February 2013

"There is no bad weather, only bad clothing." So say Scandinavian daycare workers, mothers, and grandmothers who for generations have been putting their wee ones outside to nap. Children sleep in strollers outside coffee shops while mothers are inside drinking warm coffee. Outside daycares are rows of strollers. One daycare worker reassured the Western journalist:

When the temperature drops to -15C (5F) we always cover the prams with blankets.

The death of Dr. C. Everett Koop at his home in New Hampshire yesterday marked the loss not only of a public Christian of note, but one of Evangelicalism's most signifiicant leaders in the battle to uphold the sanctity of human life.

The Roman Catholic pro-life movement had its legion of stalwarts in the seventies and early eighties: Joe Scheidler, Mother Theresa, Father Paul Quay, Archbishop O'Connor; the list is impressive. And Evangelicalism? Who were her pro-life leaders? There literally weren't any, at least initially. But then God brought Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer together and the battle was joined from the Protestant side. It's not an exaggeration to say that Dr. Koop and Francis Schaeffer were the twin fathers of the modern Evangelical pro-life movement.

What follows is the testimony of a courageous young mother who attends Christ the Word Church. Erin's testimony was given at a women's event the weekend of Mud's funeral in Chicago. She sent it to us knowing that Cheryl would be unable to attend the event and that I had been looking forward to Cheryl's report on her presentation. Receiving this was such an encouragement to Cheryl and me in the midst of saying farewell to Mud. May God grant many more testimonies like this in our churches--David Bayly

By Erin Hoot

I am so grateful to share my testimony with you. I hope you will find it encouraging. This is my story.

I was not raised in a Christian home. My mother was a self-proclaimed atheist and my father was Catholic as a child. I remember that we attended a small church briefly when I was young. We didn’t attend long and never looked for another church after. By earthly standards, I was a pretty good kid growing up. I did well in school and never got into trouble. I never partied or did drugs. I had a job from the time I turned 16 and attended college during my senior year of high school. I had my future planned out from the time I was 10. I knew what I wanted to do with my life and was on the right path to reach my goals. It was shortly after graduation that my perfectly planned life began to unravel.

A total population of 250–300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal. - Ted Turner

Reports the Independent, "Israel gave birth control to Ethiopian Jews without their consent." The birth control forced on the Ethiopians often was Depo-Provera which, being an innoculation against the disease of pregnancy, functions perfectly without any cooperation on the part of the woman. Responding to the charges, "Rick Hodes, who runs the JDC clinic in Gondar, said the group offers family planning as part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, one of which is universal access to reproductive health."

You see, Obamacare's mandate that Christians and Roman Catholics fund the abortions of their employees is only President Obama implementing, on our sovereign soil, the United Nations' Millenium Development Goals.

To the rescue comes Cal Beisner who has done yeoman's work countering the sleepy aquiescence of Reformed academics, pastors, and elders to those hectoring mother-in-laws intent on writing into law that the earth is the earth's and the fullness thereof, and that "humans" stewarding this earth in support of man's fruitfulness and multiplication is as morally repugnant as a poor Ethiopian Jewish woman, pregnant...

I must confess that I am a little confused... For years in the abortion debate we have been told that abortion must be available to protect the life of the pregnant woman. It would seem that staying alive has been very important to our women to the degree that if a baby must lose his life to keep her alive, so be it.

Now we see our women increasingly willing to go into combat. Perhaps this is stating the obvious ladies but going into combat often results in losing ones life. How is it that we are finding women willing to lose their life for country but not for the infants in their wombs? I can at least understand the consistency of "I don't want to die by any means, for any reason". But I am having trouble understanding "I will risk my life to fight in combat but not to give birth to my baby."

In God's economy, men are to be willing to risk their lives for their wives, children and country. This is how a man shows his courage and lives out his created purpose as defender. Ladies, if you want to be courageous and be willing to lay down your lives, also...