Islamic Immigration and Plummeting Worldwide Fertility Rates

Not a People Who Wait

I thought I’d pass along this insightful little excerpt from the most recent issue of Touchstone magazine entitled, “Emotion Sickness” written by Ken Myers. If you are not already subscribed to this awesome journal, don’t wait any longer.

“We were created as beings intended to inhabit time well. We are so eager to defend the fact of Creation to skeptics and atheists that we often forget the instructive quality of the rhythm of Creation. God who is beyond time somehow takes time to create all things. And then a day of rest is established. Christian faith is thus not simply historical; it is also concerned with honoring the meaning of our temporality. Impatience is a deeply disordering vice, displaying at root a frustration with God who uses time to accomplish his purposes, who has chosen not to do everything right away.

While there is nothing new about impatience, I think it’s fair to say that no human culture has so institutionalized restlessness and a quest for immediacy as has our own. We expect that people will respond to our demands without delay and that circumstances will be altered (whether a website loading or traffic abating or a meal being prepared) in the blink of an eye.

More significantly, we expect to be able to adjust our own feelings quickly, to move emotionally from “zero to 60″ in three seconds. The idea that any joys – whether sublime or mundane – might require disciplines of cultivation is increasingly foreign to our accelerated culture…”

Planned Parenthood Director Leaves, Has Change of Heart

It happened to Benard Nathanson, and it has happened once again. The sight of an abortion through sonogram technology can change even the most hardened of pro-abortion hearts. Abby Johnson is another in a growing list of prime examples. The local news media of Bryan, Texas reports:

“Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson’s life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.

“I just thought I can’t do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that’s it,” said Jonhson.

She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years.

According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it’s business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.

“It seemed like maybe that’s not what a lot of people were believing any more because that’s not where the money was. The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,” said Johnson.

Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about.

“I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don’t have this guilt, I don’t have this burden on me anymore that’s how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion.”

Johnson now supports the Coalition For Life, the pro-life group with a building down the street from Planned Parenthood. Coalition volunteers can regularly be seen praying on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. Johnson has been meeting with the coalition’s executive director, Shawn Carney, and has prayed with volunteers outside Planned Parenthood.

On Friday both Johnson and the Coalition For Life were issued temporary restraining orders filed by Planned Parenthood.

Rochelle Tafolla, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson issued the following statement: “We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary.”

The temporary restraining order contends that Planned Parenthood would be irreparably harmed by the disclosure of certain information, but does not bar Johnson or Coalition For Life volunteers from the premises.

As of Sunday evening, neither Johnson nor Carney had seen the complaint filed against them that prompted the restraining order.

A hearing about the order has been set for November 10.”

(HT: KTBX)

Marriage and Babies at Boundless

From a recent Boundless article:

It’s only since the advent of pharmaceutical birth control that humans even had the option of choosing marriage while remaining closed to the possibility — and blessing — of children. And it’s only since people started writing their own wedding vows that we stopped including the part about promising to receive children and raise them to know God.

Severing the link between marriage and children is a modern concept, born of material wealth, political freedom and technological advancements. But just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. God has not revoked His charge to the first couple, Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply. (And contrary to public opinion, we’re in dire need of more, not fewer,people on this earth.) When we marry and choose not to have children, we violate our very design and disobey our God. (We’ve talked at length about this on Boundless, including articles by J. Budziszewski and Matt Kaufman.)

Piper: Marriage is for making Children Disciples of Jesus

Not all the blood of beasts/ on Jewish altars slain/…

“Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace
Or wash away the stain.

But Christ, the heav’nly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.” – Isaac Watts, 1709

We are gearing up our Church’s website, and the other night one of our deacon’s posted one of our new pastor’s most recent sermon’s entitled “What Can Wash Away My Sin?” (Hebrews 10:4). Be praying for our Church (FBC Fairdale), and asking God to do a mighty work through the man who he has called to lead us for the glory of our Risen King, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

‘BH

Birth Control: In Light of Demographics

Whether or not you believe that Genesis 1:28 is a cultural mandate or just was a cultural mandate, the following videos should give proponents of birth control great pause in light of the demographic trends we are seeing today. And demography aside, the idea that forced sterilization as a popular response to familial fruitfulness is a viable option in today’s political climate should send shivers down your spine.

‘BH

Birth Control: In Light of the “Appointed Time”

“Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” – Gen 18:14

Almost any time the topic of birth control comes up amongst Christian couples it is often centered around the proper timing of pregnancy. In fact, the purpose of timing is sometimes given as the sole ethical reason that a Christian couple could use contraception at all — with the brunt of this argument being that it is unbiblical to have marriages that are intentionally childless. Whatever the argument is, it is of no doubt that many Christians view contraception as the key that unlocks the timing door of children. If you want to have children, you turn the key to “On”; and if you don’t, you just turn the key to “Off”.

One of a host of problems with this position is that it just does not line up with biblical revelation. A prime example of this truth is the text above out of Genesis 18. In this narrative, we see angels speaking with Abraham and Sarah about the “appointed time” that a son would be born to them. What is easy to miss in the story is that the angels say it’s going to be a “year” from now! They told Sarah, “this time next year” you shall “have a son”. A quick calculation will show us that Isaac wasn’t even conceived until a whole three months after this angelic visitation and proclamation. The angels were speaking of an appointed time, but it would do us well to consider Who it was that was doing the appointing.

We know from the broader context of Abraham’s story that he and Sarah had been pursuing this promised seed in a myriad of ways, from using Hagar to provide an heir, to (I’m sure) trying everything they could to turn to the “key” to “On” in Sarah’s own womb. For Abraham and Sarah, it just wasn’t working. In Genesis 18:14 however, God shed some very important light on the issue (once again). This promised child (or any child for that matter) was not going to come by the will of flesh — rather he would come only at “the appointed time” by the will of a Sovereignly loving, Faithfully promise-keeping God. God had a plan for baby Isaac, and for Abraham and Sarah. And that plan went beyond anything they could imagine for themselves or for their children.

The application for Christian couples today is that God is still working “in sundry times and in divers manners” (to use the old KJV language of Hebrews 1:1) to bring about his plans in the lives of his saints. Though Abraham and Sarah were actively pursuing a family, the lesson they learned and the truth they were told by the accompanying angels still rings true for us today — God has an “appointed time” for the birth of our children. What that “time”  actually is often does not look like the “right” time or a “good” time to us. From God’s perspective, however, what we call “good” or “right” is only seeing through a glass dimly. God sees our lives and (more importantly) his eternal purposes from a perspective that far outreaches any presumption we can make about the future. As Christians we must always keep this in mind: Because children are a gift, that means they are not promised — but if God does decide to give them to us, we can know for certain that they will come “at the appointed time,” not one month, or one year sooner or later.

To the only wise God be praise, honor, and glory forever!

‘BH

The Racism of “Birth Control”

One of the most unconsidered aspects of the entire birth control debate is the history of the movement itself. Like any seismic social shift, the birth control movement in the United States had many angles, many spokesmen and women, and countless streams. It is of little historical doubt however, that every stream flowed from the same polluted fountain: eugenics.

Abortion and birth control are not just linked philosophically, though that too is undeniable. They are twin barrels of one eugenically-loaded gun that was aimed at the root of humanity itself. I wonder how many Christians considering the ethics of contraception today have weighed the history of this movement and, like the video below, have found it strikingly wanting?

The Holiness of Changing Diapers…ala Martin Luther

“Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? O you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful, carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.” What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “O God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers, or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? 0 how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.

A wife too should regard her duties in the same light, as she suckles the child, rocks and bathes it, and cares for it in other ways; and as she busies herself with other duties and renders help and obedience to her husband. These are truly golden and noble works. . . .

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools.” – From Luther’s “The Estate of Marriage” (1522) posted online here.