Informing thoughtful engagement with our culture and media.
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Carbon 14 dating has confirmed the timing of Philistine artifacts found in an archaeological dig, in a place consistent with the Biblical town of Ziklag. Ziklag is where the soon to be King David hid from King Saul's wrath, with the blessings of the Philistine King Achish.
One of life’s lessons learned at a very young age, I will never forget, and that is that life is a precious gift from God.
My friend’s and I found a robin’s nest full of eggs one day, and would visit the nest on a regular basis to see if the eggs would hatch. I got the bright idea of removing the nest and bringing it in to my second grade’s “show and tell” session, and then thinking, I would put it back afterwards. My ill conceived plan went awry, as I was riding away with the nest on my bicycle, I hit a bump and all the eggs were thrown from the nest and smashed on to the pavement. I realized I had just killed soon to be hatched robins. I was mortified and felt guilty at killing these yet to be born baby robin's. To make matters worse when my friends found out about my misdeed, I was taunted with, “Who killed Cock Robin? Artie killed Cock Robin!” At that young age I realized what I had done was wrong and needed to pray for forgiveness. So what’s the point of this story? Why am I “fessing-up” to you some 60 years later? Well, it was an opinion piece in the New York Times written by John Irving that brought my story to mind. Irving wrote the book “Cider House Rules,” where he explored the social conscience of the times on abortion. Hailed as a great work by feminist’s, it was made into a movie with the same title,“Cider House Rules.” The movie won an Academy Award as well as a Maggie Award—named after Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, to which the author admits he was most proud of.
If a six year old child can understand the significance of destroying a bird’s egg surely a mature adult can understand the significance of destroying a human fetus. It is wrong and there is no getting around it. I am attaching the article for you to read that is classic dogma for the “right of women” to control their own bodies, by destroying their fetus. One disturbing statement that the author made about pro-lifer's is that we have sanctified the fetus. As Christian's we don’t sanctify anything, God does. Herein lies the difference between the clash of world views.
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of American Legion v. American Humanist Association. At issue was whether a 40-foot cross on public land violated the the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The cross was erected on private land in 1925, whose purpose was to honor the war dead from Prince Georges’s County, Md., who died in the Great War. Subsequently, the land where the cross was erected became public land, and is located on a small patch of it, near a three-way junction in Bladensburg , Md. The ruling was (7-2) in favor of the American Legion. The court was narrow in it’s opinion in that no, you cant’t tear down a monument because it has religious significance to some people but- on the other hand it did not rule whether a new cross could be erected on public land, without violating the Establishment Clause.
An interesting opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal explores the recent litigation history both in defense of religious liberties and from those who wish to curtail it. The author interviewed Professor David Skeel who is on the faculty of the law school at The University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Skeel is also an evangelical Christian.
Thanks to Bill Mehaffey for the article.