Friday, December 21, 2007

A short history of abortion

http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/326798256475493.php

interesting notes:

The first government to sanction abortions was the atheistic communist government of the Soviet Union in 1920, followed by Nazi Germany in 1935.
It was not however until the 1950s that any other governments or major religious bodies came to sanction abortion for the sole purpose of killing the unborn child.

For such a ruling to be credible, it was necessary to remove the legal protection of the unborn child by declaring that "legal person-hood does not exist pre-natally (i.e. a baby is not a person until it is born and therefore has no rights to life under the law)".
It is perhaps appropriate, in the circumstances, to point out that this same declaration had once been made by the Supreme Court in respect of slaves in 1857 in order to legitimise slavery and that in Nazi Germany, Gypsies, homosexuals and Jews were all declared to be non-persons in order to sanction their extermination.

(boldface added by me...)

read civil war post from yesterday.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

China's Christian Multitude

 
I have heard that Christianity is growing in Asia and Africa but is in the decline in the Western nations.  What can we do in the US to revitalize our faith?

Is Modern Terrorism Inspired by Islamic Theology?

 
Russia's president doesn't think so.

Huckabee Sees Islamic Terrorism Having Theological Roots

 
"Vander Plaats' statement runs counter to the way that President Bush and virtually all other national figures have been very careful to say that we are not fighting a war against Islam."  Mark Finkelstein
 
Many people are very careful not to link the war on terror with any religion, but Huckabee's Iowa campaign manager links the two together rather boldly in this interview.
 
I think it IS important to think about the recent terrorist threats from a theological perspective as well as a political one.  I think that religion plays a huge motivating force behind the acts of terror.  Religion has great power to inspire people to do great good or great evil.  It would be careless to try to deal with this terror threat and not seek to consider the religious motivation as well as the political motivation.
 
What are the theological motivations that terrorists have?  What kind of future do they foresee?  What is their worldview?