By George B. Gainer – This coming November 15, will make 25 years since I was asked to present “The Wisdom of Solomon? or The Politics of Pragmatism? The General Conference Abortion Decision 1970-71” to the gathered attendees at the Loma Linda University Conference on Abortion. The great majority of those present were shocked to learn that the General Conference of SDA’s was operating with 2 different sets of guidelines on abortion. The 1970 Abortion Guidelines, which were more restrictive, were the set made available to our own Adventist clergy and laity, as well as the general public. The 1971 Interruption of Pregnancy Guidelines superceded the 1970 Guidelines and opened the door to abortion on demand for any reason in our hospitals (16 months before Roe v. Wade). The liberalized 1971 Guidelines were sent exclusively to our SDA Medical Institutions and never made known to our clergy and laity or the public.
Year: 2013
In the Middle: God Is Still Writing Our Stories
By Jason Hines – You will at some point experience doubt, fear, sadness, disappointment – these things come. They are the cost of doing business in an imperfect world. However, avoid the temptation to believe that your story is finished when it is only in the middle. If we can just hold on things will get better because God is still writing our stories.
A Call for Peace in the Fight Over Same-Sex Marriage
Calls for protecting “religious liberty” have expanded beyond school prayer and religious monuments on government property to become a rallying call for the Christian right in America following the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage, the Obamacare contraception mandate, reports of anti-Christian activity in the military, and anti-discrimination ordinances protecting the LGBT community. This…
Pakistan: Adventist Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Blasphemy (ANN)
Sajjad Masih, 29, was convicted of sending blasphemous text messages in 2011, despite his accuser’s subsequent retraction and prosecutors’ failure to produce any evidence of his involvement.
International Report: Human Rights at Risk in Australian Internment Camp
Today Australia faces a moral question for our age. This time it isn’t desperate European Jews searching for a sanctuary, it is desperate Iranians fleeing one of the world’s most repressive regimes. It is Iraqi Christians who have been murdered, bombed and beaten unmercifully since the invasion that we were a part of. It is shell-shocked Syrians caught between a despotic ruler on one side and jihadists on the other.
The Firebrand: The Dangers of Speaking Truth to Power (Liberty Magazine)
The story of Savonarola is not a lesson in the necessity of violence for a successful revolution, but rather a lesson in the dangerous consequences of speaking truth to power.
Serious Commitment to Faith is Par for the Course for 2013 UC Davis Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee
Although Bishop was the UC Davis scholar-athlete of the year in 2007, and was phenomenally successful on the course, even without Saturday play, he eventually gave up a promising career as a professional golfer in favor of a medical career because he knew that he could not continue to keep the Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday and participate in professional tournaments.
Down Syndrome Births Drop in U.S. as More Women Abort – ABC News
Excerpt: “An estimated 92 percent of all women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to terminate their pregnancies, according to research reviewed by Dr. Brian Skotko, a pediatric geneticist at Children’s Hospital Boston. http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=8960803&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
What Changed? Will the Court’s Same-Sex Marriage Cases Affect You?
Neither Hollingsworth nor Windsor demand that any church, even in states that allow gay marriage, be forced to conduct gay weddings. Moreover, these decisions do not affect the ability of churches to decry homosexuality or homosexual conduct as immoral.
No upside for babies – NIH should withdraw funding for research on cannabis use during pregnancy
An NIH-funded study at the University of Washington is intended to determine whether there are adverse effects of cannabis use by pregnant women on infants. The best case scenario is if the baby develops normally to the point of matching the “control group” that was not exposed to marijuana. At worst, they might be born underweight, have cognitive and behavioral disorders, or develop physical brain abnormalities identified in imaging studies, or fail to survive.