, and made abortions legal and virtually unlimited.The statement by Obama says:
As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right. While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue- no matter what our views, we must stay united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant woman and mothers, reduce the need for abortion, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption. And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.
Biggest UK marriage increase for a decade
Biggest marriage increase for a decade | News | The Christian Institute: The number of weddings taking place in the Church of England has seen its biggest annual increase for a decade. According to the 2010 statistics released last week, marriages increased by four per cent to 54,700.
A Church of England spokesman attributed the growth to “extensive work by the Weddings Project” – a comprehensive online guide to Church weddings including legal aspects, ceremony vows and planner. He also noted that the introduction of the 2008 Marriage Measure – which made it easier for people to get married in the Church – had also helped.
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A Church of England spokesman attributed the growth to “extensive work by the Weddings Project” – a comprehensive online guide to Church weddings including legal aspects, ceremony vows and planner. He also noted that the introduction of the 2008 Marriage Measure – which made it easier for people to get married in the Church – had also helped.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Obama Administration Puts Expiration Date on Freedom of Conscience
Obama Administration Puts an Expiration Date on Freedom of Conscience | Americans United for Life | AUL.org: Today the Obama Administration announced it would give some religious nonprofits an additional year to “adapt” to its coercive mandate that nearly all insurance plans provide coverage for the abortion-inducing drug ella. Essentially, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that these employers have one more year to get their priorities straight and align their consciences with the anti-life agenda of the Obama Administration. Sebelius stated the “extension” for nonprofit groups with a religious-based objection to providing coverage for “contraception,” was “the appropriate balance” for “respecting religious freedom.”
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Tim Challies: The Myth of Mother Teresa
The Myth of Mother Teresa by Tim Challies | Refocusing our Eyes: Why debunk the myth of Mother Teresa? Pastors of Protestant churches around the world continue to speak of Mother Teresa in saintly terms. They hold her up as the ultimate example of self-sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. From the pulpits they discuss how she responded to Christ’s Great Commission to spread the gospel to all lands. The reality, though, is that if she preached at all, she preached a false religion. In so doing she provides us with an example not of a Christian responding to God’s call, but an example of deeds of charity and compassion completely separated from the Truth.
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Scalia: Throw Out Phony Undue Burden Test
Scalia: Throw Out Phony Undue Burden Test on Abortion Laws | LifeNews.com: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is prepared to discard a major precedent in abortion law when considering a future challenge to state regulations of abortion clinics, such as those approved in Virginia, Kansas and South Carolina.
A self-described “originalist”, Scalia addressed a meeting of Washington, D.C. attorneys Thursday, affirming that the 14th amendment confers rights to the states. But he repeated his long-held view that the Constitution is silent on abortion and that judges should stay out of the issue. Scalia mocked the so-called ‘undue burden’ principle on accessing abortion thusly:
“So I run to the law books to see what an ‘undue burden’ is,” Scalia said. “What do you know, for 200 years, no burden was an undue burden. You could prohibit it. So I can’t use the law books.”
A self-described “originalist”, Scalia addressed a meeting of Washington, D.C. attorneys Thursday, affirming that the 14th amendment confers rights to the states. But he repeated his long-held view that the Constitution is silent on abortion and that judges should stay out of the issue. Scalia mocked the so-called ‘undue burden’ principle on accessing abortion thusly:
“So I run to the law books to see what an ‘undue burden’ is,” Scalia said. “What do you know, for 200 years, no burden was an undue burden. You could prohibit it. So I can’t use the law books.”
The 2012 Elections: Five Questions for Pro-Life Advocates
The 2012 Elections: Five Questions for Pro-Life Advocates: Twice as many white evangelicals age eighteen through forty-four voted for Barack Obama in 2008 than voted for John Kerry in 2004. . . . The candidate got just enough pro-life votes from these groups to tip the election his way.
Each of these alleged pro-life votes represents a profound misunderstanding of the pro-life position. The fundamental issue before us is not merely how to reduce abortion, but who counts as one of us. How we answer will determine whether embryos and fetuses enjoy the protection of law or remain candidates for the dumpster. As Francis Beckwith points out, a society that has fewer abortions but protects the legal killing of unborn humans is still deeply immoral. Given what's at stake, it's vital that pro-life Christians persuasively answer five key questions before the 2012 election.
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Each of these alleged pro-life votes represents a profound misunderstanding of the pro-life position. The fundamental issue before us is not merely how to reduce abortion, but who counts as one of us. How we answer will determine whether embryos and fetuses enjoy the protection of law or remain candidates for the dumpster. As Francis Beckwith points out, a society that has fewer abortions but protects the legal killing of unborn humans is still deeply immoral. Given what's at stake, it's vital that pro-life Christians persuasively answer five key questions before the 2012 election.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
'Three-parent' embryo technique "unethical and macabre"
'Three-parent' embryo technique "unethical and macabre" says leading pro-life group SPUC: A leading pro-life group has described as "macabre and unethical" a so-called 'three-parent' embryo technique which is due to receive £5.8 million of funding. At the same time the government has launched a public consultation on whether to pass legislation to allow the 'three-parent' embryo technique to be used for medical treatment.
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Full of life: World magazine's annual overview of the pro-life movement
WORLD Magazine | Full of life | Marvin Olasky | Jan 28, 12: Two decades ago the vast majority of participants in Washington, D.C.'s annual March for Life were middle-aged or elderly, and that did not look good for the pro-life movement: How slow would the March in 2012 be if many of the walkers needed their walkers? If the hundreds of thousands of pro-life marchers on this year's Jan. 22 Roe v. Wade anniversary are like those in recent years, the movement's rejuvenation will be clear even to abortion advocates.
The End Of Abortion (Will Not Be Pretty)
The End Of Abortion (Will Not Be Pretty): "Changing hearts is all fine and good, but if we think that we are going to do that one at a time until everybody is pro-life and we all hug each other and gather on a hillside singing and no one has abortions anymore, we are all delusional. At some point, we’re going to have to make abortion illegal. We are going to have to make lots of people really, really mad.
"About half the country will not take this sitting down. It will be an incredibly divisive, traumatic event."
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"About half the country will not take this sitting down. It will be an incredibly divisive, traumatic event."
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States of Refuge, Operation: First Abortion Free State
States of Refuge, Operation: First Abortion Free State - Christian Newswire: Operation Save America is embarking on a national campaign called States of Refuge, Operation: First Abortion Free State. Currently, there are five states (Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) with one remaining abortion mill. "Our purpose is to bring churches and pro-life ministries to each state and allow God to give us the first abortion-free state in America."
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Milestone: First Adult Stem Cells Made That Work in the Brain
Milestone: First Adult Stem Cells Made That Work in the Brain | LifeNews.com: For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.
“This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells,” says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
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“This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells,” says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
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Planned Parenthood in New York pushes the "Reproductive Health Act"
STOPP - Stop Planned Parenthood - Planned Parenthood in New York fears repeal of Roe v. Wade; pushes the "Reproductive Health Act": Planned Parenthood in New York and its supporters turned out at the state capital on Jan. 9 for a statewide lobby day to push for the passage of the extremist, so-called Reproductive Health Act, which would enshrine Roe v. Wade into New York state law, remove it from the penal code and move it into the health code, make abortion a fundamental right and an entitlement, and remove any and all restrictions and regulations on abortion in New York.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Should doctors be forced to kill?
Should doctors be forced to kill? « » Print The Daily Caller: With life-taking procedures threatening to become as much a part of medicine as life-saving techniques, a cogent question arises: What about the rights of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who believe in traditional Hippocratic ethics? Increasingly those who do are castigated as interfering with “patient rights.” Indeed, medical professionals may one day be forced to choose between their careers and their morals.
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The ugly American history of eugenics exposed
Baptist Press - FIRST-PERSON: The ugly American history of eugenics is exposed - News with a Christian Perspective: Consequentialism is the idea that ethical decisions are made based on projected outcomes. There are several different theories that implement this process, but the basic idea is that the ends justify the means. In the case of eugenics, the desired end was a society full of healthy, productive, intelligent people. The logic of consequentialism said that any means necessary to produce that desired result is acceptable. This included forcibly prohibiting those deemed "unacceptable" from reproducing.
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Video: The Dignity of Human Life
Survey: Half of churchgoers' lives not affected by time in pews
Survey: Half of churchgoers' lives not affected by time in pews | The Christian Century: Almost half of churchgoing Americans say their life has not changed a bit due to their time in the pews, a new survey shows.
Editor: But the article goes on to say, "Two-thirds of respondents said they had felt 'a real and personal connection' with God while attending church." How is it that a connection with God has little or no effect? What's the nature of the connection?
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Editor: But the article goes on to say, "Two-thirds of respondents said they had felt 'a real and personal connection' with God while attending church." How is it that a connection with God has little or no effect? What's the nature of the connection?
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Surgeons Implant Synthetic Trachea in Baltimore Man
Surgeons Implant Synthetic Trachea in Baltimore Man - NYTimes.com: “What we did is surgically remove his malignant tumor,” Dr. Macchiarini said. “Then we replaced the trachea with this tissue-engineered scaffold.” The Y-shaped scaffold, fashioned from nano-size fibers of a type of plastic called PET that is commonly used in soda bottles, was seeded with stem cells from Mr. Lyles’s bone marrow. It was then placed in a bioreactor — a shoebox-size container holding the stem cells in solution — and rotated like a rotisserie chicken to allow the cells to soak in.
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Understanding E = mc squared
Energy Tribune- Understanding E = mc2: What does Einstein's theory of relativity mean? A very, very large amount of energy transforms into a very, very small amount of matter and a very, very small amount of matter can transform into a very, very large amount of energy.
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The Anti-Human Mindset Of Environmentalists
The Anti-Human Mindset Of Environmentalists - YouTube: "Talk to an environmentalist long enough, and eventually they will reveal their contempt for humans. "They care more about fish eggs than they do about children," said Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace.
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Greece adds pedophilia to list of ‘disabilities’
Outrage as Greece adds pedophilia to list of ‘disabilities’ | LifeSiteNews.com: The Associated Press reports that the government of Greece has expanded its list of officially recognized “disabilities” to include pedophiles (as well as exhibitionists, kleptomaniacs, and pyromaniacs). This means pedophiles in Greece may now qualify for government-funded disability pay—not despite, but because of, their pedophilia.
Of course, not every “illness” is a “disability.” A central concept of disability is the existence of a “restriction in the ability to perform a normal activity of daily living.” Pedophiles have no restriction but an inclination to perform an abnormal activity. This is not a disability. Taking pedophilia out of the realm of moral judgment and into the realm of mental health is one step toward normalizing it.
Of course, not every “illness” is a “disability.” A central concept of disability is the existence of a “restriction in the ability to perform a normal activity of daily living.” Pedophiles have no restriction but an inclination to perform an abnormal activity. This is not a disability. Taking pedophilia out of the realm of moral judgment and into the realm of mental health is one step toward normalizing it.
Editor: Is Greece the same country that's under austerity measures due to its economic crisis? And they want to put more people on the dole?
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Pastors Confront Southern Poverty Law Center for Smearing as 'Hate Groups' Pro-Family Organizations Opposed to Homosexual Agenda
Press Conf.: Black Pastors Confront Southern Poverty Law Center for Smearing as 'Hate Groups' Pro-Family Organizations Opposed to Homosexual Agenda - Christian Newswire: A coalition of African American pastors and pro-family Christian and Jewish leaders held a press conference Tuesday outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center to protest the SPLC's smearing of pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as "hate groups."
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Is it pro-life to "slam," "tangle," and "duel"?
Republicans Slam Obama, Each Other on Abortion in Debate | LifeNews.com: "In last night’s presidential debate in South Carolina the Republican presidential candidates slammed Obama on abortion but also tangled with each other — with the candidates attempting to outduel one another over who is most pro-life."
The silliest pro-abortion argument ever (is one you hear all the time)
The silliest pro-abortion argument ever (is one you hear all the time) | LifeSiteNews.com: We can’t legislate morality? Really? What do you call it when we tell people they can’t murder, rape, or steal?
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The Grace of God in the Bible
Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: The Grace of God in the Bible: While the Bible is not uniform, it is unified. Certain motifs course through the Scripture from start to end, tying the whole thing together into a coherent tapestry--kingdom, temple, people of God, creation/new creation, and so on. Underneath and undergirding all of these, it seems to me, is the motif of God's grace, his favor and love to the undeserving.
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Opinion: The Dark Side of Science
Opinion: The Dark Side of Science | The Scientist: "Scientists can no longer hope naively that people will only use science for the public good. The world will always have the mentally unbalanced, the delusional, the vicious, and the sociopathic members of society, some of whom will also be intelligent enough to use the results of science. Recognizing this should be part of the everyday backdrop of science, the assessment of its potential, and the desirability of the pursuit of a particular project."
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An Eye for Stem Cells
An Eye for Stem Cells | The Scientist: Dry age-related macular degeneration, an as-yet untreatable eye disease that causes blindness in older adults, made headlines last year when Massachusetts-based biotech Advanced Cell Technology launched a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) trial for the disease, marking only the third hESC trial approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Now, two new trials are set to get underway—one also using hESCs and another that is turning to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), derived from adult skin cells.
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One step at a time
WORLD Magazine | One step at a time | Marvin Olasky | Jan 28, 12: Pro-life incrementalism, says activist Charmaine Yoest, is proving to be a successful strategy across the country.
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CNN Poll: 62% Want All or Most Abortions Made Illegal
CNN Poll: 62% Want All or Most Abortions Made Illegal | LifeNews.com: A new CNN national poll of Americans finds results that are almost identical to a Gallup survey earlier this year, and it shows 62% of Americans want all or most abortions made illegal.
CNN asked the question, “Do you think abortion should be legal under any circumstances, legal under only certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?” The survey found 25 percent of Americans want all abortions legal while 21 percent want all abortions illegal, and it had a large group of 53 percent of Americans saying abortions should be legal only under certain circumstances.
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CNN asked the question, “Do you think abortion should be legal under any circumstances, legal under only certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?” The survey found 25 percent of Americans want all abortions legal while 21 percent want all abortions illegal, and it had a large group of 53 percent of Americans saying abortions should be legal only under certain circumstances.
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Blacks, Young Adults Least Likely to OK Planned Parenthood
Blacks, Young Adults Least Likely to OK Planned Parenthood | LifeNews.com: An eye-opening nationwide survey reveals that the groups Planned Parenthood targets—namely those under the age of 35, blacks, and lower-income people—are the least likely to support their government funding.
The question was simple: “Should Tax Dollars for Family Planning Go To Organizations that Perform Abortions?”
The majority of respondents (54%) opposed granting tax funding to abortion-performing family planning groups, with 43% noting that they are “strongly” opposed to it. In contrast, just 20% of respondents noted that they would “strongly” support taxpayer funding for such groups. Interestingly, 26% of pro-choice respondents rejected giving taxpayer dollars to abortion-providing organizations.
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The question was simple: “Should Tax Dollars for Family Planning Go To Organizations that Perform Abortions?”
The majority of respondents (54%) opposed granting tax funding to abortion-performing family planning groups, with 43% noting that they are “strongly” opposed to it. In contrast, just 20% of respondents noted that they would “strongly” support taxpayer funding for such groups. Interestingly, 26% of pro-choice respondents rejected giving taxpayer dollars to abortion-providing organizations.
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Deadly Disclosures (novel) - eBook for 99 cents!
Deadly Disclosures (novel) - eBook - Answers Bookstore: This is the first book in an exciting new fiction trilogy! Includes an ongoing “debate” about creation that informs as it entertains.
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Personhood: It's science fiction
Conflict Of Interest: "All of the boundaries are up for grabs. All of the boundaries that have defined us as human beings, boundaries between a human being and an animal and between a human being and a super human being or a god." — Professor Leon R. Kass, former Chairman, President's Council on Bioethics, TransHumanism, Destroying The Barriers.
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Romney Used Polls to Determine His 1994 Abortion Position
Romney Used Polls to Determine His 1994 Abortion Position | LifeSiteNews.com: In the book Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics, Ronald Scott wrote that Romney commissioned former Reagan pollster Richard Wirthlin to survey Massachusetts voters on key issues. Wirthlin showed Romney a poll indicating any candidate describing himself as “pro-life” was unelectable in the state.
Before initiating his campaign against then-incumbent Senator Ted Kennedy, Romney informed the elders of his church about his decision to run as a supporter of abortion rights. In November 1993, Romney, Wirthlin, and Scott (all Mormons) presented their case to the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a courtesy. Romney, then a Mormon leader in his state, explained his would label himself personally opposed to abortion but would take no action to outlaw it, a view he later described as “effectively pro-choice.”
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Before initiating his campaign against then-incumbent Senator Ted Kennedy, Romney informed the elders of his church about his decision to run as a supporter of abortion rights. In November 1993, Romney, Wirthlin, and Scott (all Mormons) presented their case to the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a courtesy. Romney, then a Mormon leader in his state, explained his would label himself personally opposed to abortion but would take no action to outlaw it, a view he later described as “effectively pro-choice.”
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Embryonic stem cells aren’t working, but government gives more funding anyway
Embryonic stem cells aren’t working, but government gives more funding anyway | LifeSiteNews.com: Just before Christmas, the National Institutes of Health made three more lines of embryonic stem cells eligible for federal funding. Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that a month before, a major private company decided that there was no profit in embryonic stem cell research?
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Monday, January 16, 2012
No negative impact for surrogate's own children
BioNews - No negative impact for surrogate's own children: Acting as a surrogate does not negatively affect the psychological wellbeing of the surrogate's own children, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.
Researchers explored the experiences and psychological health of children whose mothers had acted as a surrogate for another couple. Sixteen children took part in the study - seven boys and nine girls aged between 12 and 22 years old. Researchers visited the children at home and assessed their wellbeing by conducting interviews and asking the children to complete questionnaires.
Researchers explored the experiences and psychological health of children whose mothers had acted as a surrogate for another couple. Sixteen children took part in the study - seven boys and nine girls aged between 12 and 22 years old. Researchers visited the children at home and assessed their wellbeing by conducting interviews and asking the children to complete questionnaires.
Editor: Does anyone else think this was too small a sample from which to derive any sort of conclusion?
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Working with Muslims to protect the unborn?
Post-Christian Europe that leads the fight to make abortion the law of the world. Even such solid countries as Poland and Malta go along with Germany, France, and the United Kingdom after the EU takes a common position, which is almost always in favor of the culture of death.
What about Catholic Latin America? There are a number of reasons they are not with us. Their elites long ago sidled up to Europe on the question of abortion. They view abortion practically as a sacrament and also a badge of sophistication. Their governments also do not want to be hectored by U.N. “human rights” committees who push for a universal right to abortion.
Is it worth protecting the unborn child if we have to make common cause with the Muslim states? LifeSiteNews
What about Catholic Latin America? There are a number of reasons they are not with us. Their elites long ago sidled up to Europe on the question of abortion. They view abortion practically as a sacrament and also a badge of sophistication. Their governments also do not want to be hectored by U.N. “human rights” committees who push for a universal right to abortion.
Is it worth protecting the unborn child if we have to make common cause with the Muslim states? LifeSiteNews
Pro-Abortionists Lament Pro-Life “Siege”
Pro-Abortionists Lament Pro-Life “Siege” | NRL News Today: A three-judge federal appeal panel's lift of a temporary injunction on Texas’s new sonogram law highlights the latest wave of pro-abortion indignation/apprehension that “abortion rights” are “under siege.”
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New ‘guidelines’ pushing radical, explicit sex ed agenda on schools nationwide
Brand new ‘guidelines’ pushing radical, explicit sex ed agenda on schools nationwide | LifeSiteNews.com: A groups of progressive education organizations in league with the family planning and homosexual lobby have released a new set of sex education "guidelines" that they are pushing on schools nationwide.
Introduction to sexual orientation would begin in the 3rd – 5th grade, and by 5th grade, students are expected to be able to define sexual orientation as “the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender.”
The 6th – 8th grade curriculum calls for an explanation of the correct way to use a condom and an analysis of “external influences that have an impact on one’s attitudes about gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
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The 6th – 8th grade curriculum calls for an explanation of the correct way to use a condom and an analysis of “external influences that have an impact on one’s attitudes about gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
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Sold For Sex, In Our Backyards
Sold For Sex, In Our Backyards | Fox News: At 16-years old, Keisha Head says she was being sold on the streets of Atlanta for sex. “I did not know that a normal, average man who was a preacher, who was a lawyer, who was a senator - could turn into this monster. That is the scariest moment when you are amongst people who claim to be normal yet they purchase you and they turn into these monsters. They rape you. They beat you. And then act as if they're normal. These are not your normal pedophiles.”
Experts say, across the globe, millions of people are trafficked each year. Hundreds of thousands of the victims are women and girls. But what surprises many -- is the rate it is happening in affluent neighborhoods where minors are being turned into sex slaves.
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Experts say, across the globe, millions of people are trafficked each year. Hundreds of thousands of the victims are women and girls. But what surprises many -- is the rate it is happening in affluent neighborhoods where minors are being turned into sex slaves.
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A New Eugenics: Aborting the Child With a Disability
A New Eugenics: Aborting the Child With a Disability | Parenting Squad: Kaiser Permanente admitted to the New York Times that 95% of its patients in Northern California have chosen to abort children that have tested positive for cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition which clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections and obstructs the pancreas, keeping the body from breaking down and absorbing nutrients. These percentages are shocking, especially since the life expectancy for a person with CF has risen dramatically since the 1960s, from age eight to age 37, and those with Down syndrome are now living into their 50s.
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Clinic Tells Patients: "Wrong" Not to Abort Disabled Child
Clinic Tells Patients: "Wrong" Not to Abort Disabled Child | LifeNews.com: The Orlando Women’s Center believes that, “to diagnose fetal abnormalities and not be able to terminate the pregnancy is wrong.” Because of this, they are happy to perform late abortions on babies who have been diagnosed with any fetal anomaly in order to prevent “pain and suffering to the baby and family” and to allow the family to begin the healing process. In fact, after killing the baby and inducing labor, the clinic encourages parents to hold the baby and bring home his or her footprints and hand-prints.
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New Depression Drug Likely Made With Cells From Aborted Fetus
New Depression Drug Likely Made With Cells From Abortions | LifeNews.com: Anyone who has ever suffered with depression knows a cure would be a great achievement. But a new drug under development was tested with Neuralstem’s cell line. A cell line that, with a little digging, looks to have come from an aborted fetus.
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Friday, January 13, 2012
Flexible Adult Stem Cells, Right There In Your Eye
Flexible Adult Stem Cells, Right There In Your Eye: In the future, patients in need of perfectly matched neural stem cells may not need to look any further than their own eyes. Researchers reporting in the January issue of Cell Stem Cell have identified adult stem cells of the central nervous system in a single layer of cells at the back of the eye.
Related: Type 1 Diabetes Reversed With Stem Cells From Cord Blood
Related: Type 1 Diabetes Reversed With Stem Cells From Cord Blood
Gay editor: ‘we will teach your kids the new norms’
Gay editor: ‘we will teach your kids the new norms’ | News | The Christian Institute: Children will be taught to endorse the homosexual agenda despite the beliefs of their parents, the managing editor of a homosexual newspaper in Canada has said.
Writing in the online edition of Xtra Vancouver, Robin Perelle blasted parents with traditional beliefs saying “your outdated morals are no longer acceptable, and we will teach your kids the new norms.”
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Writing in the online edition of Xtra Vancouver, Robin Perelle blasted parents with traditional beliefs saying “your outdated morals are no longer acceptable, and we will teach your kids the new norms.”
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You Never Marry the Right Person
RELEVANT Magazine - You Never Marry the Right Person: Some people in our culture want too much out of a marriage partner. They do not see marriage as two flawed people coming together to create a space of stability, love and consolation, a “haven in a heartless world,” as Christopher Lasch describes it. . . . A marriage based not on self-denial but on self-fulfillment will require a low- or no-maintenance partner who meets your needs while making almost no claims on you. Simply put—today people are asking far too much in the marriage partner.
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Three Embryos Are Too Many for IVF
Three Embryos Are Too Many for IVF: Study: British researchers analyzed data from about 124,000 IVF cycles that resulted in 33,500 live births. The live birth rate was higher among women of all ages who had two embryos implanted than among those who received one embryo. But among women younger than 40, transferring three embryos was associated with a lower birth rate than transferring two embryos.
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Occupy Philly’s Abortion Rights Rally
Report From Occupy Philly’s Post-Arrest Abortion Rights Rally | PhillyNow | A blog about Philadelphia news, politics and culture by Philadelphia Weekly: About 35 members of Occupy Philly gathered yesterday afternoon outside 30th Street Station to hand out leaflets to rush-hour passersby. Their goal was to bring attention to a series of anti-abortion legislation that’s been "creeping" through the Pennsylvania legislature and onto the desk of Gov. Tom Corbett.
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Responding to Pro-Choice Bumper-Sticker-Speak
Responding to Pro-Choice Bumper Sticker Speak: We hear vapid slogans from abortion activists all the time, so are we to respond to their bumper-sticker lines?
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Thursday, January 12, 2012
Get to Know: The Reformed Pro-Lifer
Articles and Papers | The Reformed Pro-Lifer: This website has a growing list of articles from a Reformed perspective, including: The Reformed Case for Pro-Life Action and Saving Some is not Compromise.
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John MacArthur: How to Confront the Culture
How to Confront the Culture: In Acts 17:22-34, Paul spoke to an indifferent and arrogant audience, like many to whom you and I speak today. He expressed three essential elements of an effective message to confront our post-Christian culture with the truth.
First, tell them that God is. Second, tell them who God is. Third, tell them what God says.
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Continued Majority Support for Death Penalty
Continued Majority Support for Death Penalty | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: The majority of Americans who support the death penalty today offer largely the same reasons that supporters gave 20 years ago. Roughly half (53%) say the punishment fits the crime or that it is what murderers deserve. A smaller share raises concerns about the costs of keeping murderers in prison for life (15%). Relatively few death penalty supporters cite deterrence (6%) or keeping murderers from committing more crimes (5%) in explaining their position.
Editor: Only 5 percent cite the Bible or religious reasons in support of capitol punishment. Churches need to teach it as a sanctity of human life issue (Genesis 9:5-6).
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Evangelicals may face choice: electable candidate or 'moral' one?
Evangelicals may face choice: electable candidate or 'moral' one | The Tennessean | tennessean.com: The Bible is filled with scoundrels turned good. Noah was a mean drunk, Moses a murderer, King David an adulterer and then a murderer. That didn’t stop them from being biblical heroes.
So evangelical voters may be willing to support a presidential candidate with a checkered past, and this presidential election, they may have to choose between a candidate who can win and a candidate who mirrors their religious ideals.
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So evangelical voters may be willing to support a presidential candidate with a checkered past, and this presidential election, they may have to choose between a candidate who can win and a candidate who mirrors their religious ideals.
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American Evangelicals beginning to rethink birth control, argues author of new book
American Evangelicals beginning to rethink birth control, argues author of new book | LifeSiteNews.com: A new book from one of the world’s foremost scholars in family issues examines how mid-twentieth-century evangelical leaders followed the mainstream and bought into birth control, and, briefly, abortion. Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control, 1873-1973, by Dr. Allan Carlson, comes at a time when some American evangelicals are rethinking their position on birth control.
At a Christian conference last October in Chicago, Carlson about what he called a simple truth, namely that “faithful Christian communities produce an abundance of children, and in doing so, they change this world.” He also pointed out that since the inception of Christianity there has been what he called a consistent “reproductive consensus” that those of Christian belief oppose abortion, infanticide, a contraceptive mentality, and easy divorce.
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Will Pastors Miss the “Millions of Years” Point?
Will Pastors Miss the “Millions of Years” Point? | Around the World with Ken Ham: "Many Christian leaders think as long as they are against evolution, it doesn’t matter what they believe about the age of the earth. But the problem really is millions of years—not evolution!"
Related:
Are Pastors Clear on What They Believe About Creation?
Related:
Are Pastors Clear on What They Believe About Creation?
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