I’ve seen some notes and posts on various social networking sites lately that have really stayed on my mind, and I’d like to address them here.  I’m pretty sure this will start a firestorm of comments disagreeing with me; and if it does, so be it. I’m a big girl and I can handle it.

The statements that have caught my attention basically say that anyone who is truly pro-life wouldn’t eat meat/kill animals, and wouldn’t agree with the death penalty or war.

First, it’s hard for me to hold the life of an animal in the same importance as a person – I have pets now,  and I’ve had them most of my life. I love my pets and take good care of them. Woe be to the person who messes with them. But if I had to make a choice between my children or grandchildren (or any person, for that matter), and one of those pets, there would be no contest.  I’ve already had to make that choice once, and I wouldn’t hesitate to make it again, in exactly the same manner.

I don’t have a problem with folks who don’t eat meat- that’s your choice, and you’re welcome to it. I do eat meat, however, and enjoy it. If given the chance, I’d hunt.  I’d raise chickens, pigs, cows and rabbits for eating.  I would take good care of those animals, and make sure they had plenty of room, exercise, food, water and sunshine, and protection from the weather. When it came time to harvest them, I would make things as painless and stress-free as possible, and I would be able to eat them with a clear conscience. God has commanded His followers to be good stewards of the earth, and I want to do my part.

I believe that human life begins at conception- I don’t see any other way of looking at it. When a baby is conceived, it has it’s own DNA, it’s own organs- at just a few weeks, you can even see the baby’s heartbeat. I’ve heard folks say that up until a certain point, it can’t live outside the mother, so it’s not really life. I’ve got news for you- if you left a preschool child in a house by itself for a week, it probably couldn’t survive either, so that argument is mud.

The same goes for older people, or people with disabilities – how dare anyone say that because a person isn’t ‘normal’ they don’t have any quality of life. I know plenty of people who have life challenges – just within my own circle of friends, I know people who have Down’s Syndrome, or who are autistic, or are mentally retarded or physically challenged in some way.  I would think most everybody has some kind of challenge to meet, whether it’s mental, physical or otherwise.

Just look at my dad-  Daddy had a stroke almost 17 years ago.  For a while, the doctors tried to tell Mama that he would only be a vegetable, if he recovered at all.  But he did;  no, Daddy can’t do a lot of things he used to do, but he can still do a lot. He recently set up spreadsheets for the mileage costs on his car- for fun… he knows what each tank of gas has cost, what the MPG is for each tank, and the cost per mile. He’s compiled lists of each vehicle he’s ever owned; he can tell you what he paid for it and just about anything else about it. I’m not saying that every stroke victim is as fortunate as Daddy, but they still can have  quality of life.

So I don’t agree with euthanasia either- I believe God should be charge of deciding when we die, and I plan on letting Him take me when He’s ready. Until then, I’m going to live as fully as I can.

Now, to the death penalty:  comparing abortion to the death penalty is like comparing the cruel torture and death of a kitten to destroying a man-eating tiger who is about to kill your family.  An innocent unborn child has done nothing to anyone to warrant being destroyed- nothing except existing. On the other hand, someone who is on death row doesn’t get there by accident.  It usually takes a pretty bad crime to get the death penalty.

As far as war- I can’t imagine anyone who wants to be in war. I don’t want to fight with anyone. But I’ve had times in my own life that I had to stand up for myself against bullies. Bullies don’t respond to ‘nice’ – I’ve never known a bully who quit picking on someone because that person was nicer to them.  And I’ve never known a bully who quit taking things from you because you gave them a little extra.  That just tells the bully they can keep on doing what they’re doing, at a greater profit. At some point, you’ve got to ‘put up your dukes’ and just knock the snot out of them, even if it means getting the snot knocked out of you too. One way or another, you’ve got to show them that you’re not going to let them run over you, and then, they’ve got to decide whether messing with you is worth the trouble. I’m not saying it’s always got to come to physical blows- but one way or the other, you’ve got to stand up for yourself.

As a final note I’d like to say this- I’m not going to be ugly to someone who’s gone through an abortion.  It’s got to be one of the toughest decisions to make, and I’m sure no one makes it lightly.   I’ve had family and friends who’ve been through it, and it hasn’t changed the way I feel about them, or the way I treat them. They don’t know that I know about it, and I plan on keeping it that way.  I’m never going to stop loving and caring  for them.

But that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about how many children we’re losing every year to this atrocity.

Check this story – http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=424030.
My husband and I have a blended family of six children- my first husband and I had three children, a daughter and two sons. My husband and his first wife had two children – a daughter and a son. And Randy and I have a daughter together- that’s right, six kids… just like the Brady Bunch (NOT).
And it doesn’t stop there – our oldest daughter has a daughter and two sons; our oldest son has three daughters and a son; our next oldest daughter has a son and a daughter. Our next oldest son is expecting his first child this fall. And that’s not counting how many children our two youngest will have when they get married. Ten grandchildren so far, and still counting… and I love each and every one. Some of our children we got the regular way, and some came as a package deal (some people call that steps, but we call them bonuses!) We love our grandchildren, and we don’t make any differences in them.
So this story really hit a sore spot with me- I get grief from all kinds of people (including a lot more Christians than you might imagine) because we have a large family.
Now don’t get me wrong- I think it’s totally wrong to bring children into this world when you have no desire to take care of them, and your only reason for having them is to add to the number of checks you receive from the government every month.
But I have looked through the Bible, and I have yet to find any scripture anywhere that says God punished people by giving them children- quite the opposite. In some times, God punished people by withholding children from them.
Psalm 127 says:
3 Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

My husband and I are very blessed by our children- sure, they’ve messed up sometimes, just like we have, but I would not trade anything for them.
And even if you don’t want to consider things from a biblical stand, consider this: the more children we have, the bigger the work force twenty years from now. As there are more workers, there are more wages to tax, and more services and products to sell.
And as far as there not being enough land or food for the people we have on earth now- that’s a bunch of hogwash… if we’re running out of food, why is the government paying farmers not to raise certain crops?

Oh, and as a balance on stopping life from beginning, check what Arlen Specter has to say about older folks who are at the end of their lives- http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=426486 – nice huh?

This is not going to be for the faint of heart, so be warned before you read further.

The young woman in the story says she went into premature labor and delivered her baby alive on Dec. 21, but problems due to the early birth caused his death; doctors had worked with him for about 20 minutes before he passed away. The hospital is maintaining that the baby was stillborn.

The mother’s sister says that she accompanied a nurse who took the baby’s body to the hospital’s morgue. On Jan 2, the hospital contacted the mother, stating that the funeral home had come to pick up the baby’s body, but it couldn’t be found. Police say that the baby was thrown out in the garbage; searches have been underway, but the body hasn’t been found yet. The hospital hasn’t admitted that the baby was thrown away, but they aren’t disagreeing with the police report either.

This is a horrible thing to happen; the hospital says the baby was stillborn, but is that really an issue? Either way, the baby’s body is missing, and the hospital isn’t denying that they threw it away.

Of course, this brings to my mind another story in the news- a young teenager gave birth to a baby at home, and when it died, she threw it away. A body has been found but they haven’t determined whether it’s this girl’s baby or not. What does it say about our society that we find the bodies of thrownaway babies, and they have to run DNA tests to determine whose baby it is?

And as horrible as that is, consider this: the bodies of aborted babies are discarded in our country every day- where is the fine line that makes it OK to do this to an aborted baby (I refuse to call them a fetus, they’re babies) and a baby who was either born dead or died after birth? At what point is a baby a baby and not a fetus? At 6 months along in the pregnancy? At 8 months and two weeks? And if that’s the line, what about one day before the line? Or even one hour?

Our society has grown complacent about life itself – if abortion weren’t such an easy thing and so accepted a practice, I don’t believe our young people would feel so flippant about the rest of life. Abortion has become a form of birth control – if you decide that you don’t want to lose your waistline right now, then go ahead and abort that baby. It’s no one’s business but yours, right? And it’s certainly not hurting anyone, is it? I know, some of you are probably jumping up and down, screaming about rape, incest and the life of the mother… but look at the statistics – most abortions are performed on women who are ‘just not ready for a child’.

When we as a society decided that some forms of life aren’t sacred, like the unborn babies, or those who are old and unable to care for themselves, or those who are ill and need assistance in their daily lives, or those who are mentally disabled and need some supervision – when those people aren’t living a life that’s worthy enough to save, then we’ve gone too far. Whose responsibility is it to say whose life has quality, and whose doesn’t?

My sister in law had ALS for the last several years of her life. Although near the end, she couldn’t do anything for herself, she was a wonderful gift to us all. We helped her when she needed help, and she helped us- she encouraged us, she lifted us up in prayer, she taught us so many things- how can a life as full as that not be a life of quality?

I would hate to think about a daughter of mine being raped, and becoming pregnant by that act. But the lasting effects of an abortion, both physical and mental, should be weighed against the effects an unwanted pregnancy might cause.

God help us- we’re going down the road to hell and we don’t even realize it.

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