After writing yesterday’s blog, I came across an article from the Wall Street Journal dated February 25, 1994 (page A14) in which Mother Teresa was quoted regarding her passionate pro-life belief.
With the recent events and death of Terri Schiavo and my own written words still echoing in my heart, I read the words of Mother Teresa – and was further moved to action.
I must share these with you.
“America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts – a child – as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has minimally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. Human rights are not a privilege confined by government. They are every human beings entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign.�
Mother Teresa also said a couple of years later, “What is taking place in America is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another.� (National Prayer Breakfast, Washington D.C., February 1997).
Perhaps this speaks to why about seventy percent of Americans (according to recent polls) feel Terri Schiavo’s husband had the right to kill her.
God help us.
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Regardless of political persuasion, any decent human being cannot escape the emotion of watching a determined husband killing his wife while a mother, father, siblings, and millions of Americans beg that life rather than death be offered to Terri Schiavo.
How did we get here?
Patrick Henry once said, “It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains, a corrupted public conscience is incompatible with freedom.�
Has our public conscience become corrupted?
I believe it has. And consistent polls taken over a long period of time confirm our changing values and attitudes.
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1992 described what Patrick Henry referred to. The article said that at the end of World War II – when faith and traditional values were much stronger in America – less than 36 percent of those polled thought individuals should have the right to end their own life. By 1990, however, researchers found that 63 percent of Americans approved of euthanasia as a medical option. A USA Today/Gallup poll in 1995 indicated that 75 percent support the idea of suicide for terminally ill individuals. Seventy percent, we are told, agree with the doctors right to remove Terri’s feeding tubes.
I believe that the basic belief in evolution is at the heart of this fundamental change in thinking.
The evolutionary hypothesis holds that man is a mere accident of time and chance, that life is transitory and death is final. By systematically indoctrinating our youth for the past 40 years, primarily through public education, that life is not a gift but rather a chance occurrence, that there is no God and no eternal dimension or consequence to our lives, people’s thinking has shifted from the importance of living (as a gift from God) to the practical expedient of “get all you can get.� A shift away from “responsibilities� toward “rights.�
The shift from a “sanctity of life� ethic to a “quality of life� ethic is the most profoundly destructive step a nation can take. Once we take that step, we then become able to justify any atrocity by disguising it behind the mask of “compassion,� “rights,� or just plan “realism.�
Any society that loses its belief that life is sacred and that only God can decide when to give and when to take away life, has taken a very risky step toward totalitarism. In time, life in such a culture will become meaningless, and death will be incredibly cheap.
Dr. C. Christopher Hook, director of ethics education and consultation at Mayo Clinic has described with some detail how doctors in Nazi Germany began authorizing euthanasia for mentally ill and deformed individuals then to other “undesirables,� until they were able to rationalize the extermination of six million Jews, Poles, Evangelicals, and others deemed expendable by Hitler’s Third Reich.
Over the past few years activist judges and their pro-death conspirators have convinced many that every “right� is good and that the idea of “right to privacy�� in other moral issues some how legitimizes any behavior, regardless of how contradictory it may be to God and His natural law.
Patrick Henry understood that, man does not have the capacity to rule himself away from God’s principles.
Aldous Huxley, in his Brave New World describes a situation in which the aged and infirm are disposed of to make way for the next generation, only the definition of “aged and infirm� spirals steadily downward until eventually, children are running the state and callously disposing of their own elders and parents.
Is this too far-fetched or over the top?
Dr. Hook of Mayo Clinic says that sooner or later the “slippery slope� slides all the way to the bottom.
Our heart aches, as we watch the murder of Terri Schiavo.
Our hearts will also come to ache as we realize that “tyrants have forged our chains,� and the tyranny of a few pro-death activists and even fewer activist judges have stolen our freedom because we have forgotten God and our public conscience has become corrupted.
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As the case of Terri Schiavo continues to play out in public view before the world, some are asking exactly what is wrong with euthanasia? This belief holds that a person who is suffering from some incurable and agonizing disease or circumstance have the right to be killed, kindly and humanly.
This belief can also argue that a child born deformed and obviously quite unable to live a meaningful life should not be allowed to grow up. Or, it might hold that a child who is mentally and incurable challenged might be deprived of any meaningful life, therefore it would be in his or her best interest to not be allowed to live.
Here’s the problem with Euthanasia:
How do you define the Area? The area in which euthanasia may be used. When does a person reach that stage? How is the word “incurable� defined?
Who decides? Who is most qualified to make the decision as to when to end a person’s life? What about motives, i.e., live-in girlfriends, money, etc.
If Euthanasia is allowed, it leads itself to enormous abuse. Much like abortion.
Apart from these and other practical difficulties with euthanasia, it is wrong. It breaks the sixth commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill.
There remains the deep-seated conviction that it is basically wrong to give anyone the power of life and death.
It is legally indefensible, practically impossible, morally wrong, and theologically unjustifiable.
Medicine had not advanced to the levels we enjoy today, thus our Founding Fathers did not deal with some of these issues in the ways that we must do so today.
However, they staked the entire future of the United States of America on our ability to govern ourselves in accordance with the Ten Commandments.
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not on the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of our political institutions upon our capacity … to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.� James Madison, 1778, to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia.
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Not only is there an all-out assault on the presence of the Ten Commandments in public life, but in their practice as well.
And again, the tilt point was a judge.
The major news media outlets have worked hard to present the Terri Schiavo case as a “right to die� issue as it has again captured the headlines this weekend.
Never mind that her husband, Michael, began his quest to kill her shortly after he received the million dollars from her medical malpractice settlement. During this same period, he has been living with his girlfriend and has fathered several children with her.
Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are devout Catholics and are pro-life. They also love their daughter and have every right to continue believing and hoping for a medical or spiritual miracle.
President Bush has said that in cases like this, the presumption ought to be in favor of life.
Governor Jeb Bush said of the judge’s decision, “it breaks my heart.�
Now Congress has become involved, fueling even more criticism from the left. The folks who will do anything to expand government’s roll is now for “small� government.
While this is a personal matter, and I’m not for government involvement in family matters, the unique time in which we live and the perverted sense of right and wrong which led us here requires unusual action on personal issues including defining marriage, euthanasia and abortion.
Since public education has championed the “no God� neutral approach to morality, values clarification, and moral relativism, we produced a generation who generally did not recognize the value of absolutes, eternal principles, and natural law.
However, the tide is turning and in our time we are experiencing the renewal of these values. The values upon which America, our American culture, and legal system was based.
Ironically, the liberals who work tirelessly to remove God from American public life, now want to “play God� under the guise of “right to die.�
During the next few days, we will watch the future life of Terri Schiavo be weighted in the balance of those who wish to kill her and those who want to preserve her.
May God help us.
Tomorrow, I will write a reasonable response to the issue of Euthanasia.
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The California Supreme Court has given us yet another reason that we must have a constitutional amendment to protect marriage. After thousands of years of human history and more than 200 years of American history in which marriage was an institution between one man and one woman, a California Judge, Richard Kramer, has said differently. In his ruling he says, "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state [California] to opposite -- sex partners."
Rulings like this affirm the need for the Marriage Protection Ammendment. Please take a moment to contact your senators and your representatives and urge them to sponsor these bills.
As with all great controversies, the Ten Commandments have reached the Supreme Court.
But, is it really about the Ten Commandments?
America’s legal and social system is so insolubly linked to Judeo-Christian principles and teaching that it is nearly impossible to separate the two. Even though the symbols and quotations of the Bible are etched not only in the persona of America, but in the granite monuments and buildings across the land, there are those among us who try to remove the indelible traces of our past.
There is a much larger issue at play.
First, it is rebellion.
The Declaration of Independence is simply that. The independence that was declared was done so on the premise that our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights, which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America, as no other nation before or after, was founded not to grant or provide rights and privileges, but to protect those rights that were granted by the acknowledged God of the Bible – the Creator of mankind. In acknowledging God as Creator, Sovereign, etc., our Founding Fathers and many who followed, submitted to God, thus using His laws as the basis of America’s laws – His emphasis on life as our mandate to protect life.
I believe it is not so much about the Ten Commandment’s being posted on government property as it is about the God who gave us the Commandments.
If you look at the “religious controversies� that have gone to the Supreme Court in the past 50 years, it is apparent that in each case it is related to an individual or group who are unwilling to acknowledge God as Creator or Sovereign. Unlike the Founding Fathers and millions of us who have followed, who have acknowledged God as Creator and Sovereign, these folks use the very laws that these beliefs have created to seek to destroy that freedom and the Source of that freedom.
Man rebelling against God is as old as the oldest account of the human race. The story of Adam and Eve is well known, simply because they wanted to become like God. In the end, they lost it all.
Look at the issues of the past 50 years. Prayer in school, abortion (the taking of life), reciting “under God� in the Pledge, euthanasia, and now religious symbols in public.
Our Founding Fathers declared their independence, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.� Some today declare their independence by attempting to expunge all recognition of Divinity from public life. The Founders built the greatest nation in the history of the world. If those who seek to “be� God are allowed to prevail, they and the country will come to the same end as our ancient ancestors in the Garden of Eden.
The second issue is greed.
The ACLU and others like them are actually compensated through a little known provision of our law. The law that was originally written to provide assistance for impoverished people – often minorities – who felt they had been wrongly accused. Now, the ACLU and like groups make millions of dollars every year from our government, while seeking to destroy the very system that provides the money.
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “We must especially beware of that small group of men who clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.�
Greed is blinding – and so is rebellion.
James Madison said, “The belief in a God all powerful, wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from to many sources.�
LJWorld.com is reporting that Howard Dean, Chairman of the liberal party, told a group in Lawrence, Kansas this past weekend that the nation is engaged in a struggle between good and evil, and the evil comes from Conservatives.
He went on to say, “The issue is not abortion. The issue is whether woman can make up their own minds instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.�
In conclusion he said, “This is a struggle of good and evil and we’re the good.�
This is yet another example of how out-of-touch the liberals really are.
It is not “good� to kill unborn children. Rather than “rights,� the real struggle is about “responsibility.�
President Herbert Hoover truly understood the strength of our country.
“Menaced by collectivist trends, we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic – democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution.�
While the mainstream media would lead us to believe our country is deeply divided over the public display of the Ten Commandments, the fact is, we are not divided.
OL took a poll of it’s users yesterday and, as of last night, over 250,000 people voted with 80% saying “yes�, the Ten Commandments should be displayed on government property.
Two cases will be argued before the Supreme Court tomorrow, both involving the question: What does it mean for the government to display a copy of the Ten Commandments?
These decisions will be monumental to America, as the Ten Commandments are the basis of both our social and legal system. They are indeed “uniquely symbolic� of America itself.
Activist judges, working with the ACLU and others like them, have systematically attempted to strip every vestige of America’s great Judeo-Christian heritage from public life.
As the Supreme Court hears these matters, may the God who blessed and directed our Founding Fathers, also direct their deliberations.
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, not in the Constitution, [but] upon the capacity of each and everyone of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.� James Madison.
And it was Thomas Jefferson who said, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?�
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