theultimateoutcast says:
February 11, 2012 at 1:38 am

Interesting how few people with uterus’s are in support of this bill. Will the unborn get social security cards, too? What if there is an unborn person in a woman from Russia or Kenya who is visiting relatives? Would that make their unborn baby a U.S. citizen when she visits?

Tom, this argument is an over-reach by the extreme right. Why have this issue on your conscience anyway? I never understand it. This is about sexual/moral activities of women. Have you pulled out every time you have sex so that a pregnancy would not result? That’s probably the most personal question anyone on-line ever asked you. If it feels invasive, good. Now you know how if feels.

A woman can not deny her personal activity when she is pretty much “marked” when she becomes pregnant and it’s up to every Tom out there to have an opinion about it. Every person has a great plan for her baby…before it gets here.

If she does not want it, I don’t either. Life may not be as rosy as you dream it for someone growing up with a mother who does not want them. Plus, I have the belief that life is very fluid. The soul that may have come through that baby will come through another in a time, place and woman ready to receive it.

Have peace and respect for what god has already ordained: women govern the entrance to life.

Many women tend to see the abortion issue as a women’s rights issue. That is, anyone who does not approve and endorse a woman’s “right to choose” must hate women. So when a woman demands her “rights” as a woman, some men shrug their shoulders, and others react angrily. I do not think either reaction helpful.

To debate thoughtfully, we must set aside our personal viewpoint. In this case, we must view the issue of abortion from a broader perspective. If we are not willing to consider different points of view, we will oversimplify the issue.

The view of the unborn child. We do not know, and we cannot ask the unborn how they feel about being aborted or the prospect of being born. All we each can do is use our imagination. What if that unborn child had been you or someone you love?

The view of the mother. God made women the primary caretakers of young. God also gave each of us a free will. So a woman can consider the option of abortion. She can decide whether she wants to treat her unborn child as a human being or as merely a piece of property with the potential to become a human being.

The view of the father. Tradition and biology makes fathers the primary caretakers of their childbearing wives. Some men tend to approach this responsibility as if women were children or mere chattel, but the Bible commands men to love their wives as Jesus loved us. Why does God want a man to love his wife?

Malachi 2:15 Amplified Bible (AMP)

And did not God make [you and your wife] one [flesh]? Did not One make you and preserve your spirit alive? And why [did God make you two] one? Because He sought a godly offspring [from your union]. Therefore take heed to yourselves, and let no one deal treacherously and be faithless to the wife of his youth.

Nonetheless, men too have a free will. So a man can use a woman, or he can love a woman.

The view of government. What government exists to do is to protect our rights. That obligation to protect extends to the weak and unknowing. Can we allow the mere fact there are complex issues involved set aside this responsibility? Then whose rights and what rights will government protect?

Is an unborn child a human being? When? We do not know. If an unborn child is a human being, then that child’s neighbors have obligation to help the child’s mother provide a safe harbor in the womb. If not, then the mother should be able to do as she wishes. The problem? We have lots of speculation, but we don’t know The Truth.

What such moral difficulties should do is highlight the need for caution and care. Yet many in our society take the opposite tact; they insist they know The Truth, that either government or private entities should be required to pay for abortions. Such appalling arrogance should frighten us all. These people respect no one’s rights.

When a People becomes selfish and indifferent to each others rights — when each insists upon having his own way — pride has replaced love. Then we are reduced to The Law of the Jungle.

The view of God. To know the ways of God more than I might otherwise, I reference the Bible. Unfortunately, what the Bible says about the unborn is somewhat ambiguous. Even if that were not the case, I suspect many abortion rights advocates would discard most of what is said in the Bible as either hyperbole or superstition. Nonetheless, here is a verse that speaks a self-evident truth.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 King James Version (KJV)

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Each child is a gift from God. As parents, we conceive, give birth, and raise a child all unknowing. We provide care for that which God created. No father or mother makes a child. We can choose only to receive a His gift. To fully appreciate His blessing, each must unite and become as one.

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and maligned passages in the Scriptures is Genesis 1:28.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” -Genesis 1:28

Environmentalists like to point to these verses and say, “see, Christianity supports the destruction of the Earth!” Dominion certainly does sound like a harsh word, doesn’t it? Christians are regularly embarrassed by the word, going to all sorts of lengths, including abandoning a literal reading of the Scriptures, or saying the Scriptures really haven’t been accurately transmitted, or some other such nonsense, in order to “work around,” or “apologize” for the Biblical text.

On the other hand, we have those within the Christian community who like to point to this passage and say, “see, Christians are supposed to take over the world, control its governments, and build the Kingdom of God on the Earth.” Here we have the liberal Christian who finds Biblical warrant to build a theocracy. (continued here)

And how does the Bible picture sin. Check out Leviticus 14. The Bible uses leprosy to help us understand what sin does to us spiritually (here). Here, in Cleansing the Leper, we have a commentary on Mark 1:40-45, a passage that describes Jesus healing leprosy, explaining that leprosy is the physical counterpart to the spiritual problem of sin.

How does sin eat at us like leprosy? Minor sins can destroy dialogue. For example, today I got a comment from someone more interested in ridiculing my post than trying understand it.

You seem to live in a rather confusing fantasy world? You rail against Socialism and Social Security but you seem to be posing as a modern day Thomas Paine? But Thomas Paine is the grandfather of Socialism and Social Security comes from his writings and philosophy. (continued here)

Oddly, Todd, the commenter, did exactly what he accused me of doing. Without bothering to gain more than a superficial understanding of why I honor Thomas Paine with this blog, he ridiculed me. Todd never even bothered to take issue with the post itself.

More serious sins can be insanely lethal (see I Am So Damned Angry With Guv-ment Run Agencies!). Try as we might we may never understand exactly why our fellow human beings commit hideous sins; we just know that buried within our souls we too have the capacity for angry rage.

Of course, our government reflects our broken character. It begins with the problem of indifferent performance, $1.5 Billion Wasted in One Year Alone.

It escalates with little white lies. Here in CURL: Obama’s made-up jobless numbers – Washington Times the blogger links to an editorial the Washington Times. That editorial explains how Obama administrations lies about the unemployment rate.

Then there are “choice” issues. These issues arise when the “tolerant” among us use the government to force their definition of tolerance upon everyone else.

• Federal Court Rules Prop 8 Unconstitutional. Whether we think it makes any rational or moral sense, those wise and more moral than the rest of us people we call judges have found something in the Law that no one can actually find, a “right” to same sex marriage.
• FRC Tony Perkins: As Plain as the No’s on Your Faith. As for freedom of religion, apparently the right to make your fellow citizens complicit in the murder of the unborn trumps that right.

Undoubtedly, we could go on. There are to greater depths of sin of man, but that is not the point of this post. What is the point? We cannot perfect ourselves. We need our Creator to help us.

When we examine another human being or even ourselves, we have limits we cannot surpass without the aid of God. We know not each others thoughts. Even our own we find elusive. Yet God, our creator, knows everything there is to know about us.

When we contemplate Creation, the vastness of the universe, the thought that He knows one small human being must seem a trivial thing. Nonetheless, when none us can know even our self as well as God does, the fact we are his creations, that He cares about us, makes us each very special.

Psalm 139:23-24 Good News Translation (GNT)

23 Examine me, O God, and know my mind;
test me, and discover my thoughts.
24 Find out if there is any evil in me
and guide me in the everlasting way.

To protect each other appropriately, we have to understand how to judge both our own behavior and the behavior of others. Here, in The Most Misunderstood Word in America, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains what such judgement involves.

In addition, we must overcome never ending discouragement. The battle with sin never ceases; we must always resist the urge to sin both within ourselves and in our neighbors. When we give up the battle, when we abandon each other to sin, we always lose some part of our liberty. Why is that important? Without liberty, we have less opportunity to share the Word of God with others. So here, in Slaying the Giant of Discouragement, Part 1, Dr. David Jeremiah provides Biblical advice on overcoming discouragement.

Was the accusation true or a smear? Supposedly, Warren advocates something called Chrislam. Some, apparently regard both the Bible and the Qur’an as true and sacred texts. How anyone would reconcile the two, I have no idea.  Nevertheless, at least a few journalists have covered Chrislam (see here and here).

So why am I mentioning this? When bloggers don’t check the veracity of their sources, we spread rumors and innuendo, sometimes really silly rumors and innuendo.

So what kind of pastor is Warren? I don’t attend his church, but you can visit his church’s website. I am currently enjoying the Christian Apologetics webpage.