A spark of God's love

The weather in this part of Canada, in late February, is brittle cold. The temperature is expected to drop to minus 30 degrees, snow has been falling for days. It's not fitting for a man in an electric wheelchair to venture out of my little house. And so I listen to the stereo and keep a crackling fire burning in the fireplace (I've burned about two-thirds of my winter supply of wood.) Wind rattles the windows.

It's that time when one goes to bed early and hides beneath a mountain of blankets to read, pray, then eventually stare at the ceiling waiting for sleep. The roof keeps out the elements but it also keeps out the sky.

I need inspiration. The familiarity, warmth and security of my home are a bit too comfortable and I have grown lethargic. Uneventful weeks drift into each other.

It is in these rather lonesome times that I rediscover anew a spark of God's love flickering within me. Often it goes unnoticed in busy times. His silent presence calls to me "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46.10)


As I am typing these words, the opening bars of a cello playing Charles Gounod's O Divine Redeemer have begun to play. I find myself being drawn into the music and the glowing embers of a dying fire in the hearth.

I am still. He is here. This brittle night is blessed.

MP

Does Barack Hussein Obama qualify to be President?

More than 240,000 people have signed a petition asking for Barack Obama reveal whether he meets the constitutional requirement to be President. Is he a natural born in America? Simple question. Easy for him to verify.

I'm sure he meets this basic requirement for the Office so simply ask him to put the question to rest. Join thousands of others to obtain an answer to this plain question. Go to

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81550 and sign the petition.

Also read Alan Keyes' comments at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89078

Mark Pickup

(A Canadian observer)

Suppressing freedom of expression in America

The American Family Association (AFA) produced a broadcast quality, one hour documentary entitled "Speechless: Silencing the Christians." It is a critically important exposé about the radical homosexual agenda and a Christian response to it. Unfortunately, the program's title is proving to be too accurate. I received at email from the AFA that stated, in part:

"Dear Mark - Two TV stations, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, MI and WSYX-TV in Columbus, OH, have banned a television special showing how the media is silencing Christians. The stations bowed down to the demands of a handful of homosexual activists and banned the showing of our TV special "Speechless...Silencing the Christians." The one-hour TV special was scheduled to be shown on the stations, but the stations yanked the program after agreeing to run it. AFA was paying for the time."

CANADA & SUPPRESSION OF SPEECH

I tool particular note that at 30 minutes into the documentary, the AFA highlighted Canadian human rights commission's thought police, and particularly the Alberta's Human Rights Commission in it's vilification and persecution of Pastor Stephen Boisson. Pastor Boisson dared exercise his rights of "freedom of conscience and religion" and his "freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression,"[1] -- and wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper in which he spoke against the homosexual agenda.

A WARNING TO AMERICA

The American Family Association rightly used this Canadian case to warn Americans about the oppressive nature of so-called "hate laws."

I suspect the censoring of "Speechless: Silencing the Christians" in Columbus and Grand Rapids will be repeated with other mainstream television stations across the U.S., in an attempt to silence Christian views.

VIEW THE DOCUMENTARY

So without further ado, may I present this banned documentary, courtesy of my friends at the American Family Association. Go to the following link. Please share with friends, family and your entire email address book for their viewing edification.

"Speechless: Silencing the Christians" at

http://www.silencingchristians.com/

Mark Pickup

________________________________

[1] this is guaranteed to everyone in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Embryonic stem cell therapies: The temptation of evil

As Barack Obama was being inaugurated as America’s 44th President, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took no time to clear the path for the first American embryonic stem cell tests in humans. The FDA, of course, adamantly denied any connection with the timing of the inauguration.

HIGH ROAD-LOW ROAD

For the better part of eight years, the Bush administration did not allow federal funding to go toward embryonic stem cell research. Other sources of stem cells were fine (and there are many) but President Bush took the high and principled ground because embryos die when their stem cells are extracted. Barack Obama has no such qualms.

I predict that under Obama’s presidency legal avenues will soon open for science to experiment on more than 40,000 frozen embryos left over from in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. Unscrupulous scientists will have a heyday poking, prodding, cloning and mutating unwanted embryos ― all things unthinkable to previous generations.

At any rate, with the recent FDA approval, a California based bio-medical corporation called Geron will begin human tests using embryonic stem cells to try and repair spinal cord injuries.

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS CURE NOTHING

Embryonic stem cell research comes with the grandest promises of cures for spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and a host of other conditions. So far the promise has proved empty. Over seventy therapies have been developed for diseases and conditions using non-embryonic stem cell sources – such as stem cells taken from adult bone marrow, skin, umbilical cord blood and even cadavers. Not one therapy has been developed anywhere in the world using embryonic stem cells. To date, the promise of embryonic stem cells really has proved to be empty.

Many world renowned embryologists and research scientists consider them too unstable for research or therapeutic purposes.

THE TEMPTATION OF EVIL

So why the fixation on embryonic stem cells when non-embryonic stem cells are not as problematic? Perhaps there is some underlying need to justify why life before birth is held in such low regard. Maybe liberal agendas hope for some redeeming feature to an otherwise morally impoverished mentality that has resulted in millions of children dying before they saw the light of day. Abortion and the IVF process are two great evils of our age.

As I mentioned earlier, the Geron Corporation’s speculative human trials using embryonic stem cells to repair spinal cord injuries may have a direct impact on other conditions. The New York Times coverage of the Geron trials, claimed, "The hope is that the injected cells will help repair the insulation, known as myelin, around nerve cells, restoring the ability of some nerve cells to carry signals."

If this is true, and if the trials are successful, there will be implications for a disease like multiple sclerosis (MS). It is a disease of demylenation that has seriously crippled me.

MS AND LOST PRODUCTIVITY

If the Geron trials prove successful and an embryonic stem cell therapy for mylen repair is developed, you can bet an application for MS will pursued. Why? Multiple sclerosis is the most common neurological disease amongst young adults in North America. It’s a crippler not a killer with an average age of onset being 20-40 years.

It destroys people's independence and careers just as their prime earning years as taxpaying contributors are about to begin. More than 400,000 people have MS in America, and over 50,000 in Canada. The financial implications of caring for these people for 30-40 years are staggering. The human and social costs are incalculable. There’s tremendous financial incentive for governments or corporations operating outside of moral constraints to fund ESC research to fund such research.

MORAL CONSTRAINTS

Here’s the problem for someone like me: I do operate with moral constraints and conscience. My Christianity demands it. I can not participate in, or take advantage of, therapies developed using embryonic stem cells. It is unacceptable for my life to get better at the expense of another. I would love to get out of my electric wheelchair and go swimming with my grandchildren or dance again with my wife.

Non-embryonic stem cell sources are fine. If, however, the therapy involves the killing of another human being in the form of an embryo then I must forego treatment, accept life in a wheelchair, and whatever lies in store for me with an aggressive and degenerative disease.

I know what it's like to have my life devalued. Why would I devalue another human life?!

Is the allure of an embryonic stem cell therapy tempting? Absolutely!―but I must resist, and with God's help, I will resist. It is better to lose the use of my body than lose my humanity.

MP

(This article also appears as my column for Canada's Western Catholic Reporter, 9 February 2009, under the title: "Bio-medical company experiments with embryonic stem cells." (See http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/markpickup/2009/markpickup020909.shtml)

Is Canada pro-choice or pro-abortion?

Read my latest blog "If Canada really is "pro-choice", then balance the choice" at http://humanlifematters.blogspot.com/

MP