Abortion
An abortion clinic’s worst nightmare: State-of-the-art pro-life ultrasound centers, gone mobile by Peter Baklinksi
Why Pro-Lifers Lose by Steve Deace
Washington D.C. Wants 24-Hour Wait for Tattoos, Piercings But No Abortion Limits by Steven Ertelt
All you pretty much need to know about the reality of fetal pain in one story by Dave Andrusko
Take the Quiz: Kermit Gosnell Vs. Other Abortion Practitioners by Sarah Terzo
Planned Parenthood’s Adoption “Gag Rule” by Casey Mattox
Vital Signs: Getting away with murdering baby girls by Alissa Robertson
Adoption
Romanticizing adoption. Don’t do it! (Part 1) by Dan Cruver
End-of-Life
Humanism = Pro Suicide? by Wesley J. Smith
Family Living
Congresswoman Beutler’s “Miracle baby” doing “amazing” after doctors had said she’d die by Dave Andrusko
Miss Amazing pageant puts girls with disabilities first by Jillian Eugenios
Anonymous Customer Pays for Bill of Family With Special Needs Child by Lauren Enriquez
Politics
Policies Based On Skin Color Are Sinful And Shameful by Michael Peroutka
This and That
Video: Finding Minnesota: Social Network In A Small Town – A nice story from near where I grew up.
Video: Surprise Cat in the Hat baby announcement – “These soon-to-be grandparents had given up all hope of ever having grandchildren. That’s why this pregnancy video call caught them completely by surprise. But keep watching: there’s a second surprise you have to see!”
Issues Etc. Journal (Fall 2013) – Always an interesting read. Articles include More Questions for Old-Earth Creationists by by Todd Wilken and Wittenberg Trail: What Will it Be: Glib, Facile Cleverness or Holy Zeal? by David Ramirez
Inside Herod’s Head
by James Kushiner, executive director of The Fellowship of St. James
(Source: The Fellowship of St. James email, 9/3/13)
Today [September 3] is the Commemoration of the Beheading of John the Baptist, noted in the St. James Calendar of the Christian Year.
I am struck by the example of John after taking a phone call yesterday from a reader commenting on the Sept/Oct Editorial in Touchstone by Allan Carlson (“American Idolatry: Meditations on Same-Sex Marriage.” The caller opposed government “coercion” in propping up the definition of marriage (he opposed DOMA), but apparently he didn’t oppose government coercion in redefining marriage. The church needs to be more focused on its spiritual mission, he said.
John’s mission was spiritual—a call to repentance and preparation for the ministry of the Messiah. But John also spoke against Herod’s illicit marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife. So the tradition here and subsequently suggests that Christians not keep silence over moral concerns, including marriage, even if public.
John is often caricatured as a stern, rebuking prophet, which he sometimes was in his responses to pharisees (“You brood of vipers!”). But I can’t help but wonder what was John like when Herod heard him speak in prison? Consider this verse from Mark:
… Herod feared John; knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly.
Gladly? I don’t picture a fire-breathing John haranguing Herod in prison—but he also was not silent. Perhaps John, after his arrest, his public preaching days behind him, might be compared to a Russian staretz, an elder, or a desert father such as Anthony of Egypt. Herod’s hearing him “gladly” suggests to me that John spoke directly to Herod’s conscience with a compassion energized and informed by truth. Herod sensed something “righteous and holy” in his prisoner, in much the same way others sense a spiritual depth in certain spiritual “elders.”
Herod in the end couldn’t turn the corner on repentance and caved to the wiles and wrath of Herodias. Saints are often both respected and hated. Mother Teresa earned the respect of many non-Christians and yet was scorned by Christopher Hitchens (and surely others).
Herod also caved to the social expectations of his guests after he promised to give Herodias’ daughter whatever she asked for. A text from the Orthodox service for August 29 asserts that Herod would have been better off to break his solemn word and be called a liar than to kill God’s righteous prophet. Using what others will think of us as a final measure in taking a position is one way to pave a road to perdition.
We should speak such that some might hear us gladly, but also with the knowledge that the ruler of this world wants to silence us. The hearer might repent … or hate, persecute, or even kill you. That’s his choice.
The best soldiers do what they are given to do, knowing they may live or die. We should ponder the example of the righteous and holy John the Baptist gladly.