I recently read the story of a daughter’s anguished eyewitness account of her mother’s death. It was a death chosen for the mother by her son and oldest daughter, who decided that starvation was the best thing for a beloved mother who had suffered a stroke. It was painful to read this account, and as the writer […]
Less than two months after 13 women died in the neighboring state of Chhattisgarh, 43 women were sterilized in unsanitary and inhumane conditions in Chatra, a northern district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Knowing the facility had no electricity, the sterilization camps coordinator rented a generator to operate theatre lights. When the generator failed, […]
She was 19 years old. Still in college. Had a job, though not yet a career. Still living at home with her parents. She was young and beautiful and intelligent and fun – and in love. She and her fiance planned to be married in about nine months, and they were deep into plans for […]
The history of human knowledge as it relates to the human body is a fascinating and terrible thing. In every age, the ability for physicians and other medical practitioners to effectively treat wounds or combat disease has been constrained by the technology – or lack thereof – available at the time. In the past, people […]
The Gospels recount Jesus’s healing of a paralytic who is lowered through the roof of a house. Initially, Jesus tells the man “Your sins are forgiven.” This upsets some scribes and Pharisees who ask themselves, “Who is this man who blasphemes and forgives sins?” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil […]
Spiritual Fathers are men who pray and sacrifice for little lives they cannot yet see – the most innocent and helpless creatures on Earth: so weak they don’t yet have a voice. Men are called to save these little ones by standing up to a culture of death and society that discards them by vigils […]
Every year on January 22nd, the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, hundreds of thousands of brave marchers from all walks of life participate in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. While the March for Life focuses on the grave nature of abortion, it provides the perfect sounding board to voice the sacredness of […]
Illegal clinics are luring high school and college-age girls in China with the promise of large payments for their eggs. The procedure can damage the girls’ health and future child-bearing, and the clinics are offering no legal or medical help if complications ensue. For clinics operating on the black market, there is little incentive to […]
Words can be so cruel and degrading. There was a time in the 19th Century when North American natives were commonly called “savages”. The term was used to dehumanize first nations people in order to take their land. I remember a time when people with a mix of Aboriginal-European descent were called “half-breeds”. Somebody at […]
In five days the throngs will again descend on the nation’s capital and gather in state capitals across the land. They will come together peacefully, for the 42nd year in a row, to mourn the deaths of countless millions of preborn babies. The March for Life is upon us. Nobody knows for sure how many children have […]
Recently in my state of California, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that, beginning in 2016, will alter birth certificates in a dramatic way. Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) authored Assembly Bill 1951, which amends the California Vital Records Birth Certificate law in order to “modernize” California birth certificates by allowing each parent to self-identify as mother, father, […]
Congress’ Republican majority is taking its first step in sending pro-life legislation to the desk of President Obama. According to Politico, the House has timed a vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to take place on January 22, the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The vote will coincide with the arrival […]
Commentators, politicians, and world leaders often bandy about the word “peace.” But I wonder if there are many in our midst who actually comprehend the true meaning of the word, not to mention how to find it. Webster defines peace as “a state in which there is no war or fighting.” That sounds simple enough, […]
New Year’s Resolutions tend towards the personal: lose weight, take up a hobby, spend more time with the family, get up earlier, read great books, etc. But this new year I beg people to take some time to learn more about bioethics. The stakes are high. Our definitions of life, death, and human dignity are […]
On Nov. 8, 2014, Dr. R.K. Gupta set about performing tubal ligations on 80 women at a mass sterilization camp in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. He completed all the surgeries in less than six hours. Subsequently, dozens of these women fell ill and at least 13 died.[i] An investigation is ongoing but it appears that gross […]
UN radicals are rightly peeved at their lack of progress. Last year, like in the previous twenty, they did not advance their agenda on abortion even one syllable beyond what they got at the Cairo Conference in 1994. We noticed this a few years ago at the 20th anniversary of the Rio Conference on the […]
I’ve noticed that before a colossal spiritual event in history, a slaughter of innocent children occurs. Satan seems to know something is about to happen and strikes out at the most innocent of God’s image bearers. Prior to the birth of Moses, Pharaoh ordered the mass murder of all baby boys (Exodus 1:15-22). At the time […]
As Christians around the world got ready to contemplate the innocence of the child Jesus, last week the Russian Orthodox Church took on a UNICEF paper that says children have LGBT rights. The Patriarch’s Commission on the Family of the Russian Orthodox Church released a scathing statement criticizing a UNICEF position paper that urges countries […]
There are the plans we make, and then there are God’s plans. Sometimes, they line up. Take for instance last week. I thought I had it all figured out. Easy trip to the airport with one small caveat, the necessary requirement of bringing the old family dog into the friendly skies. Never having done this […]
“The Word became flesh” (John 1.14) is a central tenet of Christian truth. It’s what Christmas is about ? not some little fat man in a red suit. Jesus is the Word that became flesh. The Incarnation: God made man. It is a unique and singular historical event so significant that the universe rejoiced. Saint […]
On Human Rights Day, homosexual activists converged on UN headquarters to make the case that “LGBT rights are human rights.” But only a few countries within the United Nations agree. Undersecretary General Jan Eliasson called the promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rights (LGBT) an “unfinished human rights revolution.” He lamented the lack of international […]
During a November 4th 2014 university panel discussion in Indiana on the topic “Life versus Choice”, Wesleyan Professor Gregory Fiebig stated “This is our belief, that life begins at conception. It is not the world’s belief. And so if we start telling the world how to live their lives, and hold them to a morality […]
After decades resisting even mentioning the word, governments and advocates extolled the “family” at two special sessions at the UN last week. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the International Year of the Family. Pro-family advocates feared it would pass unnoticed, a casualty of the culture war. Some at the UN portray the family […]
Ninety-eight years ago, Edgar Lee Masters penned his famous Spoon River Anthology, a towering work of poetry set in the graveyard of mythical Spoon River. It is a small town whose deceased residents speak frankly from beyond the grave about the gritty reality of what was their life on earth. The most haunting and instructive […]
