Thanks to Christina Hoff Sommers for this very factual, reasonable look at cat calling on city streets. REASONABLE. That’s why I appreciate it.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NUk5AFImw&feature=youtu.be&list=PLytTJqkSQqtr7BqC1Jf4nv3g2yDfu7Xmd]
“Imagine if every person saw every other person as equally amazing, equally valuable. Imagine how things might change.”
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q3pAzyMhLw#t=114]
I bought a poppy from a veteran in the mall the other day, in Calgary. I already had one, but he was standing there, next to a display, which included the poem In Flanders Fields written in big letters. I felt I couldn’t just pass by. I asked him where he had served and he had been in WWII. Then Korea, then stationed in Germany. As he described that last one, his eyes got misty. So did mine. I started to get embarrassed, so I said thank you for service somewhat abruptly and left. And then cried in Banana Republic, while looking at sweaters.
There was something odd about the juxtaposition of the modern mall, glassy and expensive and remembering our fallen soldiers. Though I’m certainly grateful they had that display.
This veteran was as old as my grandfathers would be, were they alive. These men won’t be around to thank in person forever.
There is a cool display in England for Remembrance Day, too. You can learn about that here.
Lest we forget.
This column–I loved it in many ways but especially this line:
There’s a reason that the activists of the abortion movement are in a museum: Because abortion activists are a thing of the past.
Bam. We have to protest these non-rights that are being portrayed as such.
Carolyn Arends is a singer/songwriter I had the honour of meeting on Monday night at the Christian Advocacy Society event. She sang this song. Enjoy.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvvzmPzkArU]
Crazy charting of a natural family planning method, see photo. It’s not always easy, but it’s better than the alternatives. And what it does is make a couple aware of their fertility, which is dictated by the woman’s fertility, because of the way biology works. In this article, a man testifies to the benefits. Imagine that. One of them being that you could actually get to know your wife:
Hormonal contraceptives have this weird effect of putting women in an artificial state, as if they were pregnant all the time. It flattens the normal ebb and flow of hormones and thus of their energies and moods. They’re not themselves. Imagine yourself on steroids all the time. If she’s been on the pill ever since you’ve known her, you may have yet to meet your spouse.
He then goes on to itemize other benefits of natural family planning for men. I like the way he ends:
I’m not in your shoes, and the information I presented above can easily be picked apart. I realize it’s a quick overview of a complex topic. All I am suggesting is for you men to consider this option very seriously and don’t be absentminded or passive about the topic. There is a better world out there, and it’s worth checking out.
The bold struck me as critical. Getting pregnant or pregnancy prevention is not, should not be, the sole purview of the woman. The Pill and “my body, my choice” has made it so for the current era. It’s a burden for many women, and that burden ought to be shared. I’ve often wondered about men who are so adamant they don’t want children… are they equally adamant about remaining chaste? Because guess what? One thing (sex) leads to another (children), often enough.
I was trying to ignore Katha Pollitt’s new book called Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. But I’ve just been asked to do Tommy Schnurmacher’s show in Montreal on Monday at 10:30 am so I can do so no longer. Sigh.
Just watched this interview with her. It doesn’t strike me that she is saying anything terribly new. We’ve had people come out and indicate that abortion is positive and a “right” in Canada for many years. It rings hollow, given that abortion doesn’t tend to be heralded by women themselves as a positive right. No book, no filmed abortion, no attempt to make it really easy peasy is going to change that.
The best opposition to her idea, however, stems from how she is entirely and completely in favour of abortion as birth control. Not too long ago, even Planned Parenthood campaigned against that. Birth control was to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Abortion, however, everyone knew, was taking a new life and that was going too far.
It remains plenty controversial to say that abortion is birth control–mostly to the women who have had abortions. So her light and airy tone doesn’t jibe there, either. I could go on but I’ll save it for Monday.
If you have tremendous thoughts that would help me in this interview, please pass them on.
We are, I’m convinced, as a human species, always playing the comparison game. So-and-so is happier, healthier, prettier, smarter. Here my friend and former PWPL blogger Véronique definitively explains why and how we shouldn’t do this. Another thing: We shouldn’t take social media as evidence of how life is or is not going. (I personally have written upbeat and funny posts before whilst feeling depressed.)
Pro-lifers believe every life is unique. Special. Sacred, even, and that no two people are exactly alike, and so we won’t tread the same paths. Then we go away and fall prey to precisely the secular tendencies we claim to reject.
[TWEETBLOCK text=”Tweet this”]Fill your 24h with purpose and hold your head up high.[/TWEETBLOCK]
Mark Penninga writes about the ongoing legalization of assisted suicide debate in the National Post.
One need not be healthy or strong to be protected equally under the law. As long as you have human DNA, you qualify for protection. Euthanasia and assisted suicide violates this principle of no intentional killing. I was shocked by how little the lawyers and judges in the Supreme Court hearing discussed this. The inviolability of life, which is a foundation for all law, was brushed aside as if it was a pesky house fly that distracted the lawyers and judges for a brief moment.
If we cross the line where the right to life moves from objective to subjective, we undermine the entire foundation of human rights.
In my mind, anyway, we already crossed that line round about the time we legalized abortion. So nowadays, (for many other reasons as well) life is not objective. It is not an objective good to defend, encourage and support. It is purely subjective–because individual people, particularly suffering people, have good reasons very often, to end their own lives. We used to stand up consistently against that, but today we don’t anymore. Could it be that abortion normalized the idea of killing others–precisely because it has been so routinely framed as difficult, but necessary and even compassionate, alongside being paid for by the government?
Today, more than ever, Christians are under attack. Christians have always been responsible for doing good work–creating hospitals, running hospices and homes for the homeless, the abused and those who cannot help themselves. The Christian Advocacy Society of Greater Vancouver is one such group–helping others, including mothers who are unexpectedly pregnant in a manner that is truly compassionate.
You can learn more about their work in this YouTube clip.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKPJ46xDJuw]
Their executive director Brian Norton and I have been emailing for some years now. He takes time, a lot of time, to compassionately explain to people who misunderstand the work of say, for example, crisis pregnancy centres, what they are all about. What they do–and don’t do. He wrote an entire report debunking some of the myths about crisis pregnancy centres.
So on November 3, if you are in the Vancouver area, come and support them. Do not come because I happen to be speaking, but because they do good work, which I also support. And because in the bigger picture, NOW is the time to show support for those Christians doing good work in a sphere that is public. This group is a worthy one for your valued charitable dollar.
Monday November 3, 2014
7 pm – 9:30 pm
Venue: Bethany Baptist Church
22680 Westminster Hwy, Richmond
Tickets are 20 dollars, and there is dessert and live music too!