QotD: Eustace Clarence Scrubb

Really, I am very sorry if you are not a reader. Obviously, you read some things or you would not be here (I'm not as dense as granite, you know).

I have not always been a reader but the continued prodding of men I respected greatly to read much and read broadly has impelled me to read beyond my comfort zones. I wish I could read faster; many books remain untouched on my to-be-read shelf. The chuckles I've enjoyed and the insights into the soul that have come my way through reading are too numerous to cite.

I have always read to my children, and I have tried to press their comfort zones, too. Still, we will often return to favorites. I have lost track of how many times I have read aloud "The Chronicles of Narnia" in my family. In our current reading of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," I came across this description of the parents of Eustace Clarence Scrubb, the spoiled cousin of the Peavensie children whose name pretty much says it all. Lewis wrote:

"He didn't call his father and mother "Father" and "Mother," but Harold and Alberta. They were very up-to-date and advanced people. They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotallers and wore a special kind of underclothes."

While that last phrase seems to be indicting the LDS, Lewis has skewers enough for all, particularly for those of us in religious communities who like to declare certain conduct to be sin or at the very least inappropriate for those who call themselves Christian.

Many of us who are conservative believers bristle when we hear of the government wanting to restrict gun ownership. Yes, guns can be used as tools to inflict harm. Sometimes the harm comes about unintentionally. At the same time, a gun can be used for good and for pleasure when one is responsible. The Christian understands that.

Then the believer turns right around and condemns some manner of food (soft drinks? Meats? Anything non-organic?), any form of smoking, or any usage of alcohol for the very same reasons. None of these things is condemned in principle or in fact in the word of God. Their misuse, as with guns, is certainly condemned, but not their use. In fact, wine enjoyment often goes hand in hand with celebration and times of rejoicing. 

Really, it's amazing with all the ale and wien drinking and revelry in Lewis' children's books that they are even read within some circles. Perhaps they're not. Or perhaps they're edited. Either would be tragic.

Kermit Gosnell: This is nothing new

Have you heard the name Kermit Gosnell recently? If not, you're in good company. I mentioned his name a short time ago to two Christians, and they just shrugged in non-recognition. Why? The Mainstream Media has by and large ignored this story. Why? Because it's about the nightmare in an American abortion clinic.

It's been over two years since I first wrote of Gosnell (here), and it was six months before that that I heard of his barbarity. Now he's on trial for bringing about the death of one mother and seven children (here. The children had survived his attempt to abort them, so this man finished them off after they'd drawn breath.

And for the most part, the media has said nothing during that timeframe. Only now and in a few scant outlets can you hear about Kermit Gosnell.

Is what happened atrocious? Yes. Grotesque? Yes. Horrifying? Yes. But this is nothing new. This happens every day all across the country.

Randy Alcorn writes:

I must say that while I agree the revelations in the case are all horrific, in fact I am not shocked about them. Why? Because I already knew what was going on in abortion clinics. I already knew that innocent people are killed there by the hundreds ...every week. Twenty-four years ago I looked in the dumpster of an abortion clinic and saw pieces of human flesh. This is not news to me. I knew that the lives of women are ruined there, and I knew that the “doctors” who spend their lives killing babies in most cases know exactly what they are doing. (Yes, I have talked with them.)

The “shocking discovery” that an abortionist who made millions of dollars from child-killing had such a low regard and such a profound disrespect for the lives of babies and women is properly responded to with a “Huh?” As in, didn’t we know that already? And, if we didn’t, what is wrong with us? (And by the way, while Gosnell is on trial for the murder of seven babies, the fact is that he killed thousands and thousands of children. Anyone who only counts them as babies once they get big enough is an accomplice to this man’s evil deeds.)

Could we please stop pretending? Abortion is in fact the ruthless killing of an innocent human being. That’s what it always has been, and that’s what it always will be. When Planned Parenthood and NOW and politicians deny this, they are simply lying. There is nothing new about this. If you are surprised to discover, as in the case of this Pennsylvanian abortion clinic, that those who kill babies for a living are really not very good people, my question is…where have you been, and what have you been thinking goes on in these clinics? And if some abortionists are better at sanitizing the walls and disposing of baby body parts, do you really think that makes them any better in the sight of God Almighty, Creator of these children, and Judge of us all?

While the major networks are ignoring this story, it's interesting that former NARAL president Kate Michaelman recognizes the gravity of this case and has decided to try some slight of hand and verbal contortions. To get our eyes off the death that is caused by every abortion and the trauma caused to each and every mother, Ms. Michaelman thinks the key point in the Gosnell trial is that

"It is critically important that the women of Pennsylvania know that abortion is legal and is a safe medical procedure."

People, abortion has NEVER been a safe medical procedure. For one, it is nearly always deadly. Kermit Gosnell is not an aberration. He was just sloppy. The same thing he did is going on in clinics across our country and around the world. Legally.

That is what should disturb our souls. 

Perhaps this will wake us up like a cold slap in the face, much like Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" did with regard to slavery. Yes, Americans knew of the atrocities that were taking place in the South, but the fictional imagery in the book shook a nation to its core and proved to be the push the nation needed to abolish the notion of men as property.

Will this macabre trial of what takes place in every abortion clinic across the country build such a groundswell as did Mrs. Stowe's novel? Certainly not if people do not hear about it. If then, what? Only time will tell.

Who knows? You might be the voice that changes the tone of the American conversation. Speak out. Harriet Beecher Stowe used your pen. What are your talents? Use those talents for the sake of mothers and their unborn children across the country. 

Please.

42: A tale of two men

Let us never diminish what Jackie Robinson did.

Branch Rickey

Becoming the first black man in the majors took a toll. His body received abuse upon abuse from purposely errant baseballs and cleats because he had a bit more melanin than the average Jackie. Not only did his body receive abuse, so too did his soul and mind. As a human being, he was treated like an animal, but throughout his ordeal, Jackie Robinson ever remained a man.

That's one reason I am excited about Warner Brothers upcoming movie "42." The other reason is other
man in this saga. Baseball junkies will know who the other man is. Most of America does not. You see, Jackie Robinson would never have gotten his shot without the courage of Branch Rickey.

Ford as Rickey

Branch Rickey was the owner of the Dodgers, the thorn in the backside of the remainder of the major league owners. Rickey saw the talent in the Negro Leagues and thought it a travesty that such men could not play in the Majors because of their skin color. What informed Rickey? His passionate and fervent relationship with Jesus Christ.

In "42," Harrison Ford has been transformed into an amazing likeness of Rickey. Watching the clip, he'd created the same gravelly, cigar-scarred voice. My only question: how will Hollywood treat Rickey's devotion to his God?

The story of Robinson cannot be untethered from Rickey and vice versa, despite the fact that Rickey did many more extraordinary things for baseball outside of bringing it into the then twentieth century regarding civil rights.

Said Robinson about Rickey, "I realized how much our relationship had deepened after I left baseball. It was that later relationship that made me feel almost as if I had lost my own father. Branch Rickey, especially after I was no longer in the sports spotlight, treated me like a son." He also said, "The thing about him was that he was always doing something for someone else. I know, because he did so much for me."

So this April, I'll be dropping some cash at the multiplex hoping to see a great story about two great men.