Theological THU 8/6: Warning! I may be obsessing! And this is a really long entry.

I'll begin with my caveats for today's blog entry. All emphases have been added. And more caveats follow!

These are my thoughts re:  Planned Parenthood, Part 2. Part 1 was my entry posted last THU 7/30.

• Yes, I may, in fact, be obsessing.
• In last week's Fact-Check FRI blog (7/31), guest-written by my son Nathan, he offered a great insight when he noted that my screed [My word, not his. I like this word & I've been waiting for a chance to use it] last week, along w/so many other screeds that blasted PP, doubtfully reached its intended targets & may, in fact, have made those who support the barbarity of the abortion industry that much more entrenched in their thinking.
• He also noted that diatribes [also my word, not his, if my memory serves me correctly, which is always dicey] such as mine can easily stigmatize single-mothers. I think I replied that PP certainly does NOT need any apologists, & I'm not sure I meant that as an indictment against my son's blog entry. I'm just sayin'.

MAKING THIS PERSONAL

• Lois & I lost a baby boy, prior to our oldest child Nathan's birth in November, 1982. It had been a difficult pregnancy, due to a condition called, if I remember correctly, placenta previa(?), & Lois spent many weeks essentially off her feet & house-bound.

• This little baby had reached the stage when he could have been considered "viable," [a word that I do NOT like using, but it's part of both the pro- & anti-abortion vernaculars] according to our OB-GYN. Lois had felt him moving & kicking. Suddenly one night, there were no more movements. The next day's trip to the doctor confirmed our worst fears. The baby's heart had stopped beating. He was dead.

• A surgical procedure was necessary to induce labor & "extract" the baby. We saw the baby after he was still born. We previously had seen ultra-sounds of this little boy; had clearly seen his heart-beating, his limbs moving around. No way was this a clump of tissue. No way was this merely the mere "product" of a miscarriage.

• Our doctor gave us options. It was so soon after the date of viability that we could consider it a still-birth, & he would write a certificate of death. We could go through with a funeral & burial. He could also certify it as a miscarriage. We chose the latter.

• To add to our anguish, this was not our first problem pregnancy. Before we moved to Lincoln, we decided to start a family while we still lived in Chicago. Lois got pregnant immediately. On the very same day that our doctor called to confirm that she was indeed pregnant, we had a miscarriage.

• We named our son "Nathan," because we considered him to be "God's gift" to us after we lost those first two babies. He was born 11/2/82, so we lost our baby boy well over 30 years ago, but as I type this, powerful emotions still well up inside me. God blessed us with two more children:  Sarah, our first daughter & "princess," born in 1985; & Rachel, our "little lamb," born in 1989. God is good.

• So I will readily admit that it may be difficult if not impossible for me to be objective re:  Planned Parenthood & Right-to-Life issues, but our experience led Lois & me to jump on the anti-abortion crusade early in the 1980's, & nothing has happened since to dissuade us. [As an aside, I truly abhor the label "anti-abortion" & embrace the term "pro-life." Why does the other side get to embrace the term "pro-choice" when a more accurate term would be "pro-abortion" or even "pro-death?"]

DISCLAIMERS BEFORE YOU CHOOSE (& I HOPE YOU DO BUT I WON'T BLAME YOU IF YOU DON'T) TO READ ON

• I am posting clips from both pro- & anti-abortion AND pro- & anti-Planned Parenthood sources.
• I was seriously considering letting this rest & moving on UNTIL I continued reading Facebook links seeing Facebook videos posted by others, so I am refusing to accept complete responsibility. [I don't want to name names. You know who you are!]
• I am NOT doing this in an effort to be "fair & balanced, because I cannot & will not be.
• I will emphasize again that I cannot see any way that the willful destruction of unborn babies is following God's Will to love our neighbor not just as ourselves but as Christ loves us, a "new command" He gave His disciples--& that would include you & me--on the night in which He was betrayed, while sharing a Last Supper which was meant to be shared by all believers until the day He returns.
• I agree that pregnancy that results from rape & incest is a most troublesome issue, but I also find it difficult to see how taking the life of the baby is fair & just.
• I believe the LCMS position is that when a mother's life is clearly in danger, such as the case when there is an ectopic pregnancy, choosing to abort the human life within the mother--a human life which is part of God's creative process--may be necessary but is still a tragedy.
• In Romans, St. Paul writes, "All things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose." That last phrase troubled me for many years. What exactly does it mean to be "called according to [God's] purpose? Then I read an abridged version of Martin Luther's commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. He connects being called according to [God's purpose] being called "before we were created" to be His chosen people, i.e., He may be talking about pre-destination.
• My point is NOT to get into a theological conversation about pre-destination. [Maybe that's a topic for a future Theological Thursday entry.] My point is that God KNOWS us before He has created us in our mothers' wombs.
• Willfully, deliberately, selfishly taking the life of an unborn baby, therefore, would seem to be playing God.
• That strikes me as being extremely, spiritually dangerous.
• Being part of the abortion-promotion movement & an advocate for PP therefore strikes me as being even MORE spiritually dangerous.
• Why are PP & pro-abortion advocates seemingly afraid of even the slightest impediments to their unholy agenda? Example:  requiring or at least encouraging a pregnant woman to view an ultra-sound of her unborn baby before an abortion is performed. Are they afraid that the mother will change her mind when she clearly sees a baby; clearly sees a beating heart?
• I would like to think my anger at Planned Parenthood & those who are its apologists & promoters is a righteous anger. However, maybe I'm judging what's in their hearts, which we are warned not to do, & maybe I am searching desperately to dig out the specks in the eyes of others when I should be attending to the beams in my own eyes.
• So, before or if you choose to read on, my sincerest prayer is that God would melt the hearts of those who believe that abortion is just, who approve of & promote Planned Parenthood's agenda, & that He would also work in my heart, as well, that I may be truly following His Will & not proceeding to follow my own will & unholy agenda.

THE FOLLOWING EXCERPTS ARE NOT MY OWN. *

* And just because I choose not to comment does NOT mean that I agree with the "facts" and/or feelings expressed therein. I have included some comments to contrast the two positions.

Excerpt from Grand Island Independent (7/26/15):  "The price of fetal parts. (Column by Charles Krauthammer). Planned Parenthood's reaction to the release of a clandestinely recorded conversation about the sale of fetal parts was highly revealing. After protesting that it did nothing illegal, it apologized for the 'tone' of one of its senior directors. Her remarks lacked compassion, admitted PP President Cecile Richards, as if Dr. Deborah Nucatola's cold & casual discussion over salad & wine of how the fetal body can be crushed w/forceps in a way that leaves valuable organs intactly for sale is some kind of personal idiosyncrasy. On the contrary, it's precisely the kind of psychic numbing that occurs when dealing daily w/industrial scale destruction of the growing, thriving, recognizably human fetus."

Excerpts from Omaha World Herald (7/29/15):  "Senate leaders plan vote on Planned Parenthood. The Senate will vote before its August recess on a Republican effort to block federal aid to Planned Parenthood, GOP leaders said Tuesday . . . there is little sign that Democrats won't be able to head off the Republican effort, which needs 60 votes to cut off money. [Why isn't this a Republican AND Democrat effort? Please, please, please, do the right thing!]

From OWH (7/30):  "Ernst has Planned Parenthood in sights. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is leading the charge to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. [Way to go, Iowa. I take back any alleged insult I have ever made about you, if for no other reason than you elected this person to Congress!]

Excerpts from Lincoln Journal Star (8/2/15):  "Extremist videos are an attack on women's health. (Column by Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.) Planned Parenthood has been a trusted nonprofit provider of women's health care for nearly a century. Each year, 2.7 million people come to our health centers for high-quality, nonjudgmental, compassionate care. [My comment: Many, many unborn people do NOT receive quality, nonjudgmental, compassionate care at your clinics & do not leave them alive.] Since the very beginning, our health centers, providers & patients have come under outrageous attacks, political & otherwise. These attacks are not about us. They are about the ability of women across the country to access health care.

          "The most recent attacks in this decades long campaign represent a new low. These extremists created a false business, made apparently misleading corporate filings, & then used false government identifications to gain access to Planned Parenthood's medical & research staff w/the agenda of secretly filming w/o consent--then heavily the footage to make false & absurd assertions about our stands & services. They spent 3 years doing everything they could--not to uncover wrongdoing, but rather to create it. They failed.

          "While predictably these videos do not show anything illegal on Planned Parenthood's part, medical & scientific conversations can be upsetting to hear, & I immediately apologized for the tone that was used, which did not reflect the compassion that people have come to know & expect from Planned Parenthood . . . 

          "Whether Congress chooses to stand w/extremists or with the women of the U.S. is up to them. Planned Parenthood will always stand with our patients & protect the rights of every woman [Also my comment:  Except unborn women.] to access care. Today, we need the American people to stand w/them too." [I'm a little confused. Which extremists are we supposed to stand up for?]

From LJS (8/4):  "Planned Parenthood bill blocked. The Senate blocked a Republican drive Monday to terminate federal funds for Planned Parenthood, setting the stage for the GOP to try again this fall amid higher stakes--a potential government shutdown that could echo into next year's presidential & congressional elections . . . Monday's mostly party-line vote was 53-46 to halt Democratic delays aimed at derailing the bill, 7 short of the 60 votes Republicans needed." [I am reminded of Abraham's prayers to the Lord on behalf of Sodom. "Lord, if there are even 10 righteous to be found, will you spare the city?" What happened to the righteous Republicans & Democrats who couldn't or wouldn't take a stand against barbarity? Were there not 7 more?] *

* My self-critique:  Is this not just a little heavy-handed? This might be a good time to remember that a big reason I blog is for my own self-therapy, which does NOT, however, excuse me from inappropriately judgmental posts. You decide.

From LJS (also 8/4):  "The barbarity of a nation. (Column written by George Will) Executives of Planned Parenthood's federally subsidized meat markets--your tax dollars at work--lack the courage of their convictions. They should drop the pretense of conducting a complex moral calculus about the organs they harvest from the babies they kill . . . 'Having a procedure'--stopping the beating of a human heart--can indeed be a difficult decision for the woman involved. But it never is difficult for PP's abortionists administering the 'procedure.' The abortion industry's premise is:  At no point in the gestation of a human infant does this living being have a trace of personhood that must be respected. Never does it have a moral standing superior to a tumor or a hamburger in the mother's stomach."

IN MEMORIUM

From Norfolk Daily News (4/11, dated, but I've been saving this for just the right time):  "Abortion foe. Dr. John Willke, an OB who helped shape the modern anti-abortion movement . . . has died. He was 89. Willke, who founded the International Right to Life Federation, quit delivering babies in the late 1960s to oppose abortion, retiring from his medical practice in 1988 to fully devote his time to the anti-abortion movement. He participated in protests & congressional hearings & appeared on national TV frequently." [May he RIP & may the Lord raise up other leaders w/the courage of Dr. Willke's convictions & the ability to achieve such a prominent, national platform.]