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Listen to Commentary # 165
MOODY COMMENTARY
#165
“UNPLANNED”
It’s that time of year again. In late January, Americans who are passionate about the sanctity
of human life and mortified that abortion is legal in our country commemorate the Supreme Court decision that made
it so. Thirty-eight years ago, when the Roe vs. Wade decision was handed down, we didn’t have sonograms
to show us what most Americans knew anyway, that the fetus growing in a woman’s womb is an unborn child.
Now we have those pictures....in 4 D. And yet, counselors and doctors at abortion clinics,
including those at Planned Parenthood, still get away with telling pregnant women: it’s a “blob
of tissue.”
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider. Its 2008-2009 annual
report shows that, during a one-year period, its clinics performed over 324 thousand abortions. The organization received
$363 million (dollars) in government grants and contracts through Title X during that time. Wait a minute!
By law, at least until the national health care bill fully kicks in, taxpayers aren’t supposed to have to fund
abortion! Planned Parenthood technically complies by funneling the government money into contraception,
medical screenings and education. But abortion is Planned Parenthood’s “cash cow.”
The group’s national leaders pressure their affiliates to increase revenues by increasing the abortion side of
their businesses. That’s
why a new book that’s catapulted to the top 10 on Amazon is so important. The author is Abby Johnson
who worked for 8 years for the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas. She rose to the position of director
and, though she scheduled thousands of abortions, she managed, for all those years, never to see the procedure captured through
sonography. One day, a visiting physician insisted on using ultrasound to guide an abortion. His demand
necessitated that an extra person participate in the procedure, so Abby was asked to assist. Her task was to hold the ultrasound
probe against the patient’s abdomen. On the screen Abby saw the 13-week-old fetus recoil from the abortionist’s
instrument...and then be sucked up into his tube....leaving an empty womb. It was all too real.
The image of the unborn “blob of tissue” was eerily similar to the 12-week sonogram of Abby’s then
three-year-old daughter, Grace. The
book’s title is UNPLANNED. Abby Johnson had not planned to be involved in the promotion
of abortion. She thought Planned Parenthood was really about preventing unwanted pregnancies.....and thus
reducing abortions. She had not planned to assist that day. She had not
planned to wrestle for the next two weeks with what she had seen....what she had been facilitating for 8 years.
And she had not planned to quit her job and travel the country sharing her story.
But she did.
At the end of last year, Planned Parenthood directed all of its affiliates to perform abortions or lose national
support. Another Texas chapter...the one in Corpus Christi...withdrew from the national
organization...perhaps influenced by Abby Johnson, who beat them to it.
That’s my view...and I’m Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio.
Listen to Commentary # 161
MOODY COMMENTARY
#161 NARNIA’S TESTIMONY One of the delights of the Christmas season this year has been the release of the motion picture, THE VOYAGE
OF THE DAWN TREADER. The movie, of course is based on the third book in C.S Lewis’s series of fantasy novels,
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. Lewis’s stepson, Douglas Gresham, worked iintensely in cooperation
with Walden Media, to make certain the film is true to the book. Jerram Barrs, Professor
of Christian Studies and Contemporary Culture at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, is British...and a
student of all things C.S. Lewis. He spoke about the film during a recent Bible conference in Dallas. Professor Barrs says that in all great art there are “memories of the glory and beauty of creation.”
He calls these “Echoes of Eden.” Art, music, literature, and film ...even if not explicitly Christian....can
reflect the longing for redemption and for things to be set right. The movie AVATAR, portrays such longing, though it
remains unfulfilled. It’s different in Narnia. Professor Barrs told his Dallas audience aboutLewis’s conversion
to Christianity. Lewis’s spiritual eyes opened during a discussion that took place on September 19, 1931 as he
walked the grounds of Oxford with his friends J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. Lewis, then an atheist, wanted to
know: ‘What meaning does Jesus’ death have for me?’ Lewis loved myths. So Tolkien answered that the
Gospel works like a myth. Lewis protested that myths are lies “breathed through silver.” Tolkien
responded that the myth contains “a kind of truth,” an echo of the great fairy story,...the true
story... of Jesus. New believers often long to tell the world about
Christ...and Lewis was no different. Soon after his salvation, Lewis began writing the Narnia books.
He had always loved children’s stories. He was unmarried, but adored the children of his friends. During World
War II he housed children who had been, for their own safety, sent out of London, in his own home. Surprised at how little
literature most of them were exposed to...he wrote for them. The Narnia stories were the result. And these
children are represented in the first book in the series, THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, were beautifully crafted evangelistic tools. Professor Barrs
says they were written so as to (quoting Lewis) “get past those wonderful dragons.” Lewis prayed that children
hearing and reading these stories would love Aslan, the lion, who represents Christ. He built holy, loving and redemptive
qualities into Aslan’s character in hopes that non-believing children would remember Aslan when presented with Christ. In THE
VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, the ever-irritating Eustace Scrubb appears as a dragon. The message is clearEvery human has a
dragon inside. But Aslan comes and tears away the skin of the dragon and behold....a new creation emerges. It’s
great stuff. If youwant the 4th Narnia movie to be made...make certain you go see this one. That’s my view...and
I’m Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio
Listen to Commentary # 145
MOODY
COMMENTARY #145
VOTER FRAUD In today’s political
climate, a radio host sometimes has to walk a caller back from the edge of a cliff. Sometimes a listener
will threaten to stop paying taxes. (Never a good idea) Others say they’ll vote for a write-in candidate (a recipe
for electing the person you most oppose) Some are considering not voting altogether.
(I call that unilateral disarmament.) When
speaking to these listeners, I always insist the system still works if they’ll work within it.
Support candidates. Vote in the primaries. Vote in the general election. However, there’s a nagging caveat. The system works...as long as it’s conducted honestly
and voter fraud is kept at bay. But there are groups across the country working to game the system. The office of the Tax Assessor-Collector in Harris County, Texas recently
held a news conference announcing suspicions that some pretty heavy fraud is taking place there. A group
called Houston Votes...a revitalized ACORN-type group....has been running a voter registration drive. The county announced
that only 28 percent of the 25 thousand registrations they turned in were accurate. Thousands were
found to be fraudulent. Harris County Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez presented voter registration applications with dates up through August 16th
many of which were false and falsified. For example, authorities found 1,597 applications
which were duplicates. For most of these there were at least two or three applications for voter registration
from the same person. For some individuals, six applications were received. Looking
deeper, lots of what looks like intentional fraud was revealed where differing addresses or dates of birth were used for different
applications for the same individual. Within this group of applications collected by Houston Votes, there were also 1,014
applications for already-registered voters. Information matches what is on file....in many cases
signatures don’t.
Then there were hundreds of registrations where the applicant, under penalty of perjury, asserted he or she
does not have a Texas drivers license. Texas records show they do. Contact with a random sample of these applicants shows
they were told it was “okay” to claim they did not have licenses. Twenty five applications in the group had the box checked showing
the applicant is not a U.S. citizen. Another 3500 applications were returned by the Secretary of State indicating drivers
license and social security numbers did not match the state’s records. Who is exposing these shenanigans?
In Houston, a group called King Street Patriots did the legwork to bring these cases of fraud to the attention of authorities.
Even though Houston Votes has admitted they’ve fired at least 20 employees for turning in falsified registrations,
they are using the courts and vandalism to intimidate the King Street Patriots. A Christian
legal group, Liberty Institute, is stepping in to defend these brave citizens. These ACORN-like groups
are trying to pump up voter rolls across the country. We need more volunteers like the King Street
Patriots.
That’s my view...and
I’m Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio
Listen to Commentary #131
MOODY COMMENTARY # 131
STANDING TOGETHER Americans who are paying attention sense that if we don’t get to
back to basic principles, our country may change at its core. Economic conservatives are fighting to preserve the free market,
private ownership of capital and a basic dynamism in the economy. Social conservatives are battling
to uphold life, and marriage and increase the strength of the family. These groups should work together because they are completely
interdependent. You see.... families are really little economies. Robert George is Mc Cormick Professor of Jurisprudence
at Princeton University and founder of the American Principles Project. Dr. George spoke recently to a group of economic and
social conservative leaders about the need for them to strengthen alliances to fight to preserve what he calls “basic
shared principles.” These are, on the economic side, limited government, restrained spending, and
low taxes. On the social side, they consist of the protection of life at all stages, marriage, and the
dignity of children. He linked economic and social conservatism, not as a loosely woven rope, but as a
tight cord with completely interdependent strands.
Robby George talked about the dignity of human life that exists because
we are made in God’s image. It means we must fight abortion and euthanasia and the killing of human
embryos for research. But opposing economic socialism is also a means of elevating human dignity. In totalitarian countries...and
even liberal democracies, the individual is only important in that this person serves the needs of the state. The person is
a means rather than an end. Instead, we need an ethos of respect for human
dignity and this is best fostered in healthy families. Families supply virtuous, hardworking people. In fact, Professor George said, the family transmits the values....like
honesty, diligence, self-restraint... upon which the success of every other societal institution depends. He
says it’s the “best and original” Department of Health and Human Services. Totalitarian governments want citizens to depend on them for their care. They rule through engendering
fear that people’s needs will not be met...or worse. In America and other free countries, the effective
working of government institutions depends on people acting out of virtue and conviction, not fear. Of prime importance to the economy is the defense of marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
A recent article by William Duncan of the Marriage Law Foundation is entitled, “Waxing State, Waning Family.”
Duncan describes the ideas of the American Law Association which, in 2000, adopted and is now pushing something called the
Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. These dramatically redefine parenthood
and marginalize marriage. When parents aren’t married, they are less inclined to provide sufficient care for their children,
so the state steps in. Citizens become poorer...and less free. The market economy and the institution of marriage will stand or fall together. Both
raise people out of poverty. Both should be protected. That’s my view...and I’m Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio
Listen to Commentary #121
MOODY COMMENTARY
#121 “RACE TO THE TOP”
There’s a two-pronged federal effort to improve and reform public education.
A contest, called “Race to the Top,” will grant stimulus money to states who submit plans to shake
up their education systems. Forty states applied. Sixteen have been picked as finalists.
States that jump through the right hoops can win up to $750 million (dollars.)
Also, governors and chief school officers got
together recently to propose specific grade-level requirements for English, and math. Two states, Texas and Alaska, declined
to participate. Texas Governor Rick Perry says signing on would represent an unacceptable
intrusion on states’ control over education.
The final plan is scheduled to be available in May after a period
of public comment. State governing bodies for education, usually school boards, will decide whether to adopt the standards.
Spokespeople for the effort say it’s “a blueprint meant to replace a hodgepodge of state benchmarks
with common standards.” An all-too familiar refrain. Centralizing something makes it better.
It’s no coincidence
that this initiative is concurrent with President Obama’s effort to transform the current education law, “No
Child Left Behind.” That law mandates that all children be proficient in reading and math by 2014,
with proficiency being defined by each state. States that fail to show progress lose federal funds
Trouble is... states are gaming the system, lowering standards to attain federal benchmarks. Now the feds are penalizing states
that fall short...but the government caused this by offering money. States that
don’t really need federal money that badly, like Texas and Alaska, are more free to turn it down and proceed
with improving their own systems their own way....a task at which they are doing very well thank you.
Some state authorities
are wondering: Are these federal standards as stringent as the ones they already have in place? Massachusetts, said
to have among the toughest state standards, hesitates to accept federal money to adopt national standards
which are far lower?
U.S. Rep. John Klein of Minnesota, the senior Republican
on the House Education and Labor Committee, says bribing states to adopt common standards is not the way to go.
He’s right. About half the states are expected to enact the governors’ blueprint this year.
It’s voluntary now, but federal funding structures will kick in to make this a de-facto national curriculum.
Makes you wonder if “Race to the Top” will turn out to be a ‘race to the bottom.’
Another battle over
curriculum is playing itself out in Texas that provides insight into why the state is refusing the governors’ blueprint
and ‘Race to the Top.’ Parents, educators and state school board members are deciding what
the history curriculum will look like for the next 10 years. And guess what? It
took a lot of effort to retain concepts like Christmas....and American exceptionalism.
The default position of our government is to
nationalize and centralize institutions. We shouldn’t go that route. That’s my view....and
I’m Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio
Listen to Commentary # 116
MOODY COMMENTARY
#116 MILITARY COHESION
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has commissioned an 11-month
review of our policy regarding homosexuals serving in the military with an eye towards getting Congress to change the law.
In 1993, by a veto-proof majority, passed a bill affirming that homosexuals are ineligible to serve in the armed forces.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice states that: (quote) ”Homosexuality
is incompatible with military service.” ‘Don’t Ask Don’t
Tell’ is not the law. It’s a policy, really a compromise and its title describes
it well.
The policy serves to keep open homosexual behavior in the military at bay. Our president
has pledged to get rid of it. Secretary Gates supports this....but says it’s not all that simple because of the
military’s necessity to maintain certain conditions These were laid out in a recent Wall Street Journal column by Mackubin Thomas Owens, a Marine infantry
veteran of the Vietnam War and editor of Orbis, a quarterly journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
First, he points out, the military exists to win wars. Success on the battlefield depends,
in large part, on military organizations’ ability to mitigate three natural phenomena that affect the individual soldier:
paralyzing fear, friction, and uncertainty. This is done by fostering what Owens describes as, “an ethos that stresses
discipline, morale, good order, and unit cohesion.” He writes that there is a “nonsexual bonding”....what
the Greeks called philia, “the bond among disparate individuals who have nothing in common but facing death
and misery together.”
Congress, in passing the 1993 law, acknowledged the consensus that the presence of
open homosexuals in the military threatens this military ethos. Allowing gays and lesbians
to serve on ships or in military units injects another kind of love: eros. This love is
sexual, individual, and exclusive. It undermines philia which, Owens writes, depends upon an atmosphere
of “fairness and the absence of favoritism;” and also the lack of double
standards. With eros, you get “sexual competition, protectiveness, and favoritism.”
Why don’t these arguments preclude women from serving
in the military? At least, women are visibly women, they don’t shower and sleep in barracks with men.
Plus they are not supposed to serve in full combat.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman...Admiral Mike Mullen, supports allowing homosexuals
to serve openly. He says the military will adjust. But he’s having trouble convincing many of his
fellow top leaders who have been steeped in this military ethos and are convinced of its necessity.
Richard Black, former chief of the Army’s Criminal Law Division, also wrote recently about the importance
of discipline in the military. In a Washington Times column, he describs several disturbing incidents
perpetrated by recruits, male and female, and one by a gay drill sergeant. He also wonders how open
gay sex... when others are present... will affect morale and respect for rank.
Military law discriminates....it’s supposed to...so those serving can
do so effective. Let’s not make their job harder.
That’s my view....and I’m Penna
Dexter...for Moody Radio
Listen to Commentary # 115
MOODY
COMMENTARY #115 MARRIAGE ENRICHES
MEN
In a federal trial in California, attorneys and witnesses have been arguing the
benefits of marriage. Advocates for homosexuals, the traditional family, and children told their stories and cited
research attempting to convince the judge that marriage is good for their particular group. As
the arguments wound down, a new marriage study was released...one that participants in the Prop 8 trial did not cover.
This report ...from the Pew Research Center shows that marriage gives men an economic boost. Conventional
wisdom is that women gain economic security from marriage....and they do. But, according to the
Pew organization’s analysis of census data from 1970 and 2007, men are financially enriched by marriage...even more
than women.
Of course this
reflects the fact that there are more women overall, and specifically more wives, in the workforce now than there were
40 years ago. Back then, most wives did not work outside the home. Now most do.
But this study of census data on U.S.-born men and women aged 30-44 also found that more men are
married to women whose education and income exceed their own. In 1970, four percent of husbands
had wives who earned more than they did. Now about a quarter of men do.
The report’s authors conclude that, at least from an economic perspective, “these trends have contributed
to a gender role reversal in the gains from marriage.”
Now it’s
also true that the financial circumstances of married people, men and women and also unmarried women
have improved since the 70’s. Median household income for those three groups rose 60 percent.
It rose only 16 percent for unmarried men.
A couple of factors help to explain these trends. First:
education. Today, more women than men get college degrees. And their earnings
have risen 44 percent since 1970, compared with just six percent for men. Secondly:
In recent decades, the economy has shed manufacturing jobs, which once enabled men without college degrees
to earn enough to support a stay-at home wife and family.
The recent
downturn has reinforced this role reversal, with men losing jobs at greater rates than women.
Another phenomenon
has arisen... a marriage gap. The National Marriage Project studied this same census data and found that Americans
who are college educated are more likely to get and stay married. In those without college, we’re seeing
more cohabiting parents and single parenting. So how do these trends affect children?
The battle over same sex marriage is forcing a national conversation about marriage. A key argument
against gay marriage is that children do best when raised by both their biological parents. Our side contends
that marriage, defined as the union between one man and one woman, promotes stability in the lives of America’s kids.
But as more moms become the major breadwinners, as more parents never bother to marry... the stability factor suffers.
The church must promote policies... and help families to address these trends.
That’s my view.......and I’m Penna Dexter...for
Moody Radio
Listen to commentary #103
MOODY COMMENTARY #103 TOWARD EUROPEAN HEALTH CARE
Right in the thick of the debate about establishing a federally controlled health care system in this country, my daughter,
studying in Rome, ran smack into European health care. It started out not to be an emergency, but after a couple
of days and several contacts with the system, it became one. One cannot assess an entire system based upon one
experience with it. But a common criticism of Italian universal health care is that there's a bias against proactive
prevention... in favor of waiting until there's an emergency to take a problem seriously. Proponents of national
health care here in America claim we'll realize huge savings from practicing more preventative medicine. Perhaps
Italy, whose universal system has been in place since 1978, has learned it doesn't work that way. Health care
socializers here in America complain doctors order too many tests, one of the reasons our system is so expensive.
But there's something reassuring about a doctor thinking through the possibilities that could be causing your acute symptoms
rather than sending you home with a prescription he hopes will work. It took several days and finally a trip
to the emergency room to figure out my daughter had a bee sting which was, by that time, badly infected. That Saturday night
I prayed for her pain ...and that the 2000-page Pelosi bill would go down to defeat. It passed narrowly...curiously...due
to a pro-life amendment. The World Heath Organization ranks the Italian system number two....just after France's. They
rank the U.S. number 37. But a common criticism in the French and Italian plans is that...they're
underfunded. Soaring costs are pushing both systems into crisis. As Congress fights over whether America's system
should be more like France, the French government is trying free market solutions... that would make its plan more like what
exists here.. The only way to make a national universal health care system work is to focus mostly on costs. Better
to encourage the free market which is normally great at finding efficiencies. Rather than squelch the entrepreneurial
spirit in medicine, we should foster it. Profits encourage creativity and innovation allowing the system to get better at
helping patients. The health care system needs reform. But what's being debated right now is not about
making health care more available and affordable for people. It's about putting federal bureaucracies in control of a large
portion of the economy and involving government in the most personal of individual concerns. The push is, according
to the Wall Street Journal "...intended to make the middle class more dependent on government through the ‘umbilical
cord' of universal health care." Minnesota Congressman Paul Ryan, who has his own conservative plan to reform
health care agrees . He told reporters the House bill replaces the American idea with a European-style social-welfare
state. We won't like such a system. Let's not get stuck with it. That's my view...and I'm Penna Dexter...for Moody
Radio
Listen to Commentary #102
MOODY COMMENTARY #102 HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL VS. SENIORS One of the realities permeating the health care debate is that the bulk of medical
spending occurs in the last few years...sometimes the last few months....of people's lives. That's why
the idea of government-run health care raises not-unreasonable fears... of rationing, the dreaded death panels.
We are on the threshold of a tidal wave of baby boomers entering their peak healthcare-consuming
years. Medicare is already facing its own financial crisis. Proposed healthcare legislation funds itself, in part, by
cutting Medicare further just as the boomers turn 65 and increase enrollment in the program by thirty percent. Betsy Mc Caughey, chairman of a group called the Committee to
Reduce Infection Deaths, has been a voice opposing a nationalized healthcare system. In a recent Wall Street
Journal op ed she argues that the current plans amount to an "...Assault on Seniors." Ms. Mc Caughey, says
this assault began in February with the stimulus package, which contained over a billion dollars for comparative effectiveness
research, code, writes Mc Caughey, for "limiting care based on the patient's age." Rationing care is central to the proposed overhaul. One of President Obama's key advisors on cost-efficient
health care is Ezekiel Emmanuel (brother of Rahm Emmanuel, White House Chief of Staff.) Dr. Emmanuel's 2009 Lancet article
on the allocation of medical resources advocates a concept called "the complete lives system." If you've reached
a certain age...say around sixty-five...you have lived a "complete" life. Scarce medical interventions should
be directed to the 25 year-old. Once the system is government
controlled....the current plans give us a few years to get there...inevitably, medical bureaucrats will ration lifesaving
care for the elderly. In Betsy Mc Caughey's words, they'll "doom baby boomers to painful later years." In another
column she quotes top oncologist, Dr. Seymour Cohen, who says, "When we went to medical school people used
to die at 66, 67, and 68.....we're the bad guys. We're responsible for keeping people alive to 85. So we're now
going to try to change health care because people are living too long." Dr. Cohen laments the bias against specialists in this plan. In creating a cheaper
system, the heath care bills punish fields like cardiology and oncology. Proposed regulations change
how doctors are paid to benefit general practitioners, internists, and family physicians, considered in short supply.
Okay fine. But ObamaCare cuts funding for cardiology
, specifically stress tests (by 42 percent) and heart catheterizations (by 22 percent) This will mean practices close their
doors. Seniors wait longer. The rap on cancer doctors is they order too many MRI's and CT scans. Those
are set for big cuts... as are funds for anti-tumor radiation therapies. The plans on the table will, in the course of a few years, squeeze market forces out of health care.
When that happens, you get scarcity, shortages. This takes us in precisely the wrong direction. That's my view...and I'm Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio MOODY COMMENTARY #95 REVISING SOCIAL STUDIES By Penna
Dexter
The state of Texas is in the midst of a mandatory, every-ten-year review of its social studies
curriculum for public schools. This is important to the whole country because textbook publishers develop material based
on their largest market, Texas.
The biggest news from this process is that the sixth grade curriculum-writing
team removed Christmas from a list of religious holidays. The standards currently require sixth grade students to be
taught the significance of Christianity’s Christmas and Easter, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Jewish holidays
of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. The committee proposed removing Christmas and Rosh Hashanah and adding Dwali, a Hindu
festival.
This is not just the war on Christmas. In a note, explaining the change, team members wrote that the
examples include the key holiday from each of the major religions. They’re deleting Christianity and Judaism from
the list of America’s predominant faiths.
I doubt this recommendation will stand because Texas parents are
getting wind of it. Their complaints are flooding into Austin where the State Board of Education is meeting this week to consider
the proposals. But it’s one of many heartbreaking changes being recommended to the Texas social studies standards.
This is happening because the sixteen curriculum writing teams are overloaded with
representatives of the educational establishment and underloaded with the type of citizens the legislature specifies: parents,
industry representatives, and employers.
One of the few volunteers from the “average citizen” group
is Bill Aames, a well-read grandfather from the Dallas suburb of Richardson. Bill says
there are two agendas at work: One is to paint the United States in as negative a light as possible. The second....and
this explains the demotion of Christmas...is to add as much multicultural content as possible, with little regard for the
significance or proportionality of contributions.
Hence, this attempt to erase Christianity’s role in the
establishment and strength of the United States of America. Aames reports that in the 8th grade
History of the Revolution section, the proposed curriculum removes the instruction to “describe how religion contributed
to the growth of representative government in the American colonies.” In the High School requirements for teaching History
Since Reconstruction the new curriculum adds political groups that have been influential, like NAACP, LULAC, NOW. But
it makes no mention of the Christian and conservative groups like Christian Coalition, Family Research Council or the Heritage
Foundation.
A modern Texas historian wrote “The ultimate goal of teaching history is to make students feel
they are part of the story.” No it isn’t. If that were the real goal, these educational change-agents
would be failing at their task. Christian kids compose by far the largest contingent of public school students.
But Christianity’s contribution to America’s founding and success is being systematically stripped from the curriculum.
Concerned Texas parents will get Christmas back into the lesson plan. But that will only be the beginning of
the battle.
That’s my view....and I’m Penna Dexter...for Moody Radio ***************************************************************
FIRST-PERSON: Let your voice be
heard about abortion fundingBy: Penna Dexter Original
article can be found here, http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?Id=31157. DALLAS (BP)--CBS News Anchor Katie Couric asked President Obama last month whether he advocates federal funding
of abortion in a health care plan public option. The president answered that he'd "rather not wade into" the issue,
and he mentioned a "tradition" of excluding funding for abortions but did not say whether or not he supports that
tradition.
In recent days, the Obama administration created a website to try and debunk the opposition's arguments
against current plans for health care reform. Notably missing from the site is any mention of the criticism that the plan
will lead to federal funding of abortion.
President Obama has left it to Congress to formulate legislation to
enact his priority for national health care. House and Senate leaders, when asked whether abortion will be funded in any plan
they pass, have attempted to get away with similarly vague responses. But the real answers are rising to the surface. In a
meeting of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) smoked the truth
out of Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). Hatch asked Mikulski whether an amendment she had offered to the Kennedy health care
bill would force insurance companies to contract with abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.
She somewhat
stammered through her answer, saying, "It would include women's health clinics that provide comprehensive services and
under the definition of a women's health clinic, it would include, uh, it would include uh, Planned, uh Parenthood clinics....
It does not expand in any way expand a service." (Perhaps not, but Planned Parenthood already does plenty of abortions.)
The senator continued, "In other words, it doesn't expand, um, uh, nor mandate abortion service."
Hatch
then observed, "No, but it would provide for them."
Mikulski responded, "It would provide for
any service deemed medically necessary or medically appropriate." Mind you, Planned Parenthood would be doing the "deeming."
That being the case, Hatch said he'd have a tough time supporting the Mikulski amendment and asked for some language about
not including abortion services. Mikulski was not willing to make such a change.
Mikulski's amendment passed
the HELP committee, with all Republicans and Democrat Robert Casey (D.-Pa.) opposing it.
Three House committees
have also passed national health care bills, and in all versions, attempts to exclude abortion funding have been defeated.
One amendment would have prevented abortion coverage in private and public plans. It actually passed in the Energy and Commerce
Committee, but the committee chairman, Democrat Henry Waxman of California, took advantage of a parliamentary procedure and
voted for the amendment so he could call a revote. A congressman who had skipped the first vote opposed the measure. And Tennessee
Democrat Bart Gordon, part of the Blue Dog coalition, switched his vote, killing the pro-life amendment.
Earlier,
another member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Lois Capps of California introduced what she called a "compromise"
amendment. The measure requires that every area of the country include a health care plan that includes abortion and one that
does not. It seeks to soften the blow with an accounting gimmick by which a public plan can cover abortions as long as the
abortion is paid for out of enrollees' premiums. Pro-life leaders call it a bookkeeping scheme that really amounts to an abortion
edict. The Capps Amendment, or something like it, is meant to allow Democrats from conservative districts to claim they oppose
an abortion mandate as they vote for heath care reform that will, in reality, provide unrestricted funding of abortion.
As the House was preparing to take up health care reform several weeks back, 19 House Democrats sent a letter to
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, insisting that abortion be excluded from any "government-defined or subsidized health insurance
plan." This is in keeping with current policy where federal funding for abortion is prohibited except in cases of rape
and incest or where the life of the mother is threatened.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National
Right to Life Committee, says the Senate's (yet unnumbered) Kennedy bill, and the health care legislation advocated by House
leadership, would result in "the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe vs. Wade" and would mean "federal
funding of abortion on a massive scale."
Thomas Jefferson once said, "To compel a man to furnish funds
for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." In the battle over federal funding
of abortion that has been waged since Roe made it legal, pro-lifers have largely prevailed. During what's left of this August
congressional break, lawmakers must be convinced that this nation is repulsed by taxpayer-funded abortion.
--30--
To contact your representative or senator, call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or click here. Penna Dexter is a conservative activist and frequent panelist on "Point of View" syndicated radio program. Her
weekly commentaries air on the Bott and Moody Radio Networks. She also serves as a consultant for KMA Direct Communications
in Plano, Texas. Copyright (c) 2009 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press. Visit www.bpnews.net. BP News -- witness the difference! Covering the critical issues that shape your life, work and ministry. BP News is a ministry
of Baptist Press, the daily news service of Southern Baptists.
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Commentary MOODY COMMENTARY
#50
AFTER THE ELECTION After every election, my former boss, Christian talk radio pioneer, Marlin Maddoux said
the same thing. He found a different way to say it every time, of course….but it was essentially this:
After elections, Christians tend to drop out of politics. If our guys and gals win, we get complacent.
We expect that our agenda will certainly be enacted simply because we have elected the right people. On
the other hand, if our favorites lose… we get discouraged. We pull back into the pews… and into family life.
This is not just presidential elections …but elections to all levels of government service. “Why is it,” Marlin
would ask his audience, “that even the believers who get really involved in campaigns, don’t stay the course?
Why don’t they take the next logical step and hold those in elected office accountable to what they were
elected to do?” Marlin is gone now. The Lord took him home after a lifetime of hard
work in the culture wars. But his message is timeless: The Christian influence is necessary for good
government. Not just to elect good and moral people….but to hold them to their promises
and keep them from drinking the Potomac Kool-aid. And.. not just to oppose those who stand for policies that are evil.
But also to stay informed and to support…and encourage elected officials who are in the trenches
fighting bad legislation. Never has this been more important than after this election. The pre-election financial
bailout brought premature pronouncements of the death of economic conservatism. The
philosophy lives...but the country is at a tipping point. When the non-taxpaying sector of
the economy approaches 50%, it becomes nearly impossible to re-implement the conservative principles we have prospered
under. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the
republic.” Are we there? Let’s pray not. And, on the sanctity of life….and
marriage…our policies go to the core of who we are as a nation. If Christians are not the watchmen
and the diligent workers….who will be? Cultural commentator
Michael Craven asks the question: “Have we become unfit for democracy.” Only
if Christians give up. Believers should involve themselves in the political process because our system was designed
to operate best in the hands of religious people. Our constitution was written
based upon the truth that man is inherently sinful… and government must act as a restraint on human nature.
…The less religious and moral the citizenry…the bigger and more powerful the government must be to control
economic and moral chaos. God is sovereign. He orders the events of history. Proverbs
8 says…”By me kings reign….and princes rule” The Lord raises leaders. He brings
them down. The election results are no surprise to Him. He has a plan and we should look to Him for our
next steps. For Moody Radio… I’m Penna Dexter Political Advertising Paid for by
Golden Corridor Republican Women PAC
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