Vancouver Sun Conducts National Poll on Canada’s Morality

What do you believe is right and wrong asks the Vancouver Sun.

Find out just what kind of Canadian moral type you are by taking an online Vancouver Sun quiz at http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/moralityquiz/index.html.

It takes only a few minutes.

You might discover you're a strict moralist, who just can't accept abortion and homosexuality or prostitution. Or perhaps, by filling in what you think is morally acceptable or not, you'll learn you're a laissez-faire person, who believes almost anything goes when it comes to sex, animal cloning or euthanasia.

Then again, through our exclusive national opinion poll, you might be surprised to find out you belong to a large group of Canadians known as the thoughtful conservatives, who are okay with sex outside marriage but opposed to wearing fur.

Or, perhaps like many Canadians, you're an accepting MOR, a middle-of-the-road person on everything from divorce to the death penalty.

Of course, you could end up in the camp of the relativists and the uncertain, the people who have trouble deciding what they think is ethical.

Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun offers his take on what this poll says about the moral compass of Canadians.
Which way does your moral compass point?

Here’s one little glimpse of Todd’s analysis.

More than 60 per cent of Canadians find abortion and homosexuality morally acceptable, for instance, compared to 47 per cent of Americans who endorse homosexuality and only 43 per cent who are all right on abortion. In addition, only 54 per cent of Americans find it morally acceptable to have a baby outside marriage, compared to 83 per cent of Canadians.

The Vancouver Sun also reports on the surprising results of this poll for B.C.
We're Not So Laid-Back in Lotusland Anymore

Pro-Life News Bytes September 25, 2007

Stand to Reason reports on Scott Klusendorf’s posting describing what a pro-life pastor looks like.
He points out that pro-life issues aren't a political or para-church issue; the nature of being human is at the core of the Biblical message and central to teaching and training Christians who can engage and not be taken in by the culture.
Are You/Do You Have a Pro-life Pastor?

Also from STR re the visit of Ahmadinejad to Columbia U.
I think the university president's comments and questions to Ahmadinejad were constructive, accurate, and useful, though essentially pointless. They didn't justify the appearance of Iran's president at the Columbia because everything he said is well-known, well-documented, and were ignored by Ahmadinejad.
What Do We Fear? Moral Relativism and "Tolerance"

BigBlueWave blogged yesterday on this important survey.
Religious conservative vote is becoming an electoral factor in Canada

Campaign Life Coalition to release report re election candidates
Campaign Life Coalition to Shortly Post Ontario Election Candidate Survey Results on Internet

Quite a few items in the news about schools

Leonard at Stand Your Ground reports
Those who've never been to a Christian school can have a glimpse of what it looks like thanks to this article in the Toronto Star. I find it quite fairly written, even though expressions such as "infuse the Ontario curriculum with Christian values" do seem like criticism.
A Look At Christian School

From the Toronto Star
The roots of discord over religious schools

Blogger A. Carlton Sallet of Upper Canada Catholic says
Here’s a few things nobody’s talking about when it comes to the whole funding for faith based schools / end funding of Catholic schools debate raging in Ontario:
Reality Check: De-funding Ontario's Catholic Schools

Father Alphonse de Valk at Catholic Insight
Catholic school boards bowing to secularism

StatGuy discusses serious flaws found in a study criticizing abstinence-only sex education.
Lessons in depravity

Suzanne reports on more news about Archbishop Raymond Burke, Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis Missouri. He’s my personal choice for the next Pope.
“No matter how often a bishop or priest repeats the teaching of the church regarding procured abortion, if he stands by and does nothing to discipline a Catholic who publicly supports legislation permitting the gravest of injustices, and, at same time, presents himself to receive Holy Communion, then his teachings ring hollow,” Burke writes.
Archbishop Burke: Deny Communion to Sinful Pols
Here’s the link to the story that Suzanne covered.

Blogger Orycteropus also has a post
Archbishop Burke, Abortion, and "Communion Cops"

Priests for Life is asking pro-lifers to sign their petition to the media to show the American people what an abortion is.

JivinJehoshaphat reports on the sad news that Pastor John Piper's son and daughter-in-law discovered their child, due to be delivered on Sunday, had died in the womb.
Life Links 9/24/07

And speaking of Pastor John Piper, who is a great friend of the Unborn, at the blogsite New Life From Heaven, one of John Piper’s quotes is included, along with other info which makes for a very unique posting.
Abortion?

Opinion piece from Pastor Chuck Baldwin
DOBSON IS RIGHT ABOUT GIULIANI

LifeSiteNews reports on Hillary Clinton
Biography Reveals Hillary Clinton Séance, Religious Devotion to Abortion

From LifeNews.com
A pro-life group that monitors charitable involvement with abortion businesses and pro-abortion organizations has published a new report criticizing Rotary International. Life Decisions International says Rotary has ties with groups that promote both abortion and population control
Pro-Life Org Blasts Rotary Club for Involvement With Pro-Abortion Groups

From Catholic Online
Text of the USCCB statement for Respect Life Sunday 2007

Winnipeg Sun reports that members of Edmonton's gay community are lashing out at controversial mayoral candidate Bill Whatcott over his anti-homosexual election platform.
Candidate anti-gay

Catholic Citizens supports Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo is his call for priests to imitate him by praying for one hour in front of an abortion facility during this year's national Forty Days of Life.
In Defense of Life Bishop Aquila urges priests to pray before ...

Michael Coren dishes out some compliments—and disdain for the entertainment industry
That's original

Blogger JohnOnLife takes on the duplicity of the “pro-choice” mantra
I am and I am not

New York state officials have decided to divert the millions in abstinence education funding the state receives from the federal government to comprehensive sex-ed programs.
New York State Officials Will Refuse Abstinence Education Funding

David Oliver, writer and researcher and specialist in bipolar disorder, warns that those who pressure the bipolar disorder woman facing an unplanned pregnancy into abortion may in fact be recommending something that ruins the life of women predisposed to mental illness.
Should A Woman With Bipolar Disorder Have An Abortion?

More about the mega-event in Aurora and the 40 Days for Life

From Killeen Daily Herald in Killeen Texas
Anti-abortion group prepares for 40-day protest near clinic

From Ms. Magazine
Judge Denies Injunction to Allow Aurora Planned Parenthood to Open

From Christian Newswire
Fr. Frank Pavone to Kick Off Rallies for 40 Days for Life

Heartbeat International weighs in on recent New Jersey Supreme Court decision “that deprives women of the right to hear the truth about abortion”
New Jersey Top Court Allows Doctor to Deceive Women

The Pine Log is the official newspaper of the students of Stephen F. Austin State University. Here’s an opinion piece on the morning after pill. Readers are invited to get the important truth about this dangerous medication.
Morning after pill should be easily available to all

International abortion advocate lectures at University of San Diego
Besides inviting Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and “reproductive rights” advocate Andrea Smith to address its students during this year’s Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series, the University of San Diego also invited Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage. The University of San Diego claims to be a “Catholic” institution of higher education
“No one should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term”

Ken Connor discusses Three Core Principles in the Christian’s approach to poverty.
Last week, the Center for a Just Society reminded Christian Post readers of a message that is unambiguous in Scripture: Christians have a responsibility to freely and generously serve the poor.
Christian Compassion and Government Responsibility

The Christian Post reports on a recent meeting of Southern Baptist leaders.
Southern Baptists Consider Denomination-Wide Response to Clergy Sex Abuse

Juli’s Choice: A Life Worth Taking Is Also A Life Worth Mourning

The New York Press features a column entitled Juli’s Choice with this intro:

After Her Doctor Told Her Of A Genetic Abnormality In Her Growing Fetus, JULI STEADMAN CHARKES Confronted A Pregnant Woman’s Worst Nightmare

Read the story and tell me you can’t relate to this woman’s fears and nightmares after being told she was carrying a child diagnosed with Trisomy.

But there’s at least one very big lie contained in the account. And it cost the life of a child—some precious human being created by God and in His image—and the wonderful plan of God for that child’s life.

Nobody has the right to purposefully take another human being’s life—under ANY circumstances. I’m sorry, but if you don’t believe that, you are on a very slippery slope and you are holding to an ideology which cannot be labeled Christian—at least by the doctrines of Christianity for the last nineteen centuries or so.

You're certainly on the ground of moral relativism, to which I referred yesterday.

Furthermore, doctors make mistakes and misdiagnoses all the time and there are more than sufficient examples of these in regard to the results of amniocentesis.

Furthermore, ask someone like Barbara at Mommy Life what she has to say about being the mother of several children with Trisomy.

Let’s put aside all the feelings for a moment. Can that be done, or is it not possible in our time? Let’s look at other factors, not the least of which is faith. Yes, faith in God and His divine plan and purposes.

No child’s life should hang in the balance because of the emotional reactions and fears of parents or doctors.

Juli says in her account “A life worth taking is also a life worth mourning.”

Explain that twisted logic to me and I can explain to you how modern society has found another perfectly acceptable rationale to salve its conscience after carrying out a plain and simple murder.

The amazing thing about God’s grace is that even when we conduct such evil against God and our fellow man, God still permits us a future. Notice that God blessed Juli and her husband with not one but two new children in the womb.

Was that a reward for what she did? Was it a message from God that she did the right thing?

Not on your life.

I pray Juli comes to see the true horror of her “choice” and finds repentance for her sin before she meets God. I pray Christians will be forthright—yet loving and compassionate—in helping her see it. The sooner it happens the sooner will the next child be safe from a similar search and destroy mission.

Center For Bio-Ethical Reform Conducts GAP Display At MTSU

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (US version) is catching peoples’ attention again. Much like our own Canadian version did recently in Calgary.

This time they conducted the GAP display at Middle Tennessee State University.

WKRN, Nashville has video and a short report “Graphic Anti-Abortion Protest Angers Some Students."

Fletcher Armstrong, of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, said the comparison is valid because all are victims.

He said, “People need to see it. If they don't see it, they can’t understand the horror of what abortion really is much the same...way people could never understand Holocaust unless they saw the pictures of what happened in the death camps.”

For a very refreshing change, the university spokesperson emphasized the CBR is simply “exercising the right of free speech, just like any other group,” and he stated clearly that he encouraged the exchange of ideas and dialogue.

He said, “I really encourage that because the more dialogues we can have the better, dialogue is important.”

It sounds as though he actually believes that people should be able to express their viewpoints—even in public venues of the institutions of higher learning—without fear of being arrested.

How open-minded and truly liberal! And his colleague, as reported in this account, seems to likewise agree.

In a letter to the editor, Bob Glenn, vice president for Student Affairs and vice provost for Enrollment Management, said, "The rightness or wrongness of their view point is beside the point. They have the right to assert their viewpoint. Consequently, if we value the First Amendment then we must carefully safeguard all expressions, even those we don't like. Or perhaps I should say especially those that we don't like because when we step on the slippery slope of making judgments about what expressions are acceptable, our own expressions may soon be in jeopardy."

Needless to say, in setting up GAP displays, the CBR is accused of infringing on other persons’ rights and freedoms, and of even being "sneaky." Apparently some parties don’t think they should be subject to the CBR’s “political propaganda” and “horrific” displays on their way to classes on campus.

According to them, it disrupts their schedule, offends their sensibilities and rains on their parade. And presumably because they find this display offensive and upsetting they would like those who consider abortion the killing of innocent children and a modern day holocaust to just take their message somewhere else—anywhere else!

But the question remains: Does their message reflect the truth, and if so, what must be the response of the passerby who is a genuine truth-seeker?

Some will take issue with the whole idea of being able to know or discover truth, claiming it just isn’t possible and that all we really have is everyone’s opinion—one being as good as the other.

That particular ideology is termed “moral relativism” and at its roots it denies the authority of God, Christ, the Church and the Scriptures.

“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32- Jesus Christ, Son of God

Children Treated as Property

I realize the posting is more than a week old but over at StandToReason Blog, Melinda has generated a little bit of useful discussion about blastocysts, i.e. embryos less than two weeks old from conception.

Here’s what she had to say. Also take a minute or two to look at the interesting comments to her posting.

**********

Children Treated as Property

Yes, I'm referring to blastocysts, embryos less than two weeks old from conception, as children. I'm not begging the question asserting them to be children because we're argued extensively for their humanity before. So I'm starting from that point. Let's "trot out the toddler," as our friend Scott Klusendorf has taught us.

Is a two-year-old child the property of her parents, such that the parent can hand her over for experimentation for the "greater good"? Most sane people will answer immediately and intuitively "No!"

Then why, if we simply move back in time two years and almost nine months, that same being can be treated as property by its parents?

A new poll of parents with unused frozen embryos shows that a majority are willing to donate their embryos for scientific experimentation, specifically to develop new stem cell lines. One parents put a nice moral veneer on this decision as doing "the greater good" of developing cures for ailing people. As a proponent of this moral theory given moral dilemmas, let me clarify what is accept under "the greater good." There's no moral dilemma involved in frozen embryos. You're not being forced to choose between two unavoidable, conflicting options. Someone might see the dilemma as keeping them frozen or donating them. There's a third alternative: Allow them to be carried and hopefully born. Adopt them out if necessary. Better yet, let's use some wisdom and not create them in the first place without the sole intention of giving them the opportunity to be live. The "greater good" doesn't apply because there's no moral dilemma.

Would this same mom offer up the children born from that same batch of embryos for "the greater good"? Of course not. Her children are not her property to do with as she wishes.

Unfortunately, the head of a bioethics institute says that "These embryos have very special and moral meaning for the people who create them." Umm, they don't have meaning just "for" the parents. That's relativism. These beings have objective, intrinsic value and meaning in virtue of what they are: human beings. When she places the value in subjective terms, the people who hold that value then have the power to devalue it and treat them like property. Her moral formulation puts all the moral meaning to the parents. The parents may value them, but that's not why they have value. She continues, "...we need to know their preferences." See, the moral value and decision making is centered in their personal preferences.

Another parent believes that it's better for her frozen embryos to be used for the good of others rather than terminating them. But terminating them is exactly what will happen to them as their parts are dissembled for stem cells. It doesn't make it morally acceptable because they'll be used for the good of others. Again, she would never use that justification for her toddler. Indeed, she would justifiably recoil at the thought.

Even one woman who recognizes that she's created human life uses the relativistic language: "For me, it would be destroying my children," she says. "That's a human life that we created." Even if the embryos is valued by the parent as a human life, the embryos aren't value in virtue of the parent's value.

The entire idea of donating embryos for experimentation originates with the assumption that the value is relative to the parents and they are property. We don't treat toddlers that way; we shouldn't treat children at their earliest stage of development that way.