Telling The Truth (column by Publisher Tim Ewing)
"Bluffing America"
Tim Ewing is the founder and publisher of Rare Jewel Magazine. Tim lives in Fairfield, MT with his wife and four children. Tim can be reached at Tim@RareJewelMag.com.
?Warning! Not all Stem-Cell Research is Alike.?
If I were a fan of big government I might propose legislation that would append this legend to every debate, documentary, news item, speech, or article pertaining to Stem-Cell Research.
Since I?m not inclined toward the imposition of endless regulations or education-by-warning labels, I will instead suggest that we responsibly inform ourselves and our families about stem-cell research. Bio-ethical issues inevitably will grow more complicated, not less, but only about details; the central moral aspects must remain clear to us. To be informed, and to stand on moral ground when we respond to stem-cell research and related issues?cloning of human life, war against the weak, genetic engineering, etc?is essential.
Specifically, about stem cells, the dichotomy in research is determined by the source of the stem cells; therein, the source of a moral dilemma:
Embryonic stem cells are taken from live human embryos, killing the embryo in the process.
Adult stem cells (including umbilical-cord stem cells) are obtained through a simple procedure that does no harm to the donor.
Embryonic stem-cell research is wrong for the same reason abortion is wrong. It kills an innocent human life.
Despite millions of dollars of investment, embryonic stem-cell research has not produced a single successful result. This lack of promise implicitly is confirmed by the scarce involvement of private investors, bankers, or medical companies to invest funds. Therefore the nascent stem-cell industry aggressively pushes for easy money (i.e., federal subsidies -- taxpayer monies).
Meanwhile, adult stem-cell research is enjoying tangible success. ?Human patients are already benefiting from adult stem-cell treatments for more than 50 diseases, including multiple sclerosis, lupus, arthritis, various cancers, and anemias including sickle cell anemia. These are real treatments for real patients. Adult stem cells are being used to form new cartilage and ligaments so that people can walk, to grow new corneas to restore sight to blind patients, to treat stroke patients, and to repair damage after heart attacks. Adult stem cells have successfully alleviated the symptoms of Parkinson?s disease, and allowed spinal-chord injury patients to walk again with the aid of braces. The patient?s own adult stem cells can be used for these treatments.?1
Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic for 37 years since her diving accident at age 17, recently said, ?Research dollars are few, they are scarce, they are precious. And because they are scarce, I want to see that money channeled into therapies that have the most promise, that are the most effective. Right now, no stem cell derived from a human embryo is even in clinical trial in a human; and even the trials in animals are fraught with problems. There's tissue malformation, there's tissue rejection... Incredible therapies that are happening use adult stem-cell research. It is absolutely amazing what is happening.?2
We must be aware that those who favor ?expansion of stem-cell research? usually intend to agitate for expansion of embryonic stem-cell research?but that distinction is seldom made. With evidence of realized promises of adult stem cells?and the virtual absence of moral dilemmas in that field?then why do proponents of embryonic stem-cell research make exaggerated claims for tenuous results, while neglecting the immediate, real benefits and possibilities of adult-stem cell research?
I suggest that assorted emotional appeals to the ?need to help those who are sick and injured? (remember a certain candidate?s opinion that the late Christopher Reeve would have not just survived but walked if the government had provided money for embryonic research?) are smoke-and-mirror strategies to obscure larger objectives.
In the Bible we discover the basic motivation behind the camouflaged battles for embryonic stem-cell research. In Isaiah chapter 14 we find the description of the angel Lucifer?s heart which led to his rebellion against God: ?I will make myself like the Most High? (verse 14). In Genesis 3:5 the serpent (Satan, the fallen Lucifer) in typical character, successfully tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God with the advice: ??and you will be like God.?
Regarding embryonic stem-cell research the Father of Lies is up to his same old trick?playing ?God? comes natural to fallen man. And what God-like power can surpass the lure of being able to control the means and capacity to create and destroy life? For some people, their actions might be unwitting???the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light? (2 Corinthians 4:4); and ?they exchanged the truth of God for a lie? (Romans 1:25)?nonetheless the dreams of embryonic stem-cell researchers and their supporters are, at their most basic, driven by the pursuit of a pseudo-Divine ambition? which the Bible clearly condemns.
We must not allow America to be bluffed by hidden agendas and cloaked propaganda behind embryonic stem-cell research. Shine the light of truth through our conversations, letters to editors, phone calls to elected officials, messages from our pulpits, and instruction in our classrooms.
1 Testimony of David Prentice before the United State Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space, Sept. 29, 2004; see also National Marrow Donor Program, www.marrow.org; and Testimony of Dennis Turner, Laura Dominquez, and Susan Fajt before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, July 14, 2004; cited in Dr. David A. Prentice and William Saunders, JD, Human Cloning and the Abuse of Science (Washington DC: Family Research Council, 2004), 7
2 Interview, August 3, 2004, on Larry King Live, CNN.
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The Upper Room (column by Managing Editor Rick Marschall)
"Matters of Life and Death"
Rick Marschall, a former political columnist for The Connecticut Herald and editorial cartoonist for the Loeb newspapers and other publications, is Managing Editor of Rare Jewel Magazine. He has written 59 books and many magazine articles, most recently in the areas of popular culture, devotionals, and youth ministry. Rick can be reached at Rick@RareJewelMagazine.com.
In a short span of time recently, the following stories presented themselves to us in the news:
An eight-month pregnant woman was murdered, her baby slashed and stolen from her womb and displayed as the murderer/kidnaper?s own child;
Elsewhere, an 8.6-ounce baby was delivered and survived, thanks in large part to neo-natal technological advances;
A commercial laboratory announced that it had successfully cloned a cat, and successfully sold said domestic feline for $50,000;
In the Netherlands, hospitals admitted that they routinely ignore the government?s already liberal euthanasia guidelines, and kill babies considered by staff to be expendable;
The journal Science announced that the latest suspicion of life, or onetime life, on the planet Mars was the top science story, based on web site visits, in 2004;
A tsunami set off by shifts of sub-oceanic tectonic plates visited sudden destruction on shores of the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, causing by some accounts, the deaths of a quaqrter of a million people.
Life and death before our eyes; death amidst life; hope despite death; people fascinated by life and its origins; people casual about horrific, procedural killing. Mankind today, and especially contemporary American culture, does not merely observe and react to cycles of life and death. Science does its best to improve and extend life; science does its best to distort and terminate life. Medicines save lives; medicines end lives; is the doctors? oath Hippocratic or Hypocritical?
Mankind progressively assumes more control over life and death (never as much as humanity thinks it has achieved, but that is another old, old story) and, to the degree it tries these days, it increasingly chooses death.
The problems in American culture today?and the problems are many, deep, and potentially fatal?are because we have evolved from a culture of life into a culture of death.
Perhaps this evolution is the result of a culture that is too old, nearing the end of its own lifespan?except that America has not lived nearly as long as previous dominant nation-states. No, more likely these trends are due more to affluence, lack of responsibility, and a flabby moralism?mistaken compassion?that has allowed alien philosophies to kidnap traditional Christian values.
America, in the downward spiral of its spiritual evolution, currently is somewhere between Hatred of God and, perhaps worse, indifference to the Creator of the Universe, Lord and Giver of Life. The recent news coverage of the tsunami, after a few paganistic references to Mother Nature, spat upon God: ?Act of God,? ?Where Was God?? and such headlines and program-themes were common. What was the last time that the media called a sunny day or a successful voyage an ?Act of God??
In this issue of Rare Jewel Magazine, among our ?Personal Files of Life,? is a story about organ transplantation. In it, a brave woman writes about a painful and frightening succession of heart attacks, and of kidney failure that pointed her toward life on dialysis, at best. She was listed for transplantation of those organs, and after more than four months of decline?when heart became too weak to withstand a kidney transplant, and her kidneys too weak to handle heart and anti-rejection medications?a donor?s heart and kidney became available.
It was hard for her to think about God?s ways, knowing that someone was to die so that she might live; but there was a peace past understanding found nonetheless in that paradigm. Also?as she and her family started a hospital ministry?there were patients (or family members of, say, stroke victims) who looked at life-support systems, dealt with ?pulling the plug? and asked, ?Who are we to play God??
That woman is my wife Nancy, and we asked that question many times, but from both angles. ?Pulling the plug? is playing God, but we wondered if there were times that technology outstripped the natural course of things, and people dependent on dozens of wires, meds, and tubes were also maintained by people playing God. My mother, who died in a hospice situation, heightened my ruminations.
We should all, always and at all times, choose life. But let us also recognize that all the issues surrounding the Sanctity of Life and the Culture of Death in our souring culture?the controversies we confront in this issue of Rare Jewel Magazine?often have tortured, personal components.
So we battle the news media?s knee-jerk theology about ?Acts of God?; we reject the world system?s twisted attitude that abortion is somehow a celebration of life. These are, literally, matters of life and death. But let us pray for the Holy Spirit to grace us with wisdom to be humble, loving, and firm with those who need to hear the truth.
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On the Brink: A Survey of Laws, Bills, and Court Activity (by Michael J. Reitz)
"The Sanctity of Life Status in America"
Michael J. Reitz is an attorney and legal analyst for a free-market public policy organization in Olympia, Washington.
Abortion, America?s Goliath
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, says the 108th Congress (2002-2004) was the ?most productive? for pro-life legislation since 1973, the year the Supreme Court decided Roe v Wade. Perhaps the most significant accomplishment: President Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban on November 5, 2003. The act outlaws the brutal practice of killing a partially-delivered child, ?intact dilatation and extraction? in clinical medical parlance. Physicians who perform the procedure could be imprisoned up to two years.
Congress also passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The law, also known as ?Laci and Conner?s law,? officially classifies the unborn as victims in the commission of a federal crime of violence, and stipulates that injury or death to an unborn child classifies as a separate offence for which the perpetrator can be charged.
The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Bill is gaining momentum in the Senate. This bill requires abortion facilities to provide information about the capacity of an unborn child to experience pain during abortion procedures performed after the twentieth week. The provider would also be required to offer optional pain medication for the unborn child. This bill failed to pass Congress last year, but will likely be resurrected in 2005.
Safe Haven for the ?least of these?
Another type of legislation aimed at reducing the perceived need for abortion is known variously as Safe Haven or Baby Moses laws. Responding to the rise in infant abandonment, states enacting Safe Haven laws permit women to relinquish their infant to an emergency care provider; obliging the state to guarantee care and placement of the children, with no questions or negative implications, leading to the children to be available then for adoption.
The first Safe Haven law was passed in Texas in 1999 and signed by then-Governor George W. Bush. Forty-five states have enacted similar legislation since then. While not a perfect policy solution, Safe Haven laws are successfully reducing the cavalier disposal of newborn babies, and feelings of desperation experienced by troubled mothers who have been exploited by abortion providers and others.
Stem Cell Research: fact or false hope?
Stem cells are derived from a number of sources: adult cells; umbilical cords; tooth nerve-pulp; the placenta. But most public debate revolves around the use of stem cells derived from human embryos. Early in his first term, President Bush restricted federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research to a limited group of currently developed stem cell lines, but, contrary to a lot of the talking-points in public debates, this does not limit private research or impede state governments from funding stem-cell research.
Human Cloning: the New Frontier
Cloning burst upon the national awareness in 1997 with the announcement that Dolly the sheep had been cloned. President Clinton banned the use of federal funds for cloning human beings. Later, in 2003 the House of Representatives passed legislation banning all human cloning, but the bill stalled in the Senate. On a different front, a new law went into effect in January 2004, prohibiting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from issuing patents on the human embryo.
Euthanasia: Death?s Cold Gaze
Oregon is the only state that has legalized physician-assisted suicide. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft sought to restrict the availability of this option, but Oregon?s law was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most liberal such bench in the US. Ashcroft challenged the lower court ruling, and a November 2004 appeal to the Supreme Court is still pending. California will consider euthanasia in the next legislative session. Two state legislators have announced plans to legalize euthanasia on Oregon?s model. On the other hand, several states, including Michigan, Maine, Hawaii, Wyoming and Vermont, have rejected the legalization of euthanasia.
A Look at the International Community
A look at other societies underscores how essential our battle is here in the US. The Netherlands was the first country to legalize euthanasia in 2000, after tolerating the practice for years. Doctors are now urging the Dutch Health Ministry to review euthanasia policies for terminally ill individuals with ?no free will,? such as infants and the mentally retarded. Subsequently, the Groningen Academic Hospital in Amsterdam revealed that it has already begun euthanizing terminally ill infants, sending ethical shockwaves through the world. According to the Justice Ministry, at least 18 cases of child euthanasia have been reported since 2000.
Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is also legal to varying degrees in Belgium, Switzerland, and Japan. Britain, South Africa, Belgium, and China have legalized human cloning; it is expected that New Zealand and Switzerland will soon follow. In November 2004, Swiss voters approved a measure that will allow embryonic stem-cell research, using surplus embryos developed in fertility clinics.
The Sanctity of Life
The sanctity of human life is not just one more political issue on the agenda; it should be seen as the issue?the fundamental ?right? from which all other rights flow. On the judicial side, Supreme Court justices might retire in the near future?as many as three or four?and the President has promised to appoint judges who strictly interpret the law instead of legislating from the bench. Sanctity of life laws and issues will certainly be before the Court in increasing numbers.
At this time in history we are witnessing the clash of these two worldviews: a culture of life and a culture of death. As we stand at the edge of the next several years, Christian patriots must galvanize around our fundamental belief in the sanctity of life.
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forms showing their support for this cause. Forms can be downloaded from this website.
The Sanctity of Life By Those Who Have Lived It
"Files of Personal LIFE Stories"
[Editor?s Note?In this portfolio, Rare Jewel Magazine examines vital issues related to the Sanctity of Life through first-person accounts. These stories, testimonies, and encouragements provide unique perspectives about the variety of challenges and crises in our culture? as well as the vast reservoir of hope and redemption available to servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life.]
An Abortion Survivor -- Gianna Jessen?s Story
I am adopted. I have cerebral palsy. My biological mother was 17 years old and seven and one-half months pregnant when she made the decision to have a saline abortion. I am the person she aborted. I lived instead of died.
I am happy to be alive. I almost died. Every day I thank God for life. I do not consider myself a by-product of conception, a clump of tissue, or any other of the titles given to a child in the womb. I do not consider any person conceived to be any of those things.
I have met other survivors of abortion. They are all thankful for life. Only a few months ago I met another saline abortion survivor. Her name is Sarah. She is two years old. Sarah also has cerebral palsy, but her diagnosis is not good. She is blind and has severe seizures. The abortionist, besides injecting the mother with saline, also injects the baby victims. Sarah was injected in the head. I saw the place on her head where this was done. When I speak, I speak not only for myself, but for the other survivors, like Sarah, and also for those who cannot yet speak ...
There is a quote which is etched into the high ceilings of one of our state's capitol buildings: "Whatever is morally wrong is not politically correct." Abortion is morally wrong. Our country is shedding the blood of the innocent. America is killing its future. All life is valuable. All life is a gift from our Creator. We must receive and cherish the gifts we are given. We must honor the right to life.
--Testimony before the Constitution Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives, April 22, 1996.
Facing Pain or Joy -- ?Unwanted? Teen Pregnancies
Most teens who are having sex are afraid of getting pregnant. Girls come into my office for pregnancy testing, and when I tell a girl her test is negative, she gets a look of relief over her face, as if to say: "I'm off the hook. I'm not pregnant. Let me out of your office." Wait a minute! Have you been tested for syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, chlamydia, trichinoma, urethritis, hepatitis B, HPV or HIV? You have a four times greater chance of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) than you do of becoming pregnant.
I tell you a story about a girl: Almost 40 years ago, a young woman in Michigan found out she was pregnant. To make matters worse, it was the result of rape. She carried an unplanned child because someone had violated her in the worst way possible.
She had three options?keep the child, have an abortion (they weren?t legal nationwide, but they still happened), or put the child up for adoption. Some people think that in this case, abortion would have been justified. But this girl did the most wonderful thing she could for the child she was carrying?she placed it up for adoption.
That child was me.
My biological father was a rapist. I don?t even know my nationality. But I do know this: Just because my father was a rapist doesn?t mean that I deserved the death penalty.
--Pam Stenzel speaks to 20,000 high school and college students each month about sex, STDs, and abstinence. She has produced a powerful video called Sex Has A Price Tag (http://www.pamstenzel.com).
The Case That Legalized Late-Term Abortions -- The Truth
I am Sandra Cano. I became known as ?Mary Doe? when the US Supreme Court released Roe v Wade's companion decision, Doe v Bolton, which allowed abortion for virtually any reason.
I am against abortion; I never sought an abortion; I have never had an abortion. Abortion is murder. For over 20 years, and against my will, my name has been synonymous with abortion. The Doe v Bolton case is based on deceit and fraud. I stand today in this place of healing? and pledge to the memory of these innocent children, that as long as I have breath, I will strive to see abortion ended in America.
--At the dedication of The National Memorial for the Unborn, located on the site of a former abortion mill in Chattanooga TN, March 23, 1997 (http://www.aaawomen.org).
Hurt, Hope, and Heaven -- Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
On a spring evening in 2004, my husband John and I went to a church meeting for what we expected to be another inspirational talk to revive our spirits and prepare us to live another month in a tough world. We knew a speaker was scheduled, but hadn?t taken the time to review what the topic would be. Debbie and John stepped forward and shared about the Garden of Innocence and its mission?to provide a proper burial for abandoned children.
We heard that since 1999 more than 40 abandoned children had been buried by this group. These children have been a low priority to government entities, but local mortuaries volunteered their embalming services, and cemetery staff contributed time and services as they were allowed.
The Garden of Innocence strives to recognize the value of each precious life. Every child is given a name and a marker on their burial plot. Each is provided a handmade casket or special urn, a crocheted blanket, and a toy, by volunteer donors. Each is given a burial service that includes a poem written just for them, flowers, balloons, song, message, and prayer?again provided by volunteers. That evening at church, Debbie and John asked us to pray about how we could help continue the joy of loving these children.
During their talk, my heart beat fast. I am a barren woman. Not only was I not able to conceive during my childbearing years, but during those years, I was married to a man who was unwilling to consider adoption. God brought me to the wonderful husband I have now, yet I still wince a bit when the subject turns to babies and children? a wound that never heals completely; a wound I count on Jesus to salve when necessary.
I felt a distinct attraction to this mission. These children needed a spiritual adoption. They deserved someone to weep for them, to publicly recognize their time on earth and to smile at their being?and to call them by name.
A graveside service for a child of the Garden of Innocence is lovely. A special place in a local cemetery has been provided by the joint efforts of that cemetery and volunteers who provide donations to pay for the 700+ plots and the fees associated with opening and closing graves. A bronze statue of a young mother graces one corner of the garden and trees and bushes surround three sides.
At every service The Knights of Columbus provide a color guard and pallbearer services; people from many faiths provide those who preside over the services. Musicians of all genres offer song?traditional hymns to gospel. Those who attend the service are invited to form a circle. The casket or urn is passed from person to person so that each child may be touched, held, and know they are loved. All participants are invited to drop flower petals into the grave. Balloons or doves are released as symbols of the Father, Son, and Spirit leading the children home. All are invited to stay until the grave is closed.
Working with GOI is heart-wrenching but very rewarding, ministering to my sense of loss due to my own barrenness, and giving me an experience of mothering that I never thought possible. My mourning turns to dancing because Jesus has shown me in a most tangible way: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
--Georgene Kruzel lives in Spring Valley CA.
GOIBabies@hotmail.com.
http://www.GardenOfInnocence.org.
The Blessings of Transplantation -- The Sanctity of Continued Life
I was diagnosed with heart disease in November, 1994, two months after my forty-first birthday. My three children were 15, 14 and 11 at the time.
I also learned that I had had a silent heart attack sometime the previous summer, and that I had coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure (CHF), meaning that the arteries supplying blood to my heart were narrowed. There was no blockage that surgery could correct by bypass. Exercise or increased activity caused my heart to pump harder, but because of the narrowing, the blood could not flow through. Fluid backed up, putting pressure on the heart (keeping it from being able to expand and contract properly), triggering congestive heart failure.
In the first diagnoses, the doctors thought that with medicines my heart disease could be kept under control and in 10 years or so I would have to consider the prospect of a heart transplant.
But after two more heart attacks in 10 months?and not so ?silent? these times?the doctors told me that I would not survive a fourth heart attack. This news came on my forty-second birthday. Within the month I was transferred from our local hospital to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and put on the transplant list for a heart and kidney.
One of the hardest things about the whole transplant process was looking out from the Seventh Floor, overlooking the city of Philadelphia, and knowing that someone out there would die if I were to live. That was very difficult. However it was also brought to mind Jesus? sacrifice; He died so that I might have eternal life.
We all know there are no guarantees in life, but no matter how young or old, we tend to take some things for granted. However, when hospitalized in a heart failure unit, never knowing what the next minutes might bring, I developed a deeper sense of what was important to me. I prayed for more time?time to be a mother to my children, for us to be together as a family. I cried out to God?how much longer? He answered in the words of 1 Peter 5: 6,7: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.
And I learned to trust Him. Just as He was taking care of me, He would take care of my family. And each time I asked ?How much longer?? He would remind me of a promise I made to Him that I would stay for as long as He wanted me to. And God gave me His total peace.
In all ways my hospital stay?18 weeks before organs became available; then three weeks after the operation, until I could go home?was a good experience. I came to know God in a more intimate way, to learn to trust Him and His ways, and to appreciate all that He has given me. I began praying for the other patients on the floor; first for those on their way to the ER, then weekly Bible studies, then prayer support groups. After my transplants, my family and I returned to the hospital every Sunday and conducted worship services. We did this for almost six years, before moving to California.
?My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life? (Psalm 119:50).
--Nancy Marschall lives in Alpine, CA.
The Difference a Willing Heart Can Make -- Getting Involved with Pregnancy Care Centers
After retiring from a business in Louisiana, J.C. and Jenny Ellender moved to Choteau, Montana, to raise cattle and ?a few good horses? and enjoy their grandchildren. When asked about his involvement in a local crisis pregnancy center, J.C. said, ?I have always been pro-life, but one day, God got hold of my heart and I began asking, ?Why? in all these years with all my Christian friends you feel the same way, haven?t we accomplished more in stopping abortion and helping the victims???
J.C. didn?t receive an answer, but at his daughter?s urging, he spoke from his heart on Sanctity of Life Sunday, 2004, and challenged his church family to be not only pro-life, but pro-active as well. The Ellenders contacted a local pregnancy counseling service to see if they could help in any way. They found compassionate pro-life counseling, but also a policy that declined to offer spiritual guidance. J.C. explained to counselor Sherry Dermott that he wanted to go further and include evangelism, and met a prepared heart: Sherry was burdened by not being able to tell the women about Jesus. She and her husband Gil had been praying for a new opportunity. They were excited to visit with the Ellenders about what God could do in the Great Falls area.
This shared burden led to the formation of a steering committee which included other prepared hearts: a retired pastor with previous CPC experience; a ranch wife; a local pastor; a retired Air Force officer; and a mother-daughter who had recently become grandmother-daughter-grandson because of a sexual assault. This group met, prayed, and visited other centers around the state. J.C. also discovered Care Net, which, he says, is ?a wonderful organization that helps initiatives like ours to get started. Care Net provides a manual with step-by-step helps so that we didn?t have to reinvent the wheel. They provide the guidelines for building financial and volunteer support. They train leaders and they train staff. Each center can affiliate with Care Net for additional support and services as soon as they have met Care Net?s budget guidelines and a modest affiliation fee.?
A board of directors was elected and Central Assembly of God Church of Great Falls offered a start-up facility; donations have provided furnishing and equipment. At the end of 2004 the Choteau Baptist Church hosted a ?Baby Shower for the King,? which area churches hope to make an annual Christmas event. Life Way?s board has decided to offer post-abortion counseling for women and men, as well as pregnancy and after-birth counseling, and for every initiative the Lord has touched someone?s heart to come forward and serve. ?We see areas of need and know that God will bring someone to meet that need. We would also like to provide abstinence training in the local high schools, an ambitious program, but volunteers have arisen,? said J.C.
?Jenny and I are convinced that what is most important in any pro-active ministry is for us to have a willing heart.?
--Lorna Lindseth, Secretary of Life Way
(J.C. Ellender can be reached at Life Way Pregnancy Services, Box 285, Great Falls, MT 59403)
A Man?s Reflections on the New View of Pregnancy -- The ?Unwanted?
In our sex-saturated culture, the term ?unwanted pregnancy? is becoming so prevalent that few stop to think about what it really means. It seems that the term ?unwanted pregnancy? is used a lot more than ?sexually transmitted disease,? AIDS, cervical cancer, etc., and is more of a fear. Sex-Ed teachers should consider the psychological effects teenagers when they categorize pregnancy with diseases.
Just as bad, what are teenagers often told about pregnancies? ?A baby will interfere with your life?? ?You will probably have to drop out of school and that would be bad because you want a great career, and a baby will just get in the way?? ?You?ll never get dates if the guys know that there is little Jr. in the way.? You, you, me, me. They reinforce the very source of the problem?self-centeredness.
The dirty little secret of our pop culture is that virtually all pregnancies are unwanted?including the planned ones.
What will these children do with their aging parents? Will they place them in sterile, OSHA-regulated institutions to be taken care of by professionals themselves? Or will they seek to eliminate their ?unwanted? in the same manner so many parents today are eliminating their unwanted pregnancies? In 1972, many abortion foes predicted that if abortion was legalized, euthanasia would follow. The me-centered life can?t support a culture of life. Only death remains.
--Matt Chancey works as a public relations manager for a technology company in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he lives with his wife and five children. Matt has been involved in politics since he was a teenager and teaches civics classes for homeschoolers, focusing on the duty of Christians to participate in local, state, and national government.
Dr Bernard Nathanson Regrets -- The Father of the Abortion Industry
During the years that I was training to become an obstetrician, I went through a residency program in the 1950s at the Woman's Hospital in New York City, where all of American gynecology began. We had always on our wards a great number of women who had been injured through illegal abortion. I was thrown together with a man named Lawrence Lader, a far-left liberal, who had worked for Vito Marcantonio, the only card-carrying Communist who ever was elected to the House of Representatives in the United States. He told me that he had published a book on abortion, demanding that abortion be made legal with no restriction. It was really audacious, but of course, Napoleon once said when he was asked the secret of success, he said, "L'audace, toujour l'audace," meaning: "Audacity, boldness, always audacity." Lader was nothing if not bold.
We founded the National Abortion Rights Action League. The sexual revolution had already been launched with the 1965 Griswold decision in the US Supreme Court, which said that contraceptives could be sold to single people and over the counter, and you did not need a prescription for them and so on. So the sexual revolution was beginning, anti-authoritarianism was in the air, and we grabbed it and we ran with it. And within four years abortion was legal throughout the entire United States.
I devised a plan to open a clinic in which we would practice ambulatory abortion. Now ambulatory surgery, that is walk-in, walk-out surgery today is commonplace, but in 1970 there was no such thing. I proved that it could be done; that you could take a woman in, do an abortion, which is a surgical procedure, and let her go home the same day. And that clinic flourished in my hegemony for two years, during which time we performed 60,000 abortions.
The clinic functioned from 8 in the morning until midnight every day, seven days a week, 364 days a year. It was closed on Christmas. I had 35 doctors working for me, 85 nurses, counselors; we had 10 operating rooms. The place was busier than any hospital in the city, and made more money than any hospital in the city, I can tell you that.
The medical establishment considered me beyond the pale for advocating abortion, and I was exiled from the medical establishment in effect. I became a pariah. I was known as the abortion king. My practice dwindled; doctors would not send me patients for delivery or gynecologic care because I was known as an abortionist. Interestingly, now that I am pro-life, I am exiled by the medical establishment! Nobody speaks to me. Well, I had a partner who used to say what goes around, comes around; and I guess it does.
I left the clinic in 1973 to become the Chief of Obstetrical Services at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, a teaching institution for Columbia University Medical School, and it was just at that time?I?m sure it is no coincidence, the hand of God was there?we got new equipment, new technology in obstetrics, ultrasound and fetal heart monitoring, which threw open a window into the womb. And for those of us who were not blind, who would look, it opened up a whole new world. For the first time, we could really see the human fetus. Really measure it. Observe it. Watch it, and bond with it?bond with it. Love it. And I began to do that. I was working with this technology, which was all new, but I found myself bonding with the unborn.
I come to you here today on the brink of conversion, believing the hand of God has moved me here; believing that God will forgive me for the blood on my hands, the lives I have taken, the tragedies I have created, and ultimately the shambles that has been my life. I wish all of you, I beg you, to pray for me. Thank you.
--Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who is now a Christian, at the 13th World Conference of Human Life International, April, 1994.
http://www.vidahumana.org/english/family/ex-abortionist.html.
Human Life International, 4 Family Life, Front Royal, VA 22630
http://www.hli.org.
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