Birmingham Planned Parenthood on One Year Probation

This news article made me glad/excited and sad/angry at the same time. It is an article about the video below (by Live Action) and the state of Alabama's reaction to it.





According to the article,

After the tape was released last year, state health inspectors reviewed clinic records and found that nine minors, ages 13-15, had received abortions without proper verification of parental consent since November 2008.

In one case, health officials said, a 15-year-old received an abortion even though the person claiming to be her mother did not appear to be and presented questionable records, including an expired Alabama driver's license. Inspectors said Alabama birth records show a different person as the girl's parent.

There were also concerns about reporting child abuse. One of the 13-year-olds who received an abortion reported starting having sex at age 12 and having three partners in the previous year. She was back at the clinic for another abortion four months later and said she had now had four sexual partners in her life.

"A reasonable person would suspect abuse or neglect of this 13-year-old child, based on the above," inspectors wrote. "Neither the Registered Nurse, the Medical Doctor, nor any other Center staff reported the suspected abuse or neglect to the authorities as required by law."

According to the Code of Alabama, minors must present clinics with a consent form and verify that the signature on the form is that of their parent or legal guardian. The code requires the minor to sign the form as verification, but the clinic's forms don't have a space for that.

I am glad that Live Action's Mona Lisa Project is making an impact. I am glad that the state of Alabama is taking action (though I think it should have been harsher than a 1 year probation).
But the thought of all these rapers of young girls not being brought to justice brings me to tears. The thought of a 13 year old having 2 abortions is so sad.

Please join me in praying prayers of confession and repentance for our nation.

Social Justice Research

In thinking about and researching my questions on social justice, I have been reading this post by Peter Greer and Phil Smith the authors of The Poor Will Be Glad. Here are some paragraphs that highlight the complexity of the subject and how our good intentions can have bad consequences.

After the genocide [in Rwanda], Jean seized an opportunity to begin a small poultry business to provide his neighborhood with eggs. He managed to scrape together funds to purchase several fowl, and his business grew. Later, a church in America “adopted” the village where Jean lived and worked. The church decided to donate clothes and supplies. They also imported eggs from a neighboring community and gave them away. Suddenly, this one village was flooded with surplus eggs. It is not difficult to imagine what happened to Jean’s business: people went first to collect the free eggs and bought Jean’s eggs only when the supply of free eggs was depleted. The market price for eggs plummeted in Jean’s village and, as a result, Jean was forced to sell his productive assets, his chickens.

The next year, after Jean had left the poultry business, the church that had supplied the free eggs turned its attention to another disaster in another part of the world. Jean’s community had no capacity to produce eggs locally and was forced to import eggs from a neighboring town. The cost of these eggs was higher than the eggs Jean had sold, so both Jean and his village were hurt economically by the good intentions of one American church.

Have you ever donated your used T-shirts to your local thrift store? Often these are bundled and shipped to Africa. This business of secondhand Western clothing, called the mivumba trade in East Africa, decimated clothing production in countries like Uganda and Zambia that previously had thriving textile industries. Several other countries, including Nigeria and Eritrea, have imposed significant tariffs on foreign imports to avoid a similar fate. It is hard to comprehend that our used T-shirts could harm local producers on another continent, yet the American church must learn to be aware of such consequences in our increasingly interconnected world.

Many Governments

American Vision has an interesting post today about the many governments. It is worth a read. Here are a couple of quotes to whet your appetite.

To deny the validity of the many governments and the responsibili­ties that each has under God, would be to deny the authority that belongs to each of them in the realm of their activity. If we as individuals neglect our personal governing duties, then we can expect the state to assume the role of all other legitimate governments and claim to be the sole gov­ernment, while labeling all others as counterfeits. Therefore, to see the state as the only governing institution “is destructive of liberty and of life.”

Institutions and civil governments are made up of people who are governed by the condition of their hearts. If the heart is in rebellion against God, we can expect undisciplined and ungovern­able people. If the heart has been made new in Christ, we can expect a people who will govern their lives according to the governing principles of Scripture.

Social Justice Question 1

I have been thinking for some time about justice and how it applies to socioeconomic issues for some time now. I made my self a list of questions so that I could crystalize my thoughts. So far I have only answered the first one to my satisfaction.

1. What is justice? Justice is allowing people to experience the rewards or consequences (both legal and natural) of their actions regardless of their socioeconomic status. For example, if a person commits murder, they should have the legal punishment even if they are rich or famous. A natural example would be something like this: If you drink and drive, you are more likely to crash your car. This consequence happens as a natural result. An example of a just reward would be getting the prize if you fairly won the race.

Here are the rest of my questions:
2. Is this true of countries as well? What are the natural economic consequences and rewards of various political systems, religions, and corrupt practices when looking at countries and peoples as a whole?

4. What economic system(s), religion(s), etc. are prone to produce prosperous countries?

5. Mercy is negating just consequences because you empathize with the other person or find that there extenuating circumstances. For example, an abused woman might be given a reduced sentence for murdering her husband. How much mercy can be injected into a system without collapsing the system? We cannot allow all criminals to go free or to get a minimal punishment no matter how sorry we feel for them. We would be foolish to never punish our children no matter how sad it makes us. Is it true of all systems that justice must only be sprinkled with mercy?

6. How do these ideas apply to the poor especially in other countries?

Tebow Superbowl Ad

It was confirmed some time ago that Tim Tebow and his mother were going to have an ad during the Superbowl this year. I had never heard of the young man until I read about his ad. (I don't watch football though I do enjoy the Superbowl for some reason.) I found his story very touching.

Now of course pro-abortion types have come out protesting. According to LifeSiteNews, [a] fierce campaign is being waged by pro-abortion forces against the planned pro-life Super Bowl ad featuring football superstar Tim Tebow. At last count, pro-abortion organizations had generated over 120,000 letters opposing the ad, which have been sent to CBS, and NFL executives.
(If you would like to sign a petition letting CBS know that you are supportive of this, click here.)

Is there still freedom of speech in this country or what? If you abortion types are so offended, don't watch the Superbowl. It is as simple as that.

UPDATE: In the comments, I was given this link to a site where you can be an encouragement to Tim Tebow. The site says that NOW is also protesting the ad. Now there is a surprise. This video was also linked to above the note of encouragement section.

Texas Republican Governor's Race Primary

Here in Texas we Republicans have three choices for Governor in the primaries.

The first is the incumbent, Governor Rick Perry. He has been playing a good conservative game lately. He did go to the tea parties. He eventually vetoed SB 1440. And Sarah Palin is participating in a rally for him. But I never really thought that was who he truly was. It seems like he is playing a game and he knows a conservative is more likely to win. And I haven't forgotten that he (by executive order) tried to shove the HPV vaccine down Texans throats.

His website boasts that he has aggressively created jobs, but I found out that almost all of the "created jobs" are in the government sector. So how does that equate to a small government Republican? The rest of his issues section seems good at face value.

But there is also a lot of bad points to be read about here. The first one mentioned is:
The Trans Texas Corridor and the gargantuan, multi-billion dollar toll road fiasco. The TTC and the toll roads are the biggest taxing, spending, and tolling increases in the history of Texas! The toll road scam screws Texas taxpayers, consumers, drivers and landowners. Rick Perry shoved toll roads down the throats of millions of Texans. It is a prime example of the big government, pro-tax, pro-toll agenda of Rick Perry. Then he wants to sell these roads off for quick cash like a fool.


The second is Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. I would label her as a moderate. This website is a great resource for why I can't even consider voting for KBH. Her issues section sounds good but I just don't trust her.

The third is my favorite, Debra Medina. This lady is all about freedom. What a breath of fresh air! Her main talking points are repealing the property tax so that you can really own your property and have true property rights and protecting gun ownership/the right to defend yourself and protect your property. She rightly says that these are two of the pillars of a free society. One of the things that I like most about her is that she actually appears to have read and understood the US Constitution and the Texas Constitution. She is not afraid to talk about states nullifying unconstitutional laws passed by Congress.

Her issues page has a section on the right to life. It is simple enough.

Pro-Life Period

Life begins at conception and concludes at natural death.

Every human is created in the image of God. God, not man, is the measure of all things. Every human life is precious and I will work to protect innocent human life.

The main "con" against Mrs. Medina is that she has no experience. I think video on her home page is a great answer to that.

The other is: Can she win? Well, after Mr. Brown win in Massachusets, I would say anything is possible. She has gone up from 3% in the fall to 12% in the most current Rassmusen poll.
I hope that continues to gain momentum.

You can watch her responses in a recent debate below. You can click through to Youtube to view the other parts or click on the related videos when you are done.

Operation Rescue

Operation Rescue does great work finding how abortionists are breaking the law and working to get them closed down. They are currently offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can give them convicting evidence of abortion clinics that break the law. They claim that they have never found an abortion clinic that complies with all of the federal, state, and local laws. So if you know something criminal that has taken place at an abortion clinic, please give Operation Rescue your information.

Also, this organization has a list of all the abortion clinics in America. It also gives each state a rank. These are the ones for Texas.

Ratio of Women Ages 15-44 Per Abortion Clinic: 125,022 to 1
Rank: 29 (50 being best)

Abortion Rate Per 100,000 Women Ages 15-44: 15
Rank: 19 (48 being best, 2 states don't report)

In cruising around their site, I found a fairly disturbing story:

In New Orleans there is an abortionist, Ifeanyi Charles Anthony Okpalobi of the Gentilly Medical Clinic for Women, that is continuing to practice without a license. Operation Rescue was instrumental in proving that he was not abiding by several state laws. So his license was revoked. But he is still allowed to practice. Why? According to Operation Rescue, this is because he is allowed to stay open while his case is being appealed.