Posted on 01/23/2002 5:01:37 AM PST by truthandlife
Twenty-nine years ago today, the U. S. Supreme Court rendered a decision that has resulted in the deaths of more than 42 million American children. The Court's Roe vs. Wade decision legalized abortion on demand.
A column in my hometown newspaper recently had an interesting perspective on this. It began by paraphrasing the beginning of Lincoln's Gettysburg address:
"One score and nine years ago, our Supreme Court let lose upon our nation the evil of abortion, conceived as a fictitious constitutional right and dedicated to the proposition that the unborn are NOT created equal. We are now engaged in a great moral war, testing whether the values of this nation so dedicated to an abortion holocaust can long endure..."
The writer went on to explain that the great moral issue of the 19th century - slavery - and the great moral issue of our time - abortion on demand - are remarkably similar. The "empowered" simply have their way with the helpless, whose own "rights" are simply considered irrelevant. Just as we are now repulsed at the idea of one person "owning" another, will our enlightened descendants someday be aghast at our society's willingness to kill a child every 26 seconds?
Ken Conner of the Family Research Council, quoted by AgapePress, recently put this in perspective: "On September 11th, Americans recoiled in horror at the unprovoked destruction of over 3,000 innocent human lives - and in just an instant, our government responded to prevent a further recurrence of the loss of life. The sad reality of American life, however, is that over 4,000 innocent American children perish every day at the hands of abortionists in [this] country - and government does nothing to intervene." Indeed, government has sanctioned this human bloodbath.
Mrs. Cheryllyn Dudley, a South African M.P., had this perspective: "The truth that no one wants to hear is that Planned Parenthood International has killed many more New Yorkers than Osama bin Laden has." (New York's Planned Parenthood even offered free abortions for 11 days after the attack, which shows their idea of "making a contribution.")
Can anyone even imagine the positive contributions those 42 million children could have grown to make to our society and our world? How many Billy Grahams, how many heroes of the faith have been lost? Did the discoverer of a cure for cancer not survive the womb?
Indeed, many members of the "abortion generation" - those born since the 1973 court ruling - consider themselves "abortion survivors." National College Students for Life president Holly Miller notes, "A third of our generation is gone." Many of these young people, survivors of the new holocaust, are becoming more and more vocal as pro-life advocates.
There are more encouraging signs. The woman who was "Roe" in the Roe vs. Wade decision is now staunchly pro-life. So are Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano, two other women who had gone to court to win major abortion rights cases. Also, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 503) has passed the U. S. House, although the Democrat-controlled Senate has refused to consider it.
President Bush has been outspoken in his pro-life stand. In his proclamation declaring last Sunday "National Sanctity of Human Life Day," Pres. Bush said, "This Nation was founded upon the belief that every human being is endowed by our Creator with certain 'unalienable rights.' Chief among them is the right to life itself...We should peacefully commit ourselves to seeking a society that values life - from its very beginnings to its natural end. Unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law."
Surely, God cannot be pleased at this new holocaust. He knows each child whose life is taken. He knows their personality. He knows their talents and gifts. He knows what they would have become and the love they would have shared. As the Psalmist said, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made... Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all of my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." (Psalm 139: 14, 16, excerpts.)
Indeed, the Southern Baptist statement of faith puts it this way: "Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord." What incredible arrogance it is for anyone to throw this away as a "matter of convenience" - the stated motivation for the vast majority of abortions.
Most evangelical Christians, according to the polls, oppose abortion on demand. But most of those same Christians do little, if anything, to oppose it in any meaningful way. (Such opposition, of course, should always be peaceful and in love.)
When will abortions end? "It will end when the church makes up her mind to bring it to an end," according to Rev. Flip Benham, national director of Operation Rescue/Operation Save America. "When the church rises up and confesses her failure to speak for the unborn, the abortion industry in America is history."
It sounds to me like we have all just been challenged.
What We Believe As White Racistshttp://www.africa2000.com/XNDX/xwarpo.htmby Tom Metzger
Covertly invest into non-White areas, invest in ghetto abortion clinics. Help to raise money for free abortions, in primarily non-White areas. Perhaps abortion clinic syndicates throughout North America, that primarily operate in non-White areas and receive tax support, should be promoted. At the same time, issue stock. This will help Whites raise their standard of living, in two ways.
That's not too far from what is being done right now, except that the job is being done by black ministers turned Democrat politicians. Jesse Jackson preached some powerful sermons against abortion, until he became a politician, was bought body and soul by the Democrats, and started preaching the pro-abort gospel instead.
It begins with a lie. If there were 42 million American children who died, there will be 42 million birth certificates, and corresponding death certificates. Please produce them, or shup-up! It is just this kind of nonsense that encourages those who otherwise might listen to sound and kind reasoning to assume those who oppose abortion are a bunch of irrational nuts.
Two wrongs do not make a right. This simple truth which is at least as "self-evident" as anything in the Declaration of Independence, is apparently lost on so-called "pro-lifers." It is wrong to use the government and guns to force people who are minding their own business to do what you believe they ought to do. (A mother's baby is her own business, not yours, and not the government's. If you don't believe this, do not object when the government takes your baby away from you to teach it what it wants against your will.)
Abortion is wrong. So is wasting one's money. So is believing the wrong thing. It is wrong to force someone to be frugal. It is wrong to force someone to believe the right doctrine. It is wrong to force someone not to have an abortion.
A potential is not a reality. A sperm is not a child. An egg is not a child. A fetus is not a child. Our language uses these words for a reason. If you go to a restaurant and order a chicken salad sandwitch, and they bring you an egg salad sandwitch, you'll complain. If you call a human embryo or fetus a child, you have no reason to complain. To you, there is no difference between an egg and a chicken.
Conjecture is not an argument. Can anyone even imagine the destructive contributions those 42 million children could have grown to make to our society and our world? How many Mansons, Clintons, Billy Grahams, (not everyone agrees the compromising American Balaam is an American asset), how many rapists, murderers, thieves have we been spared. How do you know there are not 42 million less welfare recipients? Absurd? Exactly!
You who love life, who cherish the sanctity of life, especially new life, do right. If you are a Christian, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, that is, mind your own business. You don't want others meddling in your life, so....
If you really want to influence others become known as someone quiet and sincere, someone living peaceably with his neighbors, someone who can be trusted, and is ready to help, if asked and needed. Let others know your position, never be afraid to explain your views, but let it be known you have no intention of forcing your views on anyone else. When you have the opportunity, be ready to encourage and help those who might be considering an abortion, to find a way to avoid it. This may actually cost you something and is much harder than getting the government to do for what your God expects you to do.
Hank
I never said that a fetus is not "a life," I only said it is not born, which is when the world child is correct, and what you know it means to everyone else, and when you use the word child for an unborn fetus, you are intentionally trying to obfuscate the truth. It is just this kind of careless dishonesty that makes the pro-life movement dangerous to its own cause. Until those who really oppose abortion begin to be rational and honest in their methods, and those who are Christians, Biblical in their methods as well, they are going to do more harm than good.
(It is probably not a good idea to call a child of God an athiest, especially a bald-headed one. 2 Kings 2:22-25)
If the pro-life movement would work, I would support it. It won't work, and actually has the opposite result of the one it seeks.
Hank
Oh, please. When you say that a fetus is anything BUT a child, you are INTENTIONALLY trying to obfuscate the truth, all while rationalizing killing a child. This argument gets you nowhere.
Thought you might be interested in this quote from the first article in the latest Operation Rescue WEB Page. The point of view is different from mine, except that we agree if Christians had done what they ought to have done, the abortion problem would have been much less than it is today. (By the way, abortion will never be eliminated from the world, any more than crime or poverty, or even terrorism will be eliminated.)
Hank
Why would a death certificate be issued if the child had never been born, just scraped out in pieces from its mother's womb? No death certificates were prepared for the babies of those women I know who have had abortions. Their "unviable tissue" was not buried, either, just burned with the rest of the clinic's trash.
Exactly
what methods would you use to argue against abortion?
If the people are not Christians, maybe the first order of business is to address that question.
But every situation is different. I do not think you can argue or browbeat someone into not having an abortion. I think it is wrong to frighten them into not having one. But usually, there is some common value, even if it is the doubt of the one considering an abortion. After all, if someone is not certain that what they are doing is right, there is not going to be any turning back, once the act has been committed. It cannot be undone. (This is true of virginity too, by the way. It is never emphasized enough.)
It also true that once the child is born, there is no turning back. That can't be undone either. (I say this, because it is an answer I receive sometimes.) However, I have learned that whatever it is right to do, there is always a way to do. If everything else fails, the child can be adopted by another, loved and enjoyed. If a baby is never born, there are no other alternatives.
You really do have to try to be helpful though. There is no right answer. I think abortion must be dealt with the same way we deal with disease. We don't try to get the government to pass laws against it, we don't have anti-disease movements. We treat evey case as it comes along, and use the best medicine (information) and doctors (those who know how to deal with such cases) we can get.
Hank Still these are personal things, and I've revealed more than I intended to. You may use it against me if you like.
Hank
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