 |  | |
Dear Friends For Life,
[I do not know anything about the history of this beautiful, deeply moving poem, but let us pray for everyone whose personal history may be reflected in the lines above.]
Your first smile ... I will never see
Your first words ... I will never hear
My strong hands will never stretch out
To guide your unsteady steps
No whispered lullabies to a sleepy head
I will never wait at a school yard gate
Or watch with pride a nativity play
No school photographs on my mantelpiece
No first communion dress for me to buy
What would you have been like?
Pretty or plain? ... Clever or slow?
It doesn't matter ... You were mine.
When you died you were not tenderly laid in a snow-white coffin
No family or friends were gathered
To say goodbye
A man in a mask
Was your only companion
A plastic bucket
Was your resting place
Your only headstone
"Clinical Waste"
No-one remember you
But I do
No-one misses you
But I do.
As Advent prepares us for the Birth of Christ, let us grow spiritually in Christ, continuously seek the truth with Christ, speak loudly for the rights of the unborn through Christ, and finally pray hard everyday that God changes the hearts of those involved in abortion - a crime against humanity.
God Bless,
Jerry Novotny, OMI
(The Difference is LIFE) "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
*---*(Due to volume of spam received, do not reply to this message but instead send all emails to jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp. Pass this free service to your friends and various groups. Thank you!)
****************************************
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #606
December 16, 2012
****************************************
(TABLE OF CONTENTS):
1. Baby-Boom or Birth-Dearth: Troubling Trends in the United States
2. The next big thing in sex-ed: the evil of heterosexism
3. The wrong side of history
4. Ten Myths About Premarital Sex
5. Protecting Life by Recognizing and Responding to Signs for Suicide
6. Gay Marriage Fallout: Will We Become a Nation of Bastards?
7. SPEAKING OUT: Porn at the Doctor’s Office
8. Raising Independent Catholic Kids in an Age of Conformity
9. India's Aging Population
10. Death by "terrible thirst": British NHS targets newborns, elderly for agonizing euthanasia program
11. Euthanizing innocent children: "You have to realize that a new age has dawned"
12. UN Says Contraception is a Human Right
****************************************
(Human Life): "4D scans show fetuses yawn in the womb" - Growing into a fully formed human being is a long process, and scientists have found that unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they yawn too. Researchers who studied 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses also said they think yawning is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors a new way to check on a baby's health.
****************************************
ITEM #1: Baby-Boom or Birth-Dearth: Troubling Trends in the United States
The total fertility rate (estimated number of lifetime births per woman) was 1,894.5 births per 1,000 women. This drop in total fertility rate is critical because for a population to replace itself, a minimum of 2.1 children must be born for every woman. Additionally, this past year women gave birth to a first child at the lowest recorded rate in the history of the United States.
****************************************
ITEM #2: The next big thing in sex-ed: the evil of heterosexism
If you were worried about sex education classes that encouraged sexual relations between teenage girls and boys, you might now have something even more serious on your plate: indoctrination of kids against "heterosexism".
****************************************
ITEM #3: The wrong side of history
Secularism looks ascendant but is headed for the ash heap of history.
****************************************
ITEM #4: Ten Myths About Premarital Sex
I recently picked up a copy of Premarital Sex in America by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker and was pleasantly surprised at some of the insights.
****************************************
ITEM #5: Protecting Life by Recognizing and Responding to Signs for Suicide
More than 32,000 Americans die by suicide each year, a rate that surprisingly outnumbers homicide. Even more startling is the 816,000 attempted suicides in the United States annually, but we are not the only country facing such challenges.
****************************************
ITEM #6: Gay Marriage Fallout: Will We Become a Nation of Bastards?
Here are the questions we must ask and answer as a society:
– Do children have some other way to be connected to their biological parents besides having the words “mother” and “father” in the law? If so, what is it?
– Are we willing to accept the risk of removing the recognition of natural bonds of children to their parents, in favor of the social experiment called gay “marriage” like Canada has done? Notice that there is no plan or any discussion about how to handle the consequences of these changes.
– Is it the government’s duty to assign dignity to relationships?
****************************************
ITEM #7 SPEAKING OUT: Porn at the Doctor’s Office
It just made me so mad that this is at my clinic, where people are trying to start families–it’s just the last thing you should be thinking about when you’re trying to help your wife get pregnant! All this data makes me realize more how lucky I am in my marriage...I knew pornography was a widespread problem, but this really puts it in perspective how large a widespread problem it really is.
****************************************
ITEM #8: Raising Independent Catholic Kids in an Age of Conformity
Sexting, drugs, alcohol, cyber-bullying, teen suicide, rampant materialism, technology addiction, and me-first mindsets – the list of challenges to young people today can seem overwhelming. As parents of two boys under the age of 16, I feel like my wife and I are on the front lines of a never-ending war for the very souls of our children. I would love to tell you that we have the upper hand in this ongoing struggle, but some days I am not so sure.
****************************************
ITEM #9: India's Aging Population
India's population ages 60 and older is projected to increase dramatically over the next four decades, from 8 percent in 2010 to 19 percent in 2050, according to the United Nations Population Division. By mid-century, this age group is expected to encompass 323 million people, a number greater than the total U.S. population in 2012. This profound shift in the share of older Indians—taking place in the context of changing family relationships and severely limited old-age income support—brings with it a variety of social, economic, and health care policy challenges.
****************************************
ITEM #10: Death by "terrible thirst": British NHS targets newborns, elderly for agonizing euthanasia program
One doctor has admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital alone. Writing in a leading medical journal, the physician revealed the process can take an average of ten days during which a baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’. The LCP – on which 130,000 elderly and terminally-ill adult patients die each year – is now the subject of an independent inquiry ordered by ministers. The investigation, which will include child patients, will look at whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors’ decisions. Medical critics of the LCP insist it is impossible to say when a patient will die and as a result the LCP death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it is a form of euthanasia, used to clear hospital beds and save the NHS money.
****************************************
ITEM #11: Euthanizing innocent children: "You have to realize that a new age has dawned"
I know that it's generally considered to be hyperbole when one compares someone to Nazis, by really, what is the difference between the UK's practice of euthanizing sick babies and the Nazi practice of euthanizing retarded children and old people? In Britain - and soon here - you clearly must view your physician with suspicion lest he or she decide that you or or child should simply be killed by the state medical bureucracy. Bishop Clemens von Galen was an early opponent of Nazi social programs, and noted how government medicine worked under National Socialism.
****************************************ITEM #12: UN Says Contraception is a Human Right
The proclamation that family planning is a "human right" stakes out the territory for UN dominance over individual states' national sovereignty. Put bluntly, the move is modern-day colonialism. Further, such a move puts nations under obligation to implement the UNFPA declaration and requires them to put down any local defiance. Clearly, "ensuring universal access" to family planning means challenging traditional and local practices -- another way of saying that any disagreement is to be squelched, and that freedom of religion and freedom of speech are irrelevant when family planning "rights" are at stake.
*****************************
YOU CAN CHANGE SOCIETY:
1. BE INFORMED: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues www.lifeissues.net. Access to all prior Newsletters is located in the Archives on main page.
2. PRAY DAILY: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
3. BECOME INVOLVED: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". The project appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is centered on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Universities, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. The lectures place emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Life Issues, Trends and Challenges".
For information about Pro Bono Life Talks to your group/s in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.
To become a supportive Missionary participant for this Asian project, kindly send your donations to:
Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI
LifeIssues.net, Editor
Akebono-cho 1-15-9
Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072
(or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824, Kochi City, Japan)
------------------------------------------------------
Contact EDITOR:
Jerry Novotny, OMI
Akebono-cho 1-15-9
Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072
[tel/fax: 088-843-0406]
[email: jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp]
["Due to volume of spam received, we're asking you not to reply to this message but instead send all correspondence to jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp. Thank you! Editor"]
------------------------------------------------------
Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
HIV/AIDS Site: http://capcha.org
OMI Japan/Korea Site: http://omijapankorea.net/
------------------------------------------------------
Get a weekly dose of clear thinking: subscribe to our free Lifeissues newsletter! Sign up at www.LifeIssues.net. Pass this free service to your friends and various groups.
------------------------------
