The FDA announced this week that it will allow “Plan B” contraceptive pills to be sold without a prescription to girls as young as 17 years old. You can read the announcement here. Earlier this morning I read the New York Times‘s editorial about the decision and was miffed that the editors implied that there were no human life concerns when it comes to the use of the Plan B pills. The editors say that Plan B merely “blocks” or “prevents” pregnancies. Such language might appear to some to be saying that human life is not endangered by the use of this drug. But nothing could be further from the…
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Maggie Gallagher Critiques Rick Warren
Maggie Gallagher has a sharp critique of Rick Warren’s recent appearance on “Larry King Live.” She writes: ‘Many religious people and groups will bow to, if not exactly endorse, the power of gay activists. Witness Rev. Rick Warren, who on “Larry King Live” this week came very close to recanting his support for Proposition 8. Rick did not quite do so. What he did, instead, is what many good people will do in the face of the massive campaign of intimidation and harassment designed to silence Christians and others of good will who support marriage: He dodged. Rick said, more or less: I am not now and never have been…
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Vermont Legalizes Same-Sex “Marriage”
Vermont has just become the fourth state to legalize same-sex “marriage” (read here). This is significant not just because the state has redefined “marriage,” but also because of how it was done. The other three states that have legalized these unions (Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa) have done so through the courts. And in each of those cases, same-sex “marriage” opponents can argue that judicial activism rather than democracy produced the result. This is not the case in Vermont. The elected representatives of the people of Vermont overwhelmingly voted to override the governor’s veto to make this happen. It’s also important to note this. Not only are we seeing marriage redefined,…
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Abortion as a “Blessing”
Catholic Online reports that Dr. Katherine Ragsdale has recently been appointed as the sixth and newest president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. She has a sermon that is published online that reveals that she is not only pro-choice, but pro-abortion. Here she is in her own words: “When a woman wants a child but can’t afford one because she hasn’t the education necessary for a sustainable job, or access to health care, or day care, or adequate food, it is the abysmal priorities of our nation, the lack of social supports, the absence of justice that are the tragedies; the abortion is a blessing.
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Iowa Court Legalizes Gay ‘Marriage’
From the Associated Press: The Iowa Supreme Court says the state’s same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making it the third state where gay marriage is legal. . . During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in December, Des Moines lawyer Dennis Johnson argued the ban violated his clients’ due process and equal protection rights. “We are suggesting that everybody be able to participate equally in an institution that has existed since the beginning of this state,” Johnson said during arguments.’ The problem with this logic is clear. The “institution” of marriage in Iowa has been recognized as the union of one male and…
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Celebrating the Death of the Innocent
Last week I noted a story in the Associated Press about a married mother of three who aborted her fourth child for financial reasons. The story was so sad and so manifestly tragic that I didn’t even have any commentary. It seemed self-evident that something was horribly wrong with this story . . . until today. Bonnie Erbe has posted a short opinion essay at U. S. News and World Report arguing that “In a Recession, Abortions Are Not a Bad Choice.” Erbe complains that the aforementioned AP story portrayed the abortion decision as negative, and she contends that such abortions are actually the most moral thing to do. Here…
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An Atheist’s Reflections on Hatred and Proselytizing
Penn Gillette (of ‘Penn and Teller’ fame) tells the story of a man who gave him a Bible after one of his shows. Penn is an atheist, but something about this person made an impression on him. As he describes this encounter, he reflects on the morality of proselytizing, and he asks this question: “How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?”
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Infanticide for Unrighteous Mammon
From the Associated Press: The pregnant woman showed up at the medical center in flip-flops and in tears, after walking there to save bus fare. Her boyfriend had lost his job, she told her doctor in Oakland, Calif., and now _ fearing harder times for her family _ she wanted to abort what would have been her fourth child. “This was a desired pregnancy _ she’d been getting prenatal care _ but they re-evaluated expenses and decided not to continue,” said Dr. Pratima Gupta. “When I was doing the options counseling, she interrupted me halfway through, crying, and said, `Dr. Gupta, I just walked here for an hour. I’m sure…
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‘Gay Marriage’ in the Dictionary. So what?
Last week, the conservative news website WorldNetDaily reported that the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary has revised its definition of the word marriage. In its online and print editions, the dictionary includes in its definition of marriage the following line: “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage.” The WorldNetDaily report also references the above YouTube video and implies that the expanded definition somehow means that the dictionary’s publisher has taken sides in the current debate over same-sex “marriage.”
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Calvinism Changing the World
According to TIME magazine, Calvinism is one of the top “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now,” ranking at number 3. Here’s the list.