We can only wonder

Always in the vanguard of promoting freedom of speech and opinion, NBC television network rejected a pro-Life advertisement by Fidelis and its CatholicVote website.


The ad begins with a realtime ultrasound image of a baby in the womb. To the sound of classical music words appear on the sceen in front of the ultrasound image:

"This child's future is a broken home,"

"He will be abandoned by his father."

"His single mother will struggle to raise him."

"Despite the hardships, he will endure,"

"This child will become the first African American president."

The image changes to a photograph of President Obama and concludes with the words, "Life. Imagine the potential." See the ad for yourself at
http://www.ncregister.com/daily/tags/catholicvote.org

Why was that so offensive to NBC? It was offensive to NBC because they are not even pro-choice, -- they are pro-abortion.

The fact remains, every life carries potential. Where's the potential in a medical waste container?

We can only wonder

I have often wondered if one of the 50-million child aborted over the past 36 years in America or 38 years in Canada might have discovered a cure for cancer, Alzheimer's, or maybe multiple sclerosis, the disease that has crippled me.

Some of those children we aborted would have grown up to be physicians to help Canada with its doctor shortage. Others would have grown to be scientists who discovered new and better ways to make life better or enhance our collective knowledge about the universe. Some would have become entrepeuners who would have helped made the economy hum. Still others would have enriched our world by becoming musicians, writers or arts. The potential we lost through is incalculable.

Abortion silenced more than 50 million lives, and made us all poorer.

Mark Pickup

Blog about anti-disability bias in health care

Read my latest blog "Disability and Health care" at http://humanlifematters.blogspot.com/

MP

Christians need to know Christian history!

“A series of fascinating books on those remarkable people called Christians, who say they have been born anew through the power of a man called Jesus Christ, and who have shaped the course of human history for the last two thousand years.” ― from "The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years” website.

(See http://www.thechristians.ca/home.html)

I have written previously about the 12 volume book series by The Christian History Project. It’s of such importance to us in a growing anti-Christian era that I am going to address it again. The Christians: The First Two Thousand Years is a must-have for every Christian home.



Basis of western civilization

"There has never been a period in which Common Law did not recognize Christianity as laying at its foundation." -- Joseph Story, Dane Professor of Law, Harvard University, 1829.

Christianity lies at the foundation for western civilization’s laws, morality and mores, its literature, art and music. Christianity gave rise to western civilization's education and hospitals and cathedrals, In short, Christianity proved to be the basis for all many of us hold dear.


Throughout the past seventy years or so, the Christian basis of western civilization has steadily been eroded, attacked and undermined. Now it is being torn down and supplanted by pluralism, secularism, humanism and strident individualism.

There are even attempts to rewrite history, and particularly Christian history, by agendas hostile to Christian faith and morals.


Important to have


I believe it is imperative for 21st Century Christians to know their history. Where do we come from and how did we get here? These are questions that the Christian History Project is truthfully answering.

An accurate, lively and highly readable record is being written by thoughtful, faithful and engaging Christian writers including Stephen Hopkins, Gary Thomas, Charlotte Allen, Vincent Carroll, John Muggeridge, Frederica Mathewes Green, and Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today.


Each book incorporates lavish and breathtaking original artwork by renowned artists such as John Collier, Carlo Costentino, Michael Dudash and Richard Sparks, to mention just a few. Imaginative yet accurate paintings and sketches by some of North America's finest artists grace the pages of each book in the series.

Below is a sort excerpt from the third volume, By This Sign:

“Early in the catacombs, overtly Christian themes
were rarely painted or carved on the sarcophagi of
the faithful, and depictions of Jesus himself omitted
such powerful, explicit events as the Crucifixion or
Resurrection. Instead, some paintings used Old
Testament themes to illustrate Christian tenets:
Christ’s triumph over death was echoed in Jonah’s
escape from the fish or in Daniel’s survival in the
lion’s den. There were more subtle hints: Christians
would recognize an ordinary man carrying a sheep as
a reminder of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
By the fourth century, catacomb art had grown to
include more representational forms. Illustrations
clearly portrayed events from the Gospels and central
themes such as the Incarnation. There were depictions
of the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she
would give birth to “Immanuel” and of the visit of the
Magi to the Holy Child. Images of the Virgin and
Child also began appearing on Christian tombs in the catacombs.”

See this and other Volumes at the Website: http://www.thechristians.ca/home.html

What a treasure! I have them in my personal library.

MP

Read ""The Dream" and the content of human character" at http://humanlifematters.blogspot.com/

MP

The gentle art of nurturing children

“No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nurture and education.” ― Socrates

The quotation above is certainly not meant as a way of legitimizing abortion. (That would only be a conclusion of a perverse thinking.) A right thinking man of any generation does not advocate the death of his children before birth or after birth. If a man is not prepared to persevere to the end in the nurture and education of his children then he should not engage in sexual intercourse outside of marriage.


Proper nurture

The God-ordained place for proper nurture of children is within the love and security of a family. I learned this the hard way in my youth by being involved in pre-marital sex which resulted in a pregnancy. I pressured my girlfriend to have an abortion because of my hedonism. And so my first baby died by abortion. I cheered as a teenager but later wept, grieved and have regretted that baby’s death for more thirty-five years. My baby had a right to life and nurture and to walk on the earth, and I knew it.

The gentle art of nurture which I denied to my child was/is, in fact, a natural fit for me. This is due in large part to being blessed by a nurturing father, beginning even before my birth. My father was good-natured, orderly, and his love was obvious, his affection easily expressed. As a child I was surrounded by books and music and a Christian home. It was understood that outdoor activity, play and sportsmanship is important to physical and character development.

Generational nurture

Because of this, my fatherly nurture for my children was an easy fit, and now my job in grandfatherly nurture is a joy. Grandfatherly nurture is different from fatherly nurture: It’s a step or two removed from the day to day upbringing and direction given to a child. Now I’m an encourager of my adult children in their parenting. Being head over heels in love with my grandchildren adoration is nearly impossible to hide.

The Oxford Dictionary defines nurture as "training, fostering care; nourishment." Providing nourishment goes without saying but ‘care’, well now, that’s a very big word. It’s so much more than providing clothing and schooling. Care that is grounded in love concerns itself primarily with spiritual, emotional and intellectual development of children. Care that is grounded in love concerns itself with developing character in a child. That’s nurture.

Nurture encourages children to be their best ―at whatever that might be. Nurture stresses the necessity of learning and expression.


Christian basis

Children need to be brought up in the Christian faith and be introduced early to be sensitive to the very real presence of Jesus Christ so they can connect His love with that deep and indescribable yearning they've been aware of since earliest memory. Children need to know they are special not because of what they can do but who they are: Image bearers of their heavenly Father. They are special for no other reason than they exist.

Discipline must be measured, consistent and fair. Children need to know there’s a time to laugh and a time to cry. Even small children can understand the humanness of joy and sorrow are experienced under the umbrella of God’s love. The meaning of human existence can only be truly understood within God's love.

Instill this into a child and he/she will be able to withstand lies of the world that threaten to strip their sense of self-worth.

MP

Correct the disaster of accommodating the spirit of the age

I would like to bring readers attention to a special reprint of an article entitled "The conspiracy to abolish marriage in Canada: If everything is marriage, then nothing is" See
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/060925a.html

When recognition of same sex marriage was rammed through Canada's Parliament under the Liberal government of Paul Martin, it was not supported as a free vote. Prime Minister Martin invoked strict Party discipline in order to pass the bill. All ministers, parliamentary secretaries and committee Chairs (not to mention back bench MPs) were expected to support the same sex marriage bill, under threat of losing portfolios, perks, and privileges. Self-interest prevailed for most Liberal MPs: all but a few courageous Members fell into line and voted to recognize homosexual marriage.

Was this departure from historical definition of marriage -- as between one man and one woman -- warranted by stacks of social science or empirical studies validating the advisability of such a change? No. In fact, there were studies showing that children raised in homosexual partner homes have considerable problems. Quite simply, the law was changed on the basis of liberal social fashion (disguised as human rights).

Recognition of same-sex marriage (in Canada and abroad) is a deviation from history and wisdom of the ages. It is a dangerous social experiment that threatens to bring down Christian civilization that previous generations fought to preserve.

Two major pillars of Christian morality are marriage and the sanctity of human life. Both are being supplanted by secularism, relativism and a neo-paganism. The result has been disastrous to the Christian concept of life's sanctity. Now the marriage pillar is being torn down. Like the article noted at the beginning of this blog says in its title, "If everything is marriage, then nothing is." A primary building block of society will disappear.

Helping dismantle the culture

Sadly, the dismantling of our former Christian country has been aided by Christians themselves. So often the Canadian Evangelical responses to the destruction of the sanctity of human life ethic has been pale and uncertain.

Now, with the redefinition of marriage, Canadian evangelicals seem to have thrown up their hands as though the matter was decided. It may have been decided by our liberal courts and political elites, but it has not been decided by ordinary people on main street Canada. They are looking for leadership back to sanity.

Evangelicals seem to have shrunk away with embarrassment from standing resolutely and forcefully against the destruction of traditional marriage by a vociferous and litigious homosexual lobby. Protection of their church charitable status is more important than speaking out against redefinition of marriage or homosexuality. They are afraid of being called names, maligned by the press, or being dragged before a quasi-judicial human rights tribunal.

Perhaps I should not be surprised. Canadian Evangelicals have been slow and uncertain to respond against the holocaust of abortion throughout the past 40 years in Canada. I can only presume it will be equally pale and uncertain with euthanasia. There are courageous exceptions, of course, like the late Pastor Ken Campbell, and the Pentecostal Church, but they are the exceptions.

Denominational policy statements decrying the evil of abortion without persistent and consistent public action, or clearly articulating Biblical and Christian answers outside the church foyer have failed the sacred cause of life. Will they be equally timid to make their presence felt defending the Biblical definition of marriage?

But timidity has not been the greatest failure of the Evangelical Church, it's greatest failure has been accommodation. Rather than transforming the culture with Biblical truth, it has been guilty of accommodating the culture and that ultimately denies the transforming power of Biblical truth.

As Dr. Francis Schaeffer was dying in 1984, he wrote his last book, The Great Evangelical Disaster. He addressed this spirit of accommodation:

"For the evangelical accommodation to the world of our age represents the removal of the last barrier against the breakdown of our culture. ... To accommodate to the world spirit about us in our age is the most gross form of worldliness in the proper definition of the word." (p. 141-142)

The great man said the only legitimate response for Christians is confronting the culture -- loving confrontation -- but confrontation none-the-less in the crucial moral and social issues of our day. Anything less is a failure to live under the full authority of God's inerrant Word: the Bible.

Many evangelicals avoided The Great Evangelical Disaster. Its truth was also a confrontation -- a confrontation many evangelicals are still not willing to admit.

Spiritual war

I call upon Canadian evangelicals to join together with their Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ and spill into the streets in unshakable resolve to reclaim our dying Christian culture. Militate for Biblical morality on the sanctity and dignity of marriage and human life.

Don't worry about being dragged before human rights commissions on bogus charges, losing your tax status or being called names. Previous generations of Christians faced more serious threats for the sake of Biblical truth.

We are in a spiritual war of monumental proportions!

MP

(This blog column was reposted on a commentary by Judie Brown, President of American Life League (Stafford, VA.) See (http://www.all.org/newsroom_judieblog.php)

Read my latest blog "America as an Obama-nation" at http://humanlifematters.blogspot.com/

MP