Tag Archives: Christian

How government control of medicine leads to violations of conscience

Story here from the leftist Washington Post.

Excerpt:

Deep within the massive health-care overhaul legislation, a few little-noticed provisions have quietly reignited one of the bitterest debates in medicine: how to balance the right of doctors, nurses and other workers to refuse to provide services on moral or religious grounds with the right of patients to get care.

[…]The debate has focused attention on President Obama’s plan to rescind a federal regulation put into effect by the previous administration to protect workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable. Soon after taking office, Obama announced he would lift the rule, arguing it could create obstacles to abortion and other reproductive health services. But a final decision about whether to kill, keep or replace the rule with a compromise has been pending as the debate over the health law raged. The outcome is being closely watched as a bellwether of how the administration will handle a possible thicket of conflicts under the health legislation.

“The act is thousands of pages of new government power, decision-making and funding,” said Matthew S. Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents workers who object on religious grounds to being required to provide some forms of health care. “Any government power over health care can be exercised in a way that discriminates against pro-life health providers, especially when officials already support abortion and oppose enforcement of conscience laws.”

And more:

Bowman and others point to Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo as an example of what they fear could become increasingly common as the government becomes much more deeply entwined with health care. Cenzon-DeCarlo was working at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York last year when the nurse was stunned to learn that she had been assigned to help abort a 22-week-old fetus. A devout Catholic, Cenzon-DeCarlo thought she had a long-standing agreement with the hospital that let her avoid abortions. But this time, despite her pleas, Cenzon-DeCarlo’s bosses insisted.

“It felt like a horror film unfolding,” Cenzon-DeCarlo said. “It was devastating. I have suffered intense emotional pain. I’ve had nightmares. . . . I felt violated and betrayed.”

Cenzon-DeCarlo, who filed state and federal lawsuits against Mount Sinai, is the only health-care worker who has filed a complaint under the previous administration’s rule, which remains in effect. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating, but officials would not comment on the case. The hospital also declined to comment.

Government is necessarily secular, and it is typically run by people who are born rich and educated at expensive schools. It causes them to think they are better than other people. They become extremely disdainful of the moral law, and the Judeo-Christian worldview that supports it – because they view the moral law (and the Constitution, etc.) as a  antiquated brake on their pursuit of happiness in this life. The desire for happiness now causes them to believe in anything that will push the demands of the moral law off.

And their personal views inform their political views. Those on the left favor policies that push moral rules aside, and sometimes even the people who believe moral rules – like pro-life doctors. The problem is that dismissing the moral law only works when you have a rich grandmother to bail you out. That’s why we need to elect more people like Michele Bachmann, who are self-made and had to work for a living, and who have raised their own children. People who don’t have contempt for the beliefs and values of ordinary people.

Jim Wallace discusses the problem of unanswered prayer

Video is here. (H/T Apologetics 315)

This problem is similar to the problem of divine hiddenness and the problem of evil and suffering. God’s purpose in his relationship with you is not to make you happy. His purpose for relating to you is so that you can know him and enter into a love relationship with him. God is not a toy for you to play with for comfort, and then to put away. With respect to God’s relationship with you, and purpose for you, your happiness is expendable. It may be that you will have to put off trying to make yourself happy until you die… because there are so many other higher-priority things to do with God and other people.

Why I pray

As a Christian, I am especially concerned for other Christians because we have to worry about out relationship with God more than being happy. So I try to make an effort to love and support other Christians who are hurt in the execution of their duty. If you think of prayer as a way of talking to God about your relationship with him, and your relationships with other people (especially Christians), then I think you will have fewer disappointments. At least, that’s what I’ve observed in my experience. When I pray, I ask God to draw people I am working on toward him. And I pray for victory in the execution of my duty.

Here’s George Washington praying:

George Washington and Old Nelson pray

You can read more about George Washington and his triumph against the odds at the battle of Trenton here.

And an American soldier praying:

American soldier prays

And everybody should know about the General Patton weather prayer at Bastogne:

Here’s the prayer.

Do the right thing. Focus on your mission – to know and love God in Christ, and to know and love others. Don’t think about your own needs. Don’t ask God to make you happy. You have no right to be happy.

Here’s a simple guide to prayer from Campus Crusade for Christ.

Is opposition to abortion shared by religions other than Christianity?

Here’s a post showing different pro-life views from Reason to Stand.

Excerpt:

Why is abortion always treated as a Catholic issue?

I get highly annoyed when people speak of issues such as abortion as if they were purely the invention of the religious right and devoid of any other supporters than “the crazy Christians”.

So to help put things in perspective, here are several secular sources who, like Christians, thought that abortions were a bad idea. Boldness liberally applied by myself.

Here’s one of his sources:

“There are five kinds of evil Karma which are difficult to extinguish, even if one were to repent of them. What are the five kinds of offences? The first one is killing the father, the second one is killing the mother, the third one is abortion, the fourth one is to injure the Buddha, the fifth one is to create disharmony among the Sangha assemblies. These five types of evil and sinful karma are difficult to extinguish.” -The Dharani Sutra of the Buddha

And another:

“The law enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing humankind.” -Josephus, 1st century Jewish historian

The post has even more viewpoints.