Today I heard the results of a survey where the American people say that organized religion is loosing it's influence. The person who conducted the survey saw now as an opportunity for religions to prove what they are and why they should have influence.
I think what he says is true. At a time of "popularity" of religion we often took it for granted that those of us in a church had faith and it was being passed on to our children, but was it? Or was it really just something people did because it was the norm? I think that is the truth of it for most people. They belonged to a faith but it had little to no influence on how they lived and now the new generation is saying to us that won't work.
How does that fit into detachment? We have to detach ourselves from the idea of external trappings. The cross on my neck doesn't make me a Christian, what I believe isn't the whole story either, but how I act. I can't say I believe in the sanctity of life and then not support life from conception to natural death in all I say and do, and not be a liar. If I believe that you can't abort a child but I myself never am open to life, or only open to life on my terms, I am a liar. Do I dress like a Christian do I wear a cross and think that the trappings of faith is all I need, or do I have the heart of a Christian? Sometimes we have to detach ourselves from our preconceived notions of what it means to follow God, to learn to hear His voice and follow Him.
I think I begin to understand how the faith can be dead without works but how works can not save us. We get so caught up in the motions of faith. We think that because we fast or pray or attend meetings that we more holy then those who don't do what we do, when it is our hearts we need to change. If our actions don't flow from our hearts our actions will be hollow. If they flow from our hearts we will do all those things and more.
I need to detach myself from my idea of myself and go with God, with no preconceived ideas only a wish do His will. Pray for me.
Showing posts with label Prolife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prolife. Show all posts
Friday, June 21, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
What ProLife is and isn't
Over the last week I saw three interesting And disturbing posts on my Facebook page that for me crystallized what it is to be ProLife. The first one pictures from Syria of a group of small children all about 5 years old or less who were victims of the blood shed there. All were dead. The next one was the picture of a beautiful and smiling young girl, a toddler, who has Downs Syndrome. The last one was a meme that asked, "if the infant in the womb was gay would you still fight for its rights"?
For me the first picture was a reminder. In all wars there are innocent victims who need to be protected at all costs. Children have been killed during drone strikes, have I said enough about this? Have I emailed my or called my Congressmen about this enough? No I haven't. I think that pictures like this though very disturbing, need to be seen. We need to know so we can react properly. Being ProLife means standing up for these lives. I know these deaths happened in Syria, what am I going to do? What can I do? First, I can pray. Second, I can call my congressman. Third, I can use social media to bring attention to the issue.
The second picture of the little girl with Downs Syndrome was so beautiful. Her smile made me smile. There were people who objected to seeing the child's picture. They didn't think the parents should post pictures of their child, like everyone else does, because of her condition. They even questioned the parents love for their child. They seemed to say we don't think you should be proud of your child. Most people currently have the tests done to check for Downs Syndrome and abort the children if they have it. We don't want these imperfect children. The funny thing I'd that most of the people who responded who had downs syndrome children called them a blessing or angels. ProLife means accepting ehat the world calls imperfect children and people. We know that she is made in the image and likeness of God so she is perfect.
The third post made the most upset. The meme that asked if we knew that the child in the womb was gay would we protect it's right to life? Wholeheartedly yes. The funny thing is that if there were a test for homosexuality how many of those infants would be aborted by so called progressives? My guess is a lot. In the quest for the perfect child many babies are aborted because they aren't "normal". As Christians we are called to love everyone because they were made by God, even our enemies. Gay people aren't our enemies and we have to love them so we could never abort them.
It's funny how the Pro abortion side tries to portray us as hypocrites. In part because there are some hypocrites in the PrLife movement but we just need to educate both the pro abortion side and the hypocrites that ProLife comes from God and is based in Love for all of Gods creation.
For me the first picture was a reminder. In all wars there are innocent victims who need to be protected at all costs. Children have been killed during drone strikes, have I said enough about this? Have I emailed my or called my Congressmen about this enough? No I haven't. I think that pictures like this though very disturbing, need to be seen. We need to know so we can react properly. Being ProLife means standing up for these lives. I know these deaths happened in Syria, what am I going to do? What can I do? First, I can pray. Second, I can call my congressman. Third, I can use social media to bring attention to the issue.
The second picture of the little girl with Downs Syndrome was so beautiful. Her smile made me smile. There were people who objected to seeing the child's picture. They didn't think the parents should post pictures of their child, like everyone else does, because of her condition. They even questioned the parents love for their child. They seemed to say we don't think you should be proud of your child. Most people currently have the tests done to check for Downs Syndrome and abort the children if they have it. We don't want these imperfect children. The funny thing I'd that most of the people who responded who had downs syndrome children called them a blessing or angels. ProLife means accepting ehat the world calls imperfect children and people. We know that she is made in the image and likeness of God so she is perfect.
The third post made the most upset. The meme that asked if we knew that the child in the womb was gay would we protect it's right to life? Wholeheartedly yes. The funny thing is that if there were a test for homosexuality how many of those infants would be aborted by so called progressives? My guess is a lot. In the quest for the perfect child many babies are aborted because they aren't "normal". As Christians we are called to love everyone because they were made by God, even our enemies. Gay people aren't our enemies and we have to love them so we could never abort them.
It's funny how the Pro abortion side tries to portray us as hypocrites. In part because there are some hypocrites in the PrLife movement but we just need to educate both the pro abortion side and the hypocrites that ProLife comes from God and is based in Love for all of Gods creation.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Being ProLife means having Agape Love
I have to start with two definitions. Agape, divine, self sacrificing love for God and mankind and ProLife, supporting the culture of life. What does that mean to me? Those two words are the foundation of faith. Agape love is the kind of love God has for us and is the kind of love we should have for God and one another. To have Agape love means to sacrifice both for God and our fellow man. This kind of love isn't a warm fuzzy feeling but a decision to place others needs higher than ourselves. Because of this I fail at it all the time. We are fallen and so Agape is very hard for us. Jesus came and shows us the ultimate in Agape love.
To be ProLife is to strive for Agape love. To sacrifice for the good of the other. To do so we can't kill one another, for any reason. We have to work for the salvation of all, especially our enemies and those who might want to kill us. You can not be ProLife and blow up abortion clinics. To love with Agape love means to inconvenience yourself in your giving to help others. Which is more important, the higher tier of cable service or feeding the poor and providing medical care to everyone? Doesn't it also mean giving your time. It an be as simple as giving your time to talk to a neighbor who is lonely. Sometimes I think that we find it easier to write a check but God wants us to put ourselves out. He died for us on the Cross we can give up a weekend to help run a food pantry or build a house.
Most infatically to love God and to be ProLife does not mean killing in the name of God. It doesn't even mean being mean in the name of God. Hurting grieving families with signs full of hate speech is not what God calls us to do. It does mean remonstrating those who are going wrong and pointing out what they need to do, but that has to be done with love, not anger.
The problem with our society is we have forgotten love and given up ProLife for what is easy and feels goos at the moment. If we don't respect all life, how can we expect others to respect our lives and the lives of our families? Until we all, become more lovingly ProLife we will continue to suffer from violence.
To be ProLife is to strive for Agape love. To sacrifice for the good of the other. To do so we can't kill one another, for any reason. We have to work for the salvation of all, especially our enemies and those who might want to kill us. You can not be ProLife and blow up abortion clinics. To love with Agape love means to inconvenience yourself in your giving to help others. Which is more important, the higher tier of cable service or feeding the poor and providing medical care to everyone? Doesn't it also mean giving your time. It an be as simple as giving your time to talk to a neighbor who is lonely. Sometimes I think that we find it easier to write a check but God wants us to put ourselves out. He died for us on the Cross we can give up a weekend to help run a food pantry or build a house.
Most infatically to love God and to be ProLife does not mean killing in the name of God. It doesn't even mean being mean in the name of God. Hurting grieving families with signs full of hate speech is not what God calls us to do. It does mean remonstrating those who are going wrong and pointing out what they need to do, but that has to be done with love, not anger.
The problem with our society is we have forgotten love and given up ProLife for what is easy and feels goos at the moment. If we don't respect all life, how can we expect others to respect our lives and the lives of our families? Until we all, become more lovingly ProLife we will continue to suffer from violence.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Life is the most precious gift - a ramble caused by grief.
How precious is life? If it were not the most precious thing then the Redeemer's sacrifice would not have been so important. This is why destroying life is so wrong, no matter how you destroy it. The funny thing is that this is the same reason why being a martyr is such a great thing. We can give our life away as a great gift but we can't destroy it as if it means nothing.
It is so hard then when someone we love dies. It is their life that is gone and not them. They still are and we hope to see them again when we die. We will see them forever and they won't be in pain, but still death causes grief. Why is that? Is it the loss of what they could have become if they were still alive? Is it only their company we miss? Is it really just that we miss them? If no one misses someone who dies is their life somehow less precious? I don't know other than to say life is so precious that everyone's life is precious.
With life we have the hope of repentance. I often think this is why the death penalty is so wrong. I often wonder why atheists don't value life more than those who have a hope of the afterlife. If you believe that this all there is shouldn't life have the highest value? This maybe why we grieve when someone dies to some extent. We know that they are either destined for heaven or hell at that point. When a great saint dies we often feel that they have gone to their reward and that helps us in our grief.
Life is so precious in fact that even the partial death of causing pain and suffering is wrong. Driving someone to despair is like causing a partial death, and not helping someone in need is like not helping someone who is hurt. ProLife has to mean more than being antiabortion or it is not ProLife. If ProLife means shaming pregnant women or blowing up doctors are we any better than those who kill innocent children? We might actually be worse because we should know better. ProLife means a life of love. Love all,even or especially our enemies. I heard it once said that an enemy is simply someone you need to pray for.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Why ProLife has to be Pro Women
The ProLife movement has got to meet head on the claim that we are not Pro Woman and educate the the non-pro woman elements in our ranks. To be ProLife, we have to support women. There has never been a woman who skipped up to an abortion clinic saying "Yeah! I get to have an abortion". It goes against our nature. The forces in the past that denigrated a woman who had an unwanted pregnancy and made her a permanent second class citizen for having a baby out of wedlock, were anti woman and not ProLife. ProLife should, and does in many cases, support these women now. Many pro life group work to help them bear the burden of bringing the child into the world and either give the child up or get started as a new parent. Abortion supports the idea that the mistaken pregnancy is so wrong and so shameful that the woman's child has to be sacrificed. How does that empower a woman? It says you did something so wrong you now have to go against your very nature. We are designed to want to protect our offspring. Even those who reject God and the idea he made us must agree that we by our nature want to protect our children. To make a woman believe that an abortion is something that won't effect her, is wrong. It goes against how we are. ProLife understands and wants to help and support these women.
Abortion, like suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and just as unfortunate. We need to work within our culture to promote the idea of the woman who decides to give her child life ia a hero. If she doesn't want to raise the child, we should congratulate, support, and thank her for giving her child up for adoption. We need to make that choice attractive, and promote that idea in our culture. If churches would create a fund to support these women while they are pregnant and do what they to make their lives better after they give the child up that might help. At the very least we can promote this in the media.
Until we take charge of this issue of being pro woman, the otherside will continue to promote the idea that this is still the 1950s and women have no control over their lives and so have to hide an unwanted pregnancy through abortion. Maybe the truth is that the otherside finds the idea that women are human and flawed and make mistakes so appalling that they are ashamed of the woman and think she should hide the evidence. Women are human and there will be unwanted pregnancies. We need as a culture to accept this idea and support women to do what is best for them. Bring their child to term and either keep the child or give it up. They say we are anti woman because we don't accept abortion. I say that what we don't accept is the idea that women need to be made to suffer for an unwanted pregnancy.
Abortion, like suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and just as unfortunate. We need to work within our culture to promote the idea of the woman who decides to give her child life ia a hero. If she doesn't want to raise the child, we should congratulate, support, and thank her for giving her child up for adoption. We need to make that choice attractive, and promote that idea in our culture. If churches would create a fund to support these women while they are pregnant and do what they to make their lives better after they give the child up that might help. At the very least we can promote this in the media.
Until we take charge of this issue of being pro woman, the otherside will continue to promote the idea that this is still the 1950s and women have no control over their lives and so have to hide an unwanted pregnancy through abortion. Maybe the truth is that the otherside finds the idea that women are human and flawed and make mistakes so appalling that they are ashamed of the woman and think she should hide the evidence. Women are human and there will be unwanted pregnancies. We need as a culture to accept this idea and support women to do what is best for them. Bring their child to term and either keep the child or give it up. They say we are anti woman because we don't accept abortion. I say that what we don't accept is the idea that women need to be made to suffer for an unwanted pregnancy.
Monday, November 12, 2012
ProLife vs Anti-Abortion, or what ProLife means to me
For me being Pro-Life is so much more than being against abortion. Pro-life to me means being for all human life and for that life to worth living. It means protecting life by protecting people from abuse and bullying. It means allowing people to have meaning fulfilling work that pays them a living wage. If they have emigrate to find that work, legally or illegally then so be it.
What good is it to save babies but allow people to die because they can't afford the medical treatment they need. It happens today in our country. I knew a lady who had broken both legs and they didn't heal. She couldn't work so she lost her minimum wage job and her insurance. When I met her she was cleaning apartments using a stool to get around. Her legs weren't life threatening so she didn't qualify for emergency treatment. She suffered for months before she got help for charities.
I believe that mt faith needs to color every aspect of my life. For me believing life means being anti-abortion, but also being pro-mother. If we took better care of one another there would be less abortion, less suicide, and less murder.
I challenge anyone who reads this to examine their lives (including me) to see if there are places in there lives where they are supporting the culture of death. If you knew your favorite brand of something was produced in a sweatshop, would you stop buying it? Would you pay more for one where workers are treated humanely? Is there someone at work that you talk about behind their back? If you knew how much it hurt them would you stop? I am far from reaching the lofty goal of being prolife through and through, buti want to try.
What good is it to save babies but allow people to die because they can't afford the medical treatment they need. It happens today in our country. I knew a lady who had broken both legs and they didn't heal. She couldn't work so she lost her minimum wage job and her insurance. When I met her she was cleaning apartments using a stool to get around. Her legs weren't life threatening so she didn't qualify for emergency treatment. She suffered for months before she got help for charities.
I believe that mt faith needs to color every aspect of my life. For me believing life means being anti-abortion, but also being pro-mother. If we took better care of one another there would be less abortion, less suicide, and less murder.
I challenge anyone who reads this to examine their lives (including me) to see if there are places in there lives where they are supporting the culture of death. If you knew your favorite brand of something was produced in a sweatshop, would you stop buying it? Would you pay more for one where workers are treated humanely? Is there someone at work that you talk about behind their back? If you knew how much it hurt them would you stop? I am far from reaching the lofty goal of being prolife through and through, buti want to try.
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