Human Exceptionalism: It is Wrong to Pose With Dead Humans As If They Were Hunted Animals

Human Exceptionalism: It is Wrong to Pose With Dead Humans As If They Were Hunted Animals » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: There is a story in the news about army soldiers on trial for murdering civilians in Afghanistan. Awful, if true. But this post focuses on something else. The soldiers are accused of posing with the cadavers of those they killed–in much the same way that hunters often pose with the animals they have taken.

Does 'mensrea' apply to abortion?

Alan Douglas: If you shoot what you think is a tree stump, and it turns out to be someone's head, are you guilty of murder? You caused their death but the law defines murder as requiring that you intended to kill them. That intent, called 'mensrea', is an essential element of the crime of murder. Without mensrea you are not guilty (responsible) for the crime of murder. You might be guilty of gross and reckless behavior as in manslaughter, etc.

Editor: If you rid yourself of what you think is a 'blob of cells' are you guilty of murder?

Neanderthals controlled fire

News to Note, March 19, 2011 - Answers in Genesis: Neanderthals were no novices when it came to wielding fire, new evidence suggests . . . evidence that adds to our understanding of them as intelligent, modern humans. Abundant evidence from this study and others is that Neanderthals, like all our human ancestors, were not fundamentally different from any other Homo sapiens, and created in the image of God.

Killing babies: it’s what [fallen] humans do

Killing babies: it’s what humans do | LifeSiteNews.com: There will come a time in America as it has elsewhere when pro-life sentiment, fully unmoored from Christian grounding, stammers to explain why we must save every unwanted, unloved baby. Asked to defend the inviolable worth of the less cute, more irritable, costly, depressed and elderly victim of euthanasia, we’ve already begun to.

This is why the whole pro-life idea cannot be an agnostic endeavor, or even a theist endeavor - it’s an inescapably Christian one. To the extent we now reap the fruits of Christian civilization, we must sow with equal vigor, even if it must be elsewhere in the field.

Editor: Sadly, the author goes on to mention post-abortion ministries that employ mystical, rather than biblical, assurances of forgiveness. God's word teaches that forgiveness is based on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and is not nor ever can be granted by aborted babies.

Harry Reid: We’ll shut down government before we shut down Planned Parenthood funding

Harry Reid: We’ll shut down government before we shut down Planned Parenthood funding | LifeSiteNews.com: Reid and 19 other Democrats say that if House Republicans include an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood in their long-term CR, then the measure will be dead on arrival in the Senate. Without funding authorization, the U.S. federal government will then shut down – a scenario Republicans say they want to avoid desperately.

The end of the one-child policy in China?

The end of the one-child policy in China? : The Lancet: Last week, in the plenary sessions of the annual Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress, a two-child policy was proposed, to start in 2015. Experts have suggested that the one-child policy has resulted in an increase in older people and a decrease in younger workers, as well as a sex-ratio imbalance, which might threaten China's economic growth.

Australian PM Cold to Legalizing Euthanasia

Australian PM Cold to Legalizing Euthanasia » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: "During the time I was [in Australia], I learned that [Prime Minister Julia ]Gillard is an open atheist, that she lives with her hairdresser boyfriend, and that she came out of the left wing of the Labour Party. I only bring the atheism and apparent social liberalism up because we are often told by euthanasia proponents that only right wing religious fundamentalists oppose legalizing euthanasia–which has never been true, but it sometimes works as an advocacy approach, such as in the Netherlands. (Only religious fundamentalists oppose, so to prove you are not a religious fundamentalist, you had better support.) But that meme won’t hunt Down-Under now that Gillard has concluded she does not want a law legalizing euthanasia."

Are biblical ethics cultural?

I hope you don't miss this. Toward that end, I'm going to refrain from adding any other posts until Monday so this remains at the top all weekend. Please take a moment to respond.

Yesterday I posted an interview by Desiring God about LIFE International, in which Kurt Dillinger said,

Cultural attitudes and worldviews that devalue human life have infected the global culture in general and the Christian culture as well. For example, in places around the world, we have seen married pastors carry on with multiple mistresses. Church leaders send their wives and daughters to have abortions. Some Christian husbands even abuse their wives to enforce submission. Christian women may have dozens of abortions during their childbearing years. Each of these examples demonstrates how every nation has a flawed theology of life.

Isn't this disturbing? Baptists for Life has seen the same thing in our travels around the world. It's surprising to us that the sanctity of human life -- and, apparently, the sanctity of marriage -- have not been taught as biblical principles even though strong churches exist. What accounts for this? How does the body of Christ in other parts of the world -- Spirit-filled and equal in every way to the Church in America -- miss such significant doctrines?

I hasten to add another question -- what biblical principles might American Christians be missing or overlooking that a Christian from another culture could readily point out? It's scary to think we'd have as glaring a blind spot, but it must be admitted that we could. I'm willing to learn from our non-American brethren.

But let's go back to this issue. I can remember a day pre-Roe, when the American church did not mention abortion, when the sanctity of human life was not the "big deal" it is now on the cultural landscape. Indeed, I don't remember the Supreme Court decision having any affect on my life, ever crossing my awareness, even though I attended a Baptist high school. I was 15 years old when Roe was decided, and even though I have no recollection of ever hearing the word abortion mentioned (let alone preached about) before that time, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I would have recognized it as evil right away.

If you had said to me then, "What about abortion in cases of rape? What about incest? What about abortion for babies who are going to die anyway? What if a continued pregnancy will devastate a family?" you would have caused me to pause. In my heart of hearts I would have not wanted to approve abortion in those instances, but I would have had difficulty explaining why.

When I first got involved with Baptists for Life, I needed a great deal of education on the issue, but I didn't need convincing abortion was wrong, or that it was a biblical issue. Thanks to our first executive director, Mark Blocher, my understanding of the "hard cases" matured; I'm sure most of us who've been involved in the American pro-life movement have experienced a similar learning curve.

So how is the sanctity of human life (and marriage) not readily apparent to brothers and sisters in other parts of the world where the Gospel has been preached and accepted? Is it a matter of biblical illiteracy? Is it a matter of missionaries not "teaching the whole counsel of God"? Is it a matter of multiculturalism run amok?

I know I could be stepping on toes here, but I beg to be enlightened. I really don't know and want to learn. I do not want to offend. Nevertheless, the questions remain to be answered in the hope of improving our partnership with missionaries and nationals: Is Kurt's assessment accurate? If so, what is the biblical or theological explanation?

GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits

GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits | Mother Jones: Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans' 'No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act' would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they'd have to detemine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

Bioethics at midlife

Bioethics at midlife - 2011 SPRING - Stanford Medicine Magazine - Stanford University School of Medicine: No longer relegated to the background, bioethics has become a strong team player in the medical establishment as society wrestles with such high-profile issues as the role of stem cell research and how to handle end-of-life care. And in these situations, bioethicists wear many hats. They give scientists and clinicians practical tools and advice for dealing with the ethical, legal and social ramifications of their work. They also play roles in educating the public, protecting the rights of patients and giving a voice to vulnerable populations.

Activists Exploit Political Chaos to Promote Abortion Worldwide

Activists Exploit Political Chaos to Promote Abortion Worldwide | LifeNews.com: “Strategic moments can surface in chaos,” said Melissa Upreti, a legal advisor of the Center for Reproductive Rights. She advised audience members at the UN Commission on the Status of Women event to seize those moments as opportunities to advance abortion and “reproductive rights.”

Abortion and Intergenerational Justice

Abortion and Intergenerational Justice | Acton Institute PowerBlog: How can a call for intergenerational justice in particular, or social justice more broadly, have any plausibility without addressing the fundamental social problem of abortion? If intergenerational justice is about the duties and responsibilities from one generation to another, it seems obvious that the starting point of the discussion, from a particularly evangelical and even more broadly Christian perspective, should be on the question of whether that next generation has a right to come into existence in the first place.

Family breakdown was elephant in the room at anti-bullying circus

Family breakdown was elephant in the room at anti-bullying circus | The Examiner | Op Eds | Washington Examiner: By hosting an all-day White House conference on adolescent bullying last week, President Obama elevated a schoolyard issue to the level of public enemy No. 1, perhaps on a par with the first lady's labors on behalf of childhood obesity. Typical of all federal 'preventions' that mobilize the Departments of Education or Health and Human Services on behalf of some perceived crisis, none of the players of the conference had the guts to yank at the underlying root of the bullying culture: family breakdown.

In a national study of nearly 2,500 Norwegian boys and girls ages 12 to 15 published in the November issue of European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers found a substantial statistical correlation between both victims and aggressors of bullying and parental divorce.

Christians question divorce rates of faithful

Christians question divorce rates of faithful - USATODAY.com: 'It's a useful myth,' said Bradley Wright, a University of Connecticut sociologist who recently wrote Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites ... and Other Lies You've Been Told. 'Because if a pastor wants to preach about how Christians should take their marriages more seriously, he or she can trot out this statistic to get them to listen to him or her.' The various findings on religion and divorce hinge on what kind of Christians are being discussed.

Why monogamy matters

There are different kinds of premarital sex. There’s sex that’s actually pre-marital, in the sense that it involves monogamous couples on a path that might lead to matrimony one day. Then there’s sex that’s casual and promiscuous, or just premature and ill considered. . . . [E]arlier generations of Americans waited longer to have sex, took fewer sexual partners across their lifetimes, and were more likely to see sleeping together as a way station on the road to wedlock. And they may have been happier for it.

That’s the conclusion suggested by two sociologists, Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, in their recent book, “Premarital Sex in America.” Their research, which looks at sexual behavior among contemporary young adults, finds a significant correlation between sexual restraint and emotional well-being, between monogamy and happiness — and between promiscuity and depression.

. . . When social conservatives talk about restoring the link between sex, monogamy and marriage, they often have these kinds of realities in mind. The point isn’t that we should aspire to some Arcadia of perfect chastity. . . . Successful abstinence-based programs (yes, they do exist) don’t necessarily make their teenage participants more likely to save themselves for marriage. But they make them more likely to save themselves for somebody, which in turn increases the odds that their adult sexual lives will be a source of joy rather than sorrow. NYTimes

Why Cohabitation Doesn't Work

RELEVANT Magazine - Why Cohabitation Doesn't Work: Christians used to refer to cohabitation as “living in sin” and Church teaching has always disapproved the practice. But now, many American Christians in their 20s and 30s consider cohabitation morally acceptable. Young couples believe they can better gauge their prospects for long-term success by experiencing intimate life together before they exchange vows, building their relationships free from the burdens of marriage and parenthood.

Editor: So now we base our convictions on scientific studies aside from the Bible?

The Cross: The Greatest Pro-Life Initiative Ever Taken

The Cross: The Greatest Pro-Life Initiative Ever Taken - Desiring God: The greatest and most profound pro-life initiative ever to take place in the history of mankind was when God sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16-17). That is the pro-life movement we've joined and the one we've invited others to join with us. At the cross we see that people are of inestimable value and worth to God. His message of unconditional love and forgiveness is what the world needs to hear.

Cultural attitudes and worldviews that devalue human life have infected the global culture in general and the Christian culture as well. For example, in places around the world, LIFE International has seen married pastors carry on with multiple mistresses. Church leaders send their wives and daughters to have abortions. Some Christian husbands even abuse their wives to enforce submission. Christian women may have dozens of abortions during their childbearing years. Each of these examples demonstrates how every nation has a flawed theology of life.

From choice, a world of possibilities

Sexual rights: an IPPF declaration (Resource)

Editor: Here are links to the International Planned Parenthood Federation's declaration on sexual rights, in multiple languages.

Consequences of sex-selective abortion: ‘increased aggression, violence and crime’

Consequences of sex-selective abortion: ‘increased aggression, violence and crime’ | LifeSiteNews.com: An analysis of sex-selective abortion in China, India and South Korea by Dr. Therese Hesketh of the UCL Centre for International Health and Development points to significant societal repercussions of the practice. According to Hesketh, these include increased violence and crime due to a 10% to 20% imbalance between the number of males and females born in these countries.

The authors point to the expansion of the sex industry and human trafficking as another consequence, citing a study by JD Tucker published in the AIDS Journal, titled “Surplus men, sex work and the spread of HIV in China.”

Abortions give rise to Asia's 'lost boy' generation

AFP: Abortions give rise to Asia's 'lost boy' generation: Abortions of female fetuses have led to a massive surplus of young unmarried men in India and China, raising fears of an outcast group that could threaten the social fabric. The trend took root in the 1980s when ultrasound technologies made it easier for families to detect fetal sex early and to abort if it was not what the parents desired, said the analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Sons have traditionally been preferred over daughters in many parts of China, India, and South Korea due to social, cultural and financial motivations. Sex-selective abortion is outlawed but can be difficult to enforce.

Are We Willing to Suffer the Consequences of Being Pro-Life?

Are We Willing to Suffer the Consequences of Being Pro-Life? | LifeNews.com: An 11-year old supporter of sent Priests for Life the following email recently: “My mother and I are taking a bus and will be coming to the March for Life. My teacher said that I will receive zeroes on any work that I miss and it can’t be made up. I told her missing a day at school in order to stand up for life is more important and I’m willing to suffer the consequences.”

That’s what the pro-life movement needs most – people willing to suffer the consequences.

The children living and growing in the womb right now endure a great risk without having chosen it. They live in a place that has become more dangerous than any battlefield or terrorist target, and their lives hang in the balance at every moment. They did not choose this risk; someone else chose it for them.

We who defend these children have to choose to accept a share in that risk. That is solidarity. We bear willingly the risk that they bear unwillingly. Many ask what they need to do to stop abortion. But most know the answer already. They see the next step they can take, but are just trying to muster up the courage to do it. Risk is involved, and there’s no way around it. We’re afraid to speak and to act.

Are Christians Obsessed With Gays and Abortion?

Are Christians Obsessed With Gays and Abortion?: I chuckle when I hear the common critique of the religious and secular left: 'Evangelicals are obsessed with gays and abortion.' The criticism is so common that it's often internalized and adopted by the church itself. Similar to our reaction to another leftist refrain ('Christians care about children until they're born'), we act as if the critique is legitimate—as if it's the result of some kind of empirical, good-faith analysis of Christian action in America. But it's not. It is, pure and simple, a talking point. And it's false. Demonstrably false.

Doctor disputes pro-abortion claims

Mainstream media in Nebraska and neighboring Iowa have used one heart-wrenching story as a way to try to pour cold water on the success of a Nebraska law that prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Danielle and Robb Deaver shared their story of how they were denied an abortion under the new Nebraska law, even though pregnancy complications reportedly made it unlikely their child would be able to breathe on his own. The couple ironically asked for an abortion to kill their baby as opposed to supposedly letting the child suffer. But Sean Kenney, M.D., a maternal-fetal specialist from Lincoln, responded to the story with an opinion column the Omaha World-Herald newspaper printed:

Danielle Deaver was diagnosed with pre-viable premature rupture of the membranes (Pre-viable PPROM) at 22 4/7 weeks. . . . What most specialists try to do in these situations is maintain the pregnancy for as long as possible. If Mrs. Deaver had delivered two days later at 24 weeks, the baby’s chance of survival without profound neurodevelopmental impairment would have increased to 50 percent, 65 percent if she had received steroids. . . . Tragic as the outcome was, the pessimism that predicted inevitable death for the baby was certainly unwarranted. One of my greatest success stories is a 22 6/7-week infant whom I wasn’t planning on resuscitating, but at delivery I heard him cry and ran him to the neonatal intensive care unit. Several years later, he was helping to translate for his mother, looking very neurologically intact.

Editor: The moral of the story is, when given a poor prenatal prognosis, seek a second (pro-life) opinion.

One thing a day to abolish abortion

http://www.abolishabortion.com/

Men Launched the Movement to Legalize Abortion

Men Launched the Movement to Legalize Abortion - Feminists for Life of America: It has become common to view a right to abortion as the centerpiece of women's rights in general. The push to legalize abortion is popularly considered the vanguard of the women's rights movement that emerged in the early seventies. The death last week of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the one-time abortion advocate who had an excruciating change of heart, reminds us that this view, while it may be commonplace, is nonetheless wrong.