Roe v Wade Death Toll

Yesterday was the anniversary of Roe v Wade. According to statistics over 49,500,000 people have been aborted, or killed since Roe. That of course is a lot more than the Nazi’s or even Stalin, but yet abortion remains legal and protected while Hitler and Stalin are treated like the evil murderous villains they are. It is odd to think of your own country as being worse than Nazi Germany, but the facts don’t lie. We have perfected genocide in this country and we decided to call it abortion.

Attitude of Life

I have been disappointed a lot this year about how many evangelicals have an ingrained wrong attitude about life. South Dakota this year voted down an abortion ban partly because it did not have exceptions for rape and incest. As if the answer to being raped is murdering an innocent, many evangelicals went to the polls and voted against the ban. A local pastor wrote an article encouraging people to vote against the ban. She thought it was a roll back of human rights. Protecting life has now become a rolling back of rights. Embryonic stem cell research is another subject where the attitude seems to be in favor of death rather than life. Some polls suggest as many as two-thirds of Americans support Embryonic stem cell research. I like Michael J. Fox, and I think his acting is great. I also wish he did not suffer from his illness, but what he is advocating is extraordinarily selfish. He is asking the Federal government (that is you and me when it comes to paying bills) to murder hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people so that he might live a little longer and a little better, and maybe make another TV show or two. That is not an attitude of life, yet considering the polls and the election in Missouri some professing believers share his strange vision of the world. But let us not just talk of abortion, the attitude is worse in treatment of senior citizens. How many times do professing believers make the decision to stop medical treatment of their elderly parents? After all why bother getting a doctor’s opinion or assessment when the person is 89! So the elderly parent gets a cold or some other disease that can be treated with penicillin and fluid, and they slowly die because medical treatment is withheld. This is especially true in those who suffered strokes or have Alzheimers because they are ‘suffering so much.’ People in Terri Schiavo’s condition do not have a chance because why bother treating someone who needs food and water to live. It happens disturbingly often. Have we become so influenced by the culture of death that we no longer have a biblical view of life? The oft-quoted verse ‘to live is Christ and to die is gain’ is misused. This is not saying we should end our lives so we can gain. Not at all! This verse is also saying to us, ‘to live is Christ.’ Did Christ live a life free from pain and suffering? No! Our life then we can expect to have suffering and pain and trials and temptations and all sorts of non-pleasant things. Does this make our life worthless because we suffer more at 89 than we do at 29? I would hope all would answer no. It is the same soul, the same person, the same image of God. So why do we sit back and let men and women die from diseases at 89 that we would treat with a shot and rest at 29? The only answer I can come up with is that we do not have an attitude of life. May God send one on me, His church, and this nation.

The Pundits win

Wow. I was wrong. It is obvious that I do not know much about national politics. So after tonight, I may just have to shut my mouth about politics on this blog. However, I will make three comments. Two about national politics and one about local politics.

1. This election illustrates that the North and South are still quite divided in many ways. The Democratic pick-ups were in the north, traditional blue states. They took Rhode Island and Pennsylvania Senate seats, and several House seats from Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut and one in New Hampshire. They did not do so well in the south with Florida being a grand example. Democrats were hoping for 4 to 6 seats in Florida, but ended up with only two. They narrowly held on to two seats in Georgia. Plus, they are recounting a narrow possible senate victory in Virginia, where the Republican candidate ran an awful campaign embarrassing himself several times, and they failed to win a House seat they were hoping to win. The other big indicator of what a divide exists between north and south was the MSNBC coverage of those races. How many times the pundits and Chris Mathews called the Tennessee voters racist for not voting for Harold Ford made me sick. Yet, the people of Maryland were never accused of being racist, nor were the people of South Dakota who handily defeated a Native American candidate for the House. A divide in the minds of the MSNBC hosts existed and comments like Mr. Mathews made do nothing but promote the divide. Will Southerners ever like Northerners when they regularly defeat African American candidates for Senate with no name-calling, and then when the South defeats one the name-calling flies? Probably not.

2. The Republicans cost themselves this election. Several stupid scandals hurt them. They lost Delay’s seat, Ney’s seat, and Foley’s seat because of well-publicized scandals. Heath Shuler also won North Carolina House seat 11 because his opponent had some scandals as well. The state Republican party in Ohio had about five scandals running at once that probably hurt Senator Dewine, but the Democrats failed to capitalize doing much worse than many thought in Ohio. They picked up one seat when most thought they would pick up four. Mainly, however, I think Republicans can blame the President and Karl Rove for the loss. I am not talking about Iraq. I am talking about the ‘toe-the-President’s-line-or-else-attitude.’ This hurt Republicans especially because his line is not conservative at all. The President and the RNC abandoned the poor guy running for the Senate in Connecticut in favor of Joe Lieberman who votes liberal Democratic almost 90% of the time, but is strong on the war. Take what happened in Arizona for example. The Bush backed candidate in Republican primaries in AZ House seat 8 lost to a strong boarder defense candidate. The RNC publicly announced they would not support him with any money. I do not think they even endorsed him. That is giving away one seat because of a disagreement with the President. They did little to help J.D. Hayworth in AZ 05, who was also a critic of the President’s immigration policy. Both seats will now be filled by Democrats who will probably pass the amnesty plan Bush wants. I think that there is a giant rift in the Republican Party, and Bush’s Boys are running the show, and they maybe running it into the ground.

3. Locally here in South Dakota, the Abortion ban lost. It lost because I think the Republican turnout was low. I could be wrong, but I am quite surprised at the margin of defeat. This bill overwhelmingly passed the State Legislature, which at least indicates the State Representatives thought it would be popular. The Vote Yes pro-life group did a very bad job running the campaign. They seemed to concentrate on door to door, meet your neighbor, House Parties. That did not get the job done. They also did not campaign on being pro-life, but rather they spoke only about how abortion hurt women. A rather disappointing stance. About three weeks before the election the Vote No crowd bombarded the airwaves with lies and propaganda. It was never really answered. The Vote No group did not argue that abortion was wrong. They argued that it was wrong to make women of rape or incest have children, claiming there was no exception for those women. This was untrue. There was an exception. Those who suffered rape or incest could go to the doctor and take the morning after pill. Thus, they had about a 14 day window to get something done. By the way, I think the exception is bad. I do not think people that have rape or incest should be allowed abortions or morning after pills. Polls showed that if people had known about the exception they would have voted 63% for the bill. The other thing that I believe hurt this bill was the supposedly non-biased Attorney General’s explanation that appeared on the official documents put out by the state on the amendments and initiated measures. The Attorney General made sure to note that this law would be challenged, go to the Supreme Court, and possibly stick the state of South Dakota with a large legal bill. It was an underhanded thing to put on a ‘non-biased’ official explanation sheet.

So, I did not beat any pundits and showed my true ignorance. However, I did enjoy seeing what I hope to be the new face of the Democratic Party. Harold Ford impressed me with his open quoting of Scripture and discussion of Jesus Christ. Jim Casey promises to be a pro-life vote. While I find politics fun and entertaining, it is good to remember that the fortunes of political parties has nothing to do with the church.

33 Years of Roe v Wade

January 22, 1973 saw Roe v Wade become law. Since then over 40 million children have been killed. 40 million. That is mind boggling. Murders, Wars, and even the Holocaust pale in comparison with regards to death toll. We hear a lot about the fight to save Roe or over turn Roe on the news, but we seldom hear about the act itself. We hear talking points of abortions being “safe, rare, and legal”, but that fails to match the facts. We see would be justices do just enough promising and just enough eluding to keep both sides off guard and keep both sides unhappy.

Yet through all of this I am convinced of one simple fact. Abortion would not be an issue if there were not a market for it. Nothing in today’s world screams louder about the failure of the church than 40 million abortions in 33 years. If you really think that 40 million abortions were all done by professing atheists, you really think about investing in the ocean front property here in South Dakota. Some where we have failed to preach the importance of life, the sanctity of the marriage bed, and the power of forgiveness. Some where we have winked at sin, and now no one bats at eye when they sin. The blame does not lie with politicians, or judges. It lies with us. Likewise the solution is not in the legislatures or in the courts, it is in the gospel.

Let us all pray that God would help us as a church to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to help us as a people to forgive one another, and to help us as a nation to repent of our sins.

Psalm 127
"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

Shocking Stories

I wonder if any backlash will come of the story of Haleigh Poutre. Massachusetts Social Services and Supreme Court had decided to kill her and just hours before they took her off of life support she began to wake up from her permanent vegetative state. She is now breathing on her own.

I also wonder how Evangelical and Catholic Together advocates will react to the Pope’s proclamation that evolution is acceptable science. So much for a good conservative hard line Pope.

Should people apologize to Michael Schiavo?

The Terri Schiavo case is one that the pundits only seem to remember when it furthers their liberal agenda. Her murder is now being used for political gain by liberal press everywhere. They are demanding an apology for government intervention and the portrayal of Michael Schiavo as a murderer. It just goes to show you that they don’t understand that he is indeed a murderer, and thus no apology is necessary. The recently released autopsy tells us that she had no chance of recovery. While I suspect that that finding is medically questionable, it does not change anything in the situation. Terri Schiavo was alive, and now she is not. That is the only thing that matters. Terri’s life should have been saved not because we think she might have one day recovered, but because she had a life to save. It is not about what Terri could have added to the good of the community or the world, or what someone thinks of her quality of life. It is the fact that life has a quality all of its own: it bears the image of God. And He has told us to protect it. So does anyone owe Michael an apology? No. He did what he did, and he is what he is, a man who starved his wife to death.

PCA GA Results

The PCA general assembly is over, and one can begin to evaluate it though many more eye witness accounts must be gathered before a final opinion can be reached about this years GA. The big issue of the Mississippi Valley Presbytery Report and its distribution met with a bitter defeat. Admittedly it was a silly overture. It probably should have failed, but what worries me is that a substitute motion to create a committee to study the issue failed. The PCA is racked with these divisions of significant differences, and no one is even going to study the problem? Seems odd to me. There is a mention in the blog linked about the Standing Judicial Commission. I hope that mean there actually will be some judicial cases about this, but we will see. Somehow I doubt it.
The ‘papist’ overture failed because there is no method in place to annotate the Westminster. Probably a good thing.
They failed to condemn public schools. I am not sure where I would have stood on this issue, but I think it is important for one reason. You will note that this is a motion brought by several individuals, not a presbytery. One of the individuals is Dr. Kennedy, a very influential man. In fact, I think he is the motivating force behind that Justice Sunday thing. Anyway, his motion failed. I just think it is interesting that Dr. Kennedy could not get a presbytery to move on his motion, and now can’t get the GA to act on it either.
The overture requiring people to explain their exceptions to the WCF, and when they teach them make it known to the congregation they are not in line with the WCF on that point, failed. One would like to think that this was because of how troublesome it would be to police, but it failed because exceptions to the WCF are not that big a deal in the PCA.
The Value of Human Life is now under consideration by the PCA. I have hope that they will come back with a good statement, but it just seems odd that they have never dealt with this before, and that they had to a make a committee to study the issue. A second overture asking the GA to make a statement on the Schavio case was turned down because they now had a committee to study such things.

I have to say it was interesting to be able to sit down one night at my computer and read blogs by people attending the GA. The PCA is nothing if not market savvy. One wonders how much longer the PCA can go on ignoring its internal differences. One presbytery condemns men in other presbyteries without trying to have trials, and then the home presbytery clears them without a trial. Everything done in Ad Hoc committees. These differences will soon rend the denomination or carry it into liberalism.

Blog #2 - Culture War

World Magazine’s April 2nd issue had an interesting article about another right to life issue in South Carolina. Mr. McClanahan, a patient at the Medical University of SC, was declared unlikely to live or to recover, and, despite the fact that he regained consciousness, obviously felt pain, could move some limbs, blink answers to questions, breath without a respirator for 11 hours, and had a wife (legal guardian) who wanted everything done to save him, MUSC is trying to kill him. His heart monitor was removed, and against the wishes of the patient and the legal guardian, a DNR order was placed on his chart, which is illegal, by the way. Nurses are refusing to treat him, and no follow-up on his progress is being made. More evidence of a culture war in America.

This has gotten me to thinking about how one can actually win the culture war. If you looked solely at politics, you would think that the culture war is going well, as conservatives are being swept into office. However, a quick look around the real world will show you the falsehood of trusting in politics. Why then does the ‘other side’ seem to be winning all of the battles in this culture war? What is the answer?

First, let me state that preaching the gospel is a must, but it should be accompanied by serious effort on all our parts. More evangelism leading to more conversions is required. Amen. I am all for evangelism. But, I think that there is something else that we must do. Education. It strikes me that while there is a significant homeschooling movement, it is not enough. For even if we educate our own through homeschooling and Christian schools, people still have to go to secular institutions for higher education to prepare for a job. I have good Christian friends who were trained in medicine at MUSC. I have a brother who was trained to be lawyer at UVA. I have friends who learned architecture, art, and the principles of beauty from a secular state-sponsored school. It is hard to learn a Christian worldview of medicine, the law, or architecture if God is left out of the classroom. I am not trying to imply anything about my friends here, they are all godly men. I am simply pointing out the fact that they, and we ourselves, would all be wiser if churches, denominations, and the like returned to the business of training men and women for life via education, and higher education at that. There was a time when there was only one secular school in the nation, the University of Pennsylvania, and all of the teachers there were Anglican priests or Presbyterian pastors.

I am becoming firmly convinced that if the church does not return to the work of education, then the church will not win the culture war.

A discussion worth action

Matt has a great discussion going between himself and an atheist named Darksyde. And it all started with Martin Luther King Jr., and his dream. I suggest you check it out.

And as long as I have a quick post, I want to remind everyone about that January is the anniversary of Roe v Wade. Today we may believe the climate is changing and I pray it is, but in the end Late Term abortions are still legal. This is the sort of abortions that Pharaoh wanted during the time of Moses in Exodus 1. And sadly the Supreme Court has become a place of party politics and agendas. This month I suggest everyone write your Congressman and Senator. Also write your State Representatives, after all Constitutionally this is a state issue. More importantly, pray. This is a national sin, and we should all be on our knees. It is God who heals and forgives, not any form of government.