A Story Of Life

 Below is a clip of Andrea Bocelli telling the story of his brave mother, choosing to let him live despite the odds of his having a disability.  I am reminded of what C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.  A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.  Pilate was merciful till it become risky.

Sarah Palin, "Life Is Ordained."

On the Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade

Here are a couple of quotes from Camille Paglia from her Salon article in September.

But the pro-life position, whether or not it is based on religious orthodoxy, is more ethically highly evolved than my own tenet of unconstrained access to abortion on demand. My argument (as in my first book, "Sexual Personae,") has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature's fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive.

Interesting that she sees nature as being fascistic. Is it not humans being created in the image of God that thwart, what Christians see as nature broken or gone awry? When we see disease, do we not try to heal? When we see catastrophe approaching, do we not try to stave it off or find protection for those in harms way? When humans do not do these things, don't we sense that something has gone very wrong with their humanity?

and

Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue. The state in my view has no authority whatever to intervene in the biological processes of any woman's body, which nature has implanted there before birth and hence before that woman's entrance into society and citizenship.

While I most strongly disagree with Ms. Paglia in her support of abortion, I appreciate her honesty. There is nothing much more frustrating to me than listening to someone speak as though abortion is the morally superior choice. There is nothing moral about that choice. It is a tragedy for all involved.

There are many pro-life groups out there if you'd like to learn more.

Feminists for Life
Libertarians for Life
Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League
Priests for Life
Consistent Life
Rachel's Vineyard

The Quest for Freedom

Today is the birthday of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.. It is a good time to think about what strides we as a country have made in the struggle for freedom and liberty for all people. I think in some areas we have done quite well, such as voting rights and the openness of the political process. In other areas, not so well, such as in education, economic freedom, health care and the right to life.

Reverend King's niece, Dr. Alveda King has taken up her uncle's mantle, especially in the area of the basic human right to life. Read her open letter here.

I don't believe any society can have true freedom without Judeo-Christian values, and I don't believe the Civil Rights movement, Sufferage movement, or the Abolitionist movement could have occurred without the knowledge that all humans are created in the image of God. It was the foundation of these movements, as it is the foundation of the Right to Life movement today.

Here is Rev. King's sermon on the National Mall.

Demographic Winter

Take an hour to watch this documentary which I'll post below.
There has been a confluence of information in my life this year related to love, family and children. Reading P.D. James' The Children of Men ">The Children of Men, Spengler's articles over at Asia Times, Rod Dreher's Crunchy Con blog; also studying Theology of the Body has led me to a greater understanding of what love really is. It is sacrifice.
I've known this to some degree for a long time, but am learning it in a much deeper way. If someone ever tries to tell you that true love is easy and comfortable like your favorite slippers, they either don't know what they are talking about or are telling you a bald faced lie. Love is wonderful, but at it's root is self-giving. The problem of a demographic winter that our world is now facing has everything to do with a lack of love, an unwillingness to sacrifice for another. In this season of Advent, when our Lord, Emmanuel, became one of us to bear our suffering out of His great love for us, I pray to be more loving in the truest sense of the word.

BlogThis!