Last week I blogged about a study released by Planned Parenthood’s research arm, the Guttmacher Institute. Abortion rates have dropped to their lowest point in 30 years, but black women are still overrepresented among the statistics. In 2004, black women aborted at five times the rate of white women.
Matt Jones, a student at Biola University, GodBlogCon sponsor, wrote and directed a short film called “Choices.” (Click on link or image to watch trailer on YouTube)
Matt’s goal is to get his film, released last year, into high school classrooms.
Along with films like “Choices,” there needs to be an emphasis on abstinence in so-called sex education programs in government schools. The first “it’s my body” choice a woman (or girl) has on the road to “unplanned” pregnancy is keeping her legs closed. If, after she chooses to open her legs and have sex, she ends up pregnant, she has more choices of the non-fatal variety. She can marry the father and create a stable, intact family, and raise the child. If she doesn’t want the baby, she can carry him to term and give him to a family who wants him and will love and take care of him.
Killing the child should never be an option.
Totally unrelated note: This week, I’m preparing to leave my temporary home in SC and move permanently to Southern California. I’m taking a brief break from updating this blog. Thanks again for all the well wishes and kind words about my decision to leave DC after 10 years (more backstory).
See you later.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about the difficulty of following him. “Enter by the narrow gate,” he said, “for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
I’ve been a Christian for about 10 years, and last week I witnessed to a stranger, unsolicited, for the first time. The first time. I’ve explained to people what I believe and why I believe it when they’ve asked, but I’ve never initiated such a conversation.
I was talking to a man (an agnostic) at the Blog World Expo, and the conversation turned to religious beliefs. We talked about sin and judgment and forgiveness and salvation. To understand what he believed about these things, I asked a series of questions, listened to his answers, and explained what the Bible teaches. What bothered him about Christianity is its exclusivity.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
We live in a country where it’s considered bad form to make statements about good and evil, and to declare a such thing as absolute truth. To make a judgment about what’s right or wrong is becoming taboo. Some are offended when we say Christ is the only way. “There are many roads to God. How can you say people of other religions are going to hell if they don’t follow your God?”
Actually, people are “going to hell” because they murdered or raped or lied, but the point is that Christ made these claims, and you can either believe him or not. There is no in-between. All this nonsense about Jesus being a great man or a good teacher is just that. Christ was exceedingly clear, and his statements were very simple. He spoke of two gates: wide and narrow. There’s no middle gate through which to walk. You can refuse his offer of forgiveness and face God’s wrath, or accept Christ, turn away from your sins, submit to him, and avoid his wrath.
Even Christians find this difficult to do. Repenting and submitting are constant themes in the life of a believer growing in grace, and Christ never said it would be easy. We live in fallen and corrupt bodies in a fallen and corrupt world. Though we want to be obedient and do what’s right, we sometimes fail. But we are filled with a Spirit who helps us understand biblical truths and empowers us to live a life that serves as a testimony to God’s grace.
That simple truth can and should give us strength to keep our faith and focus as we continue on this Christian walk. God knows some days are harder than others, but Christ said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
A ministry that played a huge part in my decision to witness that day is The Way of the Master. Actor Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort developed a ministry of “street evangelism,” using techniques that appeal to a person’s awareness of Moral Law. I highly recommend you listen to Way of the Master Radio if you’ve never witnessed to a stranger. If you have, I recommend it anyway. 
My first unsolicited witnessing encounter was positive, I think, because the person I witnessed to was receptive. I’ve been praying for him. I hope I planted a seed. I pray for myself: for the courage to make witnessing a habit and not an aberration.
(For unbelievers who think this post is a bunch of bunk, misguided drivel, etc., I understand. I used to feel the same way. In fact, I mocked Christians. I can present “rational” reasons why I changed, but I am unable to articulate the radical transformation process. I pray that one day you can say the same.)
Related posts:
Back in this blog’s early days, I used to “live-blog” events like speeches and debates. Haven’t live-blogged in a long time. Why break the streak tonight?
I invite you to “live-comment” tonight’s presidential debate. Discuss the candidate’s answers, appearance, and anything else of relevance. Topics of interest to me: immigration (McCain voted for amnesty, so I don’t know what else I’m expecting from him - very disappointing selection), the war in Iraq and how to deal with global terrorism, and the developing Cold War, Part II.
TV-less? Watch it live at CNN.com beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Live-blogging at MM, and trackbackers probably will do the same. Live-blogging and chatting at Hot Air.
As always, thanks for reading and participating on my blog. 
Rest easy, everybody.
Filed under: Conservatives, Liberals - Obama
Update II (9/27): Unlike Kathleen Parker, whose article I quoted below, I don’t believe Sarah Palin should drop out of the race, as I’ve been falsely accused.
Thread closed. Discuss the presidential debate (and Sarah Palin, if you must) in this thread.
When this election is over, I think I’ll return to digital music tech blogging. Smaller readership, less interest, and fewer commenters (understatement), but less tense and much more fun. Politics makes people…
So implied Congressman Alcee Hastings, an impeached former federal judge, to an audience of Jewish liberals yesterday.
According to CNN (also see this link), his exact words were (bad grammar included) “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks…If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention.”
I’m no Sarah Palin apologist, but what Hastings’s said was race-baitingly foul, obviously. I wonder if anyone called him on it or at the very least, asked what the heck he meant. If I’d been there…It’s a strange thing to say. People who exercise their right to carry a gun and who hunt animals are racist?
Imagine a white Republican saying something similar about a black liberal candidate. Mainstream media would cover it morning, noon, and night. There’d be widespread calls for an apology and/or resignation. But they’ll treat what Hastings said as a curious news item, forgotten by day’s end.
Filed under: Comedy, Liberals, Lunacy
I’m a BIG fan of homeschooling, especially for Christians. Parents homeschool their kids for various reasons, but religion seems to be high on the list.
I think it’s a waste of time and resources to push for changes in the way government schools educate children. Don’t fight corruption and indoctrination. Get your kids out of there.
If you’re a homeschooling parent or considering homeschooling, check out This Old Schoolhouse magazine (see right sidebar and click on the ad). I recommend the magazine not only because it’s one of my advertisers; it’s a wonderful resource I’ve mentioned on the blog before. Other homeschooling resources:
- Classical Homeschooling
- HomeschoolBlogger.com
- The Well-Trained Mind
- Home Education Magazine
- Trivium Pursuit
Related posts:
If you’re a homeschool blogger or read homeschool blogs and other web sites, leave a comment with the name of the site and/or URL. Support homeschooling!
Overall, abortion rates have dropped to their lowest point since the Supreme Court legalized it in Roe v. Wade, according to a Guttmacher study.
As expected, blacks are still overrepresented among women who abort. Last I read, black women aborted at three times the rate of white women. In 2004, black women aborted at five times the rate of white women.
Download the 28-page Trends in the Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions, 1974 to 2004 in PDF.
To what can we attribute these disproportionate rates of child killing? “Poverty” is an oft-cited factor. I’d add “ignorance,” “apathy,” and “plain old immoral” to the list. The cure for one is education; the cure for the others is a shift in values. Before I’m accused of race baiting, the reasons I believe women abort apply to all women, regardless of race. But we’re still left with why black women kill their babies at a disproportionately higher rate.
Race, race, race. Can’t get away from it.
By now you’ve heard about a new AP-Yahoo News online poll that shows blacks and whites hold different views on race. Newsflash, right?
Generally speaking, blacks and whites don’t agree on how much racial prejudice exists and who’s to blame for such perceptions, and it didn’t take a poll to determine that. Fifty-seven percent of blacks said “a lot” of racial discrimination exists, and only 10 percent of whites said the same. A third of whites said “most” racial tension is caused by blacks, and only three percent of blacks said the same.
It would be helpful to know how individuals define prejudice and discrimination. The two aren’t wrong per se. We prejudge and discriminate all the time, as well we should. People my age and under have a twisted view of racism. Jim Crow was racism; jailing black men, who commit a disproportionate number of crimes, at higher rates is not.
Continue reading Black/White Racial Perceptions Are Different
