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New National Pro-Life Religious Council Resources

Ed

As part of my duties with the Life Ministries group of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, I have the great pleasure of participating in meetings of the National Pro-Life Religious Council (NPRC).  This is a group of Christian pro-life groups working together to get the message out that the life issues should connect all Christians, regardless of denominational (or non-denominational) affiliation.

That’s because at the heart of all the life issues is this irrefutable fact: human life is precious and valuable because God created it and Jesus Christ died for it. The members of the NPRC include LCMS World Relief and Human Care, Presbyterians Pro-Life, Lutherans For Life, Anglicans for Life, Priests for Life, Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, LifeWatch (United Methodist Church), CEC for Life (Charismatic Episcopal Church), United Church of  Christ for Life, National Right to Life Committee, and others.

In our efforts to promote ecumenical resources, we have published books and a quarterly newsletter. Click here to see the NPRC information page hosted by the Outreach department of the National Right to Life Committee.  We also have two new on-line resources.

The first is the Pro-Life Prayer Campaign.  We ask that you pray daily for the wonderful gift of human life and to ask for God to show you how you can make a difference.  The prayer can be found by clicking here. Check back often as we will post new prayers at different times of the year.

The second on-line resource is to help pastors with suggestions of pro-life themes they can incorporate into their sermons. Click here to see the current “pro-life preaching hints.”

I hope these new resources will help you to share the love of God for human life.

The Hand of Hope — Ten Years Later

Ed 3 Comments
The Hand of Hope

The Hand of Hope (c) Michael Clancy

I recently met Michael Clancy at the National Right to Life Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I could not believe that it’s been 10 years since the famous photo (at right) taken by Michael was first published.

Michael was a freelance photojournalist who was documenting an in utero operation on a baby with spina bifida.  Suddenly, the baby (later named Samuel) reached out of the womb to grab the surgeon’s finger.  Samuel was only 21 weeks old at that time.

Fox News recently published an article about Samuel and what he’s doing now, including winning first place in swimming competitions.

In the article, Michael says that he was pro-choice before the assignment that led to the photograph.  But because of what he witnessed during this surgery, he became pro-life.  Now he is a full-time motivational speaker for pro-life groups.  Click here to go to his website to read the story and see his speaking schedule.

Maybe it’s just me, but…I think we should never forget that the baby in the womb is exactly that–a baby!  Regardless of how the pro-choice folks try to denigrate the life in the womb by calling him a “glob of cells,” “mass of tissue,” or the “product of conception,” we must always return to the one undeniable fact that the life in the womb is a human life that is worthy of our love and protection. With compassion and hope, let’s show mothers (and fathers) struggling with life and death choices understand that there are alternatives to abortion when told that the baby they are carrying is “less than perfect.”

The Coming “E” Battle

Ed

This is Part 2 of my observations from the 2nd International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide recently held in Lansdowne, Virginia.  Click here to read Part 1, Assisted Suicide in the United Kingdom.

I’d like to bring you the story of Lionel Roosemont and his wife Renate. Lionel is a husband and father of four from Belgium.  He talked about the culture of death in that country and how his family has had to deal with the implications of that paradigm. It should be noted that euthanasia is legal in Belgium.

When Renate was in the 7th month of pregnancy with their 4th child, she felt something was wrong. They went to their local clinic where doctors told them that the baby had hydrocephalus. The doctors immediately advised that Renate get an abortion because the baby would probably not live long after birth. The doctors told the Roosemonts that the baby will most likely be blind, deaf, and paralyzed. Although Lionel and Renate kept asking the doctors for other options, they were continually told that an abortion was the only answer.  Lionel and Renate refused to end the baby’s life.  However, they did begin preparing for the baby dying shortly after birth.  They chose the name Tikvah for their daughter, which means “jewel.” Fully prepared for her death, Lionel was surprised when the doctor came into the waitng room to tell him that the baby was doing fine and scored between 9 and 10 on the Apgar tests.

Although Tikva has significant disabilities, the family loves her and cares for her; she has brought much joy and love into their lives.  Lionel said, “People who cannot accept that we live in a less-than-perfect world will have problems with children like Tikva.” He noted that currently there is pending legislation in Belgium that would legalize euthanasia for minors and infanticide (as the Netherlands have had since 2006). There are also moves to force hospitals to perform euthanasia.

In the 13 years since Tikva was born strangers, after seeing Tikva’s condition or hearing her cry uncontrollably as she sometimes does, have repeatedly come up to the family (even to the other children) and stated that it would be better to just give her an injection so she will die.

Lionel also talked about “the weekend clean-up” that often occurs in Belgian hospitals.  He stated that when the socialized medicine program in Belgium can no longer afford to cover a patient’s treatment, doctors often “help” some of those patient to die. Lionel said that the family never leaves Tikva in the hospital alone in fear of what someone may do to her.Remember Belgium Enlist Today

Lionel stated, “Once the beast of euthanasia is released, the future looks bleak.” He concluded with a little family history.  Lionel’s father had fought in World War II at Dunkirk and with the Belgian Underground.  His father and two uncles were captured and put into a Nazi concentration camp. Only his father survived the war.

“Are you ready for the coming ‘E’ battle?” was the question Lionel asked the attendees. He challenged us to remember “Little Belgium” as we did during World War I when the free world came to the aid of Belgium. Now the battle he asks us to fight for is “life”; not only for Belgians, but for ourselves as well.

Click here to read the final part from the symposium, The State of the States.

The Murder of George Tiller

Ed

There was sad news over the weekend and it bodes ill for committed pro-life folks who want to honor and protect human life.  George Tiller was murdered yesterday morning. For those who don’t know, George Tiller was an abortionist who had no qualms performing abortions at any time during a pregnancy, including late-term abortions.

However, the pro-life community grieves that a vigilante would take matters into his own hands and fatally assault Tiller. Murder is never a right response to a situation, regardless of the victim and the motive. A good commentary is found on the WORLD Magazine website. Unfettered violence against those who perform violence is never the answer. Instead, prayers for those who would harm one of God’s children and peaceful discussion and education would go much further to end the scourge on our land known as legalized abortion-on-demand.

My prayer for Tiller is: “May God have mercy on his soul.”

On another note, even though the police have stated that they believe the murderer acted on his own volition, there are those in the pro-abortion camp who will not hesitate to brand all pro-life individuals as radicals who go around shooting people who don’t agree with them. Unfortunately, this is in concert with how the Department of Homeland Security has previously depicted the pro-life community. Rather than coming together to condemn the actions of a misguided individual, some want to use this sad event to vilify opponents of abortion-on-demand.

Both sides need to see that violence only begets violence. Unfortunately, as long as the violence of legalized abortion-on-demand exists in this nation, we will also live with the possibility that individuals will wrongly resort to violence in an errorneous attempt to stop violence.

Addendum: LCMS Life Ministries issued a statement on the murder, click here to read it.

Assisted Suicide in the United Kingdom

Ed 3 Comments

I recently spent two days at the 2nd International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.  Attendees from around the world gathered to learn the latest information on what is happening in the battle to stop the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. In Part 1 of my observations, I’d like to start with some information from a speaker from the United Kingdom.

Dr. Peter Saunders, director of the Care Not Killing Alliance, spoke about past and current efforts in the UK to legalize assisted suicide. He noted the following as important legislative steps towards where the UK is presently:

  • 1961 Suicide Act — Suicide was legal, but assisting with a suicide was still illegal.
  • 1965 Murder Act — Outlawed the death penalty, but the intentional killing of another person was still illegal.
  • 2005 Mental Capacity Act — It is a crime for a doctor to treat a patient against an advance refusal (living will in the US).

After several failed attempts to introduce bills to legalize assisted suicide, the main pro-euthanasia organization in the UK (Dignity in Dying) changed tactics.  Since so many advances have been made in the area of palliative care and pain mitigation, the focus has switched from cancer patients with uncontrollable pain to people with neurological diseases – the argument being that they should have the option to choose when to die. In 2006, the Assisted Dying Bill was introduced in the Parliament.  The main points of the bill included:

  • This was physician-assisted suicide (modeled after Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act), not euthanasia.
  • Nurses would be involved in the process.
  • This bill was for England and Wales only.

After much work by the Care Not Killing Alliance, the bill was defeated. However, that has not stopped pro-euthanasia forces in the UK. In September 2008, medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock stated that dementia patients are wasting their families’ lives and wasting the resources of the National Health Service, thus they have a duty to die.

In early December 2008, British television aired a program showing the assisted suicide of an American in Zurich highlighted the growing “suicide tourism” that occurs in Switzerland due to its relatively unrestrictive assisted suicide laws. Shortly thereafter, well-known broadcaster John Humphrys announced he was co-authoring a book in which he will call for the legalization of euthanasia. Finally, assisted suicide was glamorized in a docudrama that aired in January 2009 on BBC called “A Short Stay in Switzerland.”

And now, there are efforts underway calling for an amendment to the Suicide Act to protect from prosecution anyone who helps someone to travel to Switzerland in order to commit suicide.

After you’ve digested all of this, click here to read Part 2, The Coming “E” Battle.