"God have mercy on them."

My first reaction to most things is usually cynical and/or skeptical. I'm trying hard to not react this way so much because I feel that most times these attitudes result in inaction and/or whining.

That being as it may, I read this article on Reuters and I'm a little cynical of Saudi's intentions.

"(King Abdullah) saw you on television and was extremely affected," Health Minister Hamad al-Manei told the girl, Jamila, at a meeting of Arab health ministers in Riyadh.

It's good that someone is caring for innocent children who have been severely injured by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, maybe it was the explosives and not the children that were in the wrong place. In any case, the children are alive for at least one more day to [hopefully] recognize God's grace through Jesus Christ. Now they just need someone to tell them the Good News that can really save their lives.

Meanwhile, in other news, some Christians in Gaza are protesting the conflict by wrapping themselves in bandages covered in fake blood. I'm not sure what this is supposed to communicate that the actual images of war don't communicate already.

Obama to increase Title X funding?

First, a little light reading:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=356962
http://www.reproductiverights.org/pub_fac_titlex2.html
http://catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14645
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=40949
http://otrans.3cdn.net/3b21d35e246c18a427_d7m6bw2o1.pdf

I am not surprised to read about the potential for increased federal funding for abortions. I am surprised to hear that there are Christians who are still surprised that Obama wants to make abortions more easily accessible. After all, he did promise that the first thing he would do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.

Here's my point. The issue of abortion is a moral one and laws can not be called upon to enforce morals. Even if abortion was illegal, and the punishment for aborting a fetus was punishable by death, people would still find a way to do it. How many murderers do you think are on death row today, who knew in advance that the crime they were about to commit was wrong? Yet they did it anyway. The law can only condemn.

To quote one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Rich Mullins:

"The church is the only institution in this world who can bring about a change. The government can not do it so stop depending on the government. Education systems can not do it so stop trusting education systems."

The most powerful way we can impact a woman who's considering abortion is to love her and her unborn baby with the same kind of love Jesus shows us. Reveal God's grace to her through your life. Reach out and listen and care for her. We're not going to convince her that abortion is wrong by writing letters of protest to our congressman or picketing up and down Main Street. Not that writing letters to your congressman is bad. Write all the letters you want, but don't hold your breath.

I can understand if you're upset that your hard-earned money is funding something you believe is wrong. I'm not happy about it either. I'm guessing our money is funding a lot of other things we would think are wrong; probably more than we could even imagine. But guess what. If less and less women want to have abortions because they have found grace and truth and life in Jesus Christ, eventually less and less money will go towards women who want to have abortions. It's not rocket science.

Merry Christmas!

Commentary Pending

In case you haven't seen it yet.

But he hasn't done anything yet

Our president-elect, Barack Obama, has just been announced as Time's Person of the Year for 2008. I don't know. You couldn't have selected somebody that actually made a tangible difference in the world? Of course, if you look at the runners-up and their idea of people who mattered, the competition was not overwhelming.

To answer your question, no, I don't have anyone better in mind.