www.youtube.com/watch?v=O68MByaMVdM

Here’s the synopsis:

On the morning of July 20, 2006, Sycloria Williams, age 18, went for an abortion – a late-term abortion that she says went terribly wrong.

Now 21, the Hollywood resident has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the clinic staff of delivering her child alive and killing the newborn girl by stuffing her into a biohazard bag.

The article is powerful because Ms. Williams describes the ordeal in her own words.

If you don’t think abortion is a significant topic, or that our country has a terrible stance on its legality, then please consider that this wouldn’t be a story at all — not any different than hundreds of thousands of abortions performed each year in the US– if this baby had been killed a few minutes earlier and a few inches further up the birth canal.

Thoughts?

(from my buddy Patrick)

It’s from a great post by Justin Taylor over at his blog (emphasis mine):

It was interesting that at the Saddleback Presidential Forum, Rick Warren asked a very good and specific question: “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” He did not ask a theological question (e.g., when does the baby begin to have a soul?) or a scientific question (when does human life begin?), but a purely legal question (when do babies begin to have rights?).

Obama either misunderstood or misrepresented:

“Well, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.”

The question, though, was not above his pay grade, for Obama has answered it decisively and clearly by his unmitigated support for Roe v. Wade: a baby gets human rights when the mother wants it to have human rights. The will of the stronger is the rule of law.

A spokesman for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) told the BBC that under the Bush administration, the organisation had lost more than $100m (£73m) in funding, affecting its services across 176 countries.

“It’s had a massive impact on delivery of services of family planning across the globe, but in particular in Africa,” said Paul Bell of the IPPF.

“No money supplied by the US federal government can be used for abortion-related services. But this rule effectively gags foreign NGOs from talking about the issue if they accept US funding. It is not applied to US-based NGOs as it would be deemed unconstitutional.”

I say amen and amen!

Have you signed the petition against the Freedom of Choice Act?

What are you waiting for? Wait an hour and 133 more abortions will be perfomed in the US. Wait a day it’ll be 3,300 abortions…

Congratulations on your big week!

I know this has been a very long time coming, and yet in other ways I’m sure it has come up like a whirlwind!

I have to admit, although I don’t agree with you politically about some things, you seem to me like a guy with a lot of class…

You won a good bit of respect from me through the interviews you did on 60 Minutes. Your relationship with your wife and kids connects with me, and gives me hope that there’s a good man somewhere behind all this rhetoric that I fear is shaped by dozens of other people.

I also think it’s a pretty cool thing that you rode to DC on a train, in honor of the presidents who have served before you, and also that you have shown a fair amount of respect for President Bush while he has finished his term.

Anyways, I know you’re about to be a very busy guy, so I’ll cut to the chase: I gotta ask you a question.

The news tells me that your inauguration is going to cost about $170,000,000, and when I heard that, I got to thinking.

After a little bit of reflection, I admit that the number isn’t completely irrational — you’re gonna be the first black president of our country, and that’s a really big victory for our whole nation, and especially for those who have worked so hard and sacrificially to make this day possible. And it deserves a worthy celebration.

Not only that, but I know that to some extent, you have somewhat of a rock-star persona to live up to. John McCain used the word, but let’s face it, you’re the real maverick. You’re the opposite of what most of us are used to, and we count on you to be in touch with our culture and what ‘the people’ want.

So… sure, it makes perfect sense that you would get guys like Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Bruce Springstein for the event.

And I gotta tell you that I think it took some real guts to ask Rick Warren to be there when it made you so unpopular with the gay community.

But here’s all I’m wondering:

Did you really need to spend that much?

You ran your election promoting yourself as being the guy who stands up for the helpless… the guy who gives hope to the hopeless.

Could you have gotten by with just $100 million and given the rest to a good cause?

My local rescue mission tells me that it costs $2.04 to give a homeless person a good meal. Using that figure, $70 million is enough to give every homeless person in the country a good meal.

Or, you could give 50,000 homeless people 2 meals per day for the rest of the year.

It seems like that’s more of the kind of guy you marketed yourself to be.

You have said that your first act as president will be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. I’m sure a lot of those kids at the ‘youth ball’ on MTV are counting on you to do that so they don’t have any… inconvenient consequences to their partying tonight.

You spent your whole campaign telling people how you want to stand up for justice, and the first thing you do is going to take life (to the tune of 3,300 abortions per day) rather than give it.

I don’t know Mr. Obama. I want to like you. Could you try to make it a little easier?

We are facing a cultural crisis if President-elect Obama brings into legislation the Freedom of Choice Act. This law, if enacted, would wipe away every restriction on abortion nationwide. The Fight FOCA website explains,

This would eradicate state and federal laws that the majority of Americans support, such as:

• Bans on Partial Birth Abortion
• Requirements that women be given information about the risks of getting an abortion
• Only licensed physicians can perform abortions
• Parents must be informed and give consent to their minor daughter’s abortion

FOCA would erase these laws and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.

There are also other things you need to be aware of about FOCA. It will allow taxpayer funding of abortion, and it will also force faith-based hospitals and health facilities to perform abortions or go our of business. It doesn’t matter what your political leanings are or who you voted for, if you are a Christian, it is your moral duty to oppose this. Go to the Fight FOCA website to read more, and click on the link to sign the petition. There were 149,149 signatures when I signed. Let’s make that number go into the millions.

First, people are longing for a savior who will atone for their sins. In this election, people thirst for a savior who will atone for their economic sins of buying things they did not need with money they did not have. The result is a mountain of credit debt they cannot pay and a desperate yearning that somehow a new president will save them from economic hell.

Second, people are longing for a king who will keep them safe from terror in his kingdom…

In our culture, 90% of winning is looking good. Most people are too busy to look under the hood. If it doesn’t fit in a 20-second sound bite on NPR (who forgot somewhere in the past couple weeks that there are actually 2 major candidates running in this race), then we don’t bother with it.
But then the alternative isn’t a whole lot better. The Republican party has campaigned out of desperation. I picture a bunch of pundits gathered around a table saying things like, “People don’t care about the issues. If we run on the issues, we’re gonna lose. People just want to see a cool face in the advertisement on their facebook feed. We’ll never win that way. We have to destroy our opposition.” Guys that’s weak…
And the troubling reality is that most of the Republican party feeds off of such negativity and fear mongering. There’s a huge billboard on the way to my office that simply says, “Barack Hussein Obama – Is America Ready?”
You know what that communicates to me? It communicates, “We’re scared to death that we’re gonna lose, so we’re desperately throwing out anything we can to change your mind.”
No wonder so many of my ‘evangelical’ friends are getting behind Obama. By doing so, they are able to distance themselves from being identified with a group of people that who have come across as completely ridiculous and bad for America.
On top of that, the Obama campaign is saying things that sound a lot more in line with the teachings of Jesus. They say they want to make things better for the poor. They say they stand for social justice. It sounds great compared to the Republic campaign who basically seem to be saying that they stand for Obama not getting elected…
So I’ve been praying and thinking about all this, and that’s where all the recent chatter on the blog and on facebook have come from. But based on the dozen-or-so emails I got yesterday, I don’t think my heart is coming through, so let me clarify a couple of things:
My Main Point
The point I was trying to make all along is directed specifically at my ‘evangelical’ (I hate labels) friends, and it is this: Social justice is great, and a fundamental part of the Gospel, and a fundamental part of the teaching of Jesus. But, please keep in mind that this is an election, and just because Obama is good at telling you what you want to hear doesn’t mean he’s going to follow through. I offer the abortion issue as an example: Obama stands for social justice, but his voting record proves that he supports the most heinous social injustice in our country’s history. And he’s not just ‘pro-choice’. He’s pro-partial-birth-abortion. He’s pro-infanticide. And he even has said that he would vote for a bill that would require doctors to perform abortions if asked to. That is the guy you’re getting behind. Just do it with your eyes wide open.
Our Hope

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”

Mike put words around a feeling I’ve been having lately when he said that so many people are putting their hope in Obama. Having that lense to view things through, I look around and my heart breaks. Friends, never hope in any man. Obama cannot change hearts. He cannot bring repentance. He might be able to change a couple of laws or opinions, but he can’t give new hearts to the millions of people in our country who need them. Only Jesus does that. Just keep that in mind.
On Abortion
One email I got yesterday suggested that I believe that people who are pro-choice worship the devil. I appear to have been pigeon-holed with the folks I don’t won’t to be included with, so let me say a few hard words, especially to my like-minded friends:
You know what abortion is?
It’s sin.
Just like mine, and just like yours.
You know what’s particularly disgusting about people who have abortions?
…nothing
Nothing more than my pride, lust, judgement, and selfishness at least.
That’s why you will never, ever find me at an anti-abortion rally, or picketing an abortion clinic, or with a bumper sticker on my car that says something cheeky about abortion.
Those who were raised up to be extremely fundamentalist will say, “Well are you ashamed that you think abortion is bad?”
Your question betrays a misunderstanding of the Gospel, and of the purpose of the Church.
According to the Bible, people already know that abortion is bad. Nobody ever — not ever saw an anti-abortion bumper sticker and thought, “Huh… You know, I guess they’re right. I’ll have to make sure I don’t support abortion anymore.”
But you know what has probably happened a million times?
Some 20-something girl with a couple of abortions in her past is at a stoplight behind a car that says something very judgmental about abortion, and all her guilt, shame, and pain that it caused wells up, and in tears, she hears the lie, “That’s right. You’re a terrible person, and God will never accept you… and christians certainly will never accept you. They hate you.”
I never, never, never want to be that guy. Give me a bumper sticker that says, “I love people who have had abortions.”
As a human being, I believe that abortion is a terrible thing, and that it causes a ton of pain and grief, and my heart goes out to everyone who has ever been affected by it. I don’t judge you if you have brought it into your life, and I want to support you and encourage you as you recover from its effects.
As a christian, abortion is just more evidence that our hearts are wicked… all of our hearts.
As an american citizen, I’m honestly not legally-minded enough to know how abortion should be effected by our laws.
But, if you ask me to support you as my national leader, and your record shows that you want to make abortion easier and more socially acceptable, I cannot get behind you.
No matter how many facebook advertisements I see…

Yesterday, I posted this statement on facebook and twitter:

Barack Obama: the most pro-abortion political figure ever to run for president. Make you wonder what “yes we can” means?

What really surprised me is that I got several responses like this:

“Actually, Obama said the other day that nobody really supports abortion.”

A couple of folks who seem to really love Jesus said things like,

“Next week, we’ll be saying ‘Yes we did!’”

As if they couldn’t care less that they support someone who aggresively promotes infanticide.

And my old buddy Patrick said,

“People are still talking about abortion in relation to presidential candidates? Really? I thought we’d moved on to more important issues.”

Now, first of all, let me say that if you want to vote for Obama, then fine. I don’t think you’re stupid or arrogant for wanting to do that. I don’t disrespect you for wanting to do that. I realize that it’s a really ‘cool’ thing to do. You get to have the popular bumper sticker and say things like ‘yes we can!’.

Here’s where I want to challenge the Obama supporters: please don’t trick yourself or lie to yourself or rationalize this – you have got to acknowledge that you support the most pro-abortion political figure in the history of our country. And not only that, but one who has no integrity when it comes to this matter because he consistently refuses to acknowledge his views.

Forget what he says, and look at how he has voted! Here are some snippets from an article by a professor at Princeton University. (this dude is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and previously served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights):

Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

…

I have examined the arguments advanced by Obama’s self-identified pro-life supporters, and they are spectacularly weak. It is nearly unfathomable to me that those advancing them can honestly believe what they are saying.

…

For, unlike his running mate Joe Biden, Obama does not think that abortion is a purely private choice that public authority should refrain from getting involved in. Now, Senator Biden is hardly pro-life. He believes that the killing of the unborn should be legally permitted and relatively unencumbered.

But unlike Obama, at least Biden has sometimes opposed using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion, thereby leaving Americans free to choose not to implicate themselves in it. If we stretch things to create a meaningful category called ”pro-choice,” then Biden might be a plausible candidate for the label; at least on occasions when he respects your choice or mine not to facilitate deliberate feticide.
The same cannot be said for Barack Obama.

You can go on and read about how Obama has voted FOUR TIMES against a bill that simply says that if a doctor botches an abortion so badly that the baby makes it out alive, the living, breathing, viable human baby cannot be killed. (and yes that happens daily – watch a nurse talk about how she regularly has to carry babies to a ‘death room’ where they are left to die of malnutrition and hypothermia because this legislation has not been passed here)

And on top of all this, Obama doesn’t even have the integrity to tell the American people that he supports this stuff. When Rick Warren asked him when human life begins, he said, “That’s above my pay-grade.” And he recently said, “Nobody really supports abortion.”

….not true Mr. Obama. Why do you want to deceive the American people? Why won’t you at least be honest about your aggresively pro-abortion voting history?

Listen, if you couldn’t care less about 40 million children that have been murdered in the last couple-dozen years, and all you want to do is be on the bandwagon that’s probably gonna win, then fine, vote Obama.

But, if you believe that abortion is (usually murder) and you have closed your eyes and jumped on this ‘yes we can’ bandwagon, willfully ignoring that the guy you’re getting behind is our country’s leading promoter of fetucide and infanticide, then please at least open your eyes and choose with your whole consciousness.

This isn’t about whether the next president is going to overturn Roe v. Wade. He couldn’t if he wanted to because that’s the job of the supreme court. That’s not what this is about at all…

This is about whether the next president of the US is going to be a man who says that selfishness that leads all the way to murder is acceptible and should be welcomed, or a president that believes in the sanctity of human life.

It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that talking politics makes me feel so helpless and overwhelmed.

The only political candidate I have ever been even remotely excited about is Mike Huckabee, and it wasn’t because he’s a believer, but because he has a ton of integrity and actually lives out the lifestyle of Jesus.

Now that he’s out of the picture, I haven’t engaged the whole political forum too much just becuase I don’t especially like either of the candidates. Obama has some good social policies, McCain has some good international policies, but neither one of them have demonstrated very much integrity, which is basically a deal-breaker for me about whether I really respect someone. And what’s heart-breaking is that you just about can’t make it this far in the whole political circus with your integrity in tact. Someone will come along and paint themselves with a much prettier brush and the public will eat it up…

I don’t know what to do but pray.

But…

It’s time, I think, to start the conversation among folks like me, and here’s why:

I know way too many people who have a seriously twisted view of Barack Obama. And they come in two packages:

1) There’s the folks who think that Obama is the anti-christ. You know some of these folks. Some of you reading this are those folks. You forward emails that say that he is really a radical muslim and he’s going to flip the whole white house upside down the first chance he gets.

You people make Christianity look bad.

I’m sorry, but it’s true. You make the talking heads on the radio and on TV sound so justified when they accuse the ‘evangelicals’ of being blind, bigotted, and down-right ignorant.

If you don’t want to vote for Obama, then great, but please ask yourself why and then do your homework to back it up.

There’s at least one really good reason not to vote for this guy, which I’m getting to…

2) Then you have the folks who think this guy is the Messiah. You have the t-shirt and the bumper sticker, but if you’re honest, the only real reason you like him is that everyone else does. He’s just a rock star and who doesn’t want to like a rock star? You throw around terms like ‘social justice’ and ‘change’ and ‘reform’, but you have no idea how Obama will be any better or worse for that than McCain, it’s just that everyone seems to agree that he’s a better man for the job.

Any of this sounding familiar?

I guess in fairness, there is a third category of folks who really don’t know what to think. You haven’t made your mind up and you’re not sure what’s true and what’s a lie and you don’t even know if you’re going to vote at all because either choice seems to be the wrong choice…

Regardless of which category you fall into, here’s something you have to know about Obama, and this is where I want to start the conversation:

Voddie Baucham said that “Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever to run for president.”

How’s that for social justice? But that’s a major understatement. If you care at all about the presidential race, you have got to see this video as part of your decision-making process:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo

(I found this video at ‘Take Your Vitamin Z’, where there are almost daily thoughtful posts about Obama)

Thoughts? Let’s start a good conversation about this. I think it’s time.

I discovered Voddie Baucham‘s blog today. I like how it’s a home-made ‘made on a mac’ iWeb special. I appreciate it when guys who are in ‘full-time’ ministry don’t waste ministry money to look slick.

He has an interesting post about Barack Obama. The title of the post says it all: “Barack Obama: A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing“.

The first sentence is the thesis behind the title:

“Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever to run for President.”

You can read the whole thing here.

Voddie has always been right on in my experience. He’s a very wise man who doesn’t point fingers lightly.

What do you think?

Check this out. Even though he’s working his tail off and sleeping like 4 hours a night, Barack Obama is following me on twitter! Me! And I’m not even sure whether I’m going to vote for him!

I wonder how often he checks my status…

And I wonder how he makes time, since, according to his page, he’s following about 80,000 other people.

Man, talk about a multi-tasker!