This is very moving (h/t causa nostrae laetitiae):
Resources:
Men and abortion
Resources for men
Obama’s Ignorant Ad – *Updated
Apparently Barack doesn’t have very good researchers working on his ad campaign. Not that it takes a lot of research to get this one right. His latest ad accuses John McCain of “standing in the way” and “opposing stem cell research” (again, “stem cell research” here really only means research that involves human embryos.) This after McCain just released an ad and a statement from his campaign reiterating his support for this research. From the ad (listen to it here):
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: I’m Barack Obama, candidate for president, and I approve this message.
JODY MONTGOMERY: My name is Jody Montgomery and my daughter Maddy was diagnosed with Type I Juvenile Diabetes at age three. Six times a day, I take her blood. Six times a day, I pray for a cure. Researchers are working hard to do just that. Our best hope is stem cell research, and that’s why we support Barack Obama.
ANNOUNCER: Stem cell research could unlock cures for diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s too. But John McCain has stood in the way…he’s opposed stem cell research. Picked a running mate who’s against it… And he’s running on a platform even more extreme than George Bush’s on this vital research. John McCain doesn’t understand that medical research benefiting millions shouldn’t be held hostage by the political views of a few.
MONTGOMERY: For Maddy and millions of others, stem cell research can unlock cures. Barack Obama understands that. But John McCain just doesn’t.
ANNOUNCER: Paid for by Obama for America
I’ve pointed this out before, but just so we’re clear here:
For years John McCain has been in favor of ESC research on so-called “surplus” embryos created for IVF. In 2004 he signed a letter to the president urging him to expand funding for ESC research. He voted twice in favor of the embryonic stem cell research enhancement act (so did Obama), even once taking time on the floor to speak in favor of the funding. In April of 2007 he told Christian talk show host Bob Dutko that he, and those who oppose ESC research “just have an open and honest disagreement”:
Earlier this year he defended his support for research using embryos that would be, “either discarded or kept in permanent frozen status.” And at the Saddleback Presidential Forum, when asked if he would favor or oppose funding for ESC research McCain, using the vaguest wording possible (notice, he uses the blanket term “stem cell research”), essentially reiterated his position:
For those of us in the pro-life community this has been a great struggle and a terrible dilemma because we’re also taught other obligations that we have as well. I’ve come down on the side of stem cell research. But I am wildly optimistic that skin cell research, which is coming more and more into focus and practicability, will make this debate an academic one.
And then there was his recent ad supporting all stem cell research with a subsequent statement from his campaign spokesman that “clearly he supports [embryonic stem cell research].”
Obama’s ad is correct about Palin and the Republican Party platform, but quite off the mark when it comes to John McCain. His ad is also incorrect about the bright future of “[embryonic] stem cell research” in “unlocking cures” and treating disease and disability. See: Disability Advocates Need NOT Support ESC Research!
**Regarding Gov. Palin’s possible impact on a McCain administration’s stem cell research policy: PoliFact reports that:
when asked about the issue directly, Palin made clear that while her “personal opinion” would be in disagreement with a policy supporting embryonic stem cell research, she would respect a McCain-led administration’s right to set such a policy.
While I do hope that McCain will have a change of heart on this as many ESC research advocates fear he will, I don’t see any evidence to be confident that such a change will happen. From PoliFact:
We get that it may make some stem cell proponents nervous when McCain tells hard-line opponents to embryonic stem cell research that he is open to listening to their arguments; or that he chose a running mate who opposes embryonic stem cell research; or that the GOP platform calls for a ban on experimentation on human embryos for research purposes.
But McCain has not backed away from his position.
Asked in a Republican debate in California on May 3, 2007, what he thought about federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, McCain was unequivocal.
“I believe that we need to fund this,” McCain said. “This is a tough issue for those of us in the prolife community. I would remind you that these stem cells are either going to be discarded or perpetually frozen.
“We need to do what we can to relieve human suffering. It’s a tough issue. I support federal funding.”
And McCain has backed up his words with his vote twice in recent years, even when it meant challenging President Bush and a majority of his fellow Senate Republicans.
So, whether you’re voting for McCain or not, let’s not kid ourselves here: McCain favors using and destroying nascent human life for scientific research and if he is president he will sign the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that he voted for twice in the Senate – regardless of what Sarah Palin believes or his Party’s platform dictates. See: McCain-Palin: “Change is Coming” on Stem Cell Research Policy.
Reaching Out to Hispanics
Bella star Eduardo Verastegui helps reach out to Hispanic voters on abortion and Barack Obama:
The full length video includes some graphic abortion pics and can be seen at www.durarealidad.com
See previous post:
Swell Bella Fellas, on a Mission for God
ASCs Treat Spinal Cord Injury…Again
I know I haven’t been reporting the latest in adult stem cell research/treatment as much as I used to. Believe me, good things are still happening. For example (h/t Jivin J):
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Tara Blackwell graduated from Pine Forest High School, she was a star athlete. During a college softball tournament, she did a flip and broke her neck, leaving her paralyzed.
She went to Germany in August. Adult stem cells were taken from her bone marrow and injected into her spine. She says she’s starting to have feeling in her legs.
Tara Blackwell told FOX10 News, “They inserted 9,000 stem cells into my spine. I can feel my left thigh, and what’s really weird when I itch my right shoulder, I can feel it in my hip.
A small sensation means the world to her. Tara believes one day she will walk. Tara plans on going back to Germany. She says she’s heard stories of people walking again after the treatment.
This is not the first time adult stem cells have been successfully used in persons with spinal cord injury either. See:
Stem Cells Treating Spinal Cord Injury!!
Stem Cells Treat Spinal Cord Injury…Again
Stem Cell Videos
Spinal cord patients are also benefiting from other therapies not related to stem cell research:
Who Needs Stem Cells?
The next time you hear “people with spinal cord injury” listed under those whose “only hope” of ever walking again depends on research that destroys nascent human life, don’t believe it. Obviously they’re not exactly cures yet, but when it comes to treating SCI, ASCs are way ahead of embryonic.
Guttmacher Abortion Report
The Guttmacher Institute has come out with a new report documenting 30 year (1974-2004) trends in U.S. abortions. Overall the numbers are at an all time low, though disparities still remain among the different ethnic groups. Some other things in the report worth noting (some of my own emphasis added):
First. They still insist that contraception is the ultimate answer for lower abortion numbers:
A substantial drop in the abortion rates of teenagers and women aged 20–24 accounts for much of the overall decline from 1989 to 2004. A large part of the drop among teenagers is likely attributable to more use of contraceptives and more effective method use.
But then they have to admit that the evidence doesn’t really support that claim:
However, the decrease in the abortion rates among teenagers and women aged 20–24 from the early 1990s to 2001 was accompanied by an increase in the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in birth,13 suggesting that at least part of the decline in the abortion rate among these women was due to an increase in the proportion of unintended pregnancies continued to a birth. Among the possible reasons for this are greater acceptance in society of nonmarital childbearing, more difficulties in obtaining abortion services in some parts of the United States and changing attitudes toward abortion.
What’s more, a majority of abortions come from women who get pregnant despite using some form of contraception. From the Guttmacher Institute’s July 2008 in brief report Facts on Induced Abortions in the U.S.:
• Fifty-four percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users report having used their method inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users report correct use.
Second. This is most disappointing:
In recent years, the proportion of women obtaining abortions who already have at least one child has increased…Because they already have children, a majority of women having abortions are aware of the implications of assuming responsibility for an additional child.
60% of women obtaining abortions already had children!! This is up from 50% in 1989 and 46% in 1974. This is hard for me to fathom. I mean all abortions are hard for me to understand, but especially those that come from women who have at one point joyfully carried life within them.
I am grateful that overall abortions are down and seem to be continually declining. But more work certainly needs to be done. Along with a changing attitude toward abortion and the life of the unborn child we must have a changing attitude toward sex which is the root of the abortion problem:
What is the Theology of the Body & Why is it Changing so Many Lives?
Gianna Jessen’s “Gift of Cerebral Palsy”
She has a gift alright:
Abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, who says she has the “gift of cerebral palsy” (a result of being burned alive inside her mother’s womb), is helping to spread the news about Barack Obama’s votes against the Born Alive Infant Protection Acts in IL.
In the video Alan Colmes keeps asserting that there was no need for the new protection because there was already an IL law protecting infants who survive abortions.
Jessen mentions that there were loopholes in the law. There were. The pre-existing law is the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975(!). And the “born alive protection” is for a “viable” fetus only which must be determined to be viable in writing by the doctor performing the abortion “in his medical judgment based on the particular facts of the case before him” before the abortion is performed.
Visit BornAliveTruth.org for more information.
See why Vive Christus Rex thinks Gianna is The Most Dangerous Woman in America.
Related story: if only this UK woman considered her four year old daughter with cerebral palsy a gift instead of an embarrassment. The poor little girl might be alive today.
Previous posts:
Barack Obama and Infanticide: Indefensible
Attention Roman Catholics for Obama
Barack Obama “Will Not Yield” on Abortion
Obama and Infanticide
Barack’s Disturbing Defense of Infanticide
Obama Facts
Oorah!
A very good friend of mine recently sent me an email that he said I could share with you all here on my blog. He comes from a very large home-schooling family. Since his high school graduation this spring he plans on joining the Marines, though right now he says he is having difficulty getting his transcripts and asks for prayers. He writes:
After reading into your blog, it reminded me of a question I asked a co-worker the other night, I’ll keep her anonymous for her sake.
I asked, “So what would you say if the news reported tomorrow that fifty million Americans have been killed?” She replied, “Oh, that would be terrible,” in a sympathetic tone of voice. Then I asked her, “Care to take a guess as to how many recorded abortions there has been in America since its legallization?” To this she was speechless and confessed that she would never have an abortion her self, but would allow the option for others. Even though she knows it is morally wrong, she however, does not believe in interfering in other people’s affairs. I find it nice that she doesn’t want to get mixed into other people’s business, but has our future really become someone else’s problem?
My generation is filled with selfish and out-of-touch rebels without a cause. Now, I know that there are good people out there, but where are they hiding? Sir Edmund Burke said, “Evil only has a chance to succeed when good men do nothing.” Many times have I run into people who are at heart very anti-abortion but fear to speak out about it. They fear ridicule and rejection by their peers. Is not the death of fifty million of your own countrymen enough to stir anyone to action? We are reaching a point in history where a second Dark Age is on the horizon. As the education in America is steadily declining, the fear of terrorism has us by our throats. Even immorality is becoming an accepted part of our culture and is even to go so far as to make a person of outstanding moral fiber look as if they are the ones who are condemned.
Yet with all this negativity, all this pessimism, I have hope. Though not as hard as it might seem, I have been lucky enough to actually find good people, the ones who would stand up against the darkness and bring the light of Christ upon those who wrongly fear it. As strange as it may seem, I find the ones who wish to preserve the sacredness of life are the ones who not only cherish their own but are thankful to God for everyone’s. These unselfish individuals, who I have been blessed to meet, have been my strength. They give me the courage to face the hell of war for their sake and not my own. They remove the fear of death. I know that because of them, my sacrifice would not be in vain. They give me hope in the future and in my mostly selfish generation. They act as beacons of light, encouraging all to follow Christ. They are the ones that help me live for God and not myself. Their faith and good works are what propels me ever closer to God.
When I join the service, I would like the ones I care about to know that I am not doing it for myself, but for them. I’m doing it for the babies who never had a chance to see a blue sky or say mommy or daddy for the first time. For all those good people who can’t find their voice. I’m doing it for the ones who are misled and are lost in their ways, hoping that my example would lead them to a truly better life. But most of all I’m doing it for God, as He is most deserving of my sacrifices I will offer to Him for the sake of this country and her people. I’ve heard my call, have you heard yours? Oorah!
This was a slightly updated version of a speech he gave on the pro-life trip to D.C. for the March for Life last year. Pretty impressive kid, huh? Please keep him and his family in your prayers. He has 11 siblings – 4 still at home – and they all lost their dad suddenly about a year and a half ago.
It is such a treasure to know DJ and all of the local home-schooled kids in our area (some shown above – DJ is the one in the hat close to the middle). All of them are wholly dedicated to Christ and fighting for the unborn. Their committment gives me hope as I sometimes get frustrated with my own selfish generation. Here’s some of us at Planned Parenthood last year:
The kids also join me at our pro-life table downtown on the 4th of July. See:
Happy 4th of July…Late!
Pics from the Fourth
Pray for the Supreme Court!
From the Pro-Life Memorial Day website:
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton in 1973, 49,640,776 babies have been surgically and medically aborted – millions more have been killed chemically. This staggering death toll is the direct result of these two decisions.
On the first Monday in October, the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term. This is a day on which pro-lifers across the nation will mourn the victims of America’s hidden holocaust: abortion.
Who will hear the cries of these preborn children? Who will be their voice? Who will mourn their deaths? On October 6, thousands of Americans nationwide will be mourning the victims of abortion by wearing black armbands, gathering for prayer and candlelight vigils at the U.S. Supreme Court and abortion facilities nationwide, wearing the official Pro-Life Memorial Day 2008 T-shirt and engaging in many other activities.
This is a great day to organize prayer vigils not only to remember the millions of lives lost and ruined by abortion but also to pray for the future of the Supreme Court and the possibility of a day without Roe v. Wade.
I ordered my memorial day t-shirt yesterday. This year they are also offering armbands. Order yours soon if you want to receive it before Oct. 6!
Watch: America’s Death Wish – Video
Love Endures All Things
From yesterday’s Mass reading:
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, love is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinth 12:31-13:7
As I read this reading at our monthly Mass at a local nursing home yesterday I was struck with a vision of these words of St. Paul being lived out right before me. Among the participants in Mass yesterday was two old men, probably in their 80’s, visiting their wives who are residents at the nursing home.
I believe the women are both from the Alzheimer’s unit. Neither appeared very in tune to their surroundings. They sat with very blank expressions on their faces, unmoving, just staring at the floor, if they were awake at all. And here were the men in their lives as loving and attentive as ever.
One man sat in total silence with his wife’s hand in his for well over an hour. The look of utter contentment on his face proving that whether or not she returned his loving gazes was completely irrelevant.
It was a welcome sight after reading recently the tragic story of a mother allegedly murdered her four year old daughter because she was “embarrassed” by the child’s disability (cerebral palsy).
Seeing the devotion of these two men I thought, truly this is the love Paul speaks of. No doubt these men have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, but only more love. This is the patient love that calls us to search outside ourselves, to seek not our own interests and bear all things for the sake of the other – to give until it hurts. In other words, this is the love of the Cross, the love of He Who is love itself.
This Sunday we celebrated the Triumph of the Holy Cross. This “triumph” is the triumph of the love of God for all mankind (Jn. 3:16). Through the Cross we not only have the consolation of Christ Himself accompanying us in our sufferings, but His passion and death offer us the the ultimate example of what it means to be truly loving and compassionate.
Instead of putting us out of our misery of suffering, death and sin by just wiping us off the face of the planet, Christ overcame sin and death by showing us that true love does not kill, but seeks to enter into the other’s sufferings so that the sufferer is no longer alone. This is an example we must follow in dealing with all of our loved ones who suffer.
Read Spe Salvi n. 38 and 39!!
Previous posts:
Love and Suffering
Love the Suffering
The Paradox of the Cross
Present Sufferings are as Nothing
The Consolation of the Christian Faith
The Value of Human Suffering
Theology of the Body: Marriage
The fifth and final installment of Cardinal Arinze’s webcast on TOB is available now:
This one is quite significant because, as Pope Benedict has suggested, Marriage is the key to world peace.
See the previous episodes on these posts:
Cardinal Arinze Webcasts TOB!
Theology of the Body: Original Happiness
These webcasts are part of a complete DVD series from the Cardinal. Subscribe to Cardinal Arinze’s webcast from the website, via itunes or watch for new videos on You Tube.
Another previous post: Spice up Your Sex Life…Invite God!
Also check out these great posts from Jenny at The Great Deception:
Seeing is Believing – Depersonalization by Sexualization
Sex and the City (of God)