who asked that her name be withheld

I read an article today, “Family planning may suffer as economy declines“. The title sounds promising. The details are a bit disturbing.

I did find some encouragement in two small phrases made about women commenting on their recent abortions, “who asked that her name be withheld” and “who asked that her name not be published because some family members do not know she ended a pregnancy”. There may still be an understanding that abortion is evil.

Some context of one almost extinguishes that hope though, “‘It [stinks][1] that it comes down to money,’ said the woman, who asked that her name be withheld. ‘But if we can’t even support ourselves, it wouldn’t be good for a baby.'” Do you think she noticed that she just said it would be better for the baby to die than the baby, parents, or siblings to be hungry?

I praise God for using all sorts of means to reduce the abortion rate. And I praise him that there is that still small glimmer of God’s image in our children that refuses to be extinguished. But where will we be in 5 years if we continue to see things as “it’s better for others to die, that I may not suffer want”? And how are Christians any different? Adoption anyone? How about supporting some of the right to life clinics, like Central Illinois Right To Life Inc. which is mentioned in the article? What about teaching our children that marriage is sacred so we see a reduction in unmarried sex?

[1] – the [stinks] was in the original, aparently not wanting to offend anyone with “bad” language.

Abortion, the new Divorce

An article byFrederica Mathewes-Green is excellent, making two great points. The first, abortion is being overlooked as an issue. The second, the baby-boomer generation will be judged for abortion.

A friend and I were talking about sins and big issues a few days ago. When we started to list a few I began with divorce. He was surprised but continued with more “relevant” ones, like abortion and gay-marriage (speaking of, gay marriage may be the new abortion in terms of the issues our culture struggles with). I think he was surprised because of how “old” and “worn out” divorce has become. Green suggests that abortion is on that same road. She hopes it will be picked up later and reviewed, as do I. Truth always wins. It just depends on how long we have to wait until God uses our preaching, working and love to bring truth to victory.

As for the baby-boomer generation being judged – yep, they sure will be. And our generation will be judged for gay-marriage. But we must continue to preach, teach, work and love toward the truth because it is still possible that our judgment, especially by God, will be for the good we have done in over turning our cultures stance on divorce, abortion and gay-marriage.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” – Galatians 6:9

Obama set to commission public funding of genocide

In an article titled, “Celebration over, Obama plunges into workday one“, Jennifer Loven, AP White House Correspondent lists some of Obama’s pending executive orders. Among them,

overturning the so-called Mexico City policy that forbids U.S. funding for family planning programs that offer abortion, and lifting President George W. Bush’s limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

This will probably come Thursday or Friday according to the article. So, our tax money now funds abortion.

Two things: 1) we need to pray for our new President (1 Timothy 2:1-2), especially Thursday and Friday for this decision; 2) how far does Romans 13:1-7 go? must we pay taxes Caesar when Caesar uses them for genocide? Does Jesus say yes in Matthew 22:15-22?

Is there anywhere you wouldn’t pray?

In a post on Rapid Fire, Robert E. Sagers poses a good question – “Is there anywhere you wouldn’t pray, if asked?”

Sagers questions us after reviewing Donald Miller’s decision to give the benediction to the Democratic National convention.

Although I disagree with Mr. Miller on many things, I think he responds well when he says, “This is about any believer who’s called and asked to come and pray. No matter you’re called to pray, you go”. It’s not as obligatory as Miller suggests but why wouldn’t we go pray? You can include a lot of God-exalting, exclusively Christ-centered, anti-abortion appeals to God for repentance to be granted. The questions might become, could you do it and still obey Matthew 6:1,5?