Each year weve witness an increasing exploitation of Christmas, the holiday marking the birth of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God and Savior of mankind. However, no marketing scheme is as appalling as that of Planned Parenthood which is now offering gift certificates that can be used to kill an unborn child.
Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, issued the following statement regarding Planned Parenthood of Indianas Christmas gift certificates. PPIN will sell the certificates in $25 increments that can be used as cash in any of their 35 Indiana clinics.
This is an outrage and every Christian should be appalled. Christmas, perhaps more than any other time of the year, is dedicated to the miracle of life and Divine Love, which is under attack in our relativist society. Chief among the assailants is and has always been the twisted philosophy Planned Parenthood promotes - a philosophy that enshrines selfishness, devalues human life and degrades human sexuality.
Planned Parenthood "gift" certificates would be more accurately described as death certificates. A gift from the nations chief purveyor of abortions amounts to such for thousands of children each year.
Others are talking:
Slice of Laodecia: Thats right. The Baby Butchers of America want to celebrate Christmas by helping you kill your own children in the womb.
George Grant: Merry Christmas Planned Parenthood Style
Jill Stanek: Planned Parenthood, this generations King Herod, you know, the guy who ordered the mass slaughter of babies when Jesus was born.
LoneStarTimes: Planned Parenthood of Indiana is celebrating the most important crisis pregnancy of all time ... [how grimly ironic]
CitizenLink: The fact that they would be offering gift certificates that could even pay for the destruction of innocent human life is blasphemous.
While were on the topic of Planned Parenthood, consider this educational video of notorious eugenic proponent Margaret Sanger, the organizations founder:
As far as the economy goes, if I have money, I need to spend it. Im not saying I need to spend myself into debt, just that if I have extra money, I shouldnt hoard it. Face it, our economy relies on us spending money. Thats the way it works, unless you want socialism or communism. Even under those systems, nothing is free. You give all your money to the government and they give you substandard health-care or other government run systems. Why do you think all the socialists & communists come to America? They come for profit, education and health-care!
For those of you out there who dont think people are trying to destroy America and what we stand for, heres a quote from Michael Moore:
"I say Were seeing the end of capitalism, and I say good-riddance"
So why do you live in America and soak us for our dollars?
We need to stop complaining about big business making a profit. Do we cry about Tiger Woods making 10 million dollars a year? People complain about corporate profit or CEO greed, but dont mind giving baseball players 65 million dollar contracts. If I want more money, Id better earn it, and not demand that government finance me. Big business should pay us fair wages, thats a fact, but they shouldnt be taxed more just because they are more successful.
As for President-elect Barack Obama, he will be the unborns worst enemy in the history of mankind. As a matter of fact, Im sure hes going to send the gestapo after us just for speaking about his pro-abortion stance.
In this time of Thanksgiving, its important to keep our eyes on what is real. In my opinion, Here are some of those things:
God - Thank God for helping me in my ongoing struggle against abortion and human killing research. Its a blessing to be able to pray and draw strength from my creator.
Life - I need to speak and pray for the unborn every single day. We all can do this, either through our websites, blogs, friends, emails, t-shirts, pins...whatever. They only have us, and if we are silent, they die alone.
Family and friends - Even if people close to me disagree with me on the life issue, they are still my family, and I need to remember this and keep them close. Remember, preaching to the choir is easy, but finding ways to help people find Christ and respect the unborn is a challenge.
Action - My action is what is needed to keep evil in check. Believing in God is a great thing, but God is counting on me to defend the helpless. I absolutely believe that God wants US to end abortion now. Its been thirty-five years and fifty million people have been killed by their mothers using abortion, prenatal murder, in America. We have created a nation of killers, and most women who have had abortions probably know it.
I need to pray for the women who have had abortions, for women who are considering it, for the men who push their wives and girlfriends into this horrible "choice", for the men who had no choice, and yes, even the abortionists and their support staff.
Here are some ways to get involved:
> Monthly Call for Life - once a month calls and letters to our representatives on every first Friday - callforlife.us
> Every first Saturday following the first Friday, pray and/or sidewalk counsel at an abortion mill. Go to ProLifeUnity.com and click on our calendar to find one in your state. If you need help, email us.
> Prayer Pivot - once a month around the clock & around the globe prayers for the sanctity of life from 12:00 am every first Friday until 12:00 am the next day. Pray for however long you want for any time zone. - prayerpivot.com
> Action Code - Our script on the left at ProLifeUnity.com shows the most current Pro-Life Action Calls in America. If you have a website and want to help, send an email to contact@prolifeunity.com.
Thank God we have freedom of speech, and thank God for our willingness to help the helpless.
The recent election is a significant setback for the legislative efforts of the pro-life movement. We have the most pro-abortion president ever, one of the most pro-abortion Congresses ever, and a defeat for several ballot initiatives that would have protected life. But the pro-life movement is not conquered.
The pro-life movement is still strong, and we need to focus on continuing to lay the groundwork for the ultimate triumph of life. We fight this war on four fronts primarily: Political, cultural, personal, and spiritual. I believe the path forward in each area is clear.
Political
The loss of power by the Republican party is a rejection of a party that failed to carry through on its promises of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, and saving the lives of babies from abortion. It is also the rejection of a party that happened to control the presidency during an economic downturn. It is not a rejection of conservatism or the pro-life agenda. Abortion was simply not a major issue in this election, compared to the economy and world turmoil. So those involved in a political party need to push it to embrace and promote a pro-life agenda.
That agenda at the state level needs to include both incrementalism and aiming for our ultimate goal. We need to fire a barrage of regulations and limitations at the abortion industry. We also need to work for a Personhood Amendment in every state where it is remotely possible. If you favor the incremental approach, fine, but be supportive of the efforts of the purists. And if you favor an all-or-nothing approach, thats fine, but dont sabotage the incrementalists.
Marketing plays a tremendous role in our society concerning most issues and events. For example, Barack Obamas campaign, along with the mainstream medias cooperation, basically got him elected because of a slick style-over-substance marketing plan. His daily pounding of the ideas of hope and change, without being questioned about specifics or an examination of his past, created a nice little marketing package. We also have had many other marketing campaigns that have been quite effective, such as anti-smoking, anti-fatty foods and global warming.
The pro-abortion view has also been based mainly on the marketing of "choice." Americas society was founded on freedom of choice. For example, one chooses which school to attend, what career path to take, where to live, who to marry, etc. Its a natural extension to make choice in abortion an acceptable idea. In fact, its a brilliant marketing ploy. Consequently, when someone questions them and states that they are really pro-abortion, their comeback is that they arent pro-abortion, but abortion should be a choice to be considered. Obviously, if they believe abortion is an option, then they are pro-abortion. Planned Parenthood masks their main function of abortion by often saying they are for womens health issues or birth control.
The pro-abortion crowd also uses another common term that is difficult to question. The use of "right" is another word and idea that is ingrained in our society. Of course, our founders said that we have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Obviously, the right to life has been conveniently excluded when the pro-abortion group discusses abortion. The womans right to choose and right to control her own body are examples of their marketing strategy. Also, if you are against a womans right to choose, then you might be labeled anti-woman. By creating this marketing approach, they have made it very difficult to oppose their view without being labeled negatively.
The pro-life movement needs a strong marketing campaign of its own to counteract this. The terms "pro-life" and "sanctity of life" often are seen by the masses as terms to defend the position, just as the pro-abortion people use terms to justify their view. Thus, many view that there are just two opposite views without one being the absolute correct one.
We often have been sugar coating the truth of abortion, by avoiding showing or telling the truth of what happens during an abortion. The pro-life marketing approach should be one of distributing or showing as many videos as possible, such as the short video Harder Truth or others that show abortions. Currently, technology has advanced so far that it is fairly easy to disperse photos and videos that could greatly help promote the message. Hopefully, at some point there could be a documentary on a major television network really showing the truth about abortion. The pro-abortion movement would undoubtedly retort with the same old marketing campaign in rebuttal to this. But the images of abortions will assuredly never leave the collective memories of all who see them. We will move ahead in the marketing battle and one step closer to eliminating abortion.
We have only two things to say about Tim Geithner, who we do not know: A.I.G. and Lehman Brothers," said Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics. "Throw in the Bear Stearns/Maiden Lane fiasco for good measure," he said.
"All of these rescues are a disaster for the taxpayer, for the financial markets and also for the Federal Reserve System as an organization. Geithner, in our view, deserves retirement, not promotion."
...
Behind the scenes, Mr. Geithner was the point person for weeks of sleep-deprived Bailout Weekends. It was Mr. Geithner, not Mr. Paulson, for example, who put together the original rescue plan for the American International Group....
Under [Geithners] watch, some of the biggest institutions that were the responsibility of the New York Fed -- Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and most recently, Citigroup -- faltered.
And this doesnt sound much like a "changing of the guard", does it?
"[Geithners] salary was $398,200 last year and [he] will take a pay cut to $191,300 in his new role [as Obamas Treasury secretary]."
Wow. What a trooper. I guess we are supposed to be so impressed.
Oh, and Geithner also did a "stint in the Clinton administration."
President-elect Obama, the abortion president, will soon take office on January 20, 2009. Indeed, this will be an excruciating painful day for America. During his campaign, Mr. Obama voiced his full support for the killing of our unborn sisters and brothers by abortion. In fact, he even went so far as to say that a child who survived an abortion should be left to die, not resuscitated. Ouch!
An article by Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com, June 10, 2008, reported that President-elect Obamas first priority as president would be to "sign the Freedom of Choice Act," a statement made in a speech to abortion supporters of Planned Parenthoods Action Fund.
The ultrasound clearly showed my little, unborn son next to his deceased twin, which had died in the womb. Months later that little boy was born and is now a married young adult. That experience in the hospital ultrasound room strongly reaffirmed my already-committed pro-life position. Come and read about that severe miscarriage of one twin and the birth and victorious life of the other. The story is recorded here.
"[F]or allegedly not knowing [that Africa is a continent], Sarah Palin got pilloried. Only as the New York Times reports, the story turned out to be a hoax. Or at least part of it did:
It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.
"Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. "Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks," Mr. Shuster said.
Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesnt exist. His blog does, but its a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow--the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy--is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.
And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.
...
An MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, explained the networks misstep by saying someone in the newsroom received the Palin item in an e-mail message from a colleague and assumed it had been checked out. "It had not been vetted," he said. "It should not have made air."
[MY NOTE: Wow, and thats exactly what they accuse us pajamamedia bloggers of doing, isnt it?]
The hoax was limited to the identity of the source in the story about Palin--not the FOX News story itself. While Palin has denied that she mistook Africa for a country, the veracity of that report was not put in question by the revelation that Eisenstadt is a phony.
"Because, after all, there are 6.6 billion people in the world, and just because Eisenstadt isnt the source doesnt mean one of the other 6,599,999,999 isnt."
So far, no one has found any "real" Martin Eisenstadt. Never mind one who was a McCain adviser.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold: your beloved news media at its "best." And yes, I include Fox News in that too as they were just as duped.
When will the liberals ever start questioning what they get on the TV and print news? When will they ever start reading deeper and on both sides, seeking truth?
"Spencer Ackerman of the left-liberal Washington Independent profiles Susan Rice, an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration...
Her record was not without its blemishes. According to human-rights expert Samantha Powers study of the U.S. reaction to genocide, "A Problem From Hell," Rice didnt distinguish herself in the Clinton administrations lax response to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. As an Africa expert on the NSC, she shocked an interagency conference call by interjecting domestic politics into the discussion of the administrations policy options.
"If we use the word genocide, " Rice allegedly asked her colleagues, "and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?" . . .
About Rwanda, Rice later told Power, "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required," which might explain Rices passion about Darfur.
"Over at the left-liberal American Prospect, Adam Serwer comments: Obviously not Dr. Rices proudest moment, but I think it speaks well of her that she is able to learn from her mistakes."
I want to share with you some thoughts in the hopes that you would be encouraged to continue to pray and fight for life.
President-elect Obama is a charismatic and eloquent speaker. Even though I was not able to tune in to his victory speech, I heard bits and pieces of it and I was moved. He promises to change America and has already begun setting up his cabinet for next years transition. It seems like he will do a lot of great things for the country - improve our schools, make health care universal, pull-troops out of Iraq, stimulate the economy, and so on.
BUT, let us also remember that President-elect Obama is, thus far, the most pro-abortion president in the history of the US. Already, he is looking to reverse the ban President Bush had set in place to limit Embryonic Stem Cell research in the US. He is also looking into the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). FOCA would eliminate all restriction on abortion nationwide. This includes the ban on partial-birth abortion, a three-day-long abortion procedure, which involves the killing of an unborn baby halfway through the birthing process.
This is the second in a series of posts on the power of words and why Christians need to be aware of the terminology we use when discussing important issues. The first post in the series is here.
"Pro-choice" and "pro-abortion" , "anti-choice" and "pro-life". This has been discussed at length and I doubt I can add much to the conversation. Suffice to say that I am pro-life, certainly not anti-choice. I am not against women having all sorts of choices...when the choice is theirs to make. But I dont believe a mother can choose whether or not to kill an unborn baby any more than a father can choose to kill that unborn baby. And as far as "anti-choice" goes, given the high number of Planned Parenthood clinics in low-income communities and the coercive practices at many PP clinics, if anyone is "anti-choice" it is the abortion advocate. One other point to make: Its easy to couch the abortion question in terms of "reproductive freedom" while disregarding the babys developmental freedom, not to mention the fathers reproductive freedom as well. But lets get down to what abortion actually is...
...If people say that they support a womans right to choose abortion, it is important to define the "choice" they support. This is often said: "I am personally opposed to abortion, but I believe someone else has the right to make that choice and I dont want to impose my views." A good way to respond would be with a question: "What choice do you support? RU-486? Mifepristone or methotrexate with misoprostol? Manual vacuum aspiration? Dilation and scraping (a.k.a., D & C)? Vacuum aspiration with forceps and D & C? Dilation and evacuation (D & E)?" Im not trying to be cruel; really, Im not. But if a person supports another persons "right" to end a life, is it too much to expect a morally serious (and consistent) explanation? Shouldnt that person at least be expected to define the "right" they support?
"Stem cell research" and "embryonic vis-a-vis adult stem cell research". How many times are we attacked for not supporting "stem cell research" but no distinction is made between adult stem cells and their embryonic counterparts?
Last but not least, we must always, always, always refer to the unborn baby as an unborn baby and not as a fetus. Fetus means "baby" in Latin, anyway. And the last time I checked, Latin is still very much a dead language while the unborn baby is very much alive. So unless youre in the medical or legal profession (Do others use archaic Latin terms?) and speaking in the course of your business, lets steer clear of terms that dehumanize.
(The last and final post in the series will address terminology surrounding matters of the Christian faith.)
I regret to report it was pro-life dissidents who caused the defeat of the
South Dakota abortion ban initiative and worsened the lopsided trouncing of the
Colorado personhood amendment. According to Medical News Today:
The defeat of abortion ballot measures across the country... may have been the result of divisions among anti-abortion groups....
Opposition to the measure in South Dakota came from the anti-abortion groups American Life League and South Dakota Right to Life....
In Colorado, the failed Amendment 48 measure... found opposition from Americans United For Life and National Right to Life....
Pro-lifers and pro-aborts on the same side? Hello?
The fact is groups at both ends of the pro-life ideological spectrum are actively sabotaging pro-life efforts with which they disagree, bound by a common fault: perfectionism....
Continue reading my column, "Pro-life movement: Both ends against the middle," on WorldNetDaily.com.
57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).
And yet.....
Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes
Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.
Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)
"The poll surveyed over 500 self-professed Obama voters and has an MOE of 4.4%, with 55% having a college degree and over 90% having a high-school diploma. Twelve multiple-choice questions were asked, and only 2.4% got at least 11 correct. Only .5% got all them correct."
The first link at top gives multiple links, to the original Zogby article, how hes been attacked for it and has had to defend the polls accuracy and reliability.
The facts are these: this is newsworthy, its valid information that all American citizens should be aware of, and trying to attack and dismiss it is nothing short of a violation of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
A short post this time around. With the passage of more state laws restoring or defending the traditional definition of marriage (particularly the high-profile Prop. 8 in CA), Christian leaders across the country have issued press releases proclaiming the good news. There is definitely reason to celebrate!
Still, there was a disconnect in the voting this election cycle. Voters defended marriage -- and by extension, the family -- but many pro-life measures were defeated, sometimes by the same voters. In CA, specifically, Prop. 8 gained much more support when proponents ran some ads informing voters of the homosexual agenda (more on that in an upcoming post) and how it was being foisted upon their children in the public schools. So it seems that voters support of Prop. 8 was at least in part driven by defense of the family. But then some of the same voters turned around and voted against Prop. 4, a common-sense law ensuring parental notification when pregnant minors seek an abortion. Can a parent be more concerned about homosexual propaganda invading her childs mind than about a scalpel and vacuum invading her childs uterus*? Im sure there are more eloquent ways to ask the question I just asked. But does my blunt presentation make me wrong necessarily?
How can Americans be pro-family but anti-baby? What are your thoughts? If anyone has read anything on this, Id be interested to check it out.
*Dilation and curettage (D&C) is the abortion procedure Im referring to here. Did you know that "curettage" actually means "scraping"? Do you think D&C would be acceptable to most Americans if it was referred to as "dilation and scraping"? I dont, either. Its interesting how powerful words can be, isnt it? (more on this in an upcoming post)
Janis Clarke sings a song for the unborn at the press conference in front of the Marriot in Baltimore, which was challenging Catholic Bishops regarding the Eucharist and pro-abortion candidates.
1. "President-elect Barack Obama transformed the face of the electorate! A wave of black voters and young people was the key to Obamas victory."
"Or not. Exit polling suggests that there was no statistically significant increase in voting among either group. Black voters made up 11 percent of the electorate in 2004 and 13 percent in 2008, while young voters comprised 17 percent of all voters in 2004 and 18 percent four years later."
2. "The Republican Party suffered a death blow."
"Republicans will be back on their feet sooner than many people expect. First, much of the Republicans permanent political class has concluded that electing Sen. John McCain as president would have amounted to applying a Band-Aid to a gaping wound... Ras al Ghul, a villain in the movie "Batman Begins," advocates destroying the city of Gotham to rebuild it from the ground up. "It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die," -- a sentiment echoed by many Republicans these days, who argue that hitting rock bottom was the only way to allow new faces and ideas to emerge.
"Second, historical electoral patterns suggest that Republicans could pick up a passel of Senate and House seats in 2010 -- the first midterm election under President Obama."
3. "Now that they control the White House and Congress, Democrats will usher in a new progressive era."
"Not likely....[L]ook more closely, and you see a heavy influx of moderate to conservative members in the incoming freshman Democratic class, particularly in the House...The fact that roughly a third of the Democratic House majority sits in seats with Republican underpinnings (at least at the presidential level) is almost certain to keep a liberal dream agenda from moving through Congress. The first rule of politics is survival, and if these new arrivals to Washington want to stick around, they are likely to build centrist voting records between now and 2010."
4. "McCain made a huge mistake in picking Sarah Palin."
"[O]f the 60 percent of voters who told exit pollsters that McCains choice of Palin was a "factor" in their final decision, the Arizona senator won 56 percent to 43 percent. For skittish conservatives looking for more evidence that McCain understood their needs and concerns, Palin did the trick. Its hard to imagine conservatives rallying to McCain -- even to the relatively limited extent that they did -- without Palin on the ticket. And without the base, McCains loss could have been far worse."
5. "A Republican candidate could have won the presidency this year."
"Why not? Three words (and a middle initial): President George W. Bush."
Last year Leticia casually mentioned to an email correspondent that she wanted to get mothers of children with Down syndrome together to march together in the March for Life. This year it is going to happen - click here.
It was the Sunday after the election, and everywhere I looked I could only see impending doom.
There is no way God would have allowed Barack Obama to become president were He not finally turning America over to judgment, to whatever great or lesser extent that will be.
I sat in my mothers church and was surprised to feel anger when the worship leader smiled and sang the same songs as ever, as if life hadnt drastically changed the week before, as if the Church itself wasnt indicted by Obamas election.
Then my eye caught....
Continue reading my column, "How I got my groove back," on WorldNetDaily.com.
What if abortion were viewed not as an evil (or immoral act) but instead as a challenge or a puzzle to be solved? I suppose first one would have to assume that an unborn baby is not a child with intrinsic value and accept abortion as one of many possible "solutions". Then we could cooperate to reduce abortion through social policy the same way the government attempts to solve any number of other public woes through its organizational efficiency and highly compassionate programs. Wait, is this still "pro-life"? Well, the Wall Street Journal reports that some "pro-lifers" advocate this route:
After making significant gains during the Bush administration, the anti-abortion movement was dealt sharp setbacks in last weeks election with the defeat of three state ballot measures restricting abortion.
Now, strategists are debating whether the way forward should be based on confrontation or cooperation with the incoming Democratic administration.
[snip]
President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats have promised to work to make abortion rare, so long as it remains legal. "Maybe its time to take them up on the offer" instead of "bashing our heads over and over again against the same wall," writes Paul Strand, a blogger for the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, an influential megachurch pastor in Florida, sees a new willingness among pro-life activists to cooperate with pro-choice forces in search of a middle ground. He traces that openness in part to the flourishing of crisis pregnancy centers. As volunteers meet women struggling with unplanned pregnancies, they begin to view abortion less as an absolute evil and more as a practical challenge: How do we get this single mother a job, or help that college student with child care so she doesnt feel as though abortion is her only option?
This certainly is an effective way to take the meaning out of the debate and solidify the holocaust of abortion as an American icon. Let me give you another view posted by George Grant shortly after the election:
America has voted for change with the choice of the most extreme pro-abortion and pro-infanticide president in history--to go with solid pro-abortion and pro-infanticide majorities in both the House and the Senate. As Gradgrind asserted, "These are facts, facts, facts. Cold hard facts."
In light of these facts, "How should we then live?"
The answer is simple: we too must change. We must stand for the sanctity of life as never before, with more courage than ever before, with more compassion than ever before, with more commitment than ever before, with more grace than ever before, with more resolve than ever before, with more creativity than ever before, and with more wisdom than ever before.
"If I know anything about the character of God after forty years of study, I know that God hates abortion. And I could never vote for a candidate who supported abortion--even if I agreed with that candidate on every other policy position. If he supported abortion I would not vote for him and I urge you to do the same." --R.C Sproul as quoted by The Quick and the Dead
