Defense of Innocence

A ‘Duty to Die’?

5/11/2010 – Thomas Sowell –
One of the many fashionable notions that have caught on among some of the intelligentsia is that old people have “a duty to die” rather than become a burden to others.

This is more than just an idea discussed around a seminar table. Already the government-run medical system in Britain is restricting what medications or treatments it will authorize for the elderly. Moreover, it seems almost certain that similar attempts to contain runaway costs will lead to similar policies when American medical care is taken over by the government.[Read more…]

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Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor, Defender of Life

Gianna Jessen
Gianna Jessen

by Gianna Jessen and alleyesonCHRIST | 4/25/2010

Gianna Jessen is a devout Christian. Her life was given to her by the grace of God. She shouldn’t be walking, but more miraculous still; she should not even be alive. Gianna’s biological mother was 17 when she had a saline abortion in her third trimester. Many Americans don’t realize it is legal to have an abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. After being burned alive for approximately 18 hours in the womb from the saline solution, Gianna was delivered alive in a Los Angeles County abortion clinic. Her medical records state, “born during saline abortion”…this is what caused her Cerebral Palsy.

Gianna was born in an abortion clinic and raised as an orphan in a foster home, yet Gianna Jessen isn’t going to complain. … For all of us who sometimes think life can be overwhelming, Jessen is a swift dose of reality. For everyone who believes a woman’s right to choose overshadows a child’s right to live Jessen is God’s answer. [Read more…]

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How Evil Works

FrontPageMag | by Jamie Glazov (David Kupelian interview) | 4/20/2010
How Evil Works
If we don’t understand that we are created by God and that we live in a moral dimension in which we constantly can choose between good or evil, and that things go really badly when we choose the wrong way – if we don’t recognize this basic reality level of our lives, then it’s very difficult to understand evil, or to understand ourselves for that matter. […]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Soviet dissident who exposed the evils of the gulag system to the world, once wrote: “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.’”

Decades later, Solzhenitsyn said that in trying to explain the totalitarian horrors that permeated the 20th century – which he himself endured – he could not improve on the explanation he had heard as a child: “Men have forgotten God.” [Read more…]

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Shouldn’t We be Nice to Puppies?

Orthodoxy Today | by Wesley J. Smith | 4/9/2010

What is the proper Christian view toward “animal rights?” That depends on how one defines the term. Christians—like all people—certainly have the duty to treat animals humanely and with proper standards of care. But that is properly called animal welfare, not animal rights.

So what’s the difference between animal welfare and animal rights? Animal welfare acknowledges that humans have unique dignity and value. In direct contrast, animal rights denigrates human exceptionalism as “speciesist,” that is, discrimination against animals. [Read more…]

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Cornhuskers Choose Life

American Thinker | by Jeannie DeAngelis | 4/9/2010

A bill put forward by the state of Nebraska, hoping to impose further limits on a woman’s right to choose, has the Cornhusker state once again embroiled in debate, this time over abortion. The proposed Abortion Pain Prevention Act seeks to address the issue of late-term abortion by making the procedure “illegal after the 20th week of pregnancy…because of some medical evidence that a fetus can feel pain at that stage of gestation.” [Read more…]

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Leadership: Is the Microphone On?

The Orthodox Leader | by Fr Basil Biberdorf | 3/23/2010
Christ, the Author of Life

The recent turmoil surrounding the recent passage of healthcare legislation by the United States Congress is providing ample opportunity to look at the absence of Orthodox leadership. As a reminder, this blog’s purpose is not political. To the extent this legislation reflects Caesar’s affairs, it is generally best for the Church to remain silent.

Sadly, though, this legislation is not purely about political matters, for it has provisions for using taxes gathered from individuals, including Christians, to pay for elective abortions in all or part (c.f., here and here). Despite the scandalously equivocal language used by the Ecumenical Patriarch in discussing abortion (c.f., here, here, here, and here),  the Church’s teaching cannot be misunderstood. As a best example, consider St. Basil the Great (AD 330-379), who says absolutely nothing new: “Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses” (Letter 188).

Children in the womb are human beings, and their willful destruction is murder. So what about all those who will now find themselves accessories to the crime through the new legal requirement to fund abortion? [Read more…]

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Catholic Bishops’ Plea to Congress: Do Not Pass Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill

Catholic Bishops Anti-Abortion Plea Against HealthCare Bill
CNA | 3/20/2010

In a final, urgent plea to prevent the passage of the current form of the Senate health care bill, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Saturday evening sent a letter to Congressmen asking them to vote “no.”

“For decades,” the letter says, “the United States Catholic bishops have supported universal health care. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential for human life and dignity.”

“Our community of faith,” the bishops continue, “provides health care to millions, purchases health care for tens of thousands and addresses the failings of our health care system in our parishes, emergency rooms and shelters. This is why we as bishops continue to insist that health care reform which truly protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all is a moral imperative and an urgent national priority.” [Read more…]

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Orthodox Priest: Appeal for Prayer and Fasting, Fight Demonic ObamaCare Bill

Orthodox Anti-Abortion Icon
Orthodox Anti-Abortion Icon

by Fr. Demetrios Carellas | 3/19/2010

“And He said to them, ‘This kind can come forth by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.’” (Mark 9:29)

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said those words to His disciples, when they asked Him why they were unable to expel the demonic spirit from the man’s son. I firmly believe that we have a similar situation today in our Nation. It is the goal of the party in power to have signed into law by March 22, 2010 a national health care bill, which would permit the use of taxpayers’ dollars to fund abortion on demand. While there are many other things in this health care bill that should cause us much concern (in addition to the fact that the majority of the people in Congress have not even fully read the bill!), the ‘keystone’ of this Bill’s foundation is to – in essence – make the killing of pre-born children a part of the very fabric of our Society. As one person stated, if this becomes law, then the pro-abortion movement, will have finally acquired its “Holy Grail”: using tax dollars to pay for abortions.

As a Greek Orthodox priest, I am compelled – in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus – to rebuke and renounce this Bill as being demonic. Although there might be some good things within the Bill, they are totally negated by the presence of this ungodly attempt to make every working American culpable to the blood of these precious little ones, who are being slaughtered by the thousands – for PROFIT – everyday of the year! [Read more…]

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Prosecuted for Saving a Girl’s Life

American Thinker | by Pamela Geller | Feb. 27, 2010

A girl flees from her home in fear for her life — and law enforcement goes after the people who helped her. That’s the situation in the Rifqa Bary case. The Columbus Dispatch reported this about Rifqa’s friend Brian Williams: “An Ohio minister accused of driving a teenage runaway to a bus station last year has retained a lawyer as police say they’re investigating whether anyone broke the law in helping the Christian convert leave home for Florida.”

And why did she flee to Florida? Because, she says, when her devout Muslim father found out she had become a Christian, he said to her, “I will kill you.” And with Islam’s death penalty for apostates, she had to take that seriously. But Rifqa’s father is not in danger of being prosecuted. Brian Williams is. [Read more…]

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