Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Rationalizing Infanticide?
Deadly fallacy: abortion safer than giving birth, study says
--by Joel McDurmon
Reuters reports on a recent study released by the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology which concludes that “Legal induced abortion is markedly safer than childbirth.” The abstract for the article continues,
The fallacy here is obvious, devious, and downright deadly: the study ignores the safety and death of the unborn child, and only considers the medical aspects of the mother. Pro-life websites have jumped on the heartless indifference of the study:The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion. Similarly, the overall morbidity associated with childbirth exceeds that with abortion.
Accepting all of the real-life facts, of course, would lead any such study to conclude that abortion is “markedly” deadlier than child birth by a factor of hundreds of millions.The study obviously concentrates solely on the medical risks for the mother, since an abortion always destroys the unborn child. So the study is based on a faulty premise, comparing two medical procedures that have different goals. In an abortion, one life is deliberately sacrificed. In childbirth, medical personnel do their utmost to preserve two healthy lives. It is not surprising that the latter operation is more challenging.
The liberal media does its best to abet the cold negligence of [this] murderous institution....
[Read the entire article]
-------
Here's another fact, or inconvenient truth:
Only half of the patients that enter an abortion clinic
come out alive...
Which makes abortion deadlier than childbirth.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 9:33 AM,
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Definitely a Pearl
Here is a video posted on You Tube less than two weeks ago, which has already garnered more than 16 million views. It's powerful, and it's definitely a pearl.
Here's a link to the poem [pdf]
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 1:52 PM,
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Welcome to 2012
That's the good news!
Now for the bad (or not, depending on your perspective).
There are events happening in the world that don't care about dates or new years; they're oblivious to the landmarks we, with hearts and minds to do so, set for ourselves. It has always been this way. But events are guided by a hand larger than our own. Whether you believe it or not, I do.
I received an article in email last week that has opened my eyes a bit. Not because I didn't see the events it speaks of, but because I didn't make certain connections regarding their import in terms of where we are on God's timeline. The article itself can be found here: What You Can Expect in 2012.
Prophecy has always fascinated me-- I have occasional bouts of doubt, but I am an ardent believer in what the bible has to say about 'things to come;' or eschatology, nonetheless-- it is natural to doubt, but faith is greater than doubt. The linked article by Gary Kah has managed to wake me up, so to speak... I knew intellectually what was happening in the world, but it was like I had been lulled by the cacophony of growing waves of world and national events, so much so that I was missing their deeper meaning meaning... God is still in the process of guiding this raft to shore.
I'm not going to post the article in full, here, as it is too long., I will, however, respond to each of its four sections.
- The Occupy Movement
- Growing Unrest in Europe
- Nightmare in the Middle East
- The Road Ahead
Two, perhaps three years ago, I said (on another blog) that Europe was destined to grow in prominence and America must decline. Nothing since then and now has change my opinion. My assertion that the Euro would continue to strengthen and the dollar continue to fall, however, must be modified. In light of Europe's current troubles, it remains to be seen whether or not the Euro will actually survive; to say nothing of the Eurozone itself. America WILL continue to decline, and Europe WILL continue to grow, but again, it remains to be seen what form Europe will settle into-- when the dust settles, what will European Union look like? The countries within the EU aren't going away, and, according to bible prophecy, there is a union, in some form or other-- Daniel calls it a 'kingdom,' although 'empire' would be better (Daniel 2:31-44) --in existence during this time in history.
America, as well, is not mentioned anywhere in prophecy by name or allegoric reference; we are, however, included in Revelation 14:14,16, 19:19. America, with every other nation on the earth, toward the end of the Great Tribulation will be drawn (gathered) to Israel to make war against Jerusalem. However, it is an America wholly without God.
America is still destined to decline. How that comes about I cannot say. Perhaps Obama is president because God wants him there-- perhaps Obama loses in November and the next president is there by God's will; it doesn't really matter who's in charge as either man will be there because God wants him there. Europe is still destined to grow in stature and prominence, but again, how that comes about I cannot say. but there are signs... events... building and growing in number that hint at the 'how,' but, more importantly, warn us that time is short. How much time is left? Only God knows for certain, but Jesus did tell us that we could know when it was near, even at the door... (Matthew 24:33)
I'll begin my take on 'What to Expect in 2012' beginning with the next post.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 4:51 PM,
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Here's a man EVERYONE should be praying for
Bill Maher is perhaps the vilest man on television, but he has a soul... a soul bound for eternal damnation. No, I do not like the man; I find him condescending, arrogant and consistently infuriating, but that's okay. I'm allowed that. What I am NOT allowed, however, is to hate him.
I have no other choice, therefore, but to pray for him. His soul is without price. Were you able to mine the entire universe of all it's resources; gold, diamonds, energy, metal, etc, you could not reach the value (in terms of eternity) of even one human soul. Your soul is the most precious thing you possess, and you should not be weighting it down with blasphemy and sin.
If anyone ever need prayer, it's Bill Maher.Without forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord, he is doomed. Who knows how much time this man has left; we can't even know our own appointed time. It's clear, then, that today is the day of salvation. Right now. This minute. Don't put it off.
I encourage all of you to put this man's name on your prayer list.
Bill Maher's Tim Tebow tweet sparks calls for HBO boycott
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 9:34 AM,
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Kim Jong-Il is Dead 1941 - 2011
No one, not even Kim Jong Il, need ever end up in hell. But that is likely where he is now. I would not wish that fate on anyone.
He had his life, and squandered it. He lived like a king, albeit in more communistic terms, but he was, for all intents and purposes the emperor of North Korea. He lived sumptuously while his people starved (Luke 16:19-31). He blustered and shook every sabre at his disposal over any and every threat (most of which whose sole desire was to see his people treated more humanely). But Kim Jong-Il was an irrational and paranoid man.
His is a kingdom that truly deserves to fall. It remains to be seen, however, whether or not his son is cut of the same cloth. Will he be able to consolidate power? Will he follow in his father's godless footsteps and join him, in time, in the fires of hell? Or will he find faith? Here now is someone we can pray for-- Kim Jong-Un. Someone for whom it is not too late.
No prayer now can help the father, however. He will get his day in court, as it were, at the great white throne judgment, but that judgment, I should point out, is for the wicked-- not for anyone with any hope of seeing heaven.
It is better that a man live in fear of the Lord, rather than any man with power to starve you... kill your body. Better to fear God who can destroy both body AND soul in hell.
I would say, 'God, grant him peace,' but that's not to be his fate. There is no peace for the wicked; not in this life, or the next.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 3:25 PM,
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Christopher Hitchens is Dead 1949 - 2011
And now he knows for certain the existence, glory, and holiness of God. And he knows hell... Intimately.
It's a shame, actually. No one should ever have to end up there. Not even the likes of Hitler, or Bin Laden. God is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.
It's too late for him now. And it's too late for any of us to pray for him. But surely there is some like him which you know; it's not too late for them. You can pray now for them. And continue praying. God hears those kind of prayers... the persistent kind.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 3:08 PM,
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Thursday, December 8, 2011
At a loss for a title...
the Mask we wearis wrought of air
press-dried ~ hard
and daubed with care
it does not hide
the face it bears
but hides the eyes
and heart it shares
what lies beneath
our tongue and teeth
are but dogs and vipers
loosed in sheath
take it off
and all will know
the face we've hid
and fear to show
yet the Mask is brief
it's like a leaf
swift from bud
and on to grief
we'd all do well
to speak our minds
cast off the shell
we hide behind
off, or on
~ it's naught to me
but worn to long
it becomes thee
ELAshley
120711.095449.1
Revisions:
120811.042517.6
120811.051126.6
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 4:43 PM,
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
An Intriguing Question...
...with an even more intriguing answer:
Did Noah's flood cover the Himalayan mountains?
"The key is to remember that the Flood didn't have to cover the present Earth, but it did have to cover the pre-Flood Earth, and the Bible teaches that the Flood fully restructured the earth. "The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (II Peter 3:6). It is gone forever. The earth of today was radically altered by that global event."
I remember watching a documentary years ago; a speculation concerning the 'global deluge' archaeological digs around the world not merely suggested, but pointed to. One portion I remember vividly was an animation of 'the fountains of the deep' breaking open the continent, pushing lands west and east; literally creating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Too many people today, however, will accept any theory other than one that validates the biblical account... of anything!
So. DID Noah's flood cover the Himalayan mountains? No. It didn't have to. Those mountains didn't exist prior to the flood.
MORE EVIDENCE...
How about whale fossils in the Chilean desert?
Researchers from the USA and Chile reported, in November 2011, a remarkable bone bed on the west coast of northern Chile near the port city of Caldera, about 700 kilometres (440 miles) north of the capital, Santiago. Excavations uncovered the remains of some 80 baleen whales of which more than 20 specimens were complete. They also found other kinds of marine mammals including an extinct dolphin with tusks and a sperm whale.
...
The site in a corner of the Atacama Desert is now well above sea level and over a kilometre from the shore.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 4:35 PM,
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Not Religion...
The Latin word from which the English word "religion" is derived means "to bind up." Jesus did not come to bind us up in rules and regulations or rituals of devotion, but to set us free to be men as God intended.
Genuine Christianity is NOT religion.Neither does Christianity require one to be religious... just faithful.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 4:56 PM,
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Friday, November 4, 2011
Accepted Science Has A Problem
New evidence of Noah’s Flood from Mexico
Dinosaur dig reveals dramatic insights into the degree of devastation, not so long ago...
"Researchers tried to reconstruct the sort of environment that could explain the remarkable evidence they were finding in the area, but by ignoring Noah’s Flood they were hard pressed to make a plausible story. It was clear that the sediments pointed to a large watery catastrophe involving mass deaths but they were straining to find a modern analogy."
Read the entire article here
------------
More than a few problems exist in the findings of 'accepted' science, and not just in the field of archaeology. Accepted Science tries to force its findings upon its preconceived notions; namely, that there's no room for God and the events of the Bible in its rational world of science-- God, to the adherents of accepted science, is irrational. It is not irrational, however, to ask from where do all our legends of dragons and such come, and draw a conclusion that perhaps, just perhaps, dinosaurs and man lived concurrently... and not aeons apart.
Who would be hurt by such a conclusion?
Perhaps the same people-- albeit in different robes; a different kind of people --who forced Galileo to recant of face excommunication. The unsaved world can't afford to accept that any element of Biblical history (especially The Flood) might just be true. To do so would force them to reevaluate the entire foundation of their science.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 4:50 PM,
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Thursday, October 13, 2011
Words, Apologies, Attonements, Sharing Dreams
There is a mural in downtown Dothan, Alabama (there are, actually, a lot of murals), a tribute to Chief Eufaula of the Creek Indian nation. In 1836 while leading his people (numbering in the thousands) westward to new lands set aside for them--a reservation--he was afforded the honor of speaking to the Alabama legislature in the city of Tuscaloosa, then the capital of Alabama.Here is his rather short address to those lawmakers. I wonder, though, if had he known what awaited them on their Trail of Tears, might he have addressed them differently?
“I come here, brothers, to see the great house of Alabama and the men who make laws and say farewell in brotherly kindness before I go to the far west, where my people are now going. In time gone by I have thought that white men wanted to bring burden and ache of heart among my people in driving them from their homes and yoking them with laws they do not understand. But I have now become satisfied that they are not unfriendly toward us, but that they wish us well. In these lands of Alabama, which have belonged to my forefathers and where their bones lie buried, I see that the Indian fires are going out. Soon they will be cold. New fires are lighting in the west for us, they say, and we will go there. I do not believe our great Father means to harm his red children, but that he wishes us well. We leave behind our good will to the people of Alabama who build the great houses and to the men who make the laws. That is all I have to say.”
"Tell General Howard that I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead, Tu-hul-hil-sote is dead. the old men are all dead. It is the young men who now say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people -- some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets and no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more against the white man."
Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé people, October 5,1877 At his surrender in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana
We make promises, and pretensions toward trustworthiness, but Americans have found it very difficult to make good on any promise, to any person or people.
Nanci Griffith wrote beautifully on this national character flaw of ours... this land we've taken for our own... where the white man does as he pleases. She is a truly gifted songwriter. You can listen to it here
Deadwood, South Dakota
Well, the good times scratched a laugh
From the lungs of the young men
In a Deadwood saloon, South Dakota afternoon
And the old ones by the door
With their heads on their chests,
They told lies about whiskey on a womans breath
Yes, and some tell the story of young Mickey Free
Who lost an eye to a buck deer in the Tongue River Valley
Oh and some tell the story of California Joe
Who sent word through the Black Hills
There was a mountain of gold
[Chorus:]
And the gold she lay cold in their pockets
And the sun she sets down on the trees
And they thank the Lord
For the land that they live in
Where the white man does as he pleases
Some flat-shoed fool from the East comes a-runnin'
With some news that he'd read in some St. Joseph paper
And it was "Drinks all around" cause the news he was tellin'
Was the one they called Crazy
Has been caught and been dealt with
And the Easterner he read the news from the paper
And the old ones moved closer so's they could hear better
"Well it says here that Crazy Horse
Was killed while trying to escape,
And that was some time last September,
It don't give the exact date"
[Chorus]
Then the talk turned back to whiskey and women
And cold nights on the plains, Lord
And fightin' them indians
And the Easterner he says he'll have one more
'fore he goes
He gives the paper to the Crow boy
Who sweeps up the floor
And the gold she lay cold in their pockets
And the sun she sets down on the trees
And they thank the Lord
For the land that they live in
Where the white man does as he pleases
Where the white man does as he pleases
As he wants to, as he pleases
I recognize the need for an honest-to-goodness apology, but how do you apologize for wholesale destruction? I apologize every year for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but I have no illusions it can ever be accepted; to quote the unnamed woman in my yearly apology...
"I will forgive you when the dead do."Because of this, I can understand why our own 'flat-shoed fool' tried to apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I can understand why he was refused. Words have meaning, and because of this words must never be issued lightly or without the weight of authority, and responsibility. How does one apologize for 80,000+ instantaneous deaths, and tens of thousand later in lingering illness and cancer? How does one apologize to the Indian nations for what America has done to them? How does one apologize for the bondage, slavery and atrocities committed upon an entire racial group?
You can't. Not even money can repair the damage--though in our hubris and pride we continually attempt to purchase the assuagement of our national guilts, but these attempts never work. It's easier to say "I forgive you," than it is to actually forgive. Resentment and bitterness rarely ever completely leave our hearts.
Apologies therefore may be impossible but atonement is not. As I stated earlier, words must carry the full weight of their meaning, nothing held back, or they are meaning-less; words alone are insufficient in terms of atonement. There must be action behind those words. And that action must be consistent with the words we employ.
Listen to Chief Joseph's address in Washington, 1879, two years after his surrender of the Nez Perce Indians...
At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bring my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad I came. I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are some things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannot understand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has something wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different things. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; the Next Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief; the Law Chief; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all their mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for my people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, General Miles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.
I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three have died since I left my camp to come to Washington.
When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals.
I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.
Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike -- brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht has spoken for his people.
It would seem Chief Joseph and Martin Luther King, Jr. shared a dream.
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 2:42 PM,
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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
"180"
You're mysteriously transported to 1939. You're a civilian outside a Nazi concentration camp. Soldiers have just shot and dumped hundreds of Jews into a shallow grave. Some of these Jews aren't dead, but you've just been ordered to get into a bulldozer and fill in the hole. If you refuse the soldiers will kill you and add your body to the grave. What do you do?
You're taken back a few years, before the carnage begins. You find yourself in a hotel room with a high powered rifle in your hands, aimed out the window, the sight centered on Hitler's chest. Knowing what you know about what he will soon set in motion, do you pull the trigger?
You find yourself transported decades earlier. You're a nurse in a hospital, and before you in a crib is the new born Adolf Hitler, the child who will one day murder 11 million people, including 6 million Jews... Do you place your hand over it's face and smother it?
Is it ever justifiable to take an innocent life? The Babe hasn't committed any crime. The new Führer has yet to begin his campaign of extermination. Those bodies in the grave, some still alive, cannot help the circumstances of their birth. What do you do?
Read the entire article...
posted by ELAshley @ 10:21 AM,
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