Monday, November 24, 2008
armpit wedgie
You know my girl cracks me up, and this was another good one: Yesterday she insisted on changing shirts...her reason? You guessed it, the one she had on was giving her "an armpit wedgie!" I laughed so hard...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
snow!
We had a dusting of snow when we woke up Friday morning, so the kids made the best of it while they could. It was freeeeezing out, too, very blustery, probably a wind chill factor in the 20's. And then last night I spent about an hour and a half playing with Jordan in her room, she really needed that time. From time to time she cries and says that she needs a sister, which breaks my heart until Jon reminds me of the starving children in Haiti. I know she doesn't have it bad at all, but she sees the 3 boys playing together and having so much fun, she wishes she had that. I keep telling myself that God does the birth order for a reason, and that if he had wanted her to have a sister he would have made Zach a girl! We don't feel led to adopt at this time, especially with the economic uncertainty at this time. We pray that Jon would continue to have a job, even though they did a bunch of layoffs at his work this week. Anyway, I thought I'd share some more pictures...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
clarification
I want to make sure I'm not taking credit for someone else's words, as beautifully put as they are. In case you didn't happen to notice at the bottom of the last entry, "How could a Christian possibly vote for Obama?", that was a post from another blogger, a guy that Jon knows through his job. Sorry!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
How could a Christian possibly vote for Obama?
A friend recently put me in touch with an Evangelical believer who could not understand how a Christian could possibly support Obama because of his abortion stance. This is what I wrote to him.
Thanks for writing and for your honesty. I will describe my thinking about abortion in detail below, but the basic reason I can vote for Obama in spite of his support for abortion rights is that presidents have a great many important roles, powers and influences but actually very little ability to make a difference on abortion. We have seen over the last eight years that just because a president might say “the right things” in his abortion stance, it doesn’t mean that he will govern well on a host of other issues. Indeed, considering the key role that Evangelicals played in the election and re-election of George Bush, we bear considerable responsibility for the election of what is now overwhelmingly recognized as a disastrous administration. By focusing our considerable voting power so narrowly on social issues, Christians helped empower the neo-con agenda of projecting American power through pre-emptive war and the anti-regulation policy that led to an orgy of greed that is now crushing our economy. During this time there was little if any change in the abortion culture and President Bush didn’t even use “the bully pulpit” of the presidency to challenge it even when he had a degree of popularity. Of the two candidates this year, I felt that Obama was better suited to undoing some of the damage that has occurred to our nation’s reputation, economy and political climate. I didn’t believe that either candidate would do something to really make a difference on abortion because that would require much more than a change in judges.
I understand your passionate concern about abortion because I agree with you that it is an immoral practice and I would like to see it end. I think there are three things that we, as Christians, can and should be doing about abortion, and an Obama presidency is no impediment to doing any of them.
First and foremost, I think that Christians should be known for the fact that they and their children have far fewer abortions, or ideally none. Unfortunately the statistics suggest that this is not really the case. “Let judgment start with the house of God.”
Second, Christians can be active in making it possible for women to choose not to abort. They can provide shelter and they can adopt. I think that the Church is actually doing a great job here, mostly without attention. That is the Kingdom in action and it has been saving babies for all the decades when legal approaches have produced little change.
The third option depends on doing a good job of the first two. It is being the “prophetic voice” to the World making the case with truth, humility and grace that abortion is immoral. We have a legitimate reason to make that argument, not assuming that our hearers accept the authority of scripture, but appealing to the conscience that God has placed in their heart and which remains in spite of the Fall. When Christians have talked about this as a moral issue, it has frequently been in a graceless and angry tone rather than something that would have much hope of getting others to really ponder the question. But that is not the biggest problem. The tragedy is that we have let the discussion shift from a moral plane to a legal one – from what is right and wrong to whose “rights” supersede the other’s.
The concept of “Rights” is not really “Christian” having came out of late medieval scholasticism and developing mainly during the Enlightenment. Accordingly, the concept of subjective human rights is not the way that the Bible addresses moral issues. “Rights” has been a functional way to talk about what are actually moral issues in a post-Christian age, but it is not fully compatible with speaking Biblical truths. When we allow the argument to be about a woman’s “right to choose” we let people see themselves as defending her against a caddish boyfriend etc instead of sanctioning the death of a child. When we make arguments for the “right to life” we ignore the reality that life is not a “right” at all and is in fact a gift from God - not at all guaranteed for a developing fetus or for you or for me tomorrow. An argument over “rights” is unsolvable because the Constitution says nothing about how to balance competing rights, let alone these particular rights.
That is why the problem cannot be solved just by overturning Roe v Wade. As long as most abortion supporters think of themselves as defending women’s rights they will only be more motivated by that event. If you have a very large proportion of the population that has not yet been convinced that abortion is actually wrong, a legal prohibition will ultimately fail in anything but a police state. If we were to concentrate instead on making the moral argument in a way that people will listen, we could begin to reduce the number of abortions long before there is a consensus that this is something that should be the subject of a law and even if that consensus is never achieved. “Choice” is really not so much a “right” as it is an unavoidable and difficult “obligation” to make a decision if you are someone who is pregnant and does not want to be. We don’t have to wait for a court to change to say, “The choice will have to be made, now let’s talk about the morality of that choice.”
Christians don’t have to elect a Pro-life president to do the three things I’ve described (Being a good example, support and adoption to give women options, and being a prophetic voice). It actually makes it easier to break away from the futility of a “rights” debate when the woman’s “right” is not under threat. Christians can even pray that Obama could be convinced to use his considerable speaking skills and influence to talk about the morality of abortion in the way that he has talked about fatherhood responsibility in the black community.
As members of the Kingdom of God, we have great power to overcome evil with good. The power of the state is nothing in comparison. Throughout history, whenever the Church tries to rely on state power it almost always comes out compromised. We see that happening today because the American Evangelical Church aligned itself so closely with the “Republican Brand” which is now so tarnished. I wouldn’t want to see the Church align itself with the “Democratic brand” either or even the “Obama brand”. I’d just like to see us wrestle with our voting decisions based on what we think will be best for the country while we pursue Kingdom concerns like abortion with Kingdom tools.
Posted by s.d. savage at 9:13 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Thanks for writing and for your honesty. I will describe my thinking about abortion in detail below, but the basic reason I can vote for Obama in spite of his support for abortion rights is that presidents have a great many important roles, powers and influences but actually very little ability to make a difference on abortion. We have seen over the last eight years that just because a president might say “the right things” in his abortion stance, it doesn’t mean that he will govern well on a host of other issues. Indeed, considering the key role that Evangelicals played in the election and re-election of George Bush, we bear considerable responsibility for the election of what is now overwhelmingly recognized as a disastrous administration. By focusing our considerable voting power so narrowly on social issues, Christians helped empower the neo-con agenda of projecting American power through pre-emptive war and the anti-regulation policy that led to an orgy of greed that is now crushing our economy. During this time there was little if any change in the abortion culture and President Bush didn’t even use “the bully pulpit” of the presidency to challenge it even when he had a degree of popularity. Of the two candidates this year, I felt that Obama was better suited to undoing some of the damage that has occurred to our nation’s reputation, economy and political climate. I didn’t believe that either candidate would do something to really make a difference on abortion because that would require much more than a change in judges.
I understand your passionate concern about abortion because I agree with you that it is an immoral practice and I would like to see it end. I think there are three things that we, as Christians, can and should be doing about abortion, and an Obama presidency is no impediment to doing any of them.
First and foremost, I think that Christians should be known for the fact that they and their children have far fewer abortions, or ideally none. Unfortunately the statistics suggest that this is not really the case. “Let judgment start with the house of God.”
Second, Christians can be active in making it possible for women to choose not to abort. They can provide shelter and they can adopt. I think that the Church is actually doing a great job here, mostly without attention. That is the Kingdom in action and it has been saving babies for all the decades when legal approaches have produced little change.
The third option depends on doing a good job of the first two. It is being the “prophetic voice” to the World making the case with truth, humility and grace that abortion is immoral. We have a legitimate reason to make that argument, not assuming that our hearers accept the authority of scripture, but appealing to the conscience that God has placed in their heart and which remains in spite of the Fall. When Christians have talked about this as a moral issue, it has frequently been in a graceless and angry tone rather than something that would have much hope of getting others to really ponder the question. But that is not the biggest problem. The tragedy is that we have let the discussion shift from a moral plane to a legal one – from what is right and wrong to whose “rights” supersede the other’s.
The concept of “Rights” is not really “Christian” having came out of late medieval scholasticism and developing mainly during the Enlightenment. Accordingly, the concept of subjective human rights is not the way that the Bible addresses moral issues. “Rights” has been a functional way to talk about what are actually moral issues in a post-Christian age, but it is not fully compatible with speaking Biblical truths. When we allow the argument to be about a woman’s “right to choose” we let people see themselves as defending her against a caddish boyfriend etc instead of sanctioning the death of a child. When we make arguments for the “right to life” we ignore the reality that life is not a “right” at all and is in fact a gift from God - not at all guaranteed for a developing fetus or for you or for me tomorrow. An argument over “rights” is unsolvable because the Constitution says nothing about how to balance competing rights, let alone these particular rights.
That is why the problem cannot be solved just by overturning Roe v Wade. As long as most abortion supporters think of themselves as defending women’s rights they will only be more motivated by that event. If you have a very large proportion of the population that has not yet been convinced that abortion is actually wrong, a legal prohibition will ultimately fail in anything but a police state. If we were to concentrate instead on making the moral argument in a way that people will listen, we could begin to reduce the number of abortions long before there is a consensus that this is something that should be the subject of a law and even if that consensus is never achieved. “Choice” is really not so much a “right” as it is an unavoidable and difficult “obligation” to make a decision if you are someone who is pregnant and does not want to be. We don’t have to wait for a court to change to say, “The choice will have to be made, now let’s talk about the morality of that choice.”
Christians don’t have to elect a Pro-life president to do the three things I’ve described (Being a good example, support and adoption to give women options, and being a prophetic voice). It actually makes it easier to break away from the futility of a “rights” debate when the woman’s “right” is not under threat. Christians can even pray that Obama could be convinced to use his considerable speaking skills and influence to talk about the morality of abortion in the way that he has talked about fatherhood responsibility in the black community.
As members of the Kingdom of God, we have great power to overcome evil with good. The power of the state is nothing in comparison. Throughout history, whenever the Church tries to rely on state power it almost always comes out compromised. We see that happening today because the American Evangelical Church aligned itself so closely with the “Republican Brand” which is now so tarnished. I wouldn’t want to see the Church align itself with the “Democratic brand” either or even the “Obama brand”. I’d just like to see us wrestle with our voting decisions based on what we think will be best for the country while we pursue Kingdom concerns like abortion with Kingdom tools.
Posted by s.d. savage at 9:13 AM 0 comments Links to this post
"one last more," as Jordan would say
Okay, I realized I had some pictures on my camera that I had meant to post earlier...
karate testing
I've gotten sort of behind on posting, it means I've actually accomplished what I planned out for my homeschool week (I do lesson plans a week at a time)! Anyway, the three boys got to test for their green stripe in Ishinryu karate on Saturday, the first advancement they've received after studying for about 2 and 1/2 months, now. I'll post the picture of them posing with their certificates with the 3 senseis later, they're on someone else's camera, but these are the ones that I got (warming up beforehand, Mychael testing).
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Bangs!
Jordan's mullet that cousin Gabe gave her a few months ago had almost grown out when she got a hold of the scissors 2 weeks ago to take care of the pesky hair always hanging down in her eyes. I finally took her to the hairdresser so that Sandy could make it look right, I wasn't sure if I should just wait for it to grow out, but I think the bangs look definitely works.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Halloween pics
We had a wonderful Halloween, I hope you all did, too. First, let me tell you that Zach had his Duke diabetes appointment yesterday and he had a perfect A1C!! It was 6.0, which means his average blood sugar is 120...the medical student that saw him first said that was probably better than a lot of non-diabetic kids his age that don't have to watch what they eat all the time. Anyway, we're praising God because we see it as a miracle, even though we still hold out for a complete miracle that doesn't involve insulin! And while I'm praising God and making his good works known, let me also tell you about one of the ladies we deliver meals to...when we were there on Wednesday she told me her heat wasn't working right, and every morning it was in the 50's in her house. She said she had to "jump start" her heat, but in the meantime she'd be freezing. Anyway, I prayed with her before I left because she also wasn't feeling well, and at the end just asked God to keep her warm. We stopped by her house yesterday to show her the kids' costumes and she told Jon that her heat has been working fine ever since! I know prayer is not always answered in the way or timing that we think it should, sometimes we're left wondering if it's even getting above the ceiling, but it sure is awesome when you get to see it work immediately!
So, here are the pictures of the pumpkin carving and the kids...I have to tell you that I gave all 3 boys haircuts Friday morning because we had gotten some new clippers...well, it sort of messed up Nathan's look as Harry Potter, I'll post the picture I took earlier, as well, because he looked great. Mychael was Frankenstein, because we'd recently watched Van Helsing and he's read the book, "Frankenstein," too. Zach was a ninja, complete with double swords on his back, and Jordan was Princess Jasmine (of course).
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