The stuff of stars

August's dying day proved a delight in Madison, Wisconsin as my brother and I enjoyed a patio on Capitol Square drinking coffee and catching up on the last year.

During one of the seven-minute lulls, a card carousel just inside the coffee shop caught my eye. "You are made from the stuff of stars," it declared. 

Indeed, there is truth to the claim. The stuff of the cosmos is the stuff of your cells. The sun churns hydrogen into energy and as you are mostly hydrogen and oxygen in their moister mix, you are the stuff of the sun. The minerals within your bones and muscles are in the mix of the Moon, calcium, iron, and magnesium to name a few.

Being an edgy coffee shop the card no doubt intended to boost its receiver from the muck and mire of life. You're not ordinary. You're not plain. You're the stuff of stars after all.

Ah, the romance. As bright as the stars shine so, too, can you shine. Can't you just see the Hollywood movie? The protagonist doesn't die, they just dissolve into the stuff of stars.

The Bible declares the same thing, in a way.

God tells Adam in the third chapter of his book to humanity, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return" but God doesn't tell the cream of his creation this tidbit to bolster his brooding heart. Adam had just rebelled against his Creator (I've often wondered how long it took for that to happen), and God was fulfilling the promise he made in declaring that such rebellion would lead to Adam's death. 

Being created with and returning to the stuff of stars wasn't man's ultimate end nor his ultimate good. The essential substance of man is of much greater value, and therein lies the sanctity of all humanity from the greatest to the least.

It's not that God created man of dust that makes him unique--he did that with all of the animals, after all (Genesis 1:24)--man is unique because God created him in his image (Genesis 1:27, 9:6). It's not the material of man, it's the immaterial that matters. The fact that we are of the stuff of stars doesn't highlight that point, rather it highlights our fragility. Knowing we will all die touts the truth that we stand hostile to the God who crafted us in his image for dust we are and to dust we shall return.

And yet, there is a reconciliation. Man couldn't do it any more than a broken computer can fix itself. God reconciled man to himself when he took the same dust to himself and died the death that men deserved (Romans 5:6-10).

I never saw the platitude that adorned the inside of the card. It should have read, "And still you will die," for that is the sobering truth we must each swallow. Will that turn us toward hoping to the stars our hoping in the One who crafted the stars and crafted each one of us in his image?

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.

The national divide and the Life non sequitur

I've mumbled before about the growing chasm within our nation. Sad that a national calamity would further highlight this truth.

Consider, the folks most vocal about gun-control in the aftermath of violent tragedy are by and large the same ones who are the most vocal about unrestrained abortion. I can't figure out the logic there. Would someone enlighten me?

Dangerous places to live

After last night, Election 2012, the two most dangerous places to live in all the world have not changed and will not change: Israel and the mother's womb.

God calls his saints to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). Now would be a very good time to take this to heart for Israel now has no national ally.

God calls us to be a mouthpiece for those who have no say and to be a defender for the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:8-9). Now would be a very good time to pray for the unborn child as the most pro-abortion president in our nation's history has attained a second term. Things will only get more dire.

Serve in your community at local pregnancy care centers. You don't have to be a counselor. They need administrative help, yard work to be done, and maintenance work almost every day of the year. Write letters to your congressman and local officials. A simple letter to the editor speaking out for the sanctity of human life is a good and easy thing to do.

No doubt folks in Israel are not comforted by the vote. If the unborn only knew, their terror would be greater still. Yet we press on trusting our God and King and laboring endlessly until the day of his appearing. The darker the night, the brighter will his light shine in and through us (Matthew 5:16). Let it shine!

American abortion law

Steven Brigham

When pro-life and pro-choice forces stood nose to nose, the PL'ers pleaded for the life of the child and the PC'ers called for the autonomy of the mother.  The horrifying practice of Kermit Gosnell has forced the grisly reality of abortion into the limelight.

Many want to believe that Gosnell is an aberration.  He is not.  Back in September, when I first heard of Gosnell, I couldn't believe my ears.  Babies in jars?!  He wasn't the only one.  Steven Chase Brigham had a similar nightmare going on in his clinic.  His chastisement?  He should not have been transporting patients across state lines.  Ah.  Shame, shame.

When you and I can simply banter pro-life and pro-choice over coffee, we banter words.  The conversation may grow as heated as a Steelers-Packers argument, but when we leave the coffee shop, nothing in our lives has changed.  The idea of babies in jars changes the discussion because it is not just an idea.  It is a reality.  Babies delivered live only to have their spinal cord clipped at the base of the skull.  No, it's not just discussion.  Men and women are doing this around the country, most quite comfortable under the blanket of the law.

We stand at a crossroads.  Matthew J. Franck argues,

Kermit Gosnell

It is difficult to locate the moral difference between the deaths Gosnell brought about in utero and those he accomplished post-natally. Does an unborn child at 26 weeks of fetal development have less moral standing than a born child at 25 weeks of fetal development? Does the latter’s living and breathing outside the womb for ten minutes, or ten seconds, confer a status that the former lacks? How can that be?

Most of those who are pro-life have never wavered on this point.  Life begins at conception and thereby has the same right to life that any have outside the womb.

The evils perpetrated by Gosnell and Brigham put the pro-choice advocates in a difficult corner.  Franck continues,

Do (abortion rights advocates) continue to agitate for the regime of abortion on demand that they’ve been defending for 38 years? Do they fold this particular hand, and concede that some abortions occur too late to be permitted at all? There is danger for them in this. If a viable unborn child has a right to life, what about the one just a week or a day shy of viability? And the one just a bit younger than that?

A child is a child, within or without.  Perhaps a better argument for the coffee shops would be how can we best care for those who find themselves "unexpectedly pregnant?"  Better still, how can we slow the rate of "unexpected pregnancies?" A comical question because any child with a modicum of biological studies under his belt could answer that question.

For us to concede that would be to concede a position long advocated by God in his word.  Now we can't be guided by so antiquated a book as that, can we?  Pass the cream.

The humanity

There exists in America a segment of society that has no voice in the public arena save those who will speak on their behalf.

Within New York City that same segment runs the risk of being killed at the hands of another (typically referred to as "murder") at a rate of 40%.  How would you like to live in a neighborhood where you know that two of the five of you will be dead by next Thanksgiving?

That segment of our society has this death sentence on their head and they don't even know it.  They are the children in the womb.

Sunday is Sanctity of Human Life Day.  As we approach that day, let me encourage you, if you have never thought about the rights of the child in the womb to read a few articles about what's been happening in America lately.

• The story of a former abortion provider:  here
• Humanity and law:  here
• A sober look at abortions in America.  Only for the life of the mom?  Rape and incest?  Not so much.  Read:  here.
• Here, too, is my post from yesterday, a pained look at those who come to understand what they've done here.

"The baby in my womb leaped for joy."

~ Elizabeth upon seeing Mary who was pregant with the Christ (Luke 1:44)

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

~ God to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5)

Death, life, and hope

Jolene hung up and wept.  When her sister announced she was pregnant, all the feelings she thought she'd dealt with crushed her like an ocean wave.  It'd been three years since "the decision."  Derek bolted as soon as he'd heard.  She didn't dare talk it over with her mom.  In fact, she'd discussed it with no one save the clinic's counselor who said that it was no different than having a wart removed.

That was a lie.  Jolene had begun to feel the baby move before "the procedure."  Where once she felt the flutter of tiny feet, a void as dark as night had embedded itself.  And now for the next nine months, Jolene would paste on a smile and feign delight over each step of her sister's pregnancy.  As the baby grew, so would Jolene's grief. 

Carolyn knew that same, debilitating pain.  Her despair grew to such a size that it seemed only suicide could slay the beast.  Then she heard a friend talking about finding forgiveness from God in Jesus Christ.  She shared that what Jesus had done on the cross covered the sin of all mankind and covered her sin, too.  Carolyn's heart leapt for a split-second and just as quickly sank back into her solitary abyss.  Nothing could atone for what she'd done.  Still she lingered on that "gospel" message.

She flipped open an old Bible she kept on the shelf (for good luck) to one of the books (why do they call chapter-sized sections "books?") her friend mentioned.  Romans.  And she read.  "The gospel...the power of God  for salvation to everyone who believes."  Everyone?  Really.  We'll see.  "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  No kidding, Carolyn grunted.  Then her eye caught.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.  (Romans 5:6-10)

She couldn't undo what she'd done.  Could it be she didn't have to?  Could it be that despite her sin, God could still love her?  Could it be that the love of God in Jesus Christ could heal and restore?  "Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Oh my.  In hope beyond hope, Carolyn cried out to God and trusted that what Christ had done was sufficient for her, too.  She trusted his mercy and grace and collapsed into his arms.

From that day, her life had changed.  Oh, her grief remained; the past could not be undone.  But now she had a hope, a real and living hope.  God's word gave her hope for her life even now, and it also gave her hope for the afterlife.  As David said, though her child could not be brought back, Carolyn now knew that she would one day see her child whole in the presence of her Savior.

Still a cloud remained.  Despite the restoration of her relationship with God, Carolyn could not bring herself to share her history with anyone in church.  What would they say?  When the pastor would preach on the sanctity of human life, she grieved in silence, mask firmly in place, unaware that within thirty feet of where she sat, three other women wept inside as well.

The abortion coin has two very dark sides.  On one side, abortion destroys a life physically.  Churches and Christians must not be silent about what abortion is.  It is the destruction of a living human being.  Not because the Pope says so.  Not because my pastor says so.  Not because I say so.  It is killing innocent life because God in his word says so. 

Jolene and Carolyn illustrate the other side of the coin.  Millions of women live in torment over what they have done believing they have no hope.  Even those who have experienced the true forgiveness, the only true healing, that comes through Jesus Christ often keep their secret hidden within the church fearing the potential condemnation from brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Within the emotional trauma of those who have received God's forgiveness in Christ is a promise of grace.  Paul recognized himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), but he was unashamed to speak of what he had done before meeting Christ (Acts 22:4, 26:11) because the vast chasm between his before and after testified to the work of his God and Savior, Jesus Christ, in his life.  The very thing that causes you grief, that very area where God has provided you forgiveness and comfort, might be the very thing that will serve to comfort one who has trod that same pathway.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is this week.  Those who know the redemption of God in Christ must continue speaking the truth about the horrors of abortion.  At the same time, we must begin to unashamedly offer the hope of redemption in Jesus Christ for those who have walked that midnight of the soul and to unreservedly offer compassion for those redeemed who still grieve the death of their child.

The dead feel no pain

"Recent studies" are like weather predictions.  Inexact at best and bound to change by noon.

A recent British study concluded that babies do not feel pain until 24 weeks after conception (here).  An American study had set the bar at 28 weeks. 

I'll cede the study.  I don't know that a baby "feels pain" or if it can respond to stimulus when it's only one cell, two cells, or even eight cells.  It's obvious that at some point, the en utero baby will feel pain.

The reason this "recent study" has gotten so much ink this past week is because the media believes this diminishes the argument of British pro-life forces seeking to shrink the line in the sand after which a child may not be aborted (yes, I understand that's a polite euphemism).

Pro-life forces have used the "pain of the fetus" argument to get legislatures to enact laws to curtail when doctors can destroy the child.  If you press those in the pro-LIFE camp, you'll find that pain is not at the root of their efforts.  They believe human life to be sacred and that innocent life must be protected.

Really, it doesn't matter if the baby feels pain at 24 weeks.  It won't matter if next week they determine the child doesn't feel pain until 13 weeks.  If the study is accurate, whether dismantled at 8 weeks and oblivious or at 28 weeks and in agony, the haunting end remains the same.

The child is dead.

QotD: Poster-style

Words mean things.  To most people, anyway.

QotD: Asinine linguistic contortions

With the 37th anniversary of Roe come and gone, I noticed the haunting silence from the media on the passage of such a date.  This morning I caught a wafer-thin piece on CNN's website (here).  Perhaps it's my disturbed ability to find the flaw within the diamond, but this quote jumped off the page as though it were wearing one of Elton John's 1970's Lucy-in-the-Sky outfits.

"A fetus is not a life, sorry," NOW President Terry O'Neill told CNN. "And no, nobody's religious conviction justifies taking women's ability to shape their own futures away from them."

Ah, the nullification of a conviction because it is religious.  Were it scientific, mathematical, or out of the mouth of George Clooney, it would be etched in granite.  Since it's religious, it's dismissed like Pee-Wee Herman.

What is it if not a life?  A cheeseburger?  It seems that that cheeseburger can be delivered at earlier and earlier stages of development and survive.  At what point, Ms. O'Neill, does it become "living"?

Based upon what the Bible says as highlighted with crystal clarity in Terry Champman's message, here's what Ms. O'Neill is really saying, "I say, it's not a life.  What God says has no bearing whatsoever upon the autonomy of the individual.  I am woman.  Hear me roar!"

Ms. O'Neill, you're argument is void of logic and sound reason and besides, you're just plain wrong. 

Sorry.

Pro--what? Roe at 37

January 22nd.  For most, not much of a date.  Christmas recedes in the review mirror of our memory.  Valentine's Day looms.  MLK Day, the time to honor a man who stood with character upon the principles of God Almighty.  But January 22nd?

On January 22, 1973, seven Supreme Court Judges made legal the 50 million-plus reported abortions that have occurred in the United States since that date.  How big is that?  Take these cities:

1. New York
2. LA
3. Chicago
4. Houston
5. Phoenix
6. Philadelphia
7. San Antonio
8. Dallas
9. San Diego
10. San Jose

Imagine every soul within those cities suddenly dying.  Got it?  All of those deaths would only be half of the 50 million killed through abortion.  Half.

Emotional topic in our country.  Volatile, even.  Are you Pro-Life or are you Pro-Choice?  That question blurs the heart of the matter.  What is at stake within the womb?  What resides kicking the uterine walls?  What is it that's making the woosh-woosh-woosh within the doctor's stethascope?  What is it?

No.  Who is it?  For the father and the mother, it is their child.  I heard a message this week where Terry Chapman said, "I have never heard a pregnant mother refer to the thing in her belly as a "blob of tissue.""  No, for the parents, it is their baby.

If you wonder what the Bible has to say about life in the womb, I encourage you to listen to Terry's message.  If you wonder if the God of the universe can forgive a person for aborting their child (he can and does, by the way), I encourage you to listen to Terry's message.  No, the Pro-Life movement isn't a pack of wild-eyed, rabid zealots.  Hear what a clear voice has to say about life in the womb.

There is little more grievous to God as the death of the innocents.  At the same time, God's lavish grace and mercy, as evidenced by the death of his Son on the cross to atone for ALL of man's sin, can heal and forgive the soul that has walked that dark valley.

Listen to Terry Chapman's message on this painful topic here. 

(Terry Chapman speaks about Terri Otto in the first five minutes of his message.  Terri was tragically killed the day before Terry gave this message.  She ached for the women involved in unexpected pregancies and was passionate about the babies they carried.  She ached for the women crushed with the guilt of having aborted their baby.  You can read my previous post about Terri here.)

Fourteen counts?

A day or so ago, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison asked that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the Ft Hood assassin, be charged with fourteen counts of murder instead of thirteen.  Pvt Francheska Valez died during the maelstrom.  So did the child she was carrying en utero.  Senator Hutchison cites Lacy's Law and Conner's Law as well as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 to support her position.

Common sense would suggest she has a point.  Vengeance should ache to heap as much fury upon the head of Major Hasan as it could by adding any injury he did to anybody to the case against him.  I fear politics will ignore any indictment for the baby's death.  We'll see.

If the military does not execute this scum, it has no business keeping execution on its books as a possible consequence for crime.

Why have I not heard this???

Yesterday, I nearly up-chucked when I read that headline about "unsafe abortions" (blogged here). Let's start your week with a glorious dose of sunshine.

This little piece buried in the current issue of World Magazine, caused me to bruise my jaw on the coffee table over the exceptional character of Carolyn Savage.

A woman implanted with the wrong frozen embryo gave birth to a baby boy on Sept. 24 and returned the boy to his biological parents, Paul and Shannon Morell. They called Carolyn Savage a "guardian angel," saying they were at first afraid that Savage would abort the baby or sue for custody when the fertility clinic discovered the mistake. Savage said she never considered it: "This was someone else's child. . . . We didn't know if they didn't have children or if this was their last chance for a child."

QotD: Revolting misdirection

This from my local Sunday newspaper (yes, I still get one of those):

Report: Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 every year

Yeah, but how many do safe abortions kill every year? I have an idea. What if we stop trying to terminate the life of the unborn, then we'll save those millions of lives plus the 70,000 women who die from complications.

It reminds me of the Vaudevillian joke, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this..."

Lockerbie: Ripping open a tragic wound

Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi received a hero's welcome when he set foot on the soil of his native Libya. He had been residing in Scotland. No, not as a guest. Not as a tourist. Didn't get to play St. Andrews or Troon. Nope, he was residing in Greenock Prison for the murder of 270 people which blew up in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

A hero's welcome?

Really, from what has spewn from the Muslim world, such a spectacle should come as no surprise. The celebrants were not the lunatic fringe. Muammar's own son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, welcomed the man back to his homeland amidst wild crowds waving Scottish flags. The US and UK suggested the Libyans had "overstepped their bounds."

While as vile as the Islamic response may be, the true atrocity in this nightmare came at the hands of the Scottish government: they let a murderer go free. Not of one, not of two, not of dozens, but of 270. In trying to be compasionate to a man dying of cancer, the Scots ground the scales of justice into a pile of haggis.

Such an aggregious abrogation fair play seems obvious to the masses. The families of the victims cannot believe what they are hearing (here). What a disgrace to the memory of those who died so horrifying a death. The Scots are embarrassed about their government (here). Civilized humanity cries out for justice.

The problem is that justice was never served.

Really, it's not that this human stain was let go, it's that he is still alive. Within the nature of man, with the marrow of his soul, life calls out for life. This is not surprising either for God created man uniquely, "in his image" is how God created man, Genesis declares. That same God announced to Noah after the flood that if an individual shed the blood of another, that man's life would be forfeit. Within the fabric of the cosmos, blood cries out for blood.

The Scots, by banishing capital punishment, rather than showing a higher level of humanity, have shown themselves to have a blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life. The crime itself was a horror. The sentence for the smudge was worse.

To release him is surreal.

The Tragedy of Tiller

George Tiller is dead.

If you did not know, George Tiller had the most gruesome abortion record in the country. He would perform his "procedure" on any baby, in any trimester, for any reason. He had the blessing of Kansas' former governor Kathleen Sibelius, previously the most pro-abortion executive in the country.

He was unashamed about what he did. Pro-choice groups lauded him a hero. Now he is dead, murdered in his church of all places, and he will become a martyr.

This should never have happened. Had Kansas a governor with any moral mettle, the doctor would have been behind bars, at the very least for the past half-dozen years with many dozens still facing him, for the atrocities he had committed upon the unborn.

Law should have settled Tiller's case long ago. Law failed Tiller. Law failed Kansas. Law failed the thousands dead at Tiller's hand.

In the fertile soil of unenforced law, anarchy grows. Today, a vigilante entered Tiller's church and shot him dead. He was serving as usher today at his Lutheran church in Wichita.

Where was Tiller's pastor? No, not today. Three weeks ago. Three months ago. Three years ago. You've got someone sitting in your congregation, actually meeting and greeting folks as an usher on Sunday mornings, who during the week dismembers babies for a living, and you say nothing? "Hey, George, wanna play a round of golf on Saturday?" Where is the prophetic outrage? The pastor and every person in that congregation are culpable for the blood on Dr. Tiller's hands, and I would contend, for the very blood of Dr. Tiller.

Murder. The vigilante should be tried and sentenced for first degree murder. Self-defend all day long. Protect the innocent by laying down your own life. It is legal to kill another to protect an innocent if the innocent's life is in imminent jeopardy. I don't think Mr. Tiller (hardly a doctor) posed an imminent threat to anyone at his church. To execute law and preserve justice, that is the role of the state. It's failure does not permit one man to take unto himself the gravest task of the state, the death sentence of another man.

With President Obama taking the mantle from Ms. Sibelius as the most pro-abortion executive in the country, Tiller's death will serve to foment like kerosene on a riotous bonfire the hatred of the pro-choice movement for those who are pro-life. What Matthew Sheppard was to the homosexual movement, so George Tiller will become to pro-abortion America. The pro-life movement will become synonymous with wild-eyed zealotry.

Abortions will not become uncommon and rare. They will become unrestricted, and do not be surprised if protesting abortions becomes hate-speech and felonious.

George Tiller's death, rather than saving the life of the unborn, will do nothing to stem the tide of abortions but will actually make them more accessible. His death was criminal. So to was his life.

It's a travesty of justice all the way around.

(read Isaiah 59:1-8 here. Grievous.)

"Common ground"

The headline on CNN and Fox from President Obama's controversial address at Notre Dame emphasized his assertion that America needs to find "common ground" on this most divisive issue.

I agree. Let's start with the fact that the union of a sperm and an egg creates a human being. I think that would be superb common ground. It's not a dog. It's not a hippo (an hippo?). It's not a persimmon nor a perch. It's a person. That common ground would give it all the protection an innocent person should have under law. You know, all that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness jazz.

Others would prefer the common ground that we as human beings are free to choose our own destinies. I agree. But the law does not permit your freedom to crimp my freedoms much less end them. So it would seem that my common ground provides a more stable foundation from which to argue the abortion question.

Except...

If one concedes that the life within the womb is a human being, side arguments melt away. Yes, I can imagine things more horrible than rape and incest. The dismemberment of a baby comes to mind. What about the life of the mother? Usually that does not manifest itself in the first trimester. Considering the amazing strides of modern medicine, why abort? Why not rescue the baby from the womb? We have all heard the stories of mothers who would not abort their child despite the professional opinions of the doctors, and both mother and child are enjoying their lives with one another to this day. How often have you heard about the "foolish" mom who elected to go to term and both died? You haven't? Me, either.

When one side seeks valiantly to protect innocent life while the other seeks valiantly to maintain "reproductive freedom" while making the product of sexual relationships a non-issue, we will find no common ground.

--------------------
Thank you to all the Catholics that voiced their grief toward and opposition to Notre Dame's decision to let so pro-abortion a President speak at their commencement.

Inconsistency of the left

When it comes to moral and ethical politics, elected officials who say one thing and do another or take two contradictory positions are legion in Washington. Never before has a political movement tried to live out such contradictions as the political left in America today. There is perhaps no better image of proclaiming and believing two opposing views than Barack Hussein Obama.

Since taking office, the President has dismantled most every barrier erected by former presidents for making abortion rare. This week as he ponders the politics of a nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter, President Obama has made plain that he will appoint a pro-abortion lawyer.

On the other side of the ethical arena, the President has called for closing Guantanamo Bay and exposing our interrogation techniques to bring such actions to an end. All of this in the name of civil rights, of acting human to our fellow man. Why is this an issue? First, these men are NOT prisoners of war and should not be afforded the rights of such under the Geneva Convention. Second, they are NOT US citizens and should not be afforded the rights of such under the Constitution. They are terrorists and, like the pirates off Somalia's coast, should be shot.

Innocent life gets every protection possible under law removed leaving it naked against a hostile world. Those guilty of atrocities against our nation get protections awarded to them beyond our law leaving them more armed and more equipped to blend into the society they so loathe.

We must extend the protections of humanity toward the innocent toward the defenseless. We must do everything in our power to bring the .45 caliber end of justice upon those who unleash their hatred upon American soil or Americans abroad. But in today's political Wonderland, we're giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Hope and change, but not if you're unborn

The week of his inauguration, Herr Obama untethered federal funds from going to overseas abortion providers, something George Bush had blocked.

Then the President (current) dismantled the wall that George Bush had erected that permitted doctors who received federal funding from not performing abortions for reasons of conscience. If you get the money, then you'll do the dirty work and figure out how to salve your soul some other way.

Today El Presidente continued the onslaught against unborn Americans continued with demonic passion. In an "effort to separate science and politics," your tax dollars and mine will now go to dissecting human embryos for the purpose of medical advancement (clinically termed "embryonic stem cell research").

Oh, but wait! It gets better. Our elected leader drew a moral line in the sand. No human cloning! From Fox News (here):

"We cannot ever tolerate misuse or abuse. And we will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction," Obama said. "It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society."

Pray, tell, how did the man say that with a straight face? It's okay to dismantle the most helpless and innocent human beings in the hope (hope, mind you, no guarantees) that some day a cure might be found for one of the many diseases that plague humanity, but it is morally reprehensible to wicker with "conception," to create a fashion baby?

Don't get me wrong, both situations blemish humanity. Foul. Morally reprehensible. I hope I'm not equivocating too much. Ethically bankrupt. I'm dumbfounded, though that President Barak Obama finds human cloning troublesome but has such serene certainty about experiments that Mary Shelley never imagined.

It seems our President has found his pay grade. He crushes religious argument by appealing to science. He will not permit doctors protecting themselves on a theological basis. He deceives by asserting that he has taken the politics out of the science.

But he has not. Au contraire! He has plunged the political knife deep into the heart of science. Could someone elighten this dim bulb as to when science got a free pass on issues moral? Even the President can't live consistently with what he says and what he does for by feigning outrage over cloning, he injects politics and morality into that issue. That's just goofy.

And what's worse, by giving government's rubberstamp to embryonic stem cell research, he's unleashed the furies and has made us all culpable.

The unborn have no voice but ours, and it would seem our voice is no longer welcome in the White House. But our pockets will be picked to pay for this putrescence.

All of this on a day when the media headlines the decline of religion generally and Christianity specifically in America (here and here). There's a shock.

Abraham stayed God's fury until his nephew and family had beat feet out of town, but the Lord's holy and just wrath ultimately incinerated two towns in southern Canaan, two towns that had rotted themselves in self-indulgence and gravitas.

What is holding God's hand back today? How long before his justice buries our nation? What will become us?

Living the dilemma

You want to raise blood pressure? Toss "abortion" as a topic into the middle of any conversation and you'll feel the temperature rise in the room.

For the pro-life folks, they need to come to terms with the life of the child on one hand and the care for the mother and budding family in the other. Neither need be sacrificed.

As I consider the ethical dilemma of the pro-abortion folk, I'm reminded of Arthur Fonzarelli (aka, "The Fonz" or "Fonzi") from "Happy Days." The man could not say he was "wr-wr-wr...wr-wr...", wrong. His face would contort and his eyes would close as his soul attempted to master his ego. The pro-aborts cannot mention the second L-L-L...L-L-L...L-L.. --ahem-- LIFE involved in this equation! So focused are they on personal autonomy that they will not acknowledge the God-given rights due the innocent life that cannot speak for itself.

Today in his Impromptus, Jay Nordlinger discussed his journey from pro-abortion to pro-life. A powerful read (here) about a man who had to come to terms with the other half 0f the ethical dilemma he had been ignoring.

Take a moment and give it a read. At least through the first bullet. The other bullets deal with other stuff (they are also worth the read but are off topic).

By the way, have you ever heard of someone moving from staunchly pro-life to staunchly pro-choice after a time of ethical soul-searching? Hmmm...