Born Alive

  I started collecting my reactions here in a draft about the Gosnell murder trial right before the outcry for main stream media (MSM) to pick up this story started, a month ago. I scratched that because it was just too daunting.  I am not going to summarize the case here but will say I am satisfied with the coverage from Fox News and impressed by the articles at www.lifesitenews.com  Before a verdict is announced I just need to let out a few points I constantly replay in my mind: 

• The only difference between an "acceptable" abortion and what Gosnell did is geography. 

• People who do not want to get too close to knowing how abortions are performed think the occurrence of babies intended for abortion but then born alive is miniscule.  "This Doctor is an unusual case" they may think.  Others know better though.  Because of the shameful nature of it we cannot get an accurate number but in 2010 a report of 1,270 babies born as a result of an abortion attempt then died is recorded. I wish everyone was aware of  these testimonies from actual survivors (click) or would watch the movie October Baby, now streaming on Netflix, so they can identify these babies born alive as viable persons. 

• Who do they think they're fooling trying to distance themselves

#Gosnell case is appalling. He ran a criminal enterprise, not a health facility, & should be punished to full extent bit.ly/ZRyssI
— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) April 12, 2013

• When just two weeks earlier, March 28th, they were fighting "Born Alive" Act in Florida.  Humor me and watch just the first two minutes 

• This shouldn't be news to you, but if Obama had his way Gosnell's actions against these babies would be perfectly legal in Illinois. 

• Throughout all of this I keep recalling from the book, Heaven is Real, how little Colton who survived a near death experience kept pestering his father who is a pastor and interrupting his Sunday school lessons that "Jesus really really REALLY loves the little children."  As the author the father didn't expand on this point but I immediately drew the conclusion and just keep reminding myself, Jesus really loves these little children.

• The saddest defense of abortion is when I hear people say, "I personally cannot imagine abortion as an option but I don't think we should tell women what to do."  I personally cannot imagine taking a razor to my forearm but I don't think we should help those that do.  Women who consider abortion are hurting.  These women who came to Gosnell were desperate.  We would intervene for someone who is suicidal because death is permanent but the hurt, no matter how deep, can be addressed.  Desperate women deserve better than abortion. 

Follow the Leader

  On my Facebook news feed our local news channel announced upcoming dates for the conclave.  The first responder posted, "Who cares?"  I stopped reading the others below it.  I try to avoid the comments section of religious news published by secular sources.  People can be so nasty.  It seems a glowing screen and qwerty pad give people an audacity they would be ashamed of in actual human interaction.

  People do care and at the least are certainly interested.  Every major news channel broke into regular programming just to air the cardinals entering the Sistine Chapel, having not yet voted at that time.  What is it that interests non believers?  The history? The misguided thinking the next pope will "get with the times?"

  Media commentators say the next pope will be an important one because he's going to need to bring back followers to a dying religion.  They say these are some of the toughest times for the Catholic church...

St. Peter is not Impressed

Caravaggio: The martyrdom of St. Peter, Crucified upside down

  Does the "success" of the Catholic faith rest in the hands of the pope though?  No because the election of a pope is not about a man.  It's about the Office, the Chair of Peter.

I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18)

  From here the new pope will lead the faithful so that we can exemplify Christ like qualities and attract others.  He will guide us in ways to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit which gives us the ability to love and moves us to share God's love with others.  He will teach us and give us intellectual positions to meditate and act on. The pope's human qualities and personality will play into this leadership, but it's up to me to respond to that lead.   It's up to me to respond to Christ.  And, it's up to me to prove to harden hearts that the universal church is not dying.