in this issue:
abortion: ROE VERSUS REALITY
activism: BANNED IN MUNDELEIN
chastity: PURE LOVE CLUB
miracles: TERRY WALLIS
morning-after abortion pill: LYING
scholarships: AVE MARIA LAW SCHOOL
stem cell research / unethical: MALE INFERTILITY
wisdom: C. S. LEWIS
zinger: PUBLIC OPINION RULES
reflection for prayer: COURAGE
abortion
ROE VERSUS REALITY: The New England Journal of Medicine offers an interesting analysis of how those who favor abortion view the future of Roe vs. Wade/Doe vs. Bolton.
(Reading: “Roe versus reality: Abortion and women’s health,” New England Journal of Medicine, 7/6/06)
activism
BANNED IN MUNDELEIN: For the first time in seven years, the Pro-Life Action League’s Face the Truth campaign has been banned. In Mundelein, Illinois, police shut down the peaceful demonstration, threatening arrest if the group did not disband. Legal proceedings led by PLAL counsel Tom Brejcha will begin shortly.
(Reading: “Truth tour banned in Mundelein, IL,” Pro-life Action League news release, 7/8/06)
chastity
PURE LOVE CLUB: Jason and Crystalina Evers give seminars to high school groups across the country. For information, see Pure Love Club.
miracles
TERRY WALLIS: Barely conscious for nearly 20 years, Wallis is now getting better every day because, as doctors report, his brain rewired itself.
(Reading: “Man’s brain rewired itself after crash severed nerve connections,” Associated Press, 7/3/06)
morning-after abortion pill
LYING ABOUT PLAN-B: Rebecca Gee, M.D., reports on her efforts to force, by threat of law suit, the Wal-Mart Corporation to stock Plan-B in all its pharmacies. She writes, “Plan B is thought to operate in a manner similar to hormonal contraceptives, which can prevent ovulation and possibly render the endometrial environment less habitable for implantation. These methods do not interrupt an intrauterine pregnancy after implantation and thus do not cause an abortion according to any common definition.”
COMMENT: Excuse me, but the common definition of human being is a person whose life begins at fertilization/conception, NOT implantation!
(Reading: “Plan B, reproductive rights, and physician activism,” New England Journal of Medicine, 7/6/06; “The unfathomable war against contraception,” Cox News Service, 7/2/06)
scholarships
AVE MARIA LAW SCHOOL: The Admissions Office of Ave Maria School of Law is announcing the availability of several scholarships for the 2007-08 year. For details please contact the school via “>e-mail.
stem cell research / unethical
MALE INFERTILITY: British researchers have isolated embryonic stem cells from mice to grow healthy sperm in an effort to assist infertile men with a specific type of treatment. The group will move, if the experiment succeeds, to the use of human embryonic stem cells.
(Reading: “Experiment could be male infertility breakthrough,” Reuters, 7/10/06)
wisdom
C.S. LEWIS: “People say, “The Church ought to give us a lead.” That is true if they mean it in the right way, but false if the mean it in the wrong way. By the Church they ought to mean the whole body of practicing Christians. And when they say that the Church should give us a lead, they ought to mean that some Christians–those who happen to have the right talents — should be economists and statesmen, and that all economists and statesmen should be Christians, and that their whole efforts in politics and economics should be directed to putting “Do as you would be done by” in to action. If that happened, and if we others were really ready to take it, then we should find the Christian solution for our own social problems pretty quickly. But, of course, when they ask for a lead from the Church most people mean they want the clergy to put out a political programme. That is silly. The clergy are those particular people within the whole Church who have been specially trained and set aside to look after what concerns us as creatures who are going to live forever: and we are asking them to do a quite different job for which they have not been trained. The job is really on us, on the laymen. The application of Christian principles, say, to trade unionism and education, must come from Christian trade unionists and Christian schoolmasters; just as Christian literature comes from Christian novelists and dramatists–not from the bench of bishops getting together and trying to write plays and novels in their spare time.”
(Reading: “Mere Christianity,” Book 3, Chapter 3)
zinger
PUBLIC OPINION RULES: In a recent column, Father Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life, told his readers “The destruction of the tiniest zygote is just as wrong as putting scissors in the neck of a partially-born baby. But it is not just as obvious. If we want to rouse the public to action and change public policy, we must keep the primary focus where we have the psychological and pedagogical advantage – partial-birth abortion – and move from there to the less obvious issues.”
COMMENT: So, which babies are the “less obvious issues?”
(Reading: “Keep the pedagogical advantage,” Priests for Life, 7/10/06)
reflection for prayer
COURAGE: Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper wrote: “When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become your sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”
(Reading: “Courage,” The Quote Files)