The killing of unborn children – when it suits us

I’m sure there were countless others who were horrified and saddened to hear or read about the apparently random murder of Claire Wilson in Grimsby last weekend. To make the story even more tragic, she was seven months pregnant at the time. The baby died with her.

Apart from the tragic incident itself, there is something very striking about this news item. Apparently without exception, the UK news media have referred to the the killing of a pregnant woman and her “unborn child” or “unborn baby”. And well they should. However, almost without exception, the same news media refer to “foetuses” and “potential life” when babies—some of them in the eighth month of pregnancy like Claire Wilson’s baby—die as a result of procured abortions.

What’s the difference? In the one case, we had a mother who was pregnant and had allowed the child to grow—and this life was brought to an end by a horrific attack by a violent stranger. In the other, we have mothers who are pregnant and do not allow their children to grow, but rather ask a medical professional to end its life. In the one case, we hear of the murder of an unborn child; in the other, of the termination of a pregnancy.

What’s the difference?

 

Love at first sound

Thanks to a tangential comment in a comment by Confessing Evangelical, I have discovered Spotify. I love it!

If I ran a record shop – or even a music download business – I would be worried, very worried.

Go and check it out. It’s the best thing since most good things of this earth.

 

New Volumes to Luther’s Works

Exciting news: Concordia Publishing House are about to roll out new volumes in the “American Edition” of Luther’s Works. The first new volume will be coming out later this year. Anyone interested in Luther and not able or willing to work with the German/Latin originals should be cheering. Read more here.

Those willing and able to work with the German/Latin originals should be cheering, too, because some of the earlier volumes of the Weimarer Ausgabe are beginning to appear on Google Books. Information on that can also be found from the link above.

 

Adam Flew to the Moon

Courtesy of Issues, Etc., a priceless piece of OT exegesis from that fine scholar of the Hebrew Bible, Benny Hinn.  Enjoy!

“Adam Flew to the Moon” by Benny Hinn

 

Resurrection Faith

I know a lot of bloggers have drawn attention to it already, but just in case it’s slipped anyone’s net, I thought I’d add my own link:

A.N. Wilson, the famous biographer and notorious religious sceptic, who wrote biographies of Jesus and Paul with the express intention of demonstrating that Christianity is on an untenable foundation, has become a Christian. He wrote about his re-discovery of the Christian faith in a column in the Daily Mail. Here are a couple of excerpts:

My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known – not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.

The Easter story answers their questions about the spiritual aspects of humanity. It changes people’s lives because it helps us understand that we, like Jesus, are born as spiritual beings.

…

Historians of Roman and Jewish law have argued at length about the details of Jesus’s trial – and just how historical the Gospel accounts are.

Anyone who believes in the truth must heed the fine points that such scholars unearth. But at this distance of time, there is never going to be historical evidence one way or the other that could dissolve or sustain faith.

Of course, only hard evidence will satisfy the secularists, but over time and after repeated readings of the story, I’ve been convinced without it.

This tells you something about the power of the Gospel: the birth of faith through the “repeated readings of the story”. It also tells you about the potentially wonderful evidentiary power of people living their lives as Christians, “riends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die”.

Not that apologetics and dealing with the challenges of the sceptics is a waste of time or futile. Only it must remain in its proper place: as a kind of winsome bulldozer, clearing away the outer defences that prevent people from even hearing the Gospel in the first place. But the message of the resurrection is in itself sufficient.

On the evening of the first Easter, Jesus appeared to His disciples after they had heard the report of the women from the tomb, after Peter had witnessed the empty tomb, and immediately after Cleopas and the other disciple had returned from Emmaus to tell of their encounter with the Risen Lord. Yet, when He appeared, they doubted and were filled with fear. How did Jesus deal with their doubt and fear? By simply pointing to the reality of the resurrection: showing His hands and feet pierced for the world, and eating some fish to demonstrate that He was indeed alive. And they believed, and fear was replaced by joy.

And those two signs are still being offered to us: Christ who died for us, Christ who was raised for us. In those two facts, the fate of all humanity – and of every human being – is decided. And those two facts alone can overcome doubt and fear with faith.

 

Why is the Church Apostolic?

I am working on my eternal project, a Master’s Thesis on the Porvoo Common Statement (PCS). On re-reading the Statement, I noticed anew the following definition of the Church’s apostolicity:

Apostolic tradition in the Church means continuity in the permanent characteristics of the Church of the apostles: witness to the apostolic faith, proclamation and fresh interpretation of the Gospel, celebration of baptism and the eucharist, the transmission of ministerial responsibilities, communion in prayer, love, joy and suffering, service to the sick and needy, unity among the local churches and sharing the gifts which the Lord has given to each. (para 36)

This is striking stuff. The basic message is this: the church is apostolic inasmuch (or insofar…?) as it does what the apostles were sent to do.

This is quite distinct from the understanding of apostolicity, which sees the Church as recipient of gifts through the apostles to her. In the context of the PCS, this is in partly a result of the necessity to re-interpret the episcopacy in a way that can encompass Anglican and Lutheran views as well as the burden of history, and part of a much broader tendency within the modern ecumenical movement.

It just seems to me to be a tragically narrow and (despite the best of christological intentions) geocentric understanding. To be apostolic is to do stuff, rather than to be something. How tiresome, how laborious.

Is this perhaps another corollary of Vatican II’s re-definition of the eucharistic sacrifice, and the broader re-conception of the Church as the people, rather than the hierarchy? After all, since Vatican II, it’s been explicit that at the Mass, the whole congregation sacrifices the Immaculate Victim, not only through the priest but with him. In a similar way, in PCS, the whole church does apostolic things, not only through the apostles (i.e. the office of the apostles in the Church today) but with them.

It’s also interesting to see that works of mercy and human care are also subsumed under the heading ‘apostolic’. Would be pernickety to quote Acts 6 to argue against this identification?

 

Bus slogans – join the atheist fun

Someone has come up with a great website for playing atheist games with buses. I particularly enjoyed this one from John H.

 

The BBC and the pro-life movement

I’m posting the content of today’s newsletter from the ProLife Alliance (UK). In my previous post I referred to apathy. Well, here’s an opportunity for simple action. The episode expires by the end of today, so if you want to see it, you need to hurry.

‘Hunter’: A Shameless BBC misrepresentation
January 28, 2009

The BBC shamelessly misrepresented the pro-life movement last week with its crime drama “Hunter” (broadcast on BBC1: 18th and 19th Jan 2009). The two part drama was about a pro-life group that kidnaps two children and threatens to kill them if a pro-life video about abortion is not aired on national television.

View the second part here: (particularly 50 seconds into the program)
- NB: it will only briefly be available for viewing, so view it now if possible.

The BBC has a moral duty to present a fair and balanced view of groups campaigning peacefully for the human rights of unborn children. However, this series demonstrates how biased the BBC can be, by blatantly portraying pro-life campaigners as kidnappers and murderers. This is crude and vicious propaganda: a ’blood libel’ aimed at those who, in the real world, are trying to protect both children and their parents.

By permitting this bizarre and slanderous drama to be televised, the BBC risks tarnishing the image of a peaceful and democratic movement. Would we expect to see a similar storyline about pro-abortionists kidnapping and threatening to murder children to advance their cause? The BBC risks abusing its neutral position to promote the liberal status quo.

Please view the video, and consider making a formal complaint to the BBC here.

 

Pro-life or in favour of life?

Issues Etc., keeping to a persistent theme, has been featuring a series of interviews on the subject of abortion, specifically on the moral facts (yes, I mean that) of abortion and on ways to argue about (i.e. against) abortion. They are excellent and well worth listening to.

It has bothered me for some time that, in contrast to many of their US counterparts, European Christians tend in general to be incredibly impassive when it comes to abortion. Whether because of a misconceived privatisation of morality or mere lethargy, the pro-life movement in this country (UK) and seemingly elsewhere in Western Europe, a pretty well kept secret. I hold myself as a textbook example of a Christian to whom abortion is an abhorrent crime and sin, yet do very little about it in practice.

My thinking on this was sharpened a notch listening to Melvin Bragg and guests discuss the life and thinking of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau, often credited with the articulation of the concept of civil disobedience, made the crucial observation that to be opposed to something creates an obligation to oppose it. It’s no good just deploring it in the privacy of one’s home.

So throw away your WWJD bracelet and replace it with WWYD (what will YOU do?). Luther in the Freedom of the Christian reminds us that while God doesn’t require our services, our neighbour does. The more defenceless the neighbour, the greater the need, as in the Good Samaritan. And who is more defenceless than the unborn?

 

The Benefit of the Doubt (8th Commandment)

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbour, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

It has been heartening to see the way the Eighth Commandment has been applied to Barack Obama’s little stumble over the oath of office. One commentator on the BBC’s Today Programme even suggested that it was his oratorical genius that led to the mistake.

I can’t help wondering what the reaction had been if it had been Obama’s predecessor. Does the Eighth Commandment apply to all, or only to polished orators?