Tag Archives: Catholicism

Voting to end the American Holocaust

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(This is part two of a series. Tap here to read the first half, which focused on scriptural examples of God’s people who virtuously supported flawed heathen leaders.)

Winston Churchill, known to be intentionally rude at times, was passionate to save the Jews from Hitler at a time when other world leaders (including our own) preferred to look the other way.

Does history offer any examples of holocausts which were ended by righteous rulers? I have found none. Instead, history seems to indicate that a narcissistic leader like Churchill is typically empowered by our sovereign God to lead urgent life-saving (and nation-saving) political tasks which often are too “dirty” for perfectionistic Christians to accomplish.

Are Christians then helpless to do anything in our nation to end the American Holocaust of abortion? Should we follow those who make the pledge to refuse to offer any support for any politician who falls short of penalizing every abortion as murder (in an effort to “immediately” end every abortion)? Or shouldn’t our primary goal first be to seek to support politicians who will allow Christians to pursue efforts to protect the lives of vulnerable children?

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Discerning religious Gates of Hell

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(This is part of my recent series on the Gates of Hell.)

As we confront today’s child-killing Gates of Hell under the power and promise of Christ, we labor alongside others whose definition of Christianity looks different from our own. Some of our friends have become very offended at what they consider to be idolatrous prayers and practices of some of our co-laborers.

Good Samaritan

A Samaritan rescues an injured man who had been shunned by a priest and Levite.

This offense of idolatry may seem to overshadow the offense of abortion, causing our friends to focus instead on attacking the religion of our co-laborers as another “Gate of Hell.” This problem often weakens or even destroys anti-abortion efforts.

If the Church is to faithfully confront the Gates of Hell, we must indeed first be sure to properly (and fully) identify these gates. Ignoring one gate while confronting all others is likely to prove to be futile in the long run.

Jewish leaders did not limit the concept of the Gates of Hell to Gehenna; the burning of children there only provided the most obvious, disgraceful example. Idolatry and false religions were represented in Scripture as snares which led the nation of Israel on the pathway to child sacrifice (Psalm 106:36-39), along with sexual perversions (Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23).
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Victory at the Gates of Hell: the Young Church

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Through His foundational proclamation that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church, Jesus set the stage for transforming the most repugnant atrocities in Jewish history into a decisive victory against the agenda of Hell.

Crying baby left to die

Ezekiel 16: God’s abandoned baby

Jesus equated Hell with Gehenna, a notorious place near Jerusalem where innocent children had been sacrificed by being burned. When wicked people plot to destroy the innocent in places like Gehenna, God promises to avenge this innocent blood by catching the wicked in their own traps (Psalm 9:12-16). This is a major theme of stories throughout the Bible, such as Haman being hung upon the pole he made to kill Mordecai in the book of Esther. Gates are often identified as places of judgment in scripture (Deuteronomy 16:18), and Jesus emphasized that those who murder the innocent warrant the judgment of Hell (Matthew 23:23).

Jesus considered attacks against children to be particularly heinous (Matthew 18:1-14), so it is no surprise that the early Church made the protection of orphans a high priority, an essential aspect of “pure and undefiled religion” (James 1:27). Christianity’s emphasis on the value of children was an extremely counter-cultural concept in the Roman Empire, where newborn children were not considered to be fully human (as some philosophers even asserted that babies were more like plants than human beings).
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Mourning the loss of the anti-Samaritans

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People praying outside Bakersfield FPA abortion center

Terri Palmquist ministers outside the Bakersfield FPA abortion center while friends from a different religious tradition pray nearby.

Every 40 Days for Life campaign seems to have its own unique positives and negatives. Although we experienced incredible blessings during this (our eleventh) campaign, for most of the campaign I was physically ill.   But what bothered me even more than my physical problems was my sadness over the fact that some people who were very important parts of past campaigns have decided to no longer participate in 40 Days for Life.

What is even more tragic to me is the reason that they left.

A few days before the beginning of this campaign, we met with a pastor who explained why he will no longer participate in 40 Days for Life.  The essence of his concern related to doctrinal purity: the importance of focusing on saving souls and not just saving babies.   Continue reading →

Putting Prejean in perspective

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Why would a Catholic nun advance a “pro-life” view against the death penalty while refusing to speak against killing innocent children by abortion? I have asked myself this question repeatedly over the past several days while searching for quotes from Sister Helen Prejean, who is speaking in Bakersfield later this week. Although I am not a member of a Catholic church, I have a high respect for many Catholic teachings, and particularly appreciate the Catholic Church’s long record of consistency regarding life issues such as abortion.

We learned of Sr. Prejean’s visit from Joel Torczon, our friend and dedicated pro-life volunteer who also happens to be a member of St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, one of the churches where Prejean will be speaking. Torczon wrote a letter to the editor of the Bakersfield Californian expressing concerns about Prejean’s views in the context of the “consistent life ethic.”
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A sign from a cross?

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While all of the crosses were exposed to the water, only the Mary cross retained the water.

While all of the crosses were exposed to the water, only the Mary cross retained the water.

During the 40 Days for Life Closing Celebration on November 6, I shared the new video “Blessings” which (from my perspective) captures the spirit of this 40 Days for Life campaign.  When the video ended, I talked to the small crowd gathered in the cold, damp air, about something I found to be quite amazing when capturing images for this video.

(Understanding that some may doubt the significance of my observations, I confessed that after long hours at the vigil I have been known to make extended observations relating to “trivial” things such as cracks in the sidewalk.)

The “Blessings” video returns several times to a scene of crosses outside the abortion center.  The crosses were placed in memory of the babies aborted the previous day, as the mothers left the abortion center one by one with aching, empty wombs.  On each cross, a name was written to represent the identities of the real human beings whose lives were sacrificed.  Early that morning as I videotaped the crosses dripping with water, I noticed that the front cross bore the name “Thomas,” while immediately behind that cross was a cross bearing the name “Mary.”
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