Homily for Epiphany 3

This homily for the Third Sunday after Epiphany was delivered on 23 January 2011, along with a focus on Pro-Life Sunday. The Lord Jesus reveals Himself as the Lord of Life when He touches the leper and speaks healing for the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:1-13). He is "Lord of Life in Deed and Word." What a great text to connect with the sanctity of human life in our day!

To hear the homily, click on this link, download the audio file listen.

Thoughts on Abortion

HT to Anastasia for these two thoughts on the horror and holocaust called abortion.

First, a twelve year old girl speaks very eloquently and persuasively on abortion. Talk about "out of the mouths of babes." This video is worth its 5 minutes and 20 seconds in gold.



Second, Anastasia herself weighs in with some incisive insight on arguments used in favor of abortion. I hadn't quite thought of the being less than human argument in this way before, but I shall not forget it, or forget to use it, because it makes perfect Christian sense. Here's Anastasia's "More on Abortion":

More on Abortion

The arguments in favor of abortion are so duplicitous. Well, okay, not all of them are. Some of them spring from genuine, if misguided, compassion for the pregnant woman. But the arguments I'm specifically thinking of are the one about a woman's rights, and the one about how the fetus is not really a human being yet, supposedly. Gimma a break!

Abortion isn't just about a woman's body. Yes, the baby is developing within her body, but it isn't her body (usually) being destroyed; it's someone else's! How does anybody have that "right"?

Yes, women have a choice; in fact, they have lots of choices. But those choices are made before the pregnancy begins. There is no right to choose once the baby is conceived.

But is that creature inside the mother really a baby, really a human being? When do we become fully human? The Orthodox answer is that we become fully human when we fully resemble Jesus Christ, for He is our measure of true personhood. That means none of us is fully human yet.

But we still aren't supposed to kill one another.

Barak Obama: Not Just "Pro-Choice" But "Pro-Abortion"!

Here's an absolute must-read article on the intersection between politics and the moral issue of abortion: "Obama's Abortion Extremism," by Robert George. Mr. George takes on the weak claims from many Catholics and Evangelicals who claim that Barak Obama is "the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view." He also shows just how bad a Barack Obama presidency could be for the support of human life in America.

Here's George's introduction to catch your interest:

Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals - who aggressively promote Obama's candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

What is going on here?

And here's another paragraph to put a potential Obama presidency in its truly horrific perspective:

What kind of America do we want our beloved nation to be? Barack Obama's America is one in which being human just isn't enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights. In Obama's America, public policy would make a mockery of the great constitutional principle of the equal protection of the law. In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: "that question is above my pay grade." It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator's pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy - and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.

By all means, read the whole article, not just in order to be informed, but also in order to support and defend God's gift of life ... for all human beings.

Supporting Life?

In a previous post I highlighted a letter that catalogs one year's worth of Issues, Etc. programming on pro-life matters. It's quite the impressive list! Issues, Etc. was indeed standing for, promoting, and carrying out the official LCMS stand on protecting and defending God's gift of life from the womb to the tomb.

However, we must ask about others still employed at KFUO, whether or not they support the official LCMS stand on God's gift of life and protecting that life from ungodly, immoral, life-destroying practices such as embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).

Check out this website, called "Hope Happens," devoted to finding cures to degenerative nerve diseases by means of ESCR (i.e. sacrificing tiny human lives in the off-chance hopes of finding a cure for something somewhere!). The mission statement on the website says that this group's mission is "To improve the lives of people with neurodegenerative disorders by funding collaborative, translational research that has the potential to fast-track new treatments and cures." (I just "love" the precision and dependability of terms such as "potential" and "fast-track" - not! And just what is "translational research"?) I certainly applaud and support those who seek to find cures for neurodegenerative disorders; just not at the cost of sacrificing tiny human lives in embryonic form!

Clearly this group supported the controversial 2006 Amendment 2 which enshrined ESCR in the Missouri Constitution. (And for the latest in efforts to reverse the unfortunate 2006 decision by hoodwinked Missouri voters, pay attention to the folks over at "Missouri Cures Without Cloning.")

Then, when one checks out the Board of Directors for "Hope Happens," one finds a very interesting - and disturbing - connection with KFUO. The website lists

Jim Connett (Program Director, Classic 99 KFUO-FM)

as a member of its Board of Directors!

What is going on here? The LCMS actually fires two men who faithfully and regularly speak up for God's gift of life, protecting and defending it from ungodly practices such as embryonic stem cell research, but yet keeps in its employ one who oversees a group that actually supports and promotes ESCR?

We may have waded into the shallow end of pool of asking "Why?" Issues, Etc. has been canceled, but now we seem to be getting into the deep end!

And on a related note…

...this blurb will appear in my congregation's February 2008 newsletter:

NO CLONING UPDATE
The court date for the case to challenge the biased and misleading ballot title certified by the Secretary of State and the State Auditor is set for February 20, 2008. Once the case is settled, signatures will have to be collected quickly to meet the May 5th deadline of approximately 150,000 valid signatures. For more information visit www.nocloning.org or the new blog mocureswithoutcloning.blogspot.com. Please pray that the court would see the truth and not allow the deceptive language. Please pray for God’s direction and blessing on the pro-life efforts.

Lutherans for Life is hosting a training session at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church which would enable you to obtain petition signatures for the “Cures Without Cloning” initiative. Missourians Against Cloning is working to have the initiative on the November ’08 ballot to amend the MO constitution to ban cloning. The “class” will meet on Feb. 12 from 7:00 – 7:45 pm. Anyone is welcome.

Here's A "Must Read"...

...and a "must add" to your favorite, most-visited blogs! I just came across a new blog - started in December 2007, for the group "Missouri Cures without Cloning." As you may recall, the 2006 elections gave Missouri a horrendous constitutional amendment that supports "embryonic stem cell research" - that is, the practice of harvesting human embryos - a.k.a. little human lives! - for the purpose garnering their stem cells with the distant hopes that someday some cure for some disease may eventually be discovered. Well, now pro-life Missourians are trying to reverse this unethical, immoral amendment. You can find out more about the issue in general and the specific progress of "Missouri Cures without Cloning" here. Looks like a lot of good and helpful information, and I've only scratched the surface.

Please bookmark the blog, add it to your Bloglines feeds, and tell others about it!

Here's their inaugural greeting and message from 12/4/07:

Welcome to the Missouri Cures Without Cloning blog!

We've designed this blog to bring you regular updates of our efforts to enact a common sense prohibition on human cloning in Missouri.

Who are we?

Missouri Cures Without Cloning is a coalition of concerned Missouri citizens, doctors, and academics have launched an initiative petition effort to close a loophole in Missouri law that allows for human cloning in Missouri.

Cures Without Cloning seeks to:

• Prohibit human cloning.
• Continue to search for cures and treatments using ethical stem cell research.
• Prohibit tax-payer money from being used for human cloning experiments.

To learn more about us, please visit http://www.mocureswithoutcloning.com/.

Be sure to check back soon!