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Forgive Me, Father – A Word to Father Dotson

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Victor Chininin Buele

A quick background paragraph must go first.  I woke up this morning, thanked the Lord for a new day of life, and while catching up on the latest episode of the reality TV adventures of President-Elect Trump, I noticed a news story about the pope which CNN summarized as pope Francis granting the right to forgive abortion to every Catholic priest. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/21/europe/pope-francis-absolve-abortion/index.html.  Such a story sure woke me up.  I published the following on my Facebook account after reading the whole article:

deskto

Father William Dotson, Associate Pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Parish in Wentzville, Missouri, and a long-time and dear friend of mine, was very kind to respond to my comment to shed some light on the subject.  This longer response comes from a need to work through how words matter.  Especially when we are dealing with the word forgiveness.  He explained the story behind the reported story.  For that I’m thankful.

“This story is a huge misunderstanding.”  I thank Father Dotson for shedding light on the subject.  It turns out that the media did not find a good way to summarize what actually happened in a way that actually would get someone to click on it.  “Pope: Abortion Forgivable” makes for many more clicks.  About a year ago I protested about a similar story where the Year of Mercy was announced by the pope about the same subject.  Just like before, the pope was not addressing forgiveness of the sin but forgiveness of the ecclesiastical consequences, the ecclesiastical penalties of a sin like abortion (i.e., excommunication, etc.)  Only bishops could forgive those penalties before the permission has been granted, and now your friendly neighborhood Roman catholic priest can extend this permission to forgive the ecclesiastical penalties of such a sin to anyone coming to confess this.

So, my temptation would be to summarize this as: “Pope says absolutely nothing of substance about healing after an abortion.”  “Media takes advantage of obscure statement.”

But that would just contribute to the climate of non-meaningful dialog.

I have not taken my original post down as I would with an apology if I would have found my original statement to be wrong, unhelpful, or incoherent to the conversation.  While CNN has been proven to be inaccurate in this story, my point was well summarized by what I read shortly before encountering that story in Tim Keller’s Hidden Christmas and quoted in my Facebook post.  Nothing in Father Dotson’s response to my comment or in his own post about the subject have changed my original point.  So, let me interact further with this.

While we both are starting at a point where we both acknowledge the sinfulness of abortion, we appear to diverge greatly on everything after that.  But I do need to affirm this point of initial agreement lest we think this does not matter at all.  Let’s say that Rosita walks into the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic and exerts her legal right as a United States citizen to have an abortion.  On the way out she sees this short guy standing on a step ladder named Pastor Victor, and their eyes meet.  And she does not get a look of judgement but one of compassion.  It’s not an “I told you, so you filthy, ugly sinner.  Now you are going to pay for not ‘choosing life,’ and I’m going to make sure you know it” moment.  She just went through an incredibly difficult historical point of her life, and I don’t have any clue as to what lays before and after this moment in her life.  The fence keeps her from further contact, but the boyfriend did not go in.  He stayed outside listening to his loud music.  As she walks to him she says hello to my children and my wife who are there praying.  We don’t have funny signs nor are we seeking to violate the law.  We are not in her face.  But she loses it.  It all becomes real.  And she is broken.  While she may have had a choice to do this, the consequences of this kick in.  She believed the counselors and the literature that advised her that she had disposed a blob of tissue.  But there she finds herself alone.  Her feelings don’t match up with a mere biological disposal. You know, that loneliness that is not overcome just because she is sitting next to the man who paid for the procedure.  The sadness she carries is an indescribable sadness. So she gets out of the car, and she finds Pastor Victor and Father Dotson standing by each other.

My priorities in such an encounter would be:

  1. To get my wife there to hold Rosita and comfort her.
  2. To listen to her.  To take her away from there and give her a place to collect her thoughts and her emotions.
  3. To offer actual help.  We will have to sort out how we can be a blessing to her as the church.  We would find ways to welcome her and care for her.  The Lord Jesus has taught us to have compassion on those who are lost–like sheep without a shepherd.
  4. To preach the gospel to her.  Acts 8:35 gives us a model here of the loving command to tell her the good news about Jesus starting with this circumstance in her life.  How does Jesus make you whole.  How does Jesus carry you in his arms.  How does Jesus through His church lead you to repentance and healing.  How does Jesus give you hope, actual hope, of restoration.  In other words, we are to preach of the calling and consequences of forgiveness of sins.  We all, not just those who are in this situation, have sinned and fallen short.  How could we not offer the same forgiveness we have experienced!
  5. Regardless of her response to the call of the gospel, to love her sacrificially, generously, and lavishly.  We are not peddlers trying to see conversion as a financial transaction.  It may be we are the only people in the world who are talking to her at the moment.

I would say that Father Dotson would say that these are his priorities as well.

The challenge is that he comes to the game with a very complicated ecclesiastical set of rules on his back that make such an invitation very difficult.  If I am not misrepresenting him, forgiveness can only come through a Roman catholic priest (but Jesus did away with the need for a priesthood with the once-and-for-all sacrifice of his perfect life at the cross). Forgiveness cannot be separated from this Roman catholic structure.  His response to my question implies that, though we have Vatican II trying to bridge this gap, we are still as far away as we were five hundred years ago.  And what the pope is doing here is allowing for the local priest to do this rather than only the archbishop of St. Louis in our case.

So, I’m beyond thankful for his clarification and for not wanting to take a Facebook thread into the realm of confession, what the roman church calls the sacrament of confession. There are a number of verses from the New Testament as well as a plethora of teachings from Roman church history that will make his point for Father Dotson that there is a special gift and command to the Roman church to forgive sins.  There are a number of verses from the New Testament that plainly make the point that the call of repentance and the forgiveness of sins are unmediated and are on the basis of Christ’s work alone.  That discussion is a worthy one.  It matters because the essence of the gospel is at play.

But today my point is a narrower one – every news outlet in America is going to report that (by implication):

  1. Christians did not think abortion was forgivable
  2. The good pope Francis has changed this and now the church is changing its bad ways and granting this forgiveness
  3. Since abortion is not bad according to our collective cultural norms, this is a giant leap forward for humankind in accepting abortion
  4. (Perhaps), see, abortion is not that big of a deal!

That will only increase this perception that Christians are idiots and need to get on with the times.  Reality is that abortion, like every sin, is forgivable.  But not because some guy in Rome says so.  But because Jesus died for it.  And he never leaves us there and alone to pick up the consequences on our own.  When Matthew the evangelist reports the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.””  There was no ecclesiastical structure or stack of rules.  Just a plain call to repent.  And real forgiveness is at hand. I remember tricking all these priests while growing up.  For academic and family reasons, partaking in communion at the catholic church was always a must.  So, I, the clean-cut, goody-two-shoes rebel-who-pretended-to-be-a-good-boy always looked at these priests and delighted in saying, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.  It has been x weeks since my last confession.”  I would list the respectable sins: skipping church, lying to my mother, not praying enough.  And then I would deliver my carefully-crafted line, “And forgive me, Father, for any sins I may have left out in my examination of conscience, either by neglect or nervousness or whatever reason.”  This line was always delivered to sound like an afterthought, a very humble and pious afterthought.  This line hid the ugliness of my sin for many years.  I knew it was detestable.  It was so bad that I couldn’t even say it to the old priest who was hard of hearing.  If I were waiting for a priest to deliver me from that, I would still be broken and actively destroying my life.  Maybe I wouldn’t even be here anymore.  But when that tall dude in college led me to actually pray in the Spirit, “Forgive me, Father,” to the Father in heaven through the merits of Christ alone and not my own, only then was my freedom found.

I cannot and will not stand by anything that puts obstacles in the way of forgiveness. And I will not stand quiet while people are led to believe that forgiveness is pointless.

Father Dotson himself writes, “This is not about forgiving sins but about ecclesiastical penalties, and is mostly a symbolic gesture, as priests generally already had this faculty.” That is the most scary thing I have read his month.  And knowing that “President Trump” has been written this month, that should say a lot.  Let’s be done with symbolic gestures and get to the real gritty business of seeking the lost and welcoming them.  Jesus did not keep his holiness to himself.  He radically affected every sinner who came to him.  They were never the same.  There is no mediator but Jesus – the separation between God and man has not been in place for 2000 years.  Let’s get on with the times.

Healing is messy.  Let the full, clean, crisp gospel shine forth have its right effect.

And I might just go see my friend Father Dotson after one of his morning masses and continue to talk.  It’s good for the soul.  Thank you for the comment.

So What If Abortion Ended – What Would I “Obsess” Over, Then? I’m Glad You Asked

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Angela Chininin Buele

Perhaps you wonder if the only thing I ever think about is abortion.  I assure you, it is not.  I think about lots of other things – from how to better educate myself about current events on the global scale to wondering why the guy that “predicted” the Cubs’ recent championship win didn’t get more media attention.

I am a regular person.  I am also a passionate person who won’t just sit by while tiny people – people just like you and me, created in the very image of God – are legally dismembered in the very place they should be most protected.

In the end, though, it isn’t just the abortion of unborn babies that upsets me so.  It is the fervor with which people cling to the gifts given them, while they reject and disdain the Creator from whom the gifts come.  Essentially, my message would not change if abortion were to end.  “Flee from death and darkness!  Turn to Light and Life in Christ!”  This is and will always be my plea.

If you have read any of my posts, I pray they have been used to lead you a greater understanding of the eternal hope made possibly only through Jesus.  It has been an intense 40 days in our household as the candle was often burned at both ends.  I am very thankful for the kind and wise husband the Lord has given me.  As I have written, he has surrendered many hours in order to review, edit, and advise, not to mention designing the graphics.

I’ll likely take a break from blogging for a bit, but I will not stop praying – for those who pro-choice, for those who are pregnant and scared, and for those who are pro-life and putting their hope in the law of man instead of the grace of God.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” ( John 14:6).

It Takes a Village: An Introduction to Some Organizations Offering Life Resources

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Angela Chininin Buele

Have you been thinking about the life and death issue of abortion?  Were you once staunchly pro-choice but now find yourself reconsidering?  If so, you should know that you are not alone.  There are lots of people who have had a change of heart regarding the unborn.

Did you know that hundreds of people who used to work in abortion facilities have quit their jobs in recent years?  Many of these weary souls have found encouragement, compassion, and a helping hand during their employment transition from an organization called And Then There Were None.  This group knows what it’s like to leave one way of life and turn toward the very same people you may have once considered enemies.  If they consider you an enemy still, will they believe that you have been changed?  Yes!  In fact, that is what ATTWN founder Abby Johnson went through when she left her job as the director of a Planned Parenthood facility in Texas 7 years ago.

If you or someone you know would like to leave their job in the abortion industry, you can get in touch with people who are eager to help you at: https://abortionworker.com/

Maybe you don’t work in the abortion industry but you have always been passive about abortion.  Maybe you would never have an abortion, but you have never before been willing to take a stand against abortion.   If you are now feeling that tug to see all life protected, you should know that there is an organization that coordinates peaceful prayer vigils across the country and around the world.  Uniting people in prayer and fasting, they have been blessed by the Lord to make a difference in the lives of abortion-vulnerable expectant mothers and abortion facility employees like Abby Johnson as well!  Check out their site for more information about how you can be an active part of the movement that cries out to God to change the hearts of men and women.  https://40daysforlife.com/

Are you pregnant and scared?  Maybe you don’t really want to abort your baby, but you don’t know what other options you have.  You need to know that you do have options, and you also have friends – friends you haven’t even met yet – who want to walk with you as you decide what to do.  The information, the listening ear, and the resource they have to offer are completely free because they want to see you well cared for. This is the closest pregnancy resource center to me, but even if you live somewhere else, you can get in touch with them through their website, and they can help you find a center close to you. http://www.mylifenet.org/

You are welcome in the loving community of life.  It doesn’t matter what you have done or said.  Jesus Christ offers forgiveness, and we can attest to the richness of that mercy.  Our arms are open to you because we thank God for all life, and that includes you, too!

Is this a new day for you?  It can be.

A Life Worth Living: You Might Be Surprised By Who Suffers Because Of Abortion and Assisted Suicide

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Angela Chininin Buele

What is each life worth?  Do we get to assign that value?  I’m thankful we do not.

No one has ever designed a human being.  When clones have been made, they have been made with the material of existing creatures of which the cloning agents did not hold any intellectual property rights.

It is amazing that two special cells unite to begin the most magnificent growth chain that can send a ripple wave throughout the world, making a difference in the lives of people, discovering places, and inventing things – if, of course, that child is not aborted.

Humankind has believed a lie.  A big one.  The lie is that humans are a renewable resource.  This is not true.  Each and every human being (even identical siblings) is a one-of-a-kind person in mind, heart, creativity, desire, and humor.  Each person has strengths and weaknesses that build the complex community of the world.  No two humans have the exact same skills or the exact same dreams.

The lie leads us to believe that babies are just fetal tissue that can be scraped away now so that another baby could be conceived when the time is right, when there is more money in the bank, when you are in a relationship with the right person to start a family, when you have achieved that promotion.  However, we can identify people, by name, who have made incredible contributions to music, medicine, civil rights, architecture, travel, and more.  If any of their mothers had chosen to abort them, we would never have had the benefit of the contributions they made to society.  Who are the more than 50 million men and women who have been aborted in this country over the last 43 years?  Which diseases might they have cured?  Which Olympic medals might they have won?  Whose lives might they have saved?  Which books might they have written?  With which of them might you have developed a lifelong friendship?  Which of them might have become an astronaut, a senator, the President of the United States?

While I am not the kind of writer who can lead you into worlds you never knew existed and make you never want to leave them, I wonder if you see this vision I am clumsily trying to paint.  We have told women that children are not the blessing–work is.  In doing this, we have robbed these women –and ourselves– of the once-in-a-lifetime gift of 50 million friends and family members.

Do you want to know something even more sad?  The culture of death doesn’t stop there.  In addition to the babies who are viewed as unwanted, the aged and infirm are also vulnerable to being eliminated because younger generations have no further use for them.  The old, the sick, and the very young are weak and require work, so we have believed the lie that they can be an optional part of society.

And there we have it.  When we use people, we do not love them; and setting criteria for when their lives are “worth” living is just a way of telling them they are not as worthy as you are of life.

Key Question:  Do you believe it to be more loving to give of yourself to be a blessing to another person, or to give up on them because you fear you will not bless them well?

Unshakable Truth:  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (1 John 4:18).

If you love someone, you will not act out of your fear, you will deny your fear and see the blessing in people, not in possessions, status, accomplishment, or praise.

The Real Choice:  Are you willing to forsake the stuff of this life and embrace the precious life of each one-and-only person in this world?

Forced Abortion: What Comfort Can Abortion Advocates Offer Women Who Are Victims of Forced Abortion?

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Angela Chininin Buele

It has been over 35 years since China introduced its one child policy.  Along the way, people around the world have chosen to view this as progress as they hailed reports of economic growth and decreased poverty.  In the 1980s, the UN even gave China’s Minister of Population Planning honors for “solving” China’s population crisis.  And just earlier this year, NPR published an article that largely criticized the one child policy, but then it concluded that the one child policy actually benefited the last generation of women by giving them more access to education since they were only children.

What they didn’t (or didn’t want to) see is the social castigation, coercion, and literal force used to implement this policy among families that wanted to have more than one child.  That is to say that both the Chinese government and international leaders at large were of a similar mindset–-just reduce the numbers; we don’t care what you have to do.  But men and women cared.  They wanted to have their children.

After tens of millions of forced sterilizations, a third of a billion – that’s 336,000,000 – children aborted, and untold millions of dollars of fines and other punishments enforced on parents who had children without permission, this has been a devastating generation for the Chinese people.

China’s men now have no wives.  Because so many parents wanted the cultural benefits of having their only child be a son, they were willing to kill their daughters in order to try again for a son.  This has happened as many as 100 million times since the one-child policy was introduced.

Parents who have lost their only child are lonely and vulnerable to destitution since nursing homes don’t want to admit elderly applicants who have no adult children to be responsible to pay for the services rendered.

It has been almost one year since the once child policy has been changed to a two child policy in China.  But no one knows when families who want more children will be able to trust that the threat of forced abortion is no longer looming from local authorities.

Where, I ask, has the voice of choice, Planned Parenthood been in all of this?  Where were the pink shirt protests in China?  According to a statement released in May of 2012, the PPFA (American branch of PP) opposes China’s family planning policies and practices.  In reality, however, Planned Parenthood is a proud member of IPPF, the very same organization that works alongside the Chinese government as they commit crimes against women and children.

The truth is that all abortion rights activists are in quite a difficult spot here.  If they decry forced abortions simply because the woman did not want to end her pregnancy, they have absolutely no way of comforting her.  Because they have fostered the rhetoric which claims that fetal tissue is not a person, all they can tell the victim of a forced abortion is that she can try to get pregnant again.  This is not compassion.  The woman mourns the loss of a beloved child, and she suffers heartbreak at the abortion that ended his or her life.  The love of a mother for her child is uncharted territory for those who call children unwanted tissue.

Key Question:  Do you find yourself in this impossible position – of being appalled by forced abortion but a proponent of voluntary abortion?

Unshakable Truth: “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him” (Psalm 103:13).

If you come from a background of seeing an unborn child without compassion, the only way to have compassion on those who are devastated by abortion is through the compassion that God grants when we acknowledge Him as King of compassion and loving authority over all.  He is the Creator of all living things, and that includes unborn babies and you, too.  There is no way to truly love people without first being loved by Him.

The Real Choice: Are you willing to receive genuine love from Christ Jesus and give that same love to women and children in all circumstances?

Adoption – Give Joy. Don’t Destroy It.

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Angela Chininin Buele

What are some of the reasons behind a woman seeking an abortion?  Poverty, abusive or ended relationship with the father, potential or confirmed disability of the unborn child, wrong time in life/career to raise children, and concern for overpopulation of the world are some that I have heard over the years.

So, how do all of those potential reasons excuse aborting instead of giving the child up for adoption?  If a woman is poor, she might already receive public aid and could receive additional help from a family eager to adopt her child.  Private assistance is also available to the women in abusive relationships, pregnant with disabled children, and career or education-focused.  These babies are wanted, and resources are available to help care for them.  And if overpopulation is a reason to abort, we find ourselves in quite the contradiction as communities cry out for no-kill shelters for animals and on-demand abortion mills for humans.

Clearly, some of the situations referenced above can cause fear, sadness, and other strong emotional reactions.  But, just as someone who is contemplating suicide needs help re-gaining perspective on the situation, women in crisis pregnancies are desperate for someone to be with them, listening and offering lasting help and a happy ending.  One thing women in a state of panic should consider is that parenting a child is a one-of-a-kind adventure that allows you to grow and learn, love and have fun just as you see your child do the same.  Adoption, on the other hand, is the option that gives women the opportunity to give life twice – once to the child, and then to a family longing for a child.

Believe it or not, there are even more reasons that women and couples might seek an abortion.  Race, sex, cleft palate, and twins instead of singleton are some of the more chilling reasons I have heard.  It is unfathomable.  The technology designed to give parents a glimpse of their eagerly awaited child(ren) is now the very scope used to ascertain their unworthiness of life.  As more and more anomalies of human behavior are deemed acceptable outside of the womb, fewer and fewer “imperfections” are tolerated among the unborn.

I know what some of you are thinking: How can you dare to require a woman to carry a child she does not want for nine months in order to give him or her up for adoption?  After all, she might face health risks, she will likely be under more stress than usual, and she will likely be asked personal questions that may make her feel uncomfortable.  These may be true, but think about this: Imagine a woman was holding her infant in her arms when an active shooter appeared. Now, imagine that the woman throws her baby down so that she can run faster to get away from the shooter. She might live, but what does she live with, and who will stand in her defense?

Key Question:  Does the trend that leans away from adoption show women as givers or takers of the life entrusted to them?

Unshakable Truth: (Jesus)“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.   But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.  He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.  And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’  Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fellt among the robbers?”  He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise” (Luke 10:30-37).

The Real Choice: Are you a merciful neighbor?

Abortion as Healthcare: The Tragic Business of Killing the Child and Damaging the Mother

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Angela Chininin Buele

Abortion is often referred to as women’s healthcare, but the care of one’s health consists of preventing illnesses and treating illnesses.  Abortions do not effectively prevent or treat any illnesses.  The sole purpose of an abortion is to end the life of a growing child.   And why?  A fetus is not a tumor; it is a baby.  A fetus is not cancer; it is a baby.  A fetus is not an infection; it is a baby.  Very rarely is a woman’s life in such jeopardy that the only way to preserve her life is to relieve her body of the vital task of internally supporting the life of her child, but yes, it does happen.  In these rare situations, when all other treatments have been applied and failed, or as in the case of a woman who has preeclampsia who is urgently induced or on whom an emergency cesarean is performed, the child is delivered with care and surrounded by staff eager to help him or her fight to survive.  Putting forth a determined fight to save both mother and child is true health care. 

Not only is the motive of abortion given the false pretense of aiding in the mother’s physical health, it is not uncommon for women to suffer physical harm during and after an abortion.  These procedures are currently carried out using methods that can cause severe bleeding and painful cramping at home, away from medical monitoring.  During surgical abortions, damage to a woman’s cervix and uterine wall can result, either of which could increase the risk of the woman miscarrying her child during a future pregnancy.  Infection is also a possible result of an incomplete abortion, which like any infection, could threaten the life of the mother if left untreated.

You will notice that I have mentioned only the most basic physical damages and complications that can result from an abortion because the bodies of the mother and child are physical forms, and the abortion is a violent and invasive physical procedure that harms both physical bodies.  There are certainly people willing to argue that some women have mental illnesses or undue emotional stress caused by the physical presence of their respective babies growing inside of them.  Because I am aware of no credible medical evidence (I am willing to be corrected if such evidence would be supplied) that a woman’s mental health causes involuntary (i.e. non-suicidal) damage to her physical being specifically attributed to pregnancy, I cannot see why anyone would so erroneously apply the term health to abortion.

But it would seem this is not an error.  I suspect it is actually an important strategy, to be quite honest.  You see, now that the technology is available to eagerly expectant mothers and fathers who want to see their tiny baby on an ultrasound before they can hold him or her in their arms, those pictures can be seen by abortion-vulnerable women too.  And not just in two dimensional form.  Now that more medically descriptive information and personal testimonies are being shared about the horror of abortion for mothers and their unborn children, that information can be learned by those same women.  And because of these irrefutable details that reveal the truth of what goes on in the womb, the other side of the battle is fought with the strategy of misdirection, using words like “health care” and “reproductive rights” to replace abortion and choice because people are now seeing that choosing abortion is killing a child.  “Health care” and “reproductive rights” are the new bandages applied to the gaping wound of the human conscience.  Will the clean gauze of those words soon be stained with the truth as well?  I pray so.  When there are no more words to mask the problem, maybe then we will step aside for the Great Physician to sew up the wound forever, bringing true care and healing.

Key Question: If you were completely honest, would you be able to deny that abortion kills a child?

Unshakable Truth: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you”  (Isaiah 49:15)

The God who formed you in your mother’s womb is the same Creator who gives life to all unborn children.  He does not forget those whom He redeems from sin and death.

The Real Choice: What keeps you from crying out to the Great Physician to heal you and forgive you, giving you a love for not just unborn life but for eternal life?

The Heroes of 9/11 – Why Self-Preservation Can Never See Glory

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Angela Chininin Buele

If you are old enough to have graduated from college, you know where you were and what you were doing on September 11, 2001.  I, for one, was still in college in rural Illinois.  I had already been to my 8:00 English class that morning, and when I arrived at Speech 101, I was told about “a plane hitting a building in New York.”  It seems to me that my classmate suggested it had been an accident.  However, after classes were canceled, I returned to my dorm to see the footage for myself.  My generation’s coming of age had already experienced major school shootings, and now we were receiving a very real education on terrorism.

Anytime I thought of the horror that would cause someone to jump from the window of a 100+ story building, it brought me to tears.  The 911 calls and the voice mails would wrench at my heart as well.  We all watched on television as the building collapsed, killing thousands.  In the months following that terrible day, there was an incredible outpouring of help and supplies offered by people from all regions of the country.  But that morning-from our side of the television screen- we were unable to reach out to rescue the perishing or comfort the survivors.  But we knew there were hundreds of first responders – police, firefighters, and EMTs who were rushing toward grave danger in order to help those who were desperately flooding out of the Twin Towers.

Just over 15 years have now passed since that dark day.  Each time we reflect as a nation on the pain and the cruelty suffered by one and all because of those attacks, we rightly honor the brave men and women in New York and in Virginia and in the air over Pennsylvania who tried – and succeeded in saving lives that day.  First responders, firefighters, and police officers live lives of great danger and sacrifice.  They usually don’t face their own mortality in the line of duty, but their lives hang in the balance each and every day they serve to protect and rescue others.  And that brave group of civilian passengers aboard Flight 93, 40 souls who knew they would be murdered and decided to rescue others in their own death, have given us such a vivid picture of grace under fire.

When a woman faces an unexpected pregnancy, there are many fears that may assault her, but lives are at stake.  A hero emerges only when a brave sacrifice gives another the chance to live.  Hundreds of the heroes of 9/11 died in their sacrifice, and those they rescued live to tell others of their gratitude.  How much sweeter is it for the mother who gives birth to her child, whether to raise or to give up for adoption, to know that both child and mother have a continuing story of heroism.  You see, no one has to die for a hero to be made.

Key Question: What is the relationship between self-preservation and heroic sacrifice?

Unshakable Truth:  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you”  (John 15:13-14).

Sacrifice and giving, bravery and protection are a part of every good story.  Period.  As Jesus loved mankind and surrendered His life willing to offer the salvation of ours, we know we are His friends if He shows us a love for our neighbor that allows us to care for them without the chains of self-preservation binding our hearts.

The Real Choice:  Do you want life badly enough that you’d be willing to die for it?

Feminism: The Raw Deal

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Angela Chininin Buele

How The Dream Might Have Actually Been Inception

I am naturally strong-willed, and just about anyone who knows me has the battle scars to prove it.  I have a persuasive (OK, more like bossy) bent, and I almost always have the impulse to lead others when I observe a leadership void though I suspect it’s more out of pride and/or impatience than out of a desire to benefit others.  I have been fired and nearly fired for my resistance to authority, and those are times that I can now look back on with gratitude for God’s sovereignty despite my arrogance. Yet I lived them in great turmoil.

I always thought feminism was about being a fighter and demonstrating some of the qualities listed above.  However, a quick check of the dictionary reveals that feminism is simply the advocacy for women being treated in a manner that establishes that they are equal to men.  That seems quite different to me.  You see, while I’m all for people who have the same skills and do the same job getting the same pay and I’m glad women can vote, own land, attend school, etc., it seems to me that a lot of what goes on in the fight to advance women’s rights is less about putting women in equal esteem as a man and is more about putting women in a position of greater importance than men.  And, quite honestly I find this to be quite ugly – from both points of view.

It’s as if, instead of women wanting to work with men to demonstrate comparable skill in a certain field without fanfare, there seems to be this common drive to specifically chip away at jobs that men have traditionally held and that have long been widely recognized as jobs done to serve and bless women by caring for them.  When women aggressively pursue careers in certain fields, some even challenging any resistance to her hiring with lawsuits claiming gender discrimination, how can that be understood as anything but a claim that the woman believes she would be a more suitable candidate because she is a woman, not because she happens to be a woman?  And so the lordship tide shifts instead of equalizing.

Please don’t misunderstand.  Moms (single or married) that have to work as a matter of survival are working to keep family members cared for – clothed, fed, and sheltered.  However, a woman who accepts a job in order to secure some sort of status (title, authority, money) in exchange for (an often significant) decrease in family involvement has made a profound statement concerning the value of  her role in the home.

Then, to make matters worse, when a woman gets that coveted job that supposedly proves she is just good as a man in her field, she will probably still work like crazy to have a fashionable presentation for the office, to mother the kids and maintain the house in just-above-state-of-emergency condition, and feed the family appropriate quantities of at least most of the food groups.  So, while some of these poor women spread themselves as thin as phyllo dough, they may insist they are fulfilled and have it all together.  The problem is that no recipe ever calls for a single layer of phyllo dough.  You either need one generously distributed crust or multiple phyllo sheets.  A woman who wants to prove herself in her career and still juggle other roles in the family and social realms is fighting a losing battle because just as a single layer of phyllo betrays the filling, the lowest ranked priority –be it the husband, the kids, the house, or personal reading– will be left out.

In short, more work and more sacrifice is often required of a woman than a man as she climbs the corporate ladder, and what I don’t understand is why this is still viewed by women as appealing?  As I said, more work at the office means less time with family, or in some cases, neglect to marry and/or have children in order to nurture the career.  And that sacrifice for the pride of having a non-domestic role, or having others recognize you as more accomplished, or being the bread-winner (or maybe the vacation or college fund) might thrill for a moment, but it does not a loving legacy make because, though you might think you love your job, it will never love you back.

Key Question:  What is freedom?

Unshakable Truth: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.  Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:30-31).

A woman’s works bring her praise when she fears the Lord.

The Real Choice:  Is the work of your hands dedicated to proving you are fruitful, or is it dedicated to actually being fruitful?

What Is Aleppo?

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Angela Chininin Buele

Gary Johnson Failed, But Is Our Ignorance Less Appalling?

You see the clip, you hear the gasps, and you think, “Please tell me some of the talking heads will give me some background, a hint, anything so I can figure this out before someone asks ME what Aleppo is.  Was anyone else in that boat?

I watch the news when I have the time, but that might offer more gossip than legitimate journalistic discovery.  I want to know what is going on in the volatile nations around the world, but my abundance often keeps my foc­­us on the homefront.

So, while I will not vote for Gary Johnson (only partially because he could not answer this question), I will take my place in line next to him.  I, too, am ignorant, confused and have the wrong response sometimes.  It is gut-wrenching to see how fickle the herd can be.  One guy doesn’t seem aware of the major crimes against humanity in Syria, and he is on the skewer while another might commit intelligence infractions against our own government and get off the hook.

Allow me to ask you a question.  If you stopped watching the news “shows” (i.e. programs that have tabloid-esque gossip bits and call for social media engagement with their show), and if you only read about people and places around the world, how might your perspective change?  Do you imagine that you would become more or less self-aware?  Would you be more or less interested in snappy tweets and political mud-slinging?

I keep very busy with my volunteer work, my family, my social circles, and all of the overlapping activities therein, which is why I have a news magazine stack (currently 2 deep, with another on the way in a matter of days).  I am so impressed by the quality of journalism and the diversity of topics covered in this publication, but alas, there is no download option to transfer the information to my brain.  So I read until I pass out on the days I get to bed before midnight.  But it’s not easy to keep pace.  And I have a feeling quite a few people are in the same boat.  That being said, we should recognize that we cannot replace the steady educational input of learning about the world with quick injections of what is going on in the world today without our understanding being, at best shortsighted.

Maybe some of you are pro-choice because you operate under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Maybe you turn away from the graphic pictures you’ve seen of an aborted baby.  Maybe you hid the Center for Medical Progress videos from your newsfeed.  Maybe you were quick to buy the soundbites that were given to you about them.  Maybe you changed the subject with your family member when you found out they were pro-life.

Being under-informed about abortion and using the “women’s healthcare” or “reproductive rights” rhetoric won’t help you when you are asked, “What is abortion?”

Key Question:  Can you identify who or what has the greatest impact on your personal worldview?

Unshakable Truth: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).

There is no social agenda, no political movement, and no technological advancement that can outwit or overshadow the One who made it all, and as Maker, He is Ruler of all.  You might despise and reject Him today, but just as we have all seen children gloat in their mischief just to later realize that a parent had seen the disobedience and will call the child to account, we will each face the One who formed us in our mothers’ inmost parts.  There is nothing we can say, do, or believe to invalidate God’s Kingship in the world and in our lives.

The Real Choice:  I suppose there is no other way to say it but, since you can’t beat Him, what keeps you from joining Him?