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2017 44th Annual March for Life — Live Stream (UPDATED)

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Today is the 44th annual March for Life, which is being live-streamed in several locations.

Let us host it here, for UD (following up from a discussion of three marches in Washington DC, here)  . . . this stream will go “live” later this morning. I note due to heightened security concerns, Airport type screening will be used for those seeking to march — the contrast with the last two marches in the same city is telling:

[UPDATE — post-march video, this is an historic event]

MRC two minute summary showing the crowds, civility and messages that are not in the major media:

[youtube SMf10C3g54I]

ADDED, HT BA77: The flow of the march —

[youtube -EPZ8gMdoJc]

US VP Mike Pence’s speech:

[youtube OvJPqxdEPkI]

EWTN full coverage:

[youtube 7IvY5qVgq8w]

Ultrasound scans of babies in utero — direct scientific evidence:

[youtube sVB0qTiq5jU]

Now — never mind the grammatical error (it’s a striking amateur effort, which I corrected . . . ) — too, let us ponder i/l/o what we just saw:

bacvsheartbeat

Why host this live stream — and now archival footage — here at UD?

Because, first, life is the first right without which there are no other rights; where (on figures tracing to Guttmacher) 800+ million unborn children have been slaughtered in the womb globally, over the past generation of the war on our posterity since the 1970’s — the US contribution being some 60 millions to date. This is by far the worst holocaust in history. One, that is currently mounting up at a million more victims per week. All, enabled by our silence or complicity in guilt of blood. Multiplied by, corruption of medicine, education, media, law, law enforcement, parliaments and cabinets, even — far too often — complicit clergy.

Second, because we need to reach out to millions of women who have been deceived, manipulated and misled into destroying their unborn children. Such, need to understand that God loves and graciously saves and cleanses all who will turn to him, to the point where the arch persecutor to death of the C1 church — who called himself the chief of sinners — became the greatest missionary of all time.

In which context, we need to de-spin so we can think straight:

straight_vs_spin[U/D: I now add a summary from Breithbart’s counter-rules in the face of Alinsky-cultural marxist agit-prop and ideological-cultural agendas:]

breitbartmanifesto

Third, because this matter is the mother cancer, the focal evil from which the perversion and tainting of hearts, lives, honourable professions, law, education, media, parliaments and cabinets has metastasised far and wide across our civilisation, a cancer that is now patently in fourth stage.

Only radical prophetic intervention that calls us back to sanity and soundness can turn us back from the brink, now — exactly what the holocaust enabling, civilisation-betraying media do not want us to even think about:

Of Lemmings, marches of folly and cliffs of self-falsifying absurdity . . .
Of Lemmings, marches of folly and cliffs of self-falsifying absurdity . . .

Last, but not least, because this is deeply connected to issues of our origins, the roots of mind and morality, and to the imposition of evolutionary materialistic scientism dressed up in a lab coat. Only by the supplanting and discrediting of the gospel, scriptures and churches under false colours of science, could such have come to pass. For, by enthroning evolutionary materialism, amorality and radical relativism reducing to might and/or manipulation make ‘right,’ ‘truth’ ‘worth’ and more have been let loose on our civilisation.

Indeed, that is not news, this is exactly what Plato warned against almost 2360 years ago now — speaking in the voice of the Athenian Stranger:

 

Ath [in The Laws, Bk X 2,350+ ya]. . . .[The avant garde philosophers and poets, c. 360 BC] say that fire and water, and earth and air [i.e the classical “material” elements of the cosmos], all exist by nature and chance, and none of them by art . . . [such that] all that is in the heaven, as well as animals and all plants, and all the seasons come from these elements, not by the action of mind, as they say, or of any God, or from art, but as I was saying, by nature and chance only [ –> that is, evolutionary materialism is ancient and would trace all things to blind chance and mechanical necessity] . . . .

[Thus, they hold] that the principles of justice have no existence at all in nature, but that mankind are always disputing about them and altering them; and that the alterations which are made by art and by law have no basis in nature, but are of authority for the moment and at the time at which they are made.-

[ –> Relativism, too, is not new; complete with its radical amorality rooted in a worldview that has no foundational IS that can ground OUGHT, leading to an effectively arbitrary foundation only for morality, ethics and law: accident of personal preference, the ebbs and flows of power politics, accidents of history and and the shifting sands of manipulated community opinion driven by “winds and waves of doctrine and the cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming . . . ” cf a video on Plato’s parable of the cave; from the perspective of pondering who set up the manipulative shadow-shows, why.]

These, my friends, are the sayings of wise men, poets and prose writers, which find a way into the minds of youth. They are told by them that the highest right is might,

[ –> Evolutionary materialism — having no IS that can properly ground OUGHT — leads to the promotion of amorality on which the only basis for “OUGHT” is seen to be might (and manipulation: might in “spin”) . . . ]

and in this way the young fall into impieties, under the idea that the Gods are not such as the law bids them imagine; and hence arise factions [ –> Evolutionary materialism-motivated amorality “naturally” leads to continual contentions and power struggles influenced by that amorality at the hands of ruthless power hungry nihilistic agendas], these philosophers inviting them to lead a true life according to nature, that is,to live in real dominion over others [ –> such amoral and/or nihilistic factions, if they gain power, “naturally” tend towards ruthless abuse and arbitrariness . . . they have not learned the habits nor accepted the principles of mutual respect, justice, fairness and keeping the civil peace of justice, so they will want to deceive, manipulate and crush — as the consistent history of radical revolutions over the past 250 years so plainly shows again and again], and not in legal subjection to them [–> nihilistic will to power not the spirit of justice and lawfulness].

 

Yes, it is time for radical reformation. But for that to begin, we first have to face the truth, and we have to address the central evil of our time. END

 

Comments
MW, KF, Thanks for your thoughtful responses. KF, great stuff at the link you provided!harry
January 29, 2017
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God is with the ones whom the world considers to be nobodies and beneath consideration.
I was thinking of something just like that when I saw the pictures and videos of the marchers. Then it just hit me - the ones the world considers nobodies? It's the children waiting to be born themselves! Great reflection, Andrew - thank you for sharing that.Silver Asiatic
January 29, 2017
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I was there. It was awesome! (Wrote a little reflection) Andrew's March For Life 2017 Reflection: Trying to condense all the sights, sounds and thoughts a person experiences at the March for Life into a takeaway message isn't easy. There are so many ideas that could be explored and discussed at length. There are as many things to think about as there were people there. The one I have picked out to present is one that was inspired by themes in today's scripture readings: God is with the ones whom the world considers to be nobodies and beneath consideration. This idea was highlighted throughout the scriptures today repeatedly. Maybe the only way we can begin to return to a culture of Life in America is to first see that God loves His children even when His children hate each other and themselves and Him. I have faith that this is our way out and away from the violence and the contempt we have for even the smallest and most innocent of people. So while we bicker and accuse and hurt each other now, God has has instructed us to make a better choice. He has commanded it. Love one another, as He loves us. That's all I have. Andrewasauber
January 29, 2017
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looks like the torched Limo was that of Lance Wallnau. This man has the right spiritual enemies: http://kairosfocus.blogspot.com/2017/01/matt-24-watch-301-that-torched-car-on.htmlkairosfocus
January 29, 2017
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mw
However, the founding fathers of America included freemasons, http://civilwartalk.com/thread.....ons.39643/
Masonic influence in the U.S. has been very strong since its founding. The concept of nature's God is legitimate in philosophical terms and it matches what the Deist's believed. We often use the term "Theistic evolutionist" when it might more accurately be "Deistic evolutionist" since theism proposes a personal God who intervenes in nature whereas Deism proposes an impersonal force of some kind. Romans 1:12 points to the God that can be recognized in nature. Certainly not the fullness of knowledge that we gain through revelation, but enough to have a divine orientation. We can look back and be glad that at least the American founders had some standards for morality - in that same way, looking to God as the source of rights. I think Roe V Wade merely took the principle of radical individualism a little farther so that each person has the right to define what life is. I remember growing up being taught that England was Mary's Dowry and a land of countless saints. I didn't learn about the other side of the picture with Darwin and other Enlightenment thinkers spreading atheism until I was much older. Thank you for sharing that personal note on your journey from freemasonry. That is inspirational.Silver Asiatic
January 29, 2017
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MW, law of nature is a way of saying that we find ourselves under moral government, the law of OUR nature. This comes out in the sense of urgency towards the truth and the right, that even comes out in how the perverse try to exploit our sense of fairness and to project perceptions of hypocrisy. In short the general consent of mankind is that we are under moral law, law tied to our nature, law that is self-evident as to try to deny it instantly ends in absurdity. For instance, why ought we to be critical, apart from the oughtness of truth and right? Yes, playing games with this brings rationality crashing down. In that light we see the IS-OUGHT gap and that points to the roots of reality. Only at that level can we find an IS that simultaneously grounds ought. For this there is but one serious candidate: the inherently good creator God, a necessary and maximally great being, worthy of ultimate loyalty and the reasonable, responsible service of doing the good in accord with our evident nature. Why do I say that? Try putting up an alternative, all too soon it collapses in absurdities. It is in that context that ethical theism arises and points to the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Which, many hate to the point that they are willing to cling to the absurd in order to dismiss Him with whom they wish to have no dealings. Thus, we fall under Rom 1. KFkairosfocus
January 29, 2017
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Harry @ 41: I can only applaud your sentiments. You say: “Give me brutally honest criticism of the following. Thanks.” You mention, “British jurist William Blackstone was a proponent of natural law theory – the theory that law was constrained by morality.” _________________________________________________________________ A question, as an Englishman, myself; who or what defines “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”? Was it not and Englishman who exported from England a global Judaeo-Christian faith reducing theory; a non-scientific law, making invalid and "erroneous" the law of God at Sinai as ‘untrustworthy nonsense,’ and unworthy of Darwin's enlightenment? Nevertheless, on record, God publicly witnessed at Sinai; testified in stone, and had his witness statement made into a book of law by Moses. In turn, that law was laid down in holy respect alongside the ark containing his stone written testimony, which by the way, the ark God designed. Today, the very Testimony and law of God is made out to contain design errors around the numbers six and seven. If God is deemed to have given an outdated and hence an unnatural law; a law given by the Highest lawmaker with supreme authority and judgement, what then? For one thing, Roe and Wade, is what then. However, death spews throughout the fossil records. Surely evidence of catastrophic judgement. That also rubbished. Unable we are now to believe God created good from the beginning a mature universe aged to suit, as stated in any plain reading of that divine law. As for myself, each day I give thanks for each special day of the creation and am happy to believe and live in the matured wine of creation in six days. However, the founding fathers of America included freemasons, http://civilwartalk.com/threads/founding-fathers-and-others-who-were-freemasons.39643/ A grandfather of Darwin was an ardent evolutionist and freemason. Nature's law was a song to Darwin. Natural Selection he ‘baptised’ as a law of nature. Indeed, he made a god out of it: “natures God.” The Rev Walton Hannah, a Church of England vicar, who later became a Catholic priest in Canada, wrote, “Darkness Visible: A Christian Appraisal of Freemasonry” (1952). Its accuracy was confirmed in 1987 by Commander Higham, General Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England. Alternatively, the book by Arturo De Hoyos and S Brent Morris, “Is it True what they Say About Freemasonry (2004),” written by two American 33 degree freemasons, paints a different picture. From my research, speaking as a Catholic, I believe freemasonry is the vehicle that will bring about ecclesiastical freemasonry into the Vatican; a trumpet for the false prince of peace, the true antichrist. It is believed, against Freemasonry, the Blessed Virgin Mary spoke. In an approved devotion from the 17th century, Quito, Ecuador, she appeared as Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torresto. A miraculous statue was part of the mystical events, blessed now with a canonical coronation. Deemed worthy of reading are the messages. Her cause for beatification began in 1986. Her body now lies incorrupt. http://www.michaeljournal.org/goodsuccess.htm Many years ago, I resigned from freemasonry and its privileges.mw
January 29, 2017
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Harry, I think the US founders and framers were terrified of splitting up the North American continent into small manipulable states that would invite interference and endless wars similar to Europe. Hence, their priority on Union. The 20 year terminus on the slave trade was written into the Constitution, as part of the compromises they made. To limit the power of slave-holding states in Congress they held that un-free persons should only count 3/5 in apportioning seats for the popular house. The Senate was originally in effect collective ambassadors from the constitutive states to the federation government. Some reference to Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural address may help; I have been struck by the reference he made to offences cf Matt 18. KF PS: Cf my remarks here.kairosfocus
January 29, 2017
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Truth, yes it is an obvious battle for the future and for the hearts, minds and souls of men. KFkairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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Harry, thanks; food for sobering thought. KFkairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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KF @ 37: "This, to me smacks of something seriously wrong." Indeed, there IS something seriously wrong. This is a culture war of epic proportions, with new and deep fissures beings created daily. The gloves are off for both sides. These are very dangerous times.Truth Will Set You Free
January 28, 2017
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Hey KF, BA and others who may be so inclined, Give me brutally honest criticism of the following. Thanks. Legal Personhood, Legal Positivism and Bigotry Some things to consider for those who think the child in the womb not being considered a legal person somehow justifies killing them: American slavery pretended to be legitimate by not granting full legal personhood to Blacks. Nazi law denied the legal personhood of the Jews, the victims of lethal bigotry. Denying legal personhood to the victims of the bigotry of the times is how the bigots attempt to legitimize their evil; they entrench their bigotry in the law. This being so obvious, what made the Supreme Court, in its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, decide to abruptly withdraw the protection of law from the child in the womb – and do so in spite of the fact that this would strike down laws the vast majority of the states already had on the books protecting these children, laws that had been there for over a hundred years? (Not to mention the fact that striking down laws enacted and maintained by the elected representatives of the people for over a century made a mockery of representative government.) The short answer: legal positivism, which arose in opposition to classical natural law theory which insists that there are necessary moral constraints on the content of law, combined with media-manufactured bigotry that dehumanized the child in the womb in the minds of many people. British jurist William Blackstone was a proponent of natural law theory – the theory that law was constrained by morality. Our Founding Fathers referred to Blackstone more than to any other English or American authority. Blackstone’s great work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, was a basic textbook of America’s early lawyers. The notion that government and its laws are constrained by morality glaringly shines forth in our Declaration of Independence, which began by invoking “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God” to justify the assertions that followed in that document. Legal positivism, where the law is not constrained by morality, can, of course, easily go terribly wrong. Noted legal positivist Hans Kelsen asserted that:
What is a legal person is for the law, including of course, the Constitution, to say, which simply means that upon according legal personality to a thing the law affords it the right and privileges of a legal person ... The point is that it is a policy determination whether legal personality should attach and not a question of biological or 'natural' correspondence.
So a corporation can be a legal person, but biological human beings aren't necessarily legal persons? Any chance that could lead to injustice? Yes. Of course. And it did. Kelsen was eventually accused of providing the Nazis with a legal basis for the horrors they perpetrated upon innocent humanity. We need to learn from the horrible governmental mistakes of history so we won't let them repeat themselves, mistakes which are often rooted in the bigotry of the times: The Mistake of the American Founders The American Founders, although it was a clear violation of the noble principles proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence, tolerated slavery. Not that they didn't really believe in those principles. They did, but they thought that the upcoming international abolition of the slave trade would soon bring slavery to an end in America anyway, and they needed all the colonies to join the Union, including the slave-holding colonies. They were pragmatic, considering slavery a temporarily necessary evil that would soon disappear on its own. They were terribly wrong. Slavery became even more entrenched and was eventually widely promoted by Southern plantation owners as a positive good instead of a necessary evil. This was because slavery had become extremely lucrative. The big plantation owners were making a killing off of cash crops by utilizing slave labor. The Founders were wrong about the demise of slavery in America being inevitable and happening soon. Principle should have trumped pragmatism. Their mistake eventually had horrible consequences: It is estimated that 620,000 Americans lost their lives in the Civil War and countless soldiers returned home minus an arm or a leg. The carnage was unprecedented. And worse than even all that was countless human beings living and dying as slaves until American slavery ended. The Mistake of Germany The German intelligentsia decided to be pragmatic instead of principled about the cost of caring for institutionalized people and about unwanted pregnancies. Long before anybody knew who Hitler was they began advocating “humane” euthanasia and abortion. This amounted to the rejection of the traditional Western ethic which demanded respect for the dignity and inestimable worth of any and every human being. The state would now have the authority to “legalize” the murder of innocent humanity. Hitler eventually rose to power and applied the godless pragmatism of the intelligentsia to his agenda, which included arriving at a “final solution” to the longstanding “Jewish question.” There really was no legitimate “Jewish question,” there was only bigotry. All this unsurprisingly led to Nazi law denying legal personhood to the victims of bigotry and killing them by the millions. This ended in catastrophe not only for Germany but for all humanity as the Nazi regime's irrational assumption of god-like authority over innocent humanity corrupted them completely and darkened their minds. They then started WWII, which ultimately brought about the deaths of sixty-million people world-wide, or about three percent of the 1940 world population. Modern America's Mistake For over a hundred years America was a country the laws of which reflected the noble principles proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence. We had ended slavery and our laws reflected the intrinsic illegality of taking the life of the child in the womb. American law protected the inalienable rights to life and liberty of ALL humanity. Yet with the Roe vs. Wade decision -- a Nazi-like application of Kelsen's legal positivism -- the Supreme Court abandoned all that and irrationally took the path Germany had taken years before Hitler came to power that eventually led to world-wide catastrophe: We “legalized” the murder of the victims of contemporary bigotry, denying legal personhood to a vast segment of humanity. Americans will either restore American law to the noble principles of the Founders that were proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence or face an eventual disaster the bloody carnage of which God only knows. Justifying the murder of the child in the womb by saying these children aren't legal persons is the lamest, most unoriginal, uninspired, overdone, tired, hackneyed and recycled defense of “legal” murder possible.harry
January 28, 2017
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BA77, the issue is what is the credible source of functionally specific complex organisation and associated information. Beyond a certain threshold, blind chance and/or mechanical necessity fail to be plausible. In the standard comms network model, there is always a source of info. Here, Wells is looking at origin of cell types (thus tissues, organs and systems) in complex organisms. This info is not coming from DNA, it is coming from somewhere else. Where is it coming from -- obviously for both the individual developing organism and the origin of the relevant body plan down to cellular details. (Icons of Evo BTW has a useful discussion of embryology.) And, he is right that there is meta info involved, the changing transformations are themselves pointing onward. We have a long way to go. Saying epigenetics or regulatory circuits etc does not truly solve this. KF PS: SEP is a good place to look at on C-theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/category-theory/ Wiki is usually not too bad on non ideological matters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_theory Course notes: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/dt/CT/categories.pdf Basic text online: https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~ooste110/syllabi/catsmoeder.pdf Grad level text: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~hsimmons/BOOKS/CatTheory.pdf This seems a good learning text: http://katmat.math.uni-bremen.de/acc/acc.pdfkairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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kf, this might interest you since it deals with mathematics: As to embryological development, starting around the 40:00 minute mark of the following powerpoint presentation, I was pleasantly surprised by Jonathan Wells's observation, via Richard Sternberg using category theory which is a generalization of set theories, that information must be coming in to the developing embryo 'from the outside' from a 'non-material' source in order to explain the changing form and different cell types of the embryo:
Design Beyond DNA: A Conversation with Dr. Jonathan Wells – video (40:00 minute mark) – January 2017 https://youtu.be/ASAaANVBoiE?t=2405
kf, I was wondering is you could please hash the math of category theory out a bit more fully so as to more clearly elucidate why information must be coming in to the developing embryo 'from the outside' from a 'non-material' source in order to explain the changing form and different cell types of the developing embryo.bornagain77
January 28, 2017
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Folks, above, I called the abortion holocaust the mother cancer sending out metastases all across our civilisation. I ask you to ponder what happens when minds are warped, consciences benumbed, blood guilt blinds eyes and stops ears, the law begins to be corrupted, education and media are dominated by enablers of mass slaughter of the ultimately innocent, and such becomes a powerful political coalition. The logic of cultural cancer points to exactly what Rom 1 highlights. Resentment towards God, locking him and his nature -- "I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE" -- out of knowledge and ethics, substitution of false for true ultimate loyalties, a spiral of perversities and demands that those whose consciences are not utterly warped go along with and approve evil. Light is called darkness, and darkness light; good evil and evil good. Such is obviously unsustainable and headed for the cliff. Worse, it sounds a lot like the state of our civilisation today. The question is, can we wake up enough to turn back before the cliff's edge collapses underfoot -- taking us down with it. KFkairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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BA77, thanks, I added above, HT you. KF PS: It is predictable but saddening to see the evasions, attempted sidetracks and insinuations in the Breitbart thread. Perhaps the worst is to see enablers of the slaughter of 800+ million unbborn children trying to insinuate that a US President likely to appoint pro-life judges and pro-life people are "fascists," with Hitler's name of course being dragged in. This, to me smacks of something seriously wrong.kairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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Here you go kf:
2017 March For Life in Washington DC - time-lapse video https://youtu.be/-EPZ8gMdoJc
bornagain77
January 28, 2017
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MfL'17 pics: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/27/march-life-2017-photos-washington-dcs-pro-life-rally/kairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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BA77, very impressive -- can we get a YouTube or the like? KFkairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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In short, the central weapon of the first murderer, the enemy of our souls is the persuasive lie. Lies that then become embedded in how we think and build institutions and cultures. Lies that become the foundation of spiritual strongholds in nations, cities, businesses, parliaments, cabinets, courts, houses and our own brains and bodies. Lies that have to be shattered by the power of grace, truth and love for us to be set free from our chains. And to do so strong men — visible and invisible — have to be confronted as David confronted Goliath, and stripped of their power to intimidate and deceive. Where bondage takes on an institutional or political/policy or military character, that too has to be challenged. In the extreme case, government becomes a demonic, destructive stronghold and loses the mandate of heaven by turning tyrannical.
That is powerful, KF. As you rightly pointed out, the Alinsky tactic is built on strategic, deliberate lying. Alinksy was very open about that.Silver Asiatic
January 28, 2017
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What a brilliant idea - and simply amazing to see like that. I just mentioned "River of Life" - and that's what we have there! The American media actually picked this story up a bit more this year. Of course, they never use the term pro-life. The other side can self-designate as pro-choice and that's ok with the media. Our side can't do that though. We're called 'anti-abortion'. Then why not call our opponents 'pro-abortion'? We know why.Silver Asiatic
January 28, 2017
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Wow! Check out this awesome time lapse of the entire #MarchforLife!pic.twitter.com/Evrq3IBGCd http://pic.twitter.com/Evrq3IBGCdbornagain77
January 28, 2017
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KF @23 & @24: Excellent. Thank you.Dionisio
January 28, 2017
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Good words, mw. I watched an excellent documentary on O.L. of Guadalupe recently: River of Life directed and produced by John Bird. Highly recommended 4-dvd set (covers more than just Guadalupe).Silver Asiatic
January 28, 2017
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Dionisio - I would say yes, very much so. It's very interesting.Silver Asiatic
January 28, 2017
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Wonderful coverage and commentary, KF. Thank you. You said it simply here: "is at the pivot of the cultural conflict". So true. We can see the sharp dividing line that runs through our culture right at this moment. Society has absorbed and internalized quite a lot of evil. The March for Life is a great chance for healing of that.Silver Asiatic
January 28, 2017
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Is this article within the current topic? http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/the-female-brain--pregnant-with-designDionisio
January 28, 2017
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Good 'food' indeed, KF. Not only that, we have had God cruxified. Far worse the implications, than that of the time of Noah. Expect trouble, hope for promised mercy.mw
January 28, 2017
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PS: On the core nature of spiritual warfare, per Paul:
2 Cor 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy [--> fallacious or deceptive] arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . . [ESV]
In short, the central weapon of the first murderer, the enemy of our souls is the persuasive lie. Lies that then become embedded in how we think and build institutions and cultures. Lies that become the foundation of spiritual strongholds in nations, cities, businesses, parliaments, cabinets, courts, houses and our own brains and bodies. Lies that have to be shattered by the power of grace, truth and love for us to be set free from our chains. And to do so strong men -- visible and invisible -- have to be confronted as David confronted Goliath, and stripped of their power to intimidate and deceive. Where bondage takes on an institutional or political/policy or military character, that too has to be challenged. In the extreme case, government becomes a demonic, destructive stronghold and loses the mandate of heaven by turning tyrannical. Thank God, we still have sufficient freedom to speak and the power of the ballot box to stand up to such agendas without having to go through the awful, bloody struggles that won recognition of these rights in past centuries. (and, those who would again fasten us in chains, reveal what they are by the light of that terrible history.)kairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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MW, Some food for thought. I used to think and say that our generation can only be compared to that of Noah. But then, it was pointed out to me by a retired police sergeant that WE HAD THEIR EXAMPLE AS A WARNING. We are WORSE than the generation of Noah, and fall under Jesus' prophetic rebuke:
Matt 24:37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant,[c] whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants[d] and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And, we may ask, how can we come to such a sad pass. The apostle Paul analyses and warns:
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[e] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[f] God's Wrath on Unrighteousness 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. [All, ESV]
Peter does not spare us either:
2 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,[i] with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit . . . . 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell[a] and committed them to chains[b] of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;[c] 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge[e] in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority . . . . 3:1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies[b] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Sobering, and some come not out save by the force of Scripture. KFkairosfocus
January 28, 2017
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