Life: love it, protect it.

Today our church is observing Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Please take a moment to pray for protection of the unborn in America, and around the world. Here's a short video from Life International.


Life: love it. protect it. from LIFE International on Vimeo.

Related post:

• Sanctity of Life Sunday

Reflecting on Prop 8

Al Mohler has written a helpful piece on the overturning of Proposition 8. Here are a couple excerpts...

The importance of the decision handed down yesterday by U. S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker in California’s Proposition 8 trial will be difficult to exaggerate. Proponents of same-sex marriage immediately declared a major victory — and for good reason...

...The religious liberty dimensions of the decision are momentous and deeply troubling. While Judge Walker declared that the religious freedoms of citizens and religious bodies were not violated because no such body is required to recognize or perform same-sex marriage, the very structure of his argument condemned religious and theological objections to homosexuality and same-sex marriage as both harmful and irrational...

You can read the whole thing here, which I recommend to understand the legal arguments used during the proceedings, and to understand the next step in the constitutional process.

We are witnessing major moral erosion before our very eyes. Yet the deepest need for our state is not a return to morality. It is a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I grieve over these developments in the Prop 8 case, but realize that a "moral," heterosexual family is no closer to the gospel than an immoral, homosexual one. Ultimately, we all need to be broken over our sin, admit our fallen condition, and trust wholly in Christ. He is our hope, our rest, and our righteousness.

No one can predict what the long-term implications of this ruling will be to churches, non-profit organizations, and individual Christians. We can expect the moral and ethical dilemmas to continue to increase. I have to guard my own heart not to grow anxious but instead to take comfort in Jesus' words, "In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world" (Jn. 16:33).

But whether Prop 8 prevails or is permanently overturned, I pray this cultural battle will result in more people bowing the knee to King Jesus and surrendering completely to the only One who can save.

Related post:

• Religion on trial

Sanctity of Life Sunday

This Sunday is "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday," when many Americans pause to celebrate the dignity of all human life made in God's image (Gen. 1:27).

Did you know that since 1973, nearly 50 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S.? On average, women give at least three reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities. About 3/4 also say they cannot afford a child. And 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent, or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Learning of an unplanned pregnancy can be a frightening and confusing experience, especially for a young teen, a single mom, or a couple who are struggling financially. Life and death decisions are often made when emotions are running high. It's important for local churches and pro-life pregnancy clinics to provide these people with compassionate care and advice when they need it most.

Here are some other heartbreaking statistics about abortion:

• 22% of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion.

• More than 23% of legally-induced abortions in the U.S. are performed in California. (About 15% of the nation's population live in the state.)

• Black women are more than 4.8 times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion.

• 88% of all abortions in the U.S. happen during the first trimester, prior to the at 13th week. 52% of all abortions occur before the 9th week of pregnancy.

• The total number of abortions across the whole world in one year is estimated to be 42 million.

Source: The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and Abort73.com
Photo credit: Bill Davenport

**If you, or someone you know, is considering an abortion, please visit this link, or call 1-800-395-HELP for confidential counseling**

Should Christians be cremated?

After the Saturday morning session of the Resolved conference, several of us went out for lunch and got into a conversation about cremation. I guess it's kind of a morbid dinner table topic, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Up until recently, I had pretty much decided cremation was fine for the believer. After all, cremation simply hastens the natural process of decompotion and returning to dust (Gen. 3:19). But a recent article by Russell Moore has me rethinking the issue a bit further. Here's an excerpt:

Of course God can resurrect a cremated Christian. He can also resurrect a Christian burned at the stake, or a Christian torn to pieces by lions in a Roman coliseum, or a Christian digested by a great white shark off the coast of Florida.

But are funerals simply the way in which we dispose of remains? If so, graveyards are unnecessary, too. Why not simply toss the corpses of our loved ones into the local waste landfill?

For Christians, burial is not the disposal of a thing. It is caring for a person. In burial, we’re reminded that the body is not a shell, a husk tossed aside by the “real” person, the soul within. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6–8; Phil. 1:23), but the body that remains still belongs to someone, someone we love, someone who will reclaim it one day.

His conclusion:

[Recognizing that cremation is sub-Christian] simply means beginning a conversation about what it means to grieve as Christians and what it means to hope as Christians. It means reminding Christians that the dead in the graveyards behind our churches are “us” too. It means hoping that our Christian burial plots preach the same gospel that our Christian pulpits do.

At this point, I would say cremation is not inherently sinful, but neither is it preferable. I would recommend a traditional Christian burial if it does not put an undue financial strain on the family.