Morality, Religion & Philosophy: April 2010 Archives
I really don't know what to say about these babies left to die after they've survived abortions.
The 22-week infant died one day later in intensive care at a hospital in the mother's home town of Rossano in southern Italy.The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after prenatal scans suggested that her baby was disabled.
However, the infant survived the procedure, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabro hospital, and was left by doctors to die.
He was discovered alive the following day – some 20 hours after the operation – by Father Antonio Martello, the hospital chaplain, who had gone to pray beside his body.
He found that the baby, wrapped in a sheet with his umbilical cord still attached, was moving and breathing.
There's a special place in Hell reserved for the doctors, nurses, and mothers who slaughter these innocents by the millions every year. They are not nameless, faceless blobs of cells to God, but his own little ones, whom he individually created and loves.
Genesis 4:9-109 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"10 The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
I can't read stories like this without thinking of my own little daughter, with her beautiful laugh, serious brown eyes, wobbly walk, and tight hugs before bed.
I think I generally agree with most Calvinists, but I'm not sure that would be clear if I were to have a deep discussion with one. Either way, I'm encouraged to read about a modern resurgence of Calvinism in American Christianity. Despite the controversy that surrounds the doctrine of predestination (which I believe is essentially moot), Calvinism's emphasis on a proper Biblical understanding of man's sinfulness and God's glory is a welcome respite from the common conception of Christianity as a self-help social club.
By most logic, the stern system of Calvinism shouldn't be popular today. Much of modern Christianity preaches a comforting Home Depot theology: You can do it. We can help. Epitomized by popular titles like Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential," this message of self-fulfillment through Christian commitment attracts followers in huge numbers, turning big churches into megachurches.At the same time, a strict following of the Bible, which Calvinists embrace, hardly resonates the way it once did in American society. The Barna Group, a California-based research firm, recently did a survey to find out how many US adults hold a "biblical worldview" – for instance, believe that the Bible is totally accurate, that a person cannot earn their way into heaven simply by doing good, that God is the all-powerful creator of the universe.
The result: a steeple-thin 9 percent. Among 18-to-23-year-olds, it was 0.5 percent, fewer people than might show up at a Lady Gaga concert. Even among "born again" Christians, it was only 19 percent.
In a separate report, Barna found that more than 6 in 10 born-again Christians say they are customizing their faith, not following any one church's theology. "Americans are increasingly comfortable picking and choosing what they deem to be helpful and accurate theological views and have become comfortable discarding the rest of the teachings in the Bible," the report notes.
Jesus himself warned against corrupting his message of sin and redemption.
Matthew 7:21-23"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
Churches are full of people who will be disastrously surprised when That Day arrives.
