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.

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

Angela Chininin Buele

Why Abortion Rights and the Epipen Outrage Don’t Mix

These days with social media at our fingertips if someone makes an off-color joke, gets caught in a lie, or tries to jack up the price of life-saving medicine, a razor-sharp response is released like lightning, complete with public boycotting campaigns.  For example, when the makers of a household epinephrine injector found themselves in the hot seat over their skyrocketing prices, they said the cost of the materials and ingredients had increased.  They pledged to make a product available at a dramatically reduced price, but the level of disdain for this company and its CEO may cause quite a bit of harm to company’s quarterly sales if the current demonization campaign marches on.

It’s horrible to think that someone can make money – and a lot of it- off of such an important product without giving consideration for the well-being of the most vulnerable persons affected.  A perplexing thing is that people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds gladly shell out hundreds – even thousands – of dollars for the status achievement of wearing a high end designer product.  So should these same people be shocked when the economy of style bleeds into genuine life-and-death situations?  Well, yes, they certainly should be shocked by any calculated appraisal of the saving of a person’s life to seek monetary profit.  But should we not also become defensive when all people in a weakened condition are taken advantage of?  What about the elderly person getting conned out of their fixed income?  Or the girl that’s been drugged at a party?  What of the developing child who comes as a surprise to his or her mother?  Since those with life-threatening allergies rightly deserve our decisive response and protection against what seems to be price-gouging, shouldn’t we all also be quite sensitive to the impending robbery, rape, and dismemberment of the other three targets who are preyed upon in their weakness?  Yes.  The answer is, yes, we most certainly should.  Each and every person was made by our common Creator to bring Him glory, not to be used to bring about a profit.

Key Question: Is it a stretch to compare corporate corruption to private medical decisions?

Unshakable Truth: “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion”  (Luke 10:33).

In the parable, there was a man who was robbed, stripped, beaten, and left for dead.  It didn’t matter to the Samaritan (or to Jesus) who profited or what events led up to the attack.  A weak man hung in the balance, and the Samaritan took action.  Rescue is the modus operandi of the Savior, and after loving Him, our most important calling is to love other people – of all races, all cultures, all shapes and all sizes.

The Real Choice: Are you willing to love and defend the most fragile of neighbors?

Angela Chininin Buele

How Poverty and Entitlement Went From Oil and Vinegar To Peanut Butter and Jelly

Having loved, lived among, and served alongside people in very poor communities, I have seen how little is learned when challenge is removed and standards are lowered.  During the time I taught in a very low-income district, I would repeatedly have teens tell me one minute about how proud they were of their latest purchase (electronics, phone, prom rental, etc.) and then say that they didn’t have the required class materials (pencils, pens, paper) with them because they weren’t able to buy enough school supplies.

When there is no dissatisfaction in poverty, there is no drive to get out of it; but when there is incentive in poverty, there is a kind of fondness for it.  Let me clarify.  What I mean by “incentive” in this case is a need-based benefit that is actually spent on luxuries (entertainment or jewelry) instead of on essentials (food or warm clothing).  If families encourage the use of these resources in this way, young people are taught – as I have seen with my own eyes – to devalue education as the source of lasting income.  If this takes root, what reason would a young person have to aim high and work hard?  They already have a situation that works relatively well for them.

Even more dangerous is the idea I have heard from some of my former students that, if school work is too hard (according to their personal judgment), they are victims of an unjust system.  So the free education given in order to educate them “out” of poverty can be identified as a tool of oppression.  When that happens, resentment builds against authority, and if education is despised, one is left with one apparently effective and certainly satisfying tool for battle – physical resistance – which leads to increased unrest throughout the communities.

When I was a teenager preparing to move to the inner city determined to see racial reconciliation advanced though the gospel of Jesus Christ, I was told by a family member that I just needed to send money to poor people so they could get better education and get out of poverty.  This is the most insulting form of classism there is.  When sending a check allows you to avoid having to interact with someone, that shows nothing but apathy, and apathy is hateful.  And yet this is exactly what our welfare checks do.  And in apathy’s tragic culmination when the cash and new schools don’t entice higher graduation rates, abortion services are featured as a way of blaming unborn children for the cycle of poverty.

Key Question: Is it truly compassionate to give aid to those who are poor without actually helping them to change their situation, to get them out of poverty rather than establishing them further in it?

Unshakable Truth: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10b

Not to be mistaken for the disabled being incapable of work or the eager unable to find work, this passage addresses the one who engages in unfruitful activity (laziness, meddling, and uninterested in honoring a proper boss).  Also, the reader is cautioned to command and encourage the one who is unwilling to work.  This is not mean-spirited, insulting or divisive.  Giving a friend a warning that they’ve had too much to drink and need to shake the fog with some coffee is just as much for their benefit and protection as it is for the community at large.

Let us not forget that Christ’s teachings tore to heal.

The Real Choice: Are you willing to help guide people out of poverty or do you expect your tax dollars to bring lasting change?