February 2008

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The Europeans seem to be admired by many Americans.

We drool over their fashion savvy and gawk at their expensive automobiles. We enjoy listening to their musicians and viewing their actors on the screen.

Have you noticed how our friends in the U.K. value life of the unborn? I just finished reading this article about a man who was sentenced after he “tried to kill his unborn child by feeding his wife abortion pills he bought over the Internet.”

The English media doesn’t cover up or overlook issues regarding the value of all human life. In past, I’ve read articles how the medical profession in England frowns upon the practice of abortion.  The majority of British doctors wouldn’t dare perform an abortion, and those who do are shunned.

The convicted man in the article is Gil Magira, a millionaire businessman. His defense was he has an obsessive compulsive disorder which gave him a series of bizarre habits.

In America, there would be many who would run to Magira’s side and demand he be aquitted. Judge Oliver Sells saw it differently.

“You knew the risks in using those drugs without the proper medical conditions being in place,” he said when sentencing Magira to four years in jail. “Those risks were serious. There were real risks, both to the mother and to the unborn child.”

The Daily Mail article also features remarks from the victimized pregnant mother, Anat Abraham. She shared how shocked she was and how inhumane Magira’s actions were when her pregnancy was 11 weeks.

“What made it worse was how determined he seemed to be to get rid of the baby I could feel moving … Every day that passed I thought I had bought the baby another day to live,” Abraham said.

Keep in mind, Magira’s actions were not intending to harm Abraham’s life. Yet this article portrays him as inhumane for doing something that is practiced regularly in the United States.

I wonder if the English could be influential in another aspect of American society. 

Stand to Reason’s Gregory Koukl has an insightful monologue on the claim “Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship.”“This slogan has been a rallying cry of 1970′s and 80′s evangelicalism,” said Koukl. The emphasis on having “a relationship with God,” I think, is a new phenomenon coming out of the sixties. It smacks of T-groups and sensitivity training, emphasizing freedom and feeling rather than form and content.”

“The crux here is what is meant by the words “religion” and “relationship.” If “religion” means a body of truth pertaining to God and the afterlife and the unseen world, combined with a way of life informed by that truth, and a community of faith seeking to follow that way of life, then Christianity certainly is a religion.”

Click here to read the rest. It appears what Koukl maintains is that Christianity is both a religion and a relationship.

I’ve been arguing this for some time now and am glad to see someone of such stature is on the same page. Too bad I’m not in the bumper sticker business. I could have been a millionaire, Jerry, I could have been a bumper sticker millionaire.

Special Note: This is my second post to the two other contributors zero. This should provoke them to jealousy (i.e. wanting or fearing losing something to which one has a right), as opposed to envy (i.e. wanting something to which you do not have a right.)

Earlier this week, I read a news story that the oldest pro-life action group, Americans United for Life, did a state-by-state ranking in terms of pro-life friendly climates. I was discouraged to find Oklahoma not near the top (and confused to find our neighbors, Kansas and Texas).

My jealously was relieved a bit, however, when I heard of some pro-life progress at 23rd and Lincoln. Another respected pro-life group, Oklahomans for Life, sent a release today that said in part: “Following approval by the Senate Rules Committee, the full Senate will vote soon on Senator Todd Lamb’s pro-life SB 1878. The Freedom of Conscience Act would protect health care professionals’ right to refuse to participate in the taking of an innocent human life.”

That was an important first hurdle to clear for the Wilberforcean Sen. Lamb. Stay tuned for more good news, and for why I used the word “jealously” not “envy” in the headline.