The Bulletin Board:(Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
UPDATE: "Second US Doctor Sick with Ebola; Crisis 'Out of Control'" - CBNNews.com, Sept. 02, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2014/September/A-Losing-Battle-Ebola-Going-to-Get-Worse-CDC-Says/ "Another American doctor in Liberia has tested positive for the Ebola virus, according to the international Christian mission organization, SIM. SIM leaders report the American doctor was treating obstetrics patients at the organization's ELWA Hospital in Monrovia and not treating Ebola patients..."The epidemic is going faster than we are," he warned. 'We need to scale up our response. We can hope for new tools and maybe they'll come, but we can't count on them.' So far, the West African outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria."
Of course, let's CONTINUE PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE EBOLA CRISIS IN WEST AFRICA AND THE HEALING OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INFECTED.
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)
LATEST:"Christians in the Middle East Arm Themselves As Genocide Comes to Their Front Door" - Katie Pavlich | Sep 05, 2014;
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/09/05/christians-in-the-middle-east-arm-themselves-as-violence-rages-around-them-n1887849" Earlier this week the BBC and Al Jazeera both reported on armed Iraqi citizen volunteers who helped government forces fight off ISIS in Amerli. Today, the AP is out with a story about Christians in the Middle East who are arming themselves, carrying weapons with them during daily tasks and heading to the hills at night to defend their communities as violence continues to rage around them. Genocide is at their front door and they're doing everything they can to stop it from coming in... So far, the terror army ISIS has slaughtered and tortured thousands of Christians in Iraq and Syria."
URGENT: Emergency Relief For Iraqi Believers Facing Genocide! - August 30, 2014- Liberty Counsel Action is partnering with RUN Ministries to deliver emergency food, water and shelter to Iraqi Christians and Yazidis who have fled their homes and are facing genocide. More than 146,000 people are now threatened by genocide from radical ISIS forces.RUN Ministries has a solid network of believers throughout the Middle East who are willing to risk life and limb to get relief through the ISIS lines of defense. The cost of getting the needed aid to them is $8 per person per day. This includes tents, blankets, food, and water for the first 3 weeks. TO DONATE (as I have), PLEASE GO TO: http://www.grassrootsaction.com/201181/offer.asp?Ref_ID=27781&CID=201181&RID=42814607
"Not Everyone Happy with Religious Ambassador Pick," Caitlin Burke,July 29, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
LATEST SAHEED NEWS! May 22 - "Pastor Saeed Forcibly Returned to Prison after Beating" - By Caitlin Burke,CBN News, May 22, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/May/Pastor-Saeed-Beaten-Sent-Back-to-Iran-Prison/ "Saeed Abedini, a U.S. pastor imprisoned for his faith, was severely beaten at an Iranian hospital before being returned to the brutal Rajai Shahr prison. His Iranian family claims the transfer was unexpected and the reason is unclear. But one of the guards involved in the transfer suggested recent Iranian nuclear talks could be a motive, the family said...""
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. We also remain hopeful that in addition to getting the medical care he so desperately needs, that Iranian officials display the kind of humanitarian treatment that often accompanies the start of the Iranian New Year which began on March 21st. This is the time of year when the Iranian government frequently offers clemency to prisoners of conscience. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Eugenics and Not-So Ancient History - Opposing the Will of God" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: September 15, 2014; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26063?spMailingID=9439368&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=380972472&spReportId=MzgwOTcyNDcyS0
We should applaud the newest memorial in Germany. And maybe we need one of our own.
A few weeks ago, Germany dedicated a memorial to Nazism’s first victims: the disabled. The people of Germany have come to terms with their past.The question now is, When will we?
The 80-foot glass panel unveiled in Berlin’s Tiergarten memorializes the estimated 70,000 sick and disabled people killed by the Third Reich as part of what was officially called Aktion T4 (and more informally, “Gnadentod,” which is German for “mercy death.”) There was nothing merciful about it. Between 1939 and 1941, more than 5,000 children deemed “defective” were killed.
The program was expanded to include adults whose disabilities rendered them, in arguably the most demonic phrase ever uttered by man, lebensunwertes Leben, “life unworthy of life.” “Worth” was most often described in economic terms: a propaganda poster told ordinary Germans that caring for someone with “hereditary defects” cost 60,000 Reichsmarks, which came from ordinary Germans’ pockets.
There was opposition to the program, most notably from the Bishop of Münster, who denounced the program saying that “It is a terrible, unjust and catastrophic thing when man opposes his will to the will of God” and rhetorically asked if being poor and unproductive meant “that they have lost their right to live?”
Now, before you file this away under the headings “ancient history” and “The Nazis were one of a kind,” there are two things you need to know: the Nazis learned from us, and the worldview that drove them is not ancient history. As Edwin Black, the author of “War Against the Weak” has documented, the ideas that led to Aktion T4 “began on Long Island and ended at Auschwitz . . . and yet never really stopped.”
By “Long Island” he means the Cold Spring Harbor Lab right here in New York, which was the driving force behind the eugenics movement in the United States. Between the turn of the twentieth century and our entry into World War II, America engaged in its own experiment in “racial hygiene.”
States prohibited marriage between the “fit” and “unfit,” often defining the latter category very broadly. They forcibly sterilized tens of thousands of people with the Supreme Court’s blessing. [Of course, decades later the Court gave it's blessing to abortion on demand.] The number of those affected by what Chuck Colson once dubbed “Yankee Doodle Eugenics” will never be known with any certainty.
What is certain is that, by the time Hitler came to power, the U.S. had been practicing the gospel of eugenics at home and spreading that message abroad, including Germany and, yes, among those who put Aktion T4 into action. As a colleague of mine has put it, “the demonic ideas about ‘race hygiene’ that the Third Reich put into practice were, at least initially, clearly marked ‘Made With Pride in the USA.’”
What’s also certain is that, as Black says, the eugenic impulse has never really gone away. It’s why Nobel Laureate James Watson, the co-discoverer of the double helix, has called “stupidity” a “disease” that should be eradicated through genetic research. And it’s why more than 90 percent of children diagnosed with Down Syndrome in utero are never born. And it’s why Richard Dawkins calls not killing them “immoral.”
The temptation to “play God” whether for “the good of the race” or our own convenience is hard to resist. At the very minimum, you have to acknowledge its existence, which Germany has, but we, with a few exceptions, have not. It is indeed a terrible, unjust and catastrophic thing when man opposes his will to the will of God.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
RESOURCES - As Christians we believe that God's image resides in every individual, and that all life is worthy of life. But as Eric pointed out, eugenics has a long and sordid history right here in the United States. Check out the resources below for Information on this subject and how to fight this horrific practice.
"Wir Sprechen kein Deutsch: Eugenics and the War against the Weak" - Roberto Rivera | BreakPoint.org | July 12, 2013;http://www.breakpoint.org/component/blog/entry/2/22813
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity website - https://cbhd.org/
War Against the Weak - Edwin Black | Four Walls Eight Windows | September 2003; http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Weak-Eugenics-Americas/dp/B00127UK2S/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1410539149
Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument against the Scientifically Organized State - G. K. Chesterton | Inkling Books | October 2000; http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/product.asp?sku=1587420023
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
UPDATE: "Second US Doctor Sick with Ebola; Crisis 'Out of Control'" - CBNNews.com, Sept. 02, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2014/September/A-Losing-Battle-Ebola-Going-to-Get-Worse-CDC-Says/ "Another American doctor in Liberia has tested positive for the Ebola virus, according to the international Christian mission organization, SIM. SIM leaders report the American doctor was treating obstetrics patients at the organization's ELWA Hospital in Monrovia and not treating Ebola patients..."The epidemic is going faster than we are," he warned. 'We need to scale up our response. We can hope for new tools and maybe they'll come, but we can't count on them.' So far, the West African outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria."
Of course, let's CONTINUE PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE EBOLA CRISIS IN WEST AFRICA AND THE HEALING OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INFECTED.
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)
LATEST:"Christians in the Middle East Arm Themselves As Genocide Comes to Their Front Door" - Katie Pavlich | Sep 05, 2014;
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/09/05/christians-in-the-middle-east-arm-themselves-as-violence-rages-around-them-n1887849" Earlier this week the BBC and Al Jazeera both reported on armed Iraqi citizen volunteers who helped government forces fight off ISIS in Amerli. Today, the AP is out with a story about Christians in the Middle East who are arming themselves, carrying weapons with them during daily tasks and heading to the hills at night to defend their communities as violence continues to rage around them. Genocide is at their front door and they're doing everything they can to stop it from coming in... So far, the terror army ISIS has slaughtered and tortured thousands of Christians in Iraq and Syria."
URGENT: Emergency Relief For Iraqi Believers Facing Genocide! - August 30, 2014- Liberty Counsel Action is partnering with RUN Ministries to deliver emergency food, water and shelter to Iraqi Christians and Yazidis who have fled their homes and are facing genocide. More than 146,000 people are now threatened by genocide from radical ISIS forces.RUN Ministries has a solid network of believers throughout the Middle East who are willing to risk life and limb to get relief through the ISIS lines of defense. The cost of getting the needed aid to them is $8 per person per day. This includes tents, blankets, food, and water for the first 3 weeks. TO DONATE (as I have), PLEASE GO TO: http://www.grassrootsaction.com/201181/offer.asp?Ref_ID=27781&CID=201181&RID=42814607
"Not Everyone Happy with Religious Ambassador Pick," Caitlin Burke,July 29, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
LATEST SAHEED NEWS! May 22 - "Pastor Saeed Forcibly Returned to Prison after Beating" - By Caitlin Burke,CBN News, May 22, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/May/Pastor-Saeed-Beaten-Sent-Back-to-Iran-Prison/ "Saeed Abedini, a U.S. pastor imprisoned for his faith, was severely beaten at an Iranian hospital before being returned to the brutal Rajai Shahr prison. His Iranian family claims the transfer was unexpected and the reason is unclear. But one of the guards involved in the transfer suggested recent Iranian nuclear talks could be a motive, the family said...""
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. We also remain hopeful that in addition to getting the medical care he so desperately needs, that Iranian officials display the kind of humanitarian treatment that often accompanies the start of the Iranian New Year which began on March 21st. This is the time of year when the Iranian government frequently offers clemency to prisoners of conscience. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
PRAY ALSO : - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- For leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release
/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray:
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Eugenics and Not-So Ancient History - Opposing the Will of God" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: September 15, 2014; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26063?spMailingID=9439368&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=380972472&spReportId=MzgwOTcyNDcyS0
We should applaud the newest memorial in Germany. And maybe we need one of our own.
A few weeks ago, Germany dedicated a memorial to Nazism’s first victims: the disabled. The people of Germany have come to terms with their past.The question now is, When will we?
The 80-foot glass panel unveiled in Berlin’s Tiergarten memorializes the estimated 70,000 sick and disabled people killed by the Third Reich as part of what was officially called Aktion T4 (and more informally, “Gnadentod,” which is German for “mercy death.”) There was nothing merciful about it. Between 1939 and 1941, more than 5,000 children deemed “defective” were killed.
The program was expanded to include adults whose disabilities rendered them, in arguably the most demonic phrase ever uttered by man, lebensunwertes Leben, “life unworthy of life.” “Worth” was most often described in economic terms: a propaganda poster told ordinary Germans that caring for someone with “hereditary defects” cost 60,000 Reichsmarks, which came from ordinary Germans’ pockets.
There was opposition to the program, most notably from the Bishop of Münster, who denounced the program saying that “It is a terrible, unjust and catastrophic thing when man opposes his will to the will of God” and rhetorically asked if being poor and unproductive meant “that they have lost their right to live?”
Now, before you file this away under the headings “ancient history” and “The Nazis were one of a kind,” there are two things you need to know: the Nazis learned from us, and the worldview that drove them is not ancient history. As Edwin Black, the author of “War Against the Weak” has documented, the ideas that led to Aktion T4 “began on Long Island and ended at Auschwitz . . . and yet never really stopped.”
By “Long Island” he means the Cold Spring Harbor Lab right here in New York, which was the driving force behind the eugenics movement in the United States. Between the turn of the twentieth century and our entry into World War II, America engaged in its own experiment in “racial hygiene.”
States prohibited marriage between the “fit” and “unfit,” often defining the latter category very broadly. They forcibly sterilized tens of thousands of people with the Supreme Court’s blessing. [Of course, decades later the Court gave it's blessing to abortion on demand.] The number of those affected by what Chuck Colson once dubbed “Yankee Doodle Eugenics” will never be known with any certainty.
What is certain is that, by the time Hitler came to power, the U.S. had been practicing the gospel of eugenics at home and spreading that message abroad, including Germany and, yes, among those who put Aktion T4 into action. As a colleague of mine has put it, “the demonic ideas about ‘race hygiene’ that the Third Reich put into practice were, at least initially, clearly marked ‘Made With Pride in the USA.’”
What’s also certain is that, as Black says, the eugenic impulse has never really gone away. It’s why Nobel Laureate James Watson, the co-discoverer of the double helix, has called “stupidity” a “disease” that should be eradicated through genetic research. And it’s why more than 90 percent of children diagnosed with Down Syndrome in utero are never born. And it’s why Richard Dawkins calls not killing them “immoral.”
The temptation to “play God” whether for “the good of the race” or our own convenience is hard to resist. At the very minimum, you have to acknowledge its existence, which Germany has, but we, with a few exceptions, have not. It is indeed a terrible, unjust and catastrophic thing when man opposes his will to the will of God.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
RESOURCES - As Christians we believe that God's image resides in every individual, and that all life is worthy of life. But as Eric pointed out, eugenics has a long and sordid history right here in the United States. Check out the resources below for Information on this subject and how to fight this horrific practice.
"Wir Sprechen kein Deutsch: Eugenics and the War against the Weak" - Roberto Rivera | BreakPoint.org | July 12, 2013;http://www.breakpoint.org/component/blog/entry/2/22813
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity website - https://cbhd.org/
War Against the Weak - Edwin Black | Four Walls Eight Windows | September 2003; http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Weak-Eugenics-Americas/dp/B00127UK2S/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1410539149
Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument against the Scientifically Organized State - G. K. Chesterton | Inkling Books | October 2000; http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/product.asp?sku=1587420023
No comments:
Post a Comment