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Truth in Conviction offers insights related to politics, religion and social happenings in the US and worldwide. The columns' philosophical base is conservative. Regarding
religion, it is evangelical. Concerning social matters, it is grounded in biblical ethics.
Swank has BA and MDiv degrees with graduate work at Harvard Divinity School. Married for 49 years with 3 adult children. Author of several books and thousands of articles in various Protestant and Catholic magazines, journals, web sites, and newspapers. Writer of weekly religion column for PORTLAND PRESS HERALD newspaper, Portland ME. |
Fri Dec 11, 2009
ACLU SUPPORTS PRO-LIFE SIGN ON HOUSE FRONT
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
These are definitely confusing times. Some call it a “culture war.” Those in the know realize that culture is just a part of it. Basically, it’s a spiritual war — right against wrong, light against darkness, God against the devil — plain and simple.
In the confusion of the fray, the American Civil Liberties Union usually stands alongside evil. It’s called defending the left or the far-left; but in spiritual terms, the ACLU frequently comes out on the side of evil.
That’s why it’s all the more surprising as well as encouraging to note that the ACLU leadership stands alongside a pro-life sign posted on the front door of a house. Others in the neighborhood are having a first class squawk. The sign has to go, even though other households have signs on their fronts. But because the picture of Jesus Christ with a pro-life message is on a particular dwelling’s front, up and off! Out! Gone!
According to the AP, the headline reads: “Couple refuses to remove anti-abortion sign, risking fines and jail.”
It’s in Paxtang, Pennsylvania that this hullabaloo is on center stage. There the couple put an anti-abortion sign on their door. Borough officials declared Nay. If the house owners don’t get rid of the sign, they’ll have to up $500 and go behind bars — no debate.
The powers-that-be say the sign cuts through the borough’s law that allows for “signs for public, religious and charitable institutions and uses such as parks, schools, churches and similar uses.”
“Colman and Frances Wessel attached the sign to their front porch three weeks ago. ‘We’re just exercising our freedom of speech and religion,’ said Colman Wessel said. ‘Is it the pro-life words or the picture of Jesus they don’t like?’
But codes law enforcer Brian Seneca retorts that the sign “’does not promote a charity of any kind. Therefore, you are required to remove the sign immediately’” or fork over the fine and go the clink.
Are the Wessels the only ones in the area with signs tacked to their door fronts? No, other houses have signs relating to troops Iraq and political candidates.
Now here’s where the ACLU steps in with — finally — a word of wisdom. Paula Knudsen of PA’s ACLU stated that the borough action “’cuts to the heart of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. It doesn’t matter whether it’s affixed to your house, in your yard or to a banner flying from your balcony. Political and religious messages are protected by the First Amendment.’”
The spiritual war beat goes on and on and on with no doubt a lengthy time frame yet to go.
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Footnote: WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ABORTION
The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person. “In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then ‘God breathes a soul into it.’ They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself’ (Joseph Breig, “Life Forms Matter,” The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).
“Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk … and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit” (Job 10:8-12 NIV).
“Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name...and now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant...” (Isaiah 49:1, 5).
“The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16).
“Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3).
Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn:
“If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth:
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit… As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (1:41, 44).
Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother’s womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent):
“But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles...” (Gal. 1: 15-16).
Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.
Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” Also, read Exodus 23:7: “Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.” Note I Peter 4:15: “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer...”
“For all the talk of freedom and self-determination, the abortion movement is at its heart a movement denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its own cause” (Donald P. Shoemaker, ABORTION, THE BIBLE AND THE CHRISTIAN, Hayes Publishing Co., 1976, p. iv).
ARAB TV CARTOONS: MUSLIMS HONEST, JEWS KILLERS
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
The cartoon begins with bait for Muslim youngsters to hate Jews because Jews are wretched:
TV character Nassour: “There won’t be any Jews or Zionists, Allah willing. They’ll be erased.
“We want to slaughter them so they will be expelled from our land, right?”
TV character Saraa: “Yes, that’s right”
Daily Arab children are indoctrinated via colorful TV cartoons that Jews are hateful as in “murderers” and “thieves.” It is a staple for boys and girls growing up in Muslim Middle East households particularly.
A real-life Arab boy TV actor, after a cartoon segment, summarizes the educational gist of that kiddy flick:
Arab boy TV actor states: “The Jews Teach Their Children To Slaughter, To Destroy, To Kill, and To Shoot, Whereas Our Children Are Taught Friendship [And] Loyalty.”
Another studio real-life youngster wraps up the cartoon’s message with the following:
“The Jews teach their children to slaughter, to destroy, to kill, and to shoot, whereas our children are taught friendship [and] loyalty, as well as the Islamic religion, and memorizing the Koran. Our children are taught not to steal and not to lie.”
The cartoon teaches children it is healthy for them to be beaten by parents for it helps them grow up more civilly.
The cartoon features a lad singing a song entitled: “My Father Beat Me… [He Beats Me] A Lot.”
Note this dialogue between the two TV studio adults, Nassur and Saraa Barhoum, and the TV boy child, Ghassan, after he has finished singing his macabre song:
Nassur: “Can you remember a day when you were sad and you cried?”
Saraa Barhoum: “For example, when somebody dear to you died.”
Ghassan: “When my father beat me.”
Saraa Barhoum (laughing): “Well, everybody… Obviously, your father wanted to teach you something.”
Nassur: “Did he beat you only once?”
Ghassan: “No, a lot.”
Saraa Barhoum: “Because he wanted to teach you manners and… If you made a mistake, you need to do better next time.” [...]
For more: “Animated Feature on Hamas TV Children’s Show ‘Pioneers of Tomorrow’: Jews Educate Children To Hate, Kill Arabs” at WINDS OF JIHAD site at http://sheikyermami.com/2009/12/11/animated-feature-on-hamas-tv-childrens-show-pioneers-of-tomorrow-jews-educate-children-to-hate-kill-arabs/
SEX TRADE: ISLAMIC DADS ‘MARRY OFF’ DAUGHTERS
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
The report is entitled: “Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Palestinian Women and Girls: Forms of Modern Day Slavery,”
Palestinian Muslim fathers provide their daughters for sex in multiple “marriages” per SAWA (All Women Together Today and Tomorrow).
This research has never before been conducted and published. Now SAWA is demanding that widespread publicity be given to their data.
The father offers his daughter to a man. A mock “wedding” takes place without any official documentation.
The same daughter is then available later for another “wedding” to another Muslim male. This is carrying on the custom of “back door” marriages. And so forth.
Money is collected as female children are misused as sexual commodities.
Investigations reveal that other women, many former prostitutes in their 40s and 50s, act as go-betweens for the sex trade. These women operate as owners of cleaning agencies, supplying their female employees for sex trafficking.
Some are apartment or hotel owners who make these employees available for the Muslim males’ pleasures.
The West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem are “hot spots” for this kind of practice.
Read “Flourishing Palestinian sex trade exposed in new report” at Haartz.com http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1133892.html
BRIT NURSERY POLICE: TERRORISM TAUGHT 4-YEAR-OLDS
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
A police email warns: “Evidence suggests that radicalization can take place from the age of 4.”
Brit police inform nurseries to spy out terrorism indoctrination on 4 and 5-year-olds.
In other words, terrorism is taught little ones, adding to the already frightened non-Muslim public.
“Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times” per TIMESONLINE at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6952503.ece
The policeman reported that he had evidence that nursery age children “may draw pictures of bombs and say things like ‘all Christians are bad.’”
Brits are becoming increasing aware that the killing cult is not a religion among religions. Consequently, the admiration for multiculturalism has tarnished. How can multiculturalism invite a killing regime that is committed to wipe out all non-Muslims? No world religion makes that claim.
Of other concerns, Muslim Brits have been engaging in rape jihad. Women not garbed from head to foot are considered asking for rape and so they get it from extremist Muslims.
Read MUSLIMS’ BRIT RAPE JIHAD at http://mosquewatch.blogspot.com/2009/12/muslims-brit-rape-jihad.html
EGYPT: MUSLIM MEN VS. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO DIVORCE
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Egyptian males are angry that Muslim women have the legal right to divorce them. The Islamic males have been used to a society giving them the upper hand over females.
No more
Every 12 minutes a wife divorces her husband, the total now reaching 12,000. This is embarrassing to Islamic males.
“’Women use this law to satisfy their personal whims and for the most trivial of reasons. Several cases are disgraceful,’” men complain to media.
Angered males have formed the Egyptian Organization for Divorced Men.
Leader Abdul RahmanAbdul Rahman Hamed states: “’The law of unconditional divorce has become a sword hanging over men’s heads’” per “Egypt men slam giving women right to divorce” at http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/12/09/93654.html
PAKISTAN: CHRISTIANS MUM THIS CHRISTMAS
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Worship will continue in Christian churches. Clerics will officiate in services commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.
Throngs will appear in the sanctuaries due to the Christian faith remaining strong.
However, what goes on outside the church buildings will be practically nil due to laws stipulating Islam as the only acceptable religion.
“Adopted in 1986 under the rule of then Pakistan dictator Zia-ul-Haq, these laws impose life in prison or the death penalty on anyone who desecrates the Qur‘an or defiles the name of Muhammad” per AsiaNews.it’s “Fear of new attacks means ‘silent’ Christmas for Christians” at http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=17086&size=A
Wreaths will not hang on residential doors.
Carol singing in neighborhoods will be zip.
Christmas plays in outdoors are not being scheduled.
Public display of Christmas is practically null and
void because of widespread fear.
Pakistani Christians have suffered churches burnt and lives lost in burst of violence against them because they do not adhere to the Koran or recognize Allah as deity.
“Mgr Lawrence John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore and president of the Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, told AsiaNews that 2009 is going to end in a ‘silent Christmas’ because the country’s situation is very bad.”
Read more at http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=17086&size=A
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