Not Your Fathers Party

I'm reluctant to post anything "political" but the need of the hour necessitates providing some insight into the truth and what is at stake for our society if we neglect the privileges God has provided for us in this nation. Beginning this post is a quotation from the Democratic Party National Platform. (A party platform, also known as a manifesto, is a list of the principles which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said party's candidates voted into office.) Following the Democratic statement regarding their support of the unborn is a short blurb by Ravi Zacharias published some time ago and appropriate to the issue.

"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right."

The above quotation is from the Democratic Party National Platform presented to the 2008 Democratic National Convention by the Platform Standing Committee Governor Deval Patrick, Former Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Former Discovery Communications, Inc. CEO Judith McHale,Committee Chairs (As Approved by the Platform Committee at its meeting August 9, 2008)


The Defenseless Among Us

The ultimate test of any civilization is what we do with our children. What we do with the most defenseless among us speaks to the soul of a people. Interestingly enough, every culture today claims, in theory, to place the highest value on its love of its children. Some time ago when one Middle Eastern leader was asked when the fighting in that part of the world would stop, she answered, "When they love their children more than they hate us." I have little doubt that the opposing side would say the same. There is a profound expression of values in that statement. In our own prisons those whose crime was against a child are kept from other prisoners, as even criminals draw a line of civility. In any course on ethics, the bottom-line illustration is still, "Is it all right to torture babies?" rhetorically stated, of course, and always eliciting a thunderous "Of course not!" If this, then, is the ultimate test of a civilization, how are we doing in ours? What is it we live for, and what, in that pursuit, are we doing to our children? One look at the world we are giving to them spells horror. All over the globe, the statistics of war are staggering, so much so as to be nearly incomprehensible. The statistics in America may be different because we are not engaged in civil war. Yet we are certainly involved in a moral war that is even more insidious, for it ravages the souls of our children. What are we doing to our children when we tell them there are no boundaries—when we say, in the words of our Supreme Court in its famous Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, that it is up to them to decide "their own concept of existence"? What about when we ridicule sacred things? When we leave them vulnerable to any philosophy of life that comes around? When we walk out on marital commitments and leave them defenseless in a predatory world? What have we done? We have prepared them for a life of individualized meaning, which means anything goes. Children want to be valued, but they also want to know the reason for that value, and there is no surer way to instill it than to impart to them that they are a gift from God, entrusted to us by Him. Only then will we be able to offer these precious lives the wisdom and guidance they so desperately need. Then we can pass the test of civility.

Ravi Zacharias