THE CONVENIENCE OF OF ASSISTED SUICIDE

In the wake of Belgium's new child euthanasia law, Great Britain is now looking at the prospect of adopting this into law. Not surprising for a nation that does not allow mothers to bury their unborn babies but allows the government to harvest their  cells and burn them like trash! Here is a recent article by Wesley J. Smith from LifeNews that will give you cause to shudder as  the 'convince of assisted suicide' begins to take a foothold across Europe………..

 Putting Loved Ones Out of Our Misery: The Convenience of Assisted Suicide

by Wesley J. Smith | LifeNews.com 

Emotional whipsawing is the lifeblood of euthanasia advocacy (pardon the pun). The movement thrives on often truly heart-wrenching stories to convince society to grant a general license allowing doctors or family members to help kill the disabled, despairing and dying.  The Daily Mail carried such a report recently of a mother named Heather Pratten who smothered her son as he was committing suicide because he was in anguish at having Huntington’s disease. From the story:

Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, she explained how on his 42nd birthday, Nigel had tried to take his life with a massive heroin overdose. Lying next to him and seeing him struggling to breathe as the drug took hold, she took a pillow and suffocated him to relieve his suffering. She told hosts Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield: ‘I thought “this has to end”. I couldn’t take it any longer. I put a pillow over his face. When I took it away, he was gone.’ Although she was arrested and charged, an autopsy concluded her actions would not have changed Nigel’s fate.

Nigel had always been very depressed, leaving home, drinking to excess, etc.  From what we can tell in the story, he was not receiving psychiatric help. Nor was he was not at the end stage of the disease when he took the overdose. Now Heather is campaigning to legalize assisted suicide. (Notice the Mail used a photo of Nigel as a child to hype the emotionalism. He was actually 42 when he died.)

We saw the same kind of thing in Canada some time ago when Robert Latimer was hailed as a hero by many Canadians after he murdered his 12 year-old daughter Traci because she had cerebral palsy. We can have great empathy for the anguish of Pratten–without condoning killing or opening the door to the abandonment of assisted suicide.

Besides, there is another side to this issue that usually receives media short shrift. Recall the assisted suicide of Myrna Lebov, in which her self-described “compassionate” husband became an instant assisted suicide movement hero after claiming to have helped his wife die because she had progressive MS. But it turned out that he had actually pushed her into the death and had been planning to write a book about his deed all along. From my piece about the case  in the Weekly Standard:

On March 28, 1995, Delury wrote in his diary that he planned to tell his wife: I have work to do, people to see, places to travel. But no one asks about my needs. I have fallen prey to the tyranny of a victim. You are sucking my life out of my like a vampire and nobody cares. In fact, it would appear that I am about to be cast in the role of villain because I no longer believe in you. Delury later admitted on the NBC program Dateline that he had shown his wife that very passage. Moreover, not only did he push her into “death with dignity,” but smothered her with a plastic bag to make sure she died.

For many the Pratten and Latimer cases resonate far more strongly than Lebov’s killing. We live in pro-suicide times. We should take a long, hard look in a societal mirror about that.

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 One Final thought:

I wonder how many people will begin to murder loved ones for the sake of convince or life insurance??? Will they claim it was assisted suicide! This is the rippling effect of a Godless society that no longer values human life ! 

The Bible teaches that human beings are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26) and therefore have dignity and value. Human life is sacred and should not be terminated merely because life is difficult or inconvenient. Psalm 139 teaches that humans are fearfully and wonderfully made.

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Welcome to: A Christian View on Today's Top Stories

A Christian View on Today's Top Stories is an online news source for those who ascribe to a "Christian WorldView." We hope to share current issues, top trending stories and subject of interest from all over the world! While today's major media outlets share information on events  from a very bias, humanistic world viewpoint, we hope to be a common sense, conservative, Christian voice. We hope you will join us by subscribing to our daily posts and "liking" us at our "A Christian View on Today's Top Stories," page on Facebook! 

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PLEASE NOTE: 'A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF TODAY'S TOP STORIES' ,Does not publicly endorse any  ministry, magazine, blog or secular publication shared on this site. 

ABOUT US: 'A CHRISTIAN VIEW ON TODAY'S TOP STORIES': Is a subsidiary of "FORGING OUR FAITH" Ministries. Editor in Chief: Marianne Mauti .

PLEASE CONTACT US: if you want to reprint any of our articles. We can be reached  at forgingyourfaith@ aol.com. Thank you!

ADDITIONAL SOURCES:  LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Human Exceptionalism.

AMERICA'S CULTURAL SHIFT

By Marianne Mauti

THE CULTURAL SHIFT AND HOW IT IS SHAPING AMERICA……..

Have you ever felt like the world has completely turned upside down? In recent years we have seen America go from a Nation that has fought for the freedom of others to a Nation whose own freedom's especially the right to exercise religious beliefs is diminishing on a daily basis.There is no denying that, as a Nation, we find ourselves in a cultural shift that has encompassed every facet of American Life!

 All you have to do is take a look at the social culture of a generation, view it's artistic expression and you will have a pretty good picture of where a Nation is heading. A recent article from "Forging Our Faith",points out the secular agenda behind the current shift, …" secularists have been working tirelessly over the last several decades to en-culturate our youth to believe their values are personal and as such could and should evolve over time.It would be hard for anyone growing up in todays ethical system to believe there used to be a firm biblical moral consensus in this country and a time when Christian Institution’s commanded respect."

Katy Perry at the 2014 Grammy's

A few month's ago we witnessed the evidence of that enculturation  when the 2014 Grammy's aired. Never before has there been so blatant an assault by the anti- christian humanists as they attempted to packaged and sell their overly sexualized and pagan display to our kids as "art". It was so over the top that even the secular media wondered if Katy Perry was actually trying to summon Beelzabub. In a recent article entitled,"How Did the 2014 Grammy's Awards signal a Shift in the American Culture," writer Ed Stetzer had this to say,"in some ways they are indicative of its shifts." He goes on to say," Views that were sidelined ten years ago (remember, Presidents Clinton and Obama were once opposed to gay marriage) are not just accepted, they are celebrated. And, those who hold to a Biblical standard of marriage are "paraphras[ing] a book written thirty-five hundred years ago". He points out the obvious disparity between the cultural statements that the "artists" of today make and the average American family. The fact is that the en-culturalization of our youth was alive and well at this years Grammy's and every parent who allowed their children to watch gave their young minds a big dose of what their pop culture hero's believe!

He then goes on to point out that, "Christians are going to become increasingly uncomfortable in this world and will struggle to express it!" While they may be true for Christians who use their talent in the secular music industry, it was encouraging to see Christian artist Natalie Grant take a courageous and very public step in showing  her disapproval of the evenings event's when she and her husband got up and left the Grammy's early. Grant who was twice nominated that evening tweeted this message to her fans later that night,"We left the Grammys early. I've many thoughts, most of which are probably better left inside my head."  "I've never been more honored to sing about Jesus and for Jesus. And I've never been more sure of the path I've chosen."

At the heart of today's en-culturalization is a belief by many young Christians that they don't need to adhere to strict tenants of God's Word, that it is no longer the source of all truth. In fact destroying the belief in the absolute truth of God's Word is at the heart of the humanist agenda!  A recent survey by George Barna (The Barna Group), of young adults (20's), indicates that less than one in a hundred has beliefs consistent with a Biblical worldview. George Barna says that the younger generation often cut and paste their beliefs and values from a variety of sources, even if they are contradictory. 

The cultural shift that Christian Americans have been responding to is the lie that we can intellectually separate our religious beliefs from our secular life and it is no longer necessary to define our morality solely on the Word of God. We see this happening when socially prominent and beloved TV personalities such as, Oprah Winfrey, (who professes to being a Christian) say publicly about theology, “I took God out of the box . . . I'm a free-thinking Christian who believes in my way, but I don't believe that it's the only way, . . ..”  A philosophy like Oprah's can only advance when Christians are willing to accept the premise  of  an evolving relationship with God and we don't challenge that erroneous way of thinking ! Our lack of a meaningful response tells the world that we are willing to abandon the God of the Bible and create a God who thinks like us! We want to decide which laws of God fit into our personal theology and which ones don't! Heres the problem with that, God has the idea that he gets to decide what is moral and immoral and we don't get to have an opinion or different interpretation! We also don't get to  pick and choose! 

What can we do to push back on the assault against our faith, values and moral beliefs. I like what Natalie Grant had to say at the conclusion of her comments on the nights event, "I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST." As the worlds "cultural train" continues to careen down every avenue of American life let's be bold and courageous enough to live as passionately and as loudly as they do! Christ in us should be the standard that brings conviction and repentance and salvation to others! It almost sounds too simple. I heard someone say recently:

"Preach the Gospel and when necessary use words!" 

What they were saying was this, your life can "exemplify" what your words can only "amplify" .What truth there is in that simple statement! Frances Schaeffer (Author of "The Christian Manifesto", "Whatever Happened to the Human Race", etc.) had this to say about cultural shifts and worldview, "Today not only in philosophy but in politics, government, and individual morality, our generation sees solutions in terms of an evolutionary process and not absolutes. When this happens, truth, as people have always believed truth to be, has died." Schaeffer, in his belief of mans evolving worldview declared that man has now placed himself as the "measure of all things". Schaeffer believed that the Church had forsaken its duty to be the salt of the culture and what we are now seeing is the result. Was he right?

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Welcome to: A Christian View on Today's Top Stories

A Christian View on Today's Top Stories is an online news source for those who ascribe to a "Christian WorldView." We hope to share current issues, top trending stories and subject of interest from all over the world! While today's major media outlets share information on events  from a very bias, humanistic world viewpoint, we hope to be a common sense, conservative, Christian voice. We hope you will join us by subscribing to our daily posts and "liking" us at our "A Christian View on Today's Top Stories," page on Facebook!  

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PLEASE NOTE: 'A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF TODAY'S TOP STORIES' ,Does not publicly endorse any  ministry, magazine, blog or secular publication shared on this site. 

ABOUT US: 'A CHRISTIAN VIEW ON TODAY'S TOP STORIES': Is a subsidiary of "FORGING OUR FAITH" Ministries. Editor in Chief: Marianne Mauti .

PLEASE CONTACT US: if you want to reprint any of our articles. We can be reached  at forgingyourfaith@ aol.com. Thank you!

ADDITIONAL SOURCES: Forging Your Faith, Ed Stetzer/"How Did the 2014 Grammy's Awards signal a Shift in the American Culture," writer Ed Stetzer , The Barna Group, Natalie Grant Twitter, Frances Schaeffer/The Christian Manifesto

DARWIN 200 YEARS LATER

By Marianne Mauti

Did Darwin realize the philosophical consequences of his ideas? Defiantly his clandestine notebooks, which he dared not show even close friends, reveal that he struggled with the fact that evolution could undermine people’s belief in God.The truth is Darwin wouldn't even recognize his theory…...

(Today's Article: is an except, taken from an article by Dr. Roger Sanders Ass. Proff of science at Bryan College and ass director of Center for Origins Research

WHEN WE THINK OF CHARLES DARWIN WE THINK OF THE GOD-HATER BENT ON OVERTURNING THE CHRISTIAN CULTURE.WHEN WE DIG WE FIND FROM THE PERSONAL DIARY HE KEPT FROM AN EARLY AGE UNTIL HIS DEATH, not a satanic ogre but an intellectual who embodied the many contradictions and conflicts prevalent in the British culture of Victorian England- a man like any other, a man whom God wanted to save.

Darwin grew up in a middle class family, and like many science types he took himself seriously. Despite Darwin’s association with evolutionists and the antireligious, such as Robert Grant, Thomas Huxley, and his brother Erasmus, a number of people God placed close to Darwin reveal a God reaching out to him. His wife kept the question of eternity before Darwin. By the time Charles and Emma were married, he already doubted a personal God, the inspired Bible, the soul and eternity.

Emma tried reaching him through letters in which she implored him to take to heart Jesus’ Last Supper discourse in John 13-17.In what Darwin called her “beautiful letter,” she said, “There is a danger giving up revelation…. in casting off what has been done for your benefit as well as for that of all the world…. I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other for ever.”

He kept that letter safe all his life and jotted on it for her to read, “When I am dead, know that many times I have kissed and cried over this.”

Though God pursued Darwin through exposure to the scriptures time and again, he resisted. He resisted in part because he was the product of a culture that struggled against biblical authority, despite being a Christian in name. The majority of British clergymen and clerical scientists followed natural theology, a view of God that took root in the late 1600’s.In Darwin’s youth, they held that we can discover God and His attributes from human reasoning alone without reference to the scriptures. This mistaken approach led to three foundational concepts of natural theology, which undermine biblical authority:

• Creation is unchanging; otherwise the revelation of God would change and we could not know him. Problem: Denies Adams fall and the flood and there consequences.
• Creation has been allowed to run on its own according to the fixed laws of nature, which have always operated the same way as they do today. Problem: Denies miracles can happen.
• Wherever the Bible disagrees with science, God accommodated the words in the Bible to ancient man’s primitive understanding, and science must be accepted as the explanation. Problem: Science trumps scripture.

Asked on the mistaken theology, the scientific dogma of Darwin’s day insisted the species could not change, even thought he Bible make that claim? On the other hand, people could see the earth changing, rocks eroding, volcanos erupting and earthquakes wrenched the landscape. Therefore they concluded that the earth had changed since creation but very slowly by these processes. Most scientific observers of the early 1800’s concluded that these geologic changes had taken millions of years. Hardly any of them believed in a literal global Flood and all it implied about rapid change.

Darwin had been taught to think. The trouble was he started without a grasp on the authority of Scripture and with wrong assumptions. He saw species as the product of change but not change following the global flood. He saw rock strata as the product of processes but not processes stemming from the biblical catastrophe. He saw diverse kinds of plants and animals but did not recognize the gulf between distinct “kinds” that God had originally created.

Perhaps most importantly, Darwin could not see how a benevolent God could allow the death and suffering he saw in nature and humanity. Death and suffering must have always been a part of nature since creation-that is what natural theology said. If so, then this was not a God of Christianity or the bible but was unfeeling and distant and only a maker of starting points, materials, and natural laws.

The blame for his turning away from God must fall partly on the church and the theologians and scientists

If he could but show that species do change and propose the natural laws that originate new species, he could convince his peers that evolution is true. To the ruling class and clergyman scientists, who had already compromised on an old earth, the last remaining barrier to evolution was the no biblical litmus test of species fixity. Darwin was such a perfect product of his time that, despite all his years of worry, his scientific arguments in the “Origin of the Species,” overwhelmingly convinced his peers.

Most British Christians had already adopted a low view of scripture wherever it referred to science, believing science was more authoritative than scripture. So evolution did not create any conflicts. They largely embraced evolution as God’s way of creating over long eons, despite its requirement of painful death and suffering over millions of years. In fact, evolution became a point of national pride. To the British elite, Victorian England evidenced the heights to which evolution could carry the human intellect and government.

Did he realize the philosophical consequences of his ideas? Defiantly his clandestine notebooks, which he dared not show even close friends, reveal that he struggled with the fact that evolution could undermine people’s belief in God.

Darwin simply was unable to resolve suffering and death with a God who is good, just, and merciful. For him, the “Creator,” was distant, caring little whether the world was very good or bad. Rejecting the biblical view, he reasoned that death and suffering were integral to operation of the present world and had always existed. Darwin proposed a new natural law-natural selection-which assumed that death has operated from the beginning. With this naturalistic, impersonal force of natural selection, he found a substitute for the God of the bible, who is the creator of all life forms, the eternal judge of sin, and the only possible redeemer of fallen mankind and of our corrupted world. Though God had pursued him enough for him to know where to find the answers, Darwin never took the questions back to the bible to find God’s answer!

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Welcome to: A Christian View on Today's Top Stories

A Christian View on Today's Top Stories is an online news source for those who ascribe to a "Christian WorldView." We hope to share current issues, top trending stories and subject of interest from all over the world! While today's major media outlets share information on events  from a very bias, humanistic world viewpoint, we hope to be a common sense, conservative, Christian voice. We hope you will join us by subscribing to our daily posts and "liking" us at our "A Christian View on Today's Top Stories," page on Facebook!

*********************************************************

PLEASE NOTE: 'A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF TODAY'S TOP STORIES' ,Does not publicly endorse any  ministry, magazine, blog or secular publication shared on this site. 

ABOUT US: 'A CHRISTIAN VIEW ON TODAY'S TOP STORIES': Is a subsidiary of "FORGING OUR FAITH" Ministries. Editor in Chief: Marianne Mauti .

PLEASE CONTACT US: if you want to reprint any of our articles. We can be reached  at forgingyourfaith@ aol.com. Thank you!

ADDITIONAL SOURCES: Dr. Roger Sanders Ass. Proff of science at Bryan College and ass director of Center for Origins Research