Live-Birth Abortion

This is so unbelievable, I am linking back to the source (U.S. Government site):

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju67226.000/hju67226_0.htm#34

BORN-ALIVE INFANTS PROTECTION ACT OF 2000
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION
OF THECOMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARYHOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ONH.R. 4292
JULY 20, 2000
Serial No. 120

STATEMENT OF JILL L. STANEK, MOKENA, IL

Ms. STANEK. My name is Jill Stanek, and I am a registered nurse who has worked in the Labor and Delivery Department at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, for the past 5 years. Christ Hospital performs abortions on women in their second or even third trimesters of pregnancy. Sometimes the babies aborted are healthy, and sometimes they are not.

The method of abortion that Christ Hospital uses is called ''induced labor abortion,'' also now known as ''live-birth abortion.'' This type of abortion can be performed different ways, but the goal always is to cause a pregnant woman's cervix to open so that she will prematurely deliver a baby who dies during the birth process or soon afterward.

The way that the induced abortion is most often executed at Christ Hospital is by the physician inserting a pill called Cytotec into the birth canal close to the vagina. Cytotec irritates the cervix and stimulates it to open. When this occurs, the small, pre-term baby drops out of the uterus, often alive. It is not uncommon for a live aborted baby to linger for an hour or two or even longer. One of these babies was known to live for almost an entire 8-hour shift.

In the event that a baby is aborted alive, he or she receives no medical assessments or care, but is given only what the Christ Hospital calls ''comfort care.'' Comfort care is defined as keeping the baby warm in a blanket until he or she dies, although even this so-called compassion is not always provided. It is not required that these babies be held during their short lives.

One night, a nursing co-worker was taking an aborted Down's syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him and she did not have time to hold him. I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived. He was about 22 weeks old, weighed about a half a pound, and was about 10 inches long, about the size of my hand. He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy that he had trying to breathe. Toward the end of his life he was so quiet that I couldn't tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his little heart was still beating through his chest wall. After he was pronounced dead, we folded his little arms across his chest, tied his hands together with a string, wrapped him in a tiny shroud, and carried him to the hospital morgue where all of our other dead patients go.

The mark that this little person's untimely death left on my heart will never go away. In large part, I ended up here today because of that baby.

Other co-workers have told me upsetting stories about live aborted babies whom they have cared for. I was told about an aborted baby who was supposed to have spina bifida, but was delivered with an intact spine. Another nurse is haunted by the memory of an aborted baby who came out weighing much more than expected—almost 2 pounds. She is haunted because she doesn't know if she made a mistake by not getting that baby any medical help. A support associate told me about a live aborted baby who was left to die on a counter in our Soiled Utility room wrapped in a disposable towel. This baby was accidentally thrown in the garbage. Later, when they were going through the trash trying to find the baby, the baby fell out of the towel and onto the floor.

I was recently told about a situation by a nurse who said, ''I can't stop thinking about it.'' She had a patient who was 23-plus weeks pregnant, and it did not look as if her baby would continue to be able to live inside of her. The baby was healthy and had up to a 39 percent chance of survival, according to our national statistics. But the patient chose to abort. The baby was born alive. If the mother had wanted everything done for her baby at Christ Hospital, there would have been a neonatologist, a pediatric resident, a neonatal nurse, and respiratory therapist present for the delivery, and the baby would have been taken to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for specialized care. Instead, the only personnel present for this delivery were an obstetrical resident and my co-working friend. After delivery, the baby, who showed early signs of thriving—her Apgars improved—was merely wrapped in a blanket and kept in the Labor and Delivery Department until she died two and a half hours later.

To me, something is very wrong with a legal system that requires doctors to pronounce babies dead but does not require them to assess babies for life. I am also very uncomfortable with the fact that the very doctors who may be miscalculating birth weights, due dates, or misdiagnosing fetal handicaps are the same ones deciding that these babies should not be assessed after delivery.

Shouldn't these babies be given the simple opportunity for second opinion, just as you and I do? No other children in America are medically abandoned like this.

YouthQuake 2008

YouthQuake 2008

Jeremy Camp
Superchic[k]
Stellar Kart
Article One
Starlit Platoon
David Nasser

YouthQuake 2008 - Johnson City, TN
October 18, 2008
Tickets On Sale Now
Show Time(s)
4:00pm


Winged Deer Park Johnson City, TN Map

Steve Saint to speak tomorrow

Steve Saint will be speaking tomorrow (11/18 10am-noon) at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Johnson City, TN.

In 1956, his father and four other missionaries were killed by Waodani Indians during an effort to make peaceful contact with them.

Saint appeared in and narrated the 2004 documentary film Beyond the Gates of Splendor. In 2005 he published his memoirs, a book titled End of the Spear. In 2006 there was a major film adaptation of the book, and Saint was heavily involved in the production process.

The Ultimate Civil Right

"Life, Liberty, and ..."

Without life, you cannot have liberty, pursuit of hapiness, own property, work, play, anything....

So life is the most important of the inalienable rights of man.

Liberty is most important for the disadvantaged, the weak, those unable to speak up for themselves. Those in power should protect the weak and disadvantaged. Others should make this a moral imperative of those in power -- that they protect the rights of the most vulnerable.

Who is more vulnerable than a baby -- one who has not been born? The only reason that abortion is legal is the voiceless state of unborn babies. They can't complain. They have no legal power. They have no economic power.

The most important civil right is the right to life.

1 John 4:1-10

1 John 4:1-10

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

We need to be aware that false teachers are not just false teachers, but are following a spirit. One is of God, the other of the antichrist. You can easily find out by asking the questions: Was Jesus a real person? Do you acknowledge Jesus? In verse 9, we will see what "acknowledge Jesus" means.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

We can be assured that when we teach, the Spirit can overcome the "worldly teachers". People of the world will not recognize this Spirit. People from God will listen.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

We must love one another, like the example that God gave us. No one loved God enough to deserve eternal life. God loved us, the unlovable, by sending his Son to die for our sins. It was through Jesus' sacrifice that we live, not through any action of our own. This is the final test of acknowledging Jesus to test the spirits: Do you believe that Jesus died for our sins?

What it Takes to be an Atheist

On my favorite Sci-Fi show, Startgate: SG-1, the team finds an alien machine that allows them to travel between different universes. One of the characters on the show says that according to scientific theory, at every instant, all possible futures happen in alternate parallel universes.

Dawkins, in the God Delusion, acknowledges that our current universe is so unlikely to exist, that one must adopt theories like this to explain the universe.

Here are the two competing theories:

The universe is finely tuned:

1) because God created it that way
or
2) because we just happen to inhabit one of the infinite number of universes

To objectively and rationally look at the theories, let's look at the evidence:

1) God revealed himself in history through his son Jesus Christ. The historical evidence we have today is more abundent that any other historical figure of that time.
or
2) Mathematical equations that 'prove' multiple universes.

So, the question is, which is more likely, given the evidence?

How Do We Know?

I was given a daily devotional guide. When I looked at the book on the surface, it seemed normal, but researching it led me to a shock: the book was written by channelers who claimed to be channeling Jesus.

There were many thing in the book that sound like they could have come from Jesus, so how do we know? A person could be claiminging a new revelation from God, which is possible. How do we know what is from God and what is not?

One can use the same criteria that any reasoned and intellectual scholar would use if someone said they were channeling any historical figure. You would go back and compare what the person was saying and check if it contradicted the historical evidence. The Bible is the historical evidence of Jesus, and, with the great masses of evidence, is a reliable source. Contradictions seriously undermine those with new sayings or revelations from God or Jesus.

For channelers, the Bible itself says that this is not good to consult the spirits. So they contradict the Bible from the beginning. Their words are not to be trusted.

Worshipping the "Unknown God"

When Paul was visiting Athens, he "found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD" [Acts 17:23] People in Athens were very "religious" but worshipped idols, even ones to a God that they did not know.

But God made himself known to us through his son Jesus. "30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." [Acts 7:30-31]

When Paul told this to the Athenian schalors, "some of them sneered" but a few people believed and followed Paul.

Today, people worship other things besides God. When we tell them about it, we will get sneers -- espcet them. But a few will become followers.

A break from theological: Some political analysis

With the election coming up, people are wondering who to vote for president. Understanding the process can help you vote in a way that you can make the biggest impact.

First, a little civics. You don't vote for president: you vote for electors that cast their vote at the electoral college. Each state gets electors for each congressman and senator from that state. So Tennesse gets 11 electors. And the 11 electors will vote for whoever gets the majority of the votes for president.

With modern polling techniques, one can know how these electors are going to vote. A look at Real Clear Politics can show you the breakdown by state. Since Tennessee is solid McCain, there is little doubt that McCain will get the states 11 electoral votes. If this does not happen, by the way, Obama would probably win with a landslide victory as Tennessee is currently quite solid.

This leads one to the logical conclusion for voters in Tennessee and other solid states: your vote will have very little effect on the presidential election.

But this does not mean your vote cannot make a difference. A vote for a third party can make a big difference. The major political parties will recognize this because you are the "swing vote" and, in a close race, can make a difference in the outcome. Some of the positions you think are important may be adopted by the major parties to get your vote.

There will be many choices besides the two major parties: Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, and independent Ralph Nader to name some of the other candidates. By voting for a third party, you can vote for someone you really support rather than the lesser-of-two-evils. In a state that already solidly supports a candidate, you can do this without the fear of changing the election, and make a statement with your vote. Research each candidate and, if they represent your views better, vote for that person. Don't waste your vote!

Dr. John W. Robbins

I went to the funeral of Dr. John W. Robbins today. I got to know him when we travelled to Williamsburg with my son's class. Every night, he did a devotional. He was also very knowledgable about history.

Dr. John W. Robbins received his Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from John Hopkins University. He was the author of several books. Since he had cancer, he had time to plan his own funeral, and those of us that attended were given a gift of one of his books: Christ & Civilization.

"Christ and Civilization gives a history from before Christ through the current time. He explains the origin of Western civilization ... in the system of ideas found in the Bible: Christianity. It was the Christian Reformation of the sixteenth century that created Western civilization, and Western civilization is collapsing because Christianity is disappearing in the West."

He will be remembered.

Romans 5:17-21

When I was in 5th grade, someone did something that really upset the teacher. She held the whole class in from recess. I always thought it was unfair that the group was being punished for the actions of the one. So, of course, the story of bothered me.

But, when you read the letter from Paul to the Romans, we find that Christ's gift is an abundant provision of grace.

17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So the fairness of the condemnation of all because of one man also allows for justification through one for all.

18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

And the law was added to lead those to the realization that we need redemption. Believing we are without sin is not an option under the law.

20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Resurrection of Christ

1 Corinthians 15

1 Co 15:2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Paul wrote about the importance of the resurrection of Christ and what it meant to believers. Here is a quick summary of chapter 15:

3-4 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

This is of first importance and is a basis for the rest of the chapter. Some people of Paul's time did not even believe in resurrection. So Paul gives evidence and reasoning for believing:

13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

Why believe in Christ if you do not believe in resurrection? And if the resurrection did not occur, then Paul says we are then found to be false witnesses about God.

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead

And Paul has already provided the evidence by naming names of witnesses and mentioning that more than 500 had seen him, and many were still alive. So even a doubter could ask some of these people if Jesus's resurrection were true, and they could say 'yes'.

32 If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

Paul is saying that if we do not believe in Christ, this is how we should live. (This brings up a question: should we condemn non-believers that live this way?)

"Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Environmental Stewardship, conclusion

To conclude the notes on Environmental Stewardship published by the Acton Institute, they offered some solutions. One was that private property rights, when properly adopted, can lead to a better environment. The aspects of private property must be a legal system that honors exclusitivity, liability, and transferability.

Here are excerpts from the Conclusion of the essay on A Biblical Perspective on Environmental Stewardship:

Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace International, said in an interview in the New Scientist in December 1999, "The environmental movement abandoned science and logic somewhere in the mid-1980s ... political activists were using environmental rhetoric to cover up agendas that had more to do with class warfare and anti-corporatism than with the actual science..."

... we ... believe that reason, coupled with a commitment to "do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with ... God" (Mic. 6:8), must ultimately guide environmental policy.

The Case for the Real Jesus

I am currently reading The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel. It looks at current theories of who Jesus was by interviewing biblical experts. One expert, Michael Licona, makes the case for Jesus' resurrection from the five facts:

1. Jesus was killed by crucifixion
2. Jesus' desciples believed that he rose and appeared to them
3. The conversion of the Church persecutor Paul
4. The conversion of the skeptic James, Jesus' half-brother
5. Jesus' tomb was empty

Environmental Stewardship, part 2

God, the Creator of all things, rules over all and deserves our worship and adoration (Ps. 103:19-22).

The essay, from Environmental Stewardship, contrasts the biblical role of the environment, one where man is given a special role as steward, to what some environmentalists believe, that all creatures are equal. The other aspect of environmentalism is to look at history. What actions as a group cause environmental issue and what helps the environment?

The freer, wealthier coutnries have experience consistent reductions in pollution and improvements in their environment, while the less free, poorer countries have experience increasing environmental degradation.

The essay spends a whole section going over the benefits that we have seen in the last few centuries. It then shows how economic and environmental trends relate. There is a correlation between the economic development of countries and the environment. When a country has quite poor and no economy, there is little pollution. As their economy grows, there is an increase in pollution. This is natural because you have people that are most worried about survival -- not about the environment. But once they reach a certain level, the environment starts to improve, and, after time will be better than when they were a poor country.

Paul Erlich postulated that as population grew, affluence increased, and technology increased, you would see an increase in pollution. Emperical evidence has proved this wrong. In fact, there is an inverse correlation between these factors and pollution.

The essay next talks about some of the current environmental concerns: population growth, global warming, and rapid species extinction.

Go to the Acton Website if you want more info or to order the book Environmental Stewardship. This is a great start if you are concerned about the well being of the earth and the poor. And, in fact, people will die because of poor policy decisions. The essay has an estimate of 19,300 to 30,000 premature deaths per year in the United States if the Kyoto Protocol were fully adopted.

Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition

I am in the middle of the Protestant chapter of Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. This was published by the Acton Institute and contains four sections. The first section is The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship. The next three sections are essays from Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives on environmental stewardship.

The Protestant section starts out with the Theological foundations of environmental stewardship. It then goes on to show the ethical reasons for stewardship. It is a well referenced essay with both biblical references, and 77 footnotes of research and publications.

This essay had six editors, four of whom are professors at colleges and seminaries. Just reading through quickly can be done, but I will want to go back and follow some of the biblical references, which is how I recommend other's read it, too.

(to be continued...)

Effective Stewardship: Wisdom on the Environment

The Acton Institute sent me a copy of Effective Stewardship: Wisdom on the Environment which I watched yesterday. This is a twenty minute film that is very well done. It is both well paced but packed with great insights into the complex problem of caring for the environment.

One of the points they brought out was our responsibility to the world’s poor. That environmental policy would be felt most by the poor. In fact, those that are the poorest may die because of policy choices. "Ideas have consequences."

They also dealt with global warming. They asked four questions:

1. Is the earth really warming?
2. Is it man-made?
3. Is it harmful or beneficial?
4. Do the policies do what they are intended to do?

To be good stewards we have a responsibility to look at these questions seriously, and, when we can understand the consequences then move forward.

You can get the video to find out a brief overview of the answers to the questions above. For people locally, you can borrow the video from me.

In His Love,

Paul

P.S. They also sent a collection of essays on "Environmental Stewardship" which I will blog about later.

False Prophets

Matthew 7:15-16 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them..."

Even before his death, Jesus warned us about false prophets that would come.

Matthew 24:24-25 "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time."

Beware of the Bears!

My teenage daughter likes to tease me about my thinning hair by calling me Baldo. At supper this evening, she said she had been reading 2 Kings 2:23-24.

From there Eisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths come out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

So now I have a response to her teasing:

Beware of the Bears!

Reasoning

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 1 Co 13:11