How can we be more loving in sharing the pro-life message? An interesting application of 1 Cor 13 by Tim Brahm:

While I was reflecting on this problem a few months ago, it reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13.  I wrote my struggles into the text, not to elevate my thoughts to the level of Scripture, but to remind myself of the power of a passage quoted so often that I hear the words without thinking about what they mean.  Below, I’ve placed the original text in bold type with my added thoughts in normal type.

If I speak with the conviction of a great apologist, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have great powers of perception, and understand all science and philosophy, and if I have all faith, so as to inspire a congregation, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all excess income to pregnancy care centers and take in unwed mothers, and if I deliver up my reputation for the cause of saving unborn babies, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; it listens and seeks to understand rather than merely waiting for the chance to respond.

Love is kind; it treats everyone as a valuable human being made in the image of God – not just embryos, fetuses, and those who agree with us.

Read the rest here.

Josh Brahm comments on this week’s news:

I argued in that talk that my primary concern about human cloning is not that it’s “playing God,” but that we will dehumanize the new human being we’ve “created” in the lab. Notice the way the NPR article talks about the living, human embryos that were created, the same embryos that because they were able to live for several days, made the experiment a success:

The experiments involve creating and then destroying human embryos for research purposes, which some find morally repugnant. The scientists also used cloning techniques, which raise concerns that the research could lead to the cloning of people. (emphasis mine)

The pro-life argument is that human beings are valuable, or “persons,” from the moment they begin life as a unique organism. This article only uses the word “person” to refer to human beings that are cloned and then allowed to live until birth.

And should cloned humans be assigned any worth or dignity?

You have to scroll down to the bottom of the article to read the worst assertion from the lead scientist:

But Mitalipov dismisses those concerns. He says the embryos he created aren’t the equivalent of a human being because they weren’t fertilized naturally.

Don’t miss this. The sole reason given that the cloned human embryos aren’t valuable is because they weren’t fertilized naturally. Why in the world should I believe that matters?

The things my nightmares are made of…

This article gets at the idea that increasingly, put all sex ed aside, we are uncomfortable with the basics of the birds and the bees. Ie. we don’t want to acknowledge where babies come from.

Yes, we are increasingly uncomfortable with where babies come from, no doubt about it. Our lingo betrays us. And it doesn’t take a social conservative to perceive it….

Fully autonomous. In other words, free from embeddedness in relationships. By extension, having little to do with moms, dads, and babies. See what I mean? We’re ambivalent about the procreative aspect of sex. Sex is rather all about pleasure, or, to use the lingo of a public-health friend of mine, all about the f***ing. (Forgive my being blunt and crude, but if the shoe fits . . .)

This is the underpinning of the pro-choice mentality. I can have sex, but I must not associate that sex with even the possibility of a baby. Ironic, even, since these are the folks who are so very concerned about “sex-positive” and all that jazz (what does that even mean?). But get down to the basics of the birds and the bees and they are in total denial.

I finally clicked over to Life Canada’s new campaign and watched “Darby’s story.”

I’m impressed that this young girl possesses a confidence and courage that I didn’t have at 16. Either she was always so, or having a baby forced her to grow into it. Either way, she offers a compelling personal story on how and why having a baby is never a mistake.

Yes we do, need clarity on this important point.

The child’s mother, Ivana Levkovic, was charged with contravening section 243 of the Criminal Code in that she “disposed of the dead body of a child (her newborn daughter) with intent to conceal the fact that its mother (she) has been delivered of it.” The trial judge acquitted her on the grounds that the offence was too vaguely defined, in that he “could not identify the point when a fetus becomes a dead body for the purposes of the law in question.” The Ontario Court of Appeal overruled the trial judge’s decision and sent the case back for retrial. The Supreme Court of Canada has just upheld this decision.

A central issue is what a “child” means in the law and the uncertainty which surrounds this.

Brad Pitt loves the chaos of a large family:

“I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven’t known life to be any happier. I’m making things. I just haven’t known life to be any happier.” Of course, having a big brood makes it hard to become lonely. “I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big,” shares Pitt. “I wanted there to be chaos in the house … there’s constant chatter in our house, whether it’s giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it.”

Something about repeating “I love it,” three times makes me think he must really love it.

I will add this, that for my friends who have large families, I don’t find visiting their homes to be any more chaotic than families with two or three. Just saying. Yes, the little kids are noisy, but the big ones aren’t, and it all evens out. I spent time with just two small people over the weekend and they weren’t particularly quiet. In a couple of years, the excitement: Jumping up and down, yelling, etc. will likely stop, and for that I will be very sad. There really is nothing quite like the excitement of the three-to-six-year-old set.

Also, the husbands of my friends with large families look Just. Like. This. All the time.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.

I was mulling the pro-life movement’s engagement this weekend. Our message isn’t being ignored. Pro-life stories and the abortion debate are all over the news. Our message is ridiculed by some and others are, well, “fighting” us, I guess you could say.

We are winning hearts and minds, one person at a time.  If Gandhi’s stages are correct, I’d say we’re hovering between stages three and four.

So what’s a “win”? For PWPL, it’s a desire “to bring an end to abortion, not by coercion, but by choice.” For others, it’s via legislation, restricting abortion.

Food for thought.

What an incredible story of hope and redemption:

One of the most powerful forms of social justice is adoption, because it unleashes purpose, love, and mercy, says Ryan Bomberger, co-founder of the Radiance Foundation.

Adoption is the solution to the social injustice of abortion, he told the 2013 Youth Conference May 10 which was held in conjunction with the National March for Life.

“I am that one per cent used to justify abortion,” said Bomberger, who said he was conceived after rape. […]

Those who are pro-abortion conclude the only outcome of an unwanted pregnancy is misery and tragedy, whereas everyone has an unwritten story. “Possibility is crushed every day by abortion,” he said. “Men and women are lied to by abortion.”

h/t Foolishness to the world

There is a case coming before the BC Supreme Court, to decide whether a program that allows women who are in prison for less than two years, who have kids while in prison, to keep their children. I would hope that the BC government would reinstate the program. Prison time ends, and ideally what we want are people who are able to get back into normal life. It appears that this program accomplished that:

It was of the things I was most proud of,” Tole says of the program. “When these moms got out [of prison] they didn’t come back. They made a life for their kids. I don’t think that would have happened otherwise.”

I do think having children has the capacity to change people and give them hope. I can’t see the benefit of giving up an infant to foster care, if the mother is going to be out in a short amount of time and wants to parent.

Rachael Clark is graduating from university and getting married this summer. Read the emotional journey, here.

Her issues stem from the way her life began. On Sept. 27, 1989, the day Rachael was born, she was sealed inside a dark garbage bag with her umbilical cord and placenta still attached. The trash bag was then thrown, hard, into a dumpster. Minutes before she ran out of oxygen, someone heard her cries and saved her. Her abandonment and rescue in Temple Hills, Md., became one of the most widely publicized stories of its kind — so well-known, in fact, that Rachael overheard people talking about it in front of her when she was about 2.