Category: Abortion

Mike Huckabee for President

~ fundyreformed ~ 24 Comments

ExploreHuckabee.com - I Like Mike!I don’t delve into politics much on this blog. Frankly, it frustrates me too much. I don’t like the left spin on things, but I can see there is often a right spin too. Journalism in today’s world of sound bites and infomania, can’t help but be biased. And biased, it most certainly is. So much so, I tune most of it out.

So why am I promoting a candidate here on my blog? Because I really think Mike Huckabee is an exceptional candidate. I want to spread the word and encourage you bloggers out there to get a button, and support Huckabee for president.

This has nothing to do with Mitt Romney’s religion. I honestly don’t follow things all that closely, but I do know there are only a few candidates out there that right wing Evangelicals would be comfortable with. It’s funny, but the real reason I like Huckabee is that he doesn’t fit a right wing Evangelical mold.

Huckabee is pro-life and pro-2nd amendment (2 key issues for me). But he explains the pro-life position as obligating him to support health care for kids and clean drinking water, and a safe, clean environment, etc. “Life starts at conception but doesn’t end at birth,” he quips.

Huckabee has written a book, where he says we need to get away from “horizontal politics” and move toward “vertical politics”. Instead of everything being right vs. left, America needs a proactive leadership to take us somewhere — to lift us up and give hope.

Optimism describes Huckabee. And his 10+ year tenure as governor of Arkansas proves he not only has a “can do spirit”, but that he really can do it.

I encourage you to check out Huckabee for president. Pray for him and pull for him. I think he would be an incredible blessing to our nation. And he could do that, even if he loses a tight primary race or the presidential race — just by spreading his message.

So check him out. You can start with this article, from World magazine (which is what got me excited about Huckabee in the first place). If you aren’t a subscriber, you should give that magazine a try, by the way. I also found this blog post by Brian McCrorie insightful. It was Brian’s site, by the way, where I first noticed the great Blog Buttons for Huckabee.

Brian also highlighted a great series of posts on YouTube describing Huckabee’s 10 year stint as Arkansas governor. I think Brian’s post misses a few of the clips, but with YouTube you can find them all easily enough. It will take about 30 minutes or more to watch them all. If you want a shorter video clip, this interview with George Stephanopoulos really allows him to explain his positions quite well. And of course a great way to learn about Huckabee, is to read his thoughts on the issues, as you explore his website.

So do some research, and then you’ll understand why I think Huckabee is right for America. Once you’re convinced, join me in supporting Huckabee on your blog. Hey, he’s the underdog right now, and everyone loves to cheer an underdog on. So “Go Huckabee!”

ExploreHuckabee.com - I Like Mike!

Thinking God's Thoughts on Abortion

~ fundyreformed ~ 6 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I am a human. And as such, it is easy to think like a human. Thus, I can easily empathize with the plight of people facing unwanted pregnancies. I can even come close to recognizing the right of people who don’t know Jesus and don’t revere the Bible, to follow their own conscience and go ahead and abort their baby. I mean, I don’t expect them to face jail time if they lie or if they think lustful thoughts. I don’t expect to enforce kindness and love as a moral duty on all citizens. I believe the Bible wants us to persuade and not force everyone to follow Christ. And again, I’m human and can understand the excuses and reasons a natural person would have for such an action.

So part of me always flinches when the thought of overturning Roe v. Wade comes up. Why should we have to make all abortions absolutely illegal?

But the Bible calls us, as Christians, to be people who think God’s thoughts. We need to be informed by God’s Word in every area of life. And as Isaiah 55 says: “[God’s] thoughts are not [our] thoughts” and His “ways [are] higher than [our] ways” (vs. 8-9).

So what are God’s thoughts about abortion? Any pro-choice people reading this are now ready to come up with a flurry of alternative interpretations of any passage I’ll bring up, assuming they are people who at least want to be seen as caring about the Bible and what God says.

Okay now that everyone’s ready, let me try to throw a wrench in the works. Follow this line of reasoning:

People agree murder is wrong for this reason: it violates the murdered person’s rights (their right to be alive as a person). But with abortion, some people will claim a fetus is not a person and hence has no rights.

God, however, does not see murder as wrong for those merely human reasons. He says murder is wrong because it is an affront to God. Murder destroys a creature that God made in his image. Gen. 1: 27 and 9: 5-6 (and many other verses) teach that God created human beings as the sole creatures in this world that reflect God’s image. And since God defines a human being as being alive and personal from conception, then the destruction of unborn fetuses is still an affront on God’s image and God’s personhood. Further, God is the one who is ultimately the one behind the miracle of life, every conception occurs because of His personal work. Destroying the fetus God made is an affront to God.

And again, because God wrote the Bible and it is His Word, then God himself is revealing that the taking of human life (defined by God in his Word to be from the point of conception) is an affront to God’s character and an offense to Him. Thus, the debate is more than just a squabble over the definition of life and when it begins. Abortion is an offense to God.

Now you might have difficulty following me here. But consider this: God is the one who has made people with disabilities to be a part of our world. He is the one who allows Down Syndrome children to be born, for instance. So if man says such children should not be made to endure a difficult life, or the parents of such children should not have to endure all the suffering involved, man is raising himself up and saying, “God you don’t know what you’re doing. Let us fix things here…”. And in fact, that is what’s happening today. Check out this sobering piece by Albert Mohler (HT: Thirsty Theologian) linking to a Newsweek column on the tragedy of a concentrated effort to wipe out all such disabled children.

This article is written on the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. And my line of thought above was started in part by this 2nd part of a series on the subject by my blogging friend Ken Fields. (See also part one and stay tuned for part three). If you are interested in more posts on this subject, check out this post and this one by Justin Taylor. Or check out Abort73.Com.

Painfully Obvious

~ fundyreformed ~ 30 Comments

Elephant at 6 months in the womb (1/4 of the way through its gestational period)

Technological advances have made striking pictures like this (an elephant embryo six months along in its 24 month gestational period) possible. This post (HT: Ryan DeBarr) contains several striking pictures of animal embryos. What is crystal clear is that they are not developing through several stages of evolution in the womb—and they are not mere lumps of tissue.

And of course we now know for certain that the same is true with human embryos. 3D ultrasound technology has completely destroyed the myth of a gestational evolution of sorts. But guess what? Textbooks continue to repeat the Darwinian myth that human embryos have gill slits and etc. And pro abortion people continue to denigrate human embryos as “just tissue”.

How very sad. And, how painfully obvious.

 

Abort73.com | We Dare You to Know

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Christians, Contraceptives and Children

~ fundyreformed ~ 9 Comments

Be fruiful and multiply...I recently came across an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal on evangelicals and contraception (HT: Sharper Iron Filings). Let me provide some excerpt and then pose some questions.

A Harris Poll conducted online in September 2005 shows that evangelicals overwhelmingly support birth control (88%).

A recent New York Times article on the subject, it is true, quoted Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, saying that the separation between sex and procreation caused by contraceptives is “ominous.” But he also went on to say that “evangelical couples may, at times, choose to use contraceptives in order to plan their families and enjoy the pleasures of the marital bed.”…

Protestants’ acceptance of contraception has a relatively short history. The 1930 Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops was the first Christian church body to authorize the use of contraceptives within marriage, even as it condemned certain motives for using it, like “selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience.” The introduction of the birth control pill in the 1950s and 1960s offered “free love” to society at large; married evangelicals embraced its convenience and effectiveness. …

A minority movement within evangelical circles… oppose(s) contraception not merely on pro-life grounds but also on the grounds that artificial contraception inhibits the possibility of children, in effect, offering a “thanks, but no thanks” (or at least “not right now”) response to God’s blessing to “be fruitful and multiply.”…For those who marry, the “my body, my choice” attitude contributes to a contraception culture that places fulfillment of personal desires ahead of God’s desires.

Some evangelicals charge that the Pill has contributed to the moral breakdown of society; perhaps, but evangelicals’ embrace of the contraception culture has not helped. It may have made Christianity sexier to potential adherents but diminished a public understanding of marriage in the process. For evangelicals, this may be a bitter pill to swallow.

Why do you use contraceptives?

Is convenience or lifestyle motivating your decisions? Do you view children as a hassle rather than a blessing? Are you trying to avoid the responsibility and difficulty of raising a family for God? Have you thought through your decision from a Biblical perspective, or are you just going with the flow?

Are you using birth control to best provide for the largest family possible, or are you merely trying to stick to a self-determined number of children. Are you intending to have a large family since God explicitly teaches that a large family is a blessing from God?

Do you know what Scripture teaches about children?

Have you studied all that Scripture teaches about children? Do you know that the Bible abundantly proclaims that a large family is a blessing from God? Do you wonder why women today choose to be barren whereas women in the Bible viewed barrenness as a curse and sought help from God when barren? Have you considered that God wants to redeem a people (not individuals) to Himself: that His covenant extends “to you and your children”?

Rebecca received this blessing from her family before leaving to become Isaac’s wife: “Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate…” . Does this surprise or shock you? Why would such a blessing be so unpopular today? Do you look down on people with large families, as if they are just lazy or stupid or something?

What about the pill?

Are you aware that the pill is sometimes an abortifacient: that it often (once a year or more, even) does not prevent ovulation but rather prevents a fertilized egg from impanting into the uterus. Do you know that the scientific community has radically redefined the term conception?

Finally, will you purpose to consider this issue from a Biblical perspective?

Will you be willing to follow the leading of God and His Word despite how it may affect you personally? Will you be willing to respect children more and view large families in a positive light? Will you seek to appropriate God’s blessing of children in more intentional ways (perhaps even through adoption)?

For Further Study

Note: The following articles take different positons on this issue. Yet each takes a high view of Scripture. I think there is freedom to disagree on the issue, but not freedom to think secularly on the issue. Whatever we decide let us make the decision as a Christian and in accord with Scripture. To that end, the following articles may prove useful.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

The Good Samaritan, The Unborn, and "Who Is My Neighbor?"

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

Who is my neighbor? That question is put to Jesus by a lawyer, or teacher of the law, in Luke 10:29. Jesus’ answer is remembered as perhaps the most famous of Jesus’ parables, the parable of the “good Samaritan”. The parable is given in Luke 10:25-37, specifically verses 30-36.

Twice this week, I have noticed this parable being aptly applied to the current abortion debates. Matthew P. Ristuccia, a pastor in Princeton, NJ, wrote a guest column in World Magazine (Jan. 21, 2006 edition), with the title “Who is my neighbor?” and the subtitle “Consider the unborn, the near-dead, and the easily forgotten” (read the whole article here). He states, “Today we might ask, ‘Is that shape on the ultrasound my neighbor?’ I would say that the shape on the ultrasound is our most defenseless, vulnerable, and innocent neighbor. Then comes a follow-up question: ‘Shall I do for my unborn neighbor what I would have wanted done for me?‘” The answer to this second question makes this parable’s application to the abortion issue especially poignant and meaningful to us all.

But before I read Pastor Ristuccia’s column this week, I heard my pastor John Piper preach a message from this same passage entitled, “Love Your Unborn Neighbor”. Pastor Piper labored to communicate “one crucial thing” from this passage; namely that “Jesus tells a story that changes the question from What kind of person is my neighbor? to What kind of person am I? He changes the question from What status of people are worthy of my love? to How can I become the kind of person whose compassion disregards status?”

Let me allow Piper to develop his own point here by quoting a few paragraphs from his sermon (the full copy of which is available here).

“Let’s make sure we see this and then apply it. A lawyer asks in verse 25 about how to inherit eternal life. He is not sincere. It says he is testing Jesus. Jesus puts the question back to him in verse 26 to reveal the duplicity. What does the Law say? He answers in verse 27 that we should love God will all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus exposes him by saying in effect: So you already know the answer. He sees that he has been exposed and needs to cover up his hypocrisy and so verse 29 says, “Desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “˜And who is my neighbor?'” In other words, it’s not so easy, Jesus. Life is complicated””like, which kind of people do we have to love? Who qualifies for being a neighbor in the command, “Love your neighbor” ? Every race? Every age. The unborn?

Now how will Jesus answer? He does not like this question. Carving humanity up into groups some of whom are worthy of our love and others are not. Jesus does not answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” He tells a parable that changes the question.

Between Jerusalem and Jericho a man falls among robbers and verse 30 says they “stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” The first two people to pass by are a priest and a Levite””the most religious folks””and they both pass by on the other side (vv. 31, 32). Then came a Samaritan, not even a Jew, and the key phrase about this man is at the end of verse 33: “he had compassion.”

You see how the focus has shifted. The question about what kind of man is dying is not even in the story any more. The whole focus is now on the kind of people who are walking by. The first two felt no compassion. The Samaritan was a different kind of person. So when you get to the end, what’s the question Jesus asks? Was it, “So was the wounded man a neighbor?” No. That is not the question. Jesus asked the lawyer (v. 36), “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The lawyer said in verse 37, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

No answer to his question: Who is my neighbor? Instead: Go become a new kind of person. Go get a compassionate heart. This is exactly what Jesus died for….”[Read the entire sermon here]

The point of this parable strongly weighs in on our own personal involvement in the abortion issue. Are we such a loving kind of person, that we would seek to be involved in preventing the brutal murder of countless unborn neighbors? Are we so loving that if there is even a chance that the “shape on the ultrasound” (to borrow Ristuccia’s phrase) is human and thus is being mercilessly killed, that we would lovingly stand up against the practice of abortion?

Piper brings this point home in this way, “When all of the arguments are said and done about the status of pre-born human life and whether the unborn qualify for our compassion along with mommy and daddy and grandma and granddadd–when we are done trying to establish, ‘Is this my neighbor?’–the decisive issue of love remains: What kind of person am I? Does compassion rise in my heart for both mommy and daddy and grandma and graddaddy and this unborn baby? Or do I just get another coke and change the channel?”

In this issue as in many others, let us determine to plead for God’s grace that we might become loving, merciful, even compassionate people–the kind of people who will risk their reputation and their money in helping the poor and oppressed, and standing up for the life of the unborn.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7