35 Years of Murder - Roe v. Wade

This morning as I was driving my daughter to the dentist, I heard on the radio that this is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I looked it up and it is the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision.

Back when the law was created, we didn't have all the fancy ultrasound machines that we do now. I suppose that the ignorance of the day could have been excused to some degree, but it's hard to look at today's ultrasound pictures and not think that a fetus is just as alive as a baby. I had the opportunity to go see Bodyworlds 3 last year, and they have a fetal display... it is amazing how defined a baby's features are even at 8 weeks gestation.

In the last 35 years, millions of people have been killed for various reasons. Some were raped, some were forced to by their parents, some had health problems, some didn't want to tell their parents. Whatever the reason, the way that we react to the preborn has changed over the years.

• A girl can choose to have an abortion, or she can choose to have an abortion and make the father pay child support. Over the years, the argument of father's rights has developed... why can't the father choose to renounce the rights to the baby and choose to not pay child support? We seem to think that it's "my body, my choice" but it doesn't extend to "my wallet, my choice" for the fathers. I'm against abortion, but it does seem a little unfair to the guys. If abortion wasn't available, as it used to be, there wouldn't be this argument.



• Adopting a baby is not an easy thing to do. If you want to adopt a healthy infant of the same race as you (and you happen to be white), you can get on a waiting list and hope and pray that you'll get your chance someday... after shelling out thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. I wasn't alive before the Roe v. Wade decision, but somehow I doubt that there was a dearth of healthy babies waiting to be adopted. When teen girls used to get pregnant, often they would go away to "visit an aunt" or something for several months, and come back after having the child and adopting it out.
  
  A lot of people that are in favor of abortion use the argument that "there are so many unwanted children in the world... abortion just keeps another unwanted baby from being born." While it's true that there are many unwanted children out there, most of them are not healthy newborns, which is what a lot of the parents facing infertility are trying to adopt. Many of them can't any more, because they can't afford it.
  
  Adoption nowadays just seems to be something that most people don't even really consider. You either want the baby and you have it, or you don't want the baby and you abort it. Not many people have the courage any more to go through with a pregnancy just to give it to some strangers that really want to have a child but can't.



• Premarital sex is something that is easier to hide from your parents. The availability of birth control aside, if you get pregnant nowadays, you can just "get rid of it" by going to Planned Parenthood, and your parents never have to know in many cases.



• Babies with birth defects (or suspected birth defects) are less likely to be born. You can have tests to screen them out. Sometimes the tests are wrong, but even if the test wasn't wrong, is it right to say that you don't want a baby to live even if it is not perfect?

There are truly cases where the mother's life is in danger and there is absolutely no way that the mother can survive without an abortion. Tubal pregnancies, for example. There is no way to save the baby's life, because the pregnancy in the fallopian tubes would cause both the mom and the baby to die. But there's not much controversy surrounding that.

Neither is there much controversy on doctors using abortion procedures, the D&C, D&E, or D&X, in cases where the baby has died and there is an inevitable miscarriage. Doctors that don't perform those procedures on living babies will perform them when the mother is waiting to miscarry. It can be a lifesaving procedure in these cases (without this procedure people sometimes could bleed to death)... I happen to be one person whose life was saved twice by this procedure, even though I was hoping that I could miscarry naturally.

There is also the abortion drug out there, RU-486, which was not available 35 years ago. It's not exactly the quick fix that some doctors would let you think... but then again, it is not necessarily an evil drug, for the same reason that the D&C procedure is not always used to kill babies. Sometimes people lose their babies and are going to miscarry anyway... this drug can be used to help people in those circumstances in the same way a D&C could.

It would be nice to live in a world where abortion was outlawed once again. I'm not suggesting that we have a "too bad, so sad" attitude towards those who find themselves pregnant with an unwanted baby, I think that we should help them in any way that we could. It would be nice if more resources were diverted to pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that would help teen moms (or older moms, if needed) with resources, medical care, or even a home to stay at if their parents kick them out of the house.

I really love my babies... the one that is 5 1/2 and had her first two baby teeth removed today, and the one that likes to climb on our computer cases (and anything else he can find). It's hard to believe that they started out smaller than a poppy seed. It's hard to believe that someone would want to end the life of a baby that would eventually grow into a sweet little newborn or toddler if just fed and cared for.

I used to think that abortion was okay for some people, but not for me. But then I saw the Silent Scream video. Don't click on the link if you are a kid or are squeamish, however (there's nothing on the main page that is offensive).

Hope that we don't have another 35 years (and 35 million babies) of abortion in this country. :-(

Revelation 18:13 - Cloning, slavery, or both?

While watching the O'Reilly Factor tonight, I was stunned when someone referred to cloned embryos as a "commodity". Not that embryos were referred to in such a fashion, but it reminded me of a verse in Revelation (in a lament about the things that Babylon had sold after it had fallen):

and cinnamon, and incenses, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

In the NKJV it refers to bodies and souls of men being sold.

Anyway, I guess they're cloning monkeys over in Oregon right now and some people were worried that they might start cloning human embryos next. What really made me think of this verse is how this whole cloned embryo thing could perhaps take off at some point. I believe that a baby is a baby in the zygote stage, so whether you are talking about an embryo, fetus, or even a blastocyst, it's still a baby, and if it is a human baby, creating it to experiment on or harvest stem cells from (forgive me if I get my terminology wrong I don't feel it's worth the time investment to research) is morally wrong.

But let's say at some point in the future scientists do start cloning humans and start experimenting on their cells (at whatever stage). I could really see a trade of sorts developing... people would be buying and selling the bodies and souls of men as this Bible verse is referring to.

Now I know that slavery does exist today in the traditional sense that we learn about in history books. Back in the days when I had more money I did donate money to a modern abolitionist group through the Combined Federal Campaign. For more information about slavery today you can visit www.antislavery.org. Up until today, I thought that Revelation 18 referred to the modern slave trade. And it probably does, to some extent. But perhaps this verse is also referring to the buying and selling of cloned embryos as well.

Another thought on the subject of cloning... if you cross a human with a mouse, what do you get? Scientists have already created these chimera-like creatures, and I'm wondering what they are. I believe that there is a divide between animals and humans and humans are not animals, and vice-versa. So what is a chimera? Is it a human or an animal? Does it have a soul? Does it need to get saved? Will it automatically go to hell? At the end, will God just destroy it and it will cease to exist? To me it's a scary thought... that God is allowing us to create these... whatevers... and who other than God knows whether these creatures need salvation or not? Or can get saved?

Pat Robertson Endorses Guiliani

I'm really underwhelmed by the first-tier candidates this election. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton? I'll be praying for enough money to move to Australia if that happens. Barak Obama? Does anybody know what he stands for except for dancing well? As for the Republicans, we have a pro-choice, adulterer divorcee and a Mormon. Not that Mormons aren't nice or anything, and I think that in general Mitt Romney could do a good job, but I'm afraid that a Mormon president would make it more disagreeable to say that Mormons and Christians are of different faiths. I really like governor Huckabee, and I'd vote for him if he actually gets the nomination. He seems to be gaining in the polls, so we'll see. But he still seems to be a dark horse. I like Duncan Hunter too, mainly because back when I was in the military and was having problems, he retrieved thousands of dollars for me that the Navy had wrongfully taken from me... sometimes it helps to write to your congressman, and it paid off big time that time.

I heard today that Pat Robertson is endorsing Rudy Guiliani. I don't think that Pat Robertson's endorsement carries the weight that it did oh... 20 years ago or so, but I still find it disturbing. I know that Guiliani did really well after 9/11, but to be perfectly honest, terrorism isn't my top concern. More people die from bathtub drownings than terrorism. He's got way too many marks against him in my book. If it was just the abortion issue, that would be one thing. If it was just the divorce issue, fine. We've already had more than one adulterer in the White House, so if it was just that... okay.

Dr. James Dobson said the other day that voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for... evil. And if we're talking about human lives being saved here... a lot more people die from abortion every year than terrorism. It just doesn't impress me. Last election I voted 3rd party, and I don't regret it. If it comes down between Guiliani and Clinton, I'll vote 3rd party again.

While it seems like people know who is going to get the nomination, a lot of things could change in the next few months. Four years ago, Mr. Yippee Yee Haw Howard Dean was the front runner, but he kind of ruined his chances. So I suppose that there is still hope. But it is disappointing when a "Christian" leader endorses someone with so many strikes against him. I know that we have all fallen short of the glory of God, and we should forgive, but at the same time, the Bible also doesn't have a problem from disqualifying people from certain offices due to their past. Haven't we had enough presidents being voted into office with tarnished reputations already?

Newborns in Trash Cans And Toilets... Why Are We Outraged?

I just read another story about a baby giving birth to a newborn and trying to kill it. This lady tried to flush her baby down the toilet at a McDonald's restaurant.

You can find the story here.

I find stories like this to be really sad. If she didn't want the baby, why didn't she drop the baby off at a fire station or a hospital? That seems to be the mantra of so many people that hear about stories like this. The answer, my guess is, lies at the heart of the abortion debate...

She didn't drop her baby off at the fire station or hospital for the EXACT SAME reason why someone would have an abortion rather than put their baby up for adoption.

When you ask someone why they would have an abortion rather than put their baby up for adoption, sometimes they'll reply with "oh, there are so many unwanted babies in the world!" Then if you press it further, bringing up information about how the waiting list is so long for people that wish to adopt newborn babies, and that there are virtually NO unwanted, healthy newborn babies out there (and most handicapped newborn babies get adopted as well) they often have another answer. My guess is that it's the same answer as the people that flush their babies down the toilet or throw them in dumpsters...

"I don't know how I could live with myself knowing that my child was walking around and I didn't know what kind of life they were living!" Or something like that.

There are so many people that say that they could never put a baby up for adoption, and that seems to be a common answer. Why it is better that someone is dead than put up for adoption, I don't know. I don't get it. Especially nowadays... with open adoptions you can pick the parent of your child, send them Christmas cards, etc.

I never really noticed the parallel between people who abort their babies and those who throw them in the trash before... but it seems so clear to me now. So now, the only other part of the equation is... why are we outraged when someone tries to flush their baby down the toilet, but don't share the same outrage when someone aborts a baby?

Something to think about.

Here's A Bit Of Irony For You...

Life Decisions International, a pro-life group, comes out with a list of charities and businesses that support Planned Parenthood. If you click on the link you can see some of the highlights from the new list.

I found some of the businesses and charities that support Planned Parenthood to be particularly disturbing:

• Walt Disney - say it isn't so! I guess that they give de facto approval of "gay day", so I shouldn't be too surprised, I guess.
  
• Johnson and Johnson - you make baby products, yet you support a company that makes you lose business by providing abortions? Doesn't make much sense. My husband joked that people make corn oil out of corn, peanut oil out of peanuts... what do you think they make baby oil out of? Ha ha.
  
• Council of Churches - Christians for killing babies. Nice.
  
• National Education Association - well, not so surprising. But if you come to think about it, by supporting Planned Parenthood, they are also costing themselves business.
  

And, for the #1 most ironic charity to support Planned Parenthood...

• Save The Children - the name says it all. If it wasn't so sad, it would almost be funny.

Adventures In History: 2 Kings 17 (part 4) - The End

This is the final part to my 2 Kings 17 story. Here are the other parts:

• Part 1
  
• Part 2
  
• Part 3
  

When we last left Israel and America, the people were worshiping idols and making God angry. There were some preachers out there warning them to repent, but most refused. They liked their idols too much.

As for Israel...

And they left all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made molten images, two calves, for themselves. And they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire. And they used divination and incantations, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger.

~ 2 Kings 17:16-17

The Israelites made a couple golden calves and worshiped them. They served a foreign God, Baal. They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire. What does that mean anyway?

Baal was a false god that supposedly granted benefits, but he had a dark side to him. He required human sacrifices. In times of trouble or plague, human victims, usually the first born child, was burnt alive, known euphemistically as "passing through the fire." Another god that required burnt human sacrifices was Molech, who was often portrayed as a bull.

The Israelites started getting involved in witchcraft and sorcery, which God had declared to be an abomination (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). They started to worship the stars, called the "host of heaven". Asherah that they worshipped took the form of tree trunks. So they were worshiping cows, trees, and stars. They forgot their creator, and instead worshiped the creation. (If you are interested in more information on Baal, Asherah, host of heaven, etc., please see the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, an excellent resource for learning more.

These Israelites sound really out there, don't you think? Of course us enlightened Americans are nothing like that, right?

We last left the Americans in the late 1960s. Teenagers were rebelling against authority, taking drugs, and worshiping rock stars. Here I must note that Revelation 9:21 says that the people of the tribulation did not repent of their sorceries... which in the Greek is the word "pharmakeia", which can also be translated into drugs. 1 Samuel 15:23 states "for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." As far as God is concerned, these people might as well have been practicing witchcraft.

One of the rock star idols of the time, The Rolling Stones, performed a concert at Altamont speedway near San Francisco, where the Hell's Angels, who were hired as security guards, murdered one of the concert goers during their song "Sympathy For The Devil."

In 1973, the Supreme Court made the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Since then, around 48.5 million babies have been killed. A small percentage may have been performed to save the life of the mother. Many, however, were killed because they were inconvenient. Some were killed because the mother thought that she was wiser than God, and could not give the child a good life (and would not consider adoption). Some were killed because the child was believed to be born deformed, or sick, or with other defects, and the parents, in their infinite wisdom, decided that they knew better than God and that the child did not deserve to live. Some, I'm sure, were killed for other reasons... in almost every case, the people deciding to undergo the abortion decided that they knew better than God, who created the life. In other words, the children were sacrificed to the gods of convenience, or wisdom, or some other false god. We're not so different from the Israelites after all, are we?

The environmental movement started gaining momentum around this time. The first Earth Day was in April 1970. While being good stewards of the Earth is wise... and since God created the Earth we should be responsible with it... but many have gone overboard in it's protection. In 2006, Sea World had to stop running their fireworks displays because a small amount of contaminants would end up in Mission Bay, and they needed to get a discharge permit as a result. Another belief that seems to be catching on is that the Earth is overpopulated and people need to start having fewer children (never mind that God considers children to be a blessing... oh, and the 1 child policy works so well in China). Another idea catching on is that people are no more important than animals (doesn't the Bible say that we are worth many sparrows?). Nevertheless, you can destroy an unborn baby, but don't you dare destroy a bald eagle's egg (unless you want a hefty fine and a jail sentence).

Then you have groups like PETA, who believe that we shouldn't eat animals or wear leather. They claim their own form of morality but they are willing to tempt people to lust (with all their naked campaigns like the running of the nudes), and occasionally even commit blasphemy with anti-God campaigns like their ad with a picture of a pig and the slogan "He Died For Your Sins."

In a way, we are doing exactly what the Israelites did. They worshiped the creation rather than the creator, and so are many of us. We don't burn our children, but we are willing to rip off our preborn children's tiny limbs with a vacuum or burn them in saline solution.

The final chapter of the American story has not been written yet. However, the Israeli's story in 2 Kings 17 does have an ending:

So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria until this day.

~ 2 Kings 17:23b

Israel, who had seen miracles such as the parting of the Red Sea and the fall of the walls of Jericho, were carried away captive into Assyria. What will happen to us?

Teenagers Set Kittens On Fire - How We Treat The Helpless

What is it with some people nowadays? Two teenagers allegedly set a kitten on fire last month.

All I can think is... how horribly disgusting and depraved. How sad. What would drive someone to do this?

Just because you can do something and probably get away with it (so you think) doesn't mean that you should. It's likely that there are many more people that treat animals horribly and never get caught.

Perhaps these teenagers feel that hurting something gives them a sense of power. The kitten, however, is utterly helpless and can not do anything in its defense. What is the power in that? Perhaps they are just cruel, nasty people. I don't know. Wicked is a good word for them.

How a society (or individual members in the society) treats its most helpless reflects either poorly or well on a society (we seem to be doing fairly poorly). Everybody is shocked when someone lights a kitten on fire, but what about other helpless members of our society?

What about the popularity of Bumfights? Homeless people tend to be among our more vulnerable people in society. Why would anybody want to watch this trash? Is it funny that there are people so desperate for a drink (or a hamburger, or $50, or whatever) that they are willing to harm themselves? I find it sad. Not to mention people that think it's funny to beat up random homeless people, just because they can. Would you think that it was funny if it was your son or daughter, mother or father, sister or brother in one of these shows? What about the people that think they can get away with murdering the homeless?

How do we treat our elderly? How many people put their parents into nursing homes and never visit them? It's always a joke on The Simpsons that Homer's dad is old and nobody seems to ever care about him. Aren't we supposed to honor our mother and father? Although we may not have to obey them any more as adults, I think that we have a responsibility to care for our parents as they get older. While they may need nursing care that we can not provide, that doesn't absolve us of our responsibility to visit or at least call, if they are long distance.

And what about the most helpless people of all? The unborn? Sadly, that is the most dangerous time for a baby, when it should be the safest.

Then He also shall say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You? Then He shall answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

~ Matthew 25:41-45

George Tiller, The Baby Killer, Charged Then Vandalized

I originally was going to write a post on this guy, but I guess I couldn't find the words for it. I couldn't find words nice to use for him, and what I did say wasn't really constructive either.

George Tiller, the baby killer, notable for his late-term abortions in Kansas, was charged with 19 misdemeanors late last month. He was charged with signing off on abortions with a doctor that he had an improper financial relationship with. Not exactly the stuff people are hoping to get him with... such as not reporting abortions done on minors (which is against Kansas state law) or providing abortions where the life or permanent health of the mother is not at stake, but I suppose that it's a start.

Meanwhile, Tiller's abortion clinic was vandalized a few days ago. Vandals cut a hole in the roof, inserted a garden hose, and flooded the clinic.

I'm as pro-life as anybody could be, and I'd like to see George Tiller's baby-killing machine stopped, but vandalization is not the way to go. I'm guessing that Christians were the people that probably did the vandalizing. By vandalizing his property, they just make all Christians look bad. Do these pro-life vandalizers ever sit down and truly think about what repercussions their actions may cause? Someone may see that and mutter "those darned Christians, I hate them all!" Someone that might otherwise later in life decide that they want to learn about Jesus might decide they don't want to have anything to do with us, and could end up doomed to a life in hell... all because someone decided to flood an abortion clinic.

I think that killing babies is wrong... but at least the babies that Tiller kills will go to Heaven.

I do hope that George Tiller is stopped, but it needs to be done through the courts, and through prayer. Not through vandalism