Dr. Koop.

C. Everett Koop

Dr. C. Everett Koop played a key role in getting the word out about AIDS. As scientists during the early 1980s uncovered the mechanism by which AIDS is transmitted, public health agencies launched educational campaigns that warned, as did this poster, against the risk of infection from intravenous drug use and the sharing of contaminated needles, unprotected intercourse, and the transmission of the AIDS virus from mother to child. It is pictured below.

On 2-25-13 we lost a great man when we lost Dr. C. Everett Koop. I have written over and over the last few years quoting Dr. C. Everett Koop and his good friend Francis Schaeffer. They both came together for the first time in 1973 when Dr. Koop operated on Schaeffer’s daughter and as a result they became close friends. That led to their involvement together in the book and film series ”WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” in 1979.

In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented  against abortion (Episode 1),  infanticide (Episode 2),   euthenasia (Episode 3), and then there is a discussion of the Christian versus Humanist worldview concerning the issue of “the basis for human dignity” in Episode 4 and then in the last episode a close look at the truth claims of the Bible.

In this 1979 film series they dealt with the big social issues and predicted what social problems we have in the future because of humanism. For instance, they knew that the Jack Kevorkians of the world would be coming down the pike. They predicted that there was a slippery slope from abortion to infanticide to youth euthanasia brought on by the materialistic worldview.

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Dies, Leaves Pro-Life Legacy

(Photo: http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org)

C. Everett Koop, a former U.S. Surgeon General who served under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989 and was known for his pro-life views, passed away on Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H.

The National Right to Life, one of the oldest and largest pro-life organizations in the country, said in a statement on Tuesday that they were “deeply saddened” by Dr. Koop’s death.

“In an era when pro-abortionists tried to declare that the abortion issue was ‘settled law,’ Dr. Koop provided a voice for the voiceless,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.

The former surgeon general co-authored a pro-life book titled Whatever Happened to the Human Race with the late Francis Schaeffer, which argued for the value and dignity of all human life, and opposed practices such as abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.

“To this day, Whatever Happened to the Human Race is a must-read for its almost prophetic anticipation of the world we live in today,” Tobias added.

The pediatric surgeon, who was 96 years old when he passed away on Monday, was outspoken on a number of issues, and drew criticism both from conservatives and liberals alike.

Reuters noted that Koop, who campaigned passionately against the dangers of HIV and AIDS, urged the use of condoms for men if they were unable to practice abstinence, in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly blasted those efforts for “teaching of safe sodomy in public schools.”

At the same time, he was targeted by some feminist activists for his pro-life views and opposition to abortion, even being labeled “a monster” by one such feminist leader. As a Presbyterian Christian, Koop opposed the practice based on personal and religious views.

For many, however, he was an inspirational figure and a household name who did a great deal for health education in the U.S.

“He saved countless lives through his leadership in confronting the public health crisis that came to be known as AIDS and standing up to powerful special interests like the tobacco companies,” U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said on Monday.

“Dr. Koop was not only a pioneering pediatric surgeon but also one of the most courageous and passionate public health advocates of the past century,” added Dr. Wiley W. Souba, dean of the Geisel School.

Slate magazine noted that one of his lasting legacies is his groundbreaking seven-page brochure, “Understanding AIDS,” released in 1986, when the deadly disease was spreading throughout the country and many people were lacking in information about its causes and effects. The pamphlet was distributed to over 107 million households by 1998, making it the largest public health mailing in history.

“In hindsight, that brochure may not be perfect, but it represented the best available information the country had about AIDS at the time,” Slate reported. “Perhaps most importantly, it made sure to refute the notion that it was an epidemic that only some communities had to worry about.”

Koop is survived by his three children, one of whom is a pastor at a nondenominational church, his wife, Cora, and eight grandchildren.

High resolution version (16,596,036 Bytes)

Dr. C. Everett Koop is pictured above.

The Francis and Edith Schaeffer Story Pt.1 – Today’s Christian Videos

The Francis and Edith Schaeffer Story – Part 3 of 3

Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 1) ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE

Published on Oct 6, 2012 by AdamMetropolis

________________

Mrs. Schaeffer became a missionary in Switzerland.

Associated Press / April 4, 2013

____

Picture of Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith from the 1930′s above. I was sad to read about Edith passing away on Easter weekend in 2013. I wanted to pass along this fine article below.

Edith Schaeffer round-up

April 2, 2013 by Jake Meador

Alex Chediak:

One of the Schaeffers’ many legacies was helping others see that the Christian worldview was intelligible–it wasn’t just a leap in the dark. On the contrary, Christianity made good sense, and it could satisfyingly and reliably explain the world and everything in it, including suffering and evil.  Another legacy was hospitality, something Edith was particularly known for.

A statement from the Rochester L’Abri:

Our Heavenly Father has taken dear Edith Schaeffer to himself. She passed away quietly in her sleep last night in Gryon, Switzerland where she has been living with her family. We cannot express how deep is our gratitude for her life and we thank the Lord that she is enjoying the Hope that she has so longed for.

Frank Schaeffer:

Besides a loving God and her steadfast support for the arts — even when she disagreed with some of my writing — here’s who else my mother introduced me to: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Verdi and Vivaldi. She made them my friends. They are still my friends and companions and I have made them my children’s and grandchildren’s friends too. And that is my tribute to her example.

Here are some other people amongst others my mother taught me to love: da Vinci, Duccio, Giotto, Vermeer, Degas, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Van Eyck, Van Gogh, Botticelli, Breughel, Michelangelo and Monet. They are still my friends and companions and I have made them my children’s and grandchildren’s friends too. And that is my tribute to her example.

My mother read to me and introduced me to Shakespeare, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Anne Bronte, Susan Fennimore Cooper, Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, Mary Shelley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Beatrix Potter, E. Nesbit, Louis Carroll and A. A. Milne and… Woody Allen, amongst others. They are still my friends and companions and I have made them my children’s and grandchildren’s friends too. And that is my tribute to her example.

Here’s what my mother showed me how to do by example: forgive, ask for forgiveness, cook, paint, build, garden, draw, read, keep house well, travel, love Italy, love God, love New York City, love Shakespeare, love Dickens, love Steinbeck, love Jesus, love silence, love people more than things, love community and put career and money last in my hierarchy of values and — above all, to love beauty. I still follow my mother’s example as best I can and I have passed and am passing her life gift to my children and grandchildren not just in words but in meals cooked, gardens kept, houses built, promises kept, sacrifices made, and beauty pointed to.

Tim Challies:

In 1948 the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions sent the Schaeffers to Switzerland as missionaries. In 1955, after identifying significant disagreements with IBPFM and subsequently withdrawing from that organization, they decided to simply open up their home and make it available as a place to demonstrate God’s love and provide a forum for discussing God and the meaning of life. They called it L’Abri after the French word for “shelter.” By the mid-1950’s up to 30 people each week were visiting.

Joe Carter:

Edith helped to restore and popularize the all-but-lost arts of hospitality and homemaking within the evangelical community during the last twentieth-century. As she wrote in her book, What is a Family?, “There needs to be a homemaker exercising some measure of skill, imagination, creativity, desire to fulfill needs and give pleasure to others in the family. How precious a thing is the human family. It it not worth some sacrifice in time, energy, safety, discomfort, work? Does anything come forth without work?”

Francis Beckwith:

During my second year in New York City I had the opportunity to meet Edith Schaeffer, the widow of the Presbyterian theologian, Francis A. Schaeffer (1912–1984), whose published works were influential in my decision to pursue graduate work in philosophy. Mrs. Schaeffer was in New York for a book-signing event at the massive Christian Book Distributors retail outlet in Midtown Manhattan. When I arrived there in the mid-afternoon, the crowds had dissipated and Mrs. Schaeffer was sitting alone at a table. I introduced myself to her and told her about her late husband’s influence on me. She seemed sincerely interested in my story.

Rachel Marie Stone:

Edith was from a different time; a time when people didn’t air dirty laundry and where maintaining outward appearances was considered an important part of being a good “witness for Jesus.” I will not defend her self-abnegating vision of Christian womanhood (to the point that she seems to have tolerated abuse), nor the fact that she presented a picture of family bliss that was not, according to her children, at all accurate.

But acknowledging her shortcomings doesn’t diminish the fact that this creative and thoughtful woman opened doors not just for Frank but for many of us in the evangelical world, helping us to realize that things like literature, music, dance, good food, and beauty aren’t unspiritual or worldly, but pathways to enjoying God and God’s good gifts, a message we might today take as a given, but one that was, in her time, a spirited rejection of the status quo. And for that energetic conviction, I will remember her with gratitude and admiration.

My thoughts on the Schaeffers will be going up at Mere O sometime in the next couple of days.

Great prolife poster:

(Francis did a great job in his film series “How Should we then live?” in looking at how humanism has affected art and culture in the Western World in the last 2000 years. My favorite episodes include his study of the Renaissance, the Revolutionary age, the age of Nonreason, and the age of Fragmentation.)

Related posts:

I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control  and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline Republican.

Somebody has to stand up to Planned Parenthood and their plans to get more government money!!!!

Lindsey Miller of the Arkansas Times Blog staff wrote on 3-6-13:

After the House voted today to override the governor’s veto…of the 12-week abortion ban, Sen. Jason Rapert celebrated by filing yet another bill aimed at curbing women’s access to care. It’s cookie-cutter legislation from Americans United for Life aimed at crippling Planned Parenthood. It would create a subchapter in Arkansas law called the “Defunding the Abortion Industry and Advancing Women’s Health Act of 2012”… that would prohibit any public money from going to any organization that directly or indirectly subsidizes an abortion provider.

The person using the username “OzarkTroutBum” posted on the Arkansas Times Blog on 3-6-13:

The Arkansas Tea-Taliban is wasting no time in taking us back in time.

The person using the username “arhogfan501″ responded:

Yeah right! You’re a freaking idiot if you believe not one penny goes to fund or subsidize abortions.

The person using the username “baker” commented:

From the PPA latest 10/11 report seems they have assets of $1.2 billion and excess revenues of $87 million and received 45% of revenues from taxpayer funds so they’re not running short for their 97% “free and affordable access to breast exams, contraceptives and sexual education” services. That remaining 3% add up to 333,964 abortions for the year, a record number. Now they did make 2,300 adoption referrals but provided less than 30,000 prenatal services and some 40% of the “contraceptive services” were 1.4 million emergency contraception kits. This year all affiliates will begin pushing abortion services. PPA does not nor cannot provide mammograms, indeed no affiliate has the necessary license. PPA is an abortion provider and at some 900 plus killings a day rather prolific.

The person using the username “tautara” commented:

“War on Women”? Nice play on words by the media. More an attempt to cut costs. “Planned parenthood” is a waste of money… our money… tax payers money. A man pays for a condom, as it should be. A woman, who I consider a complete equal, is more than capable of taking responsibility of her own sex life, no different than a man. Apparently “equality” ends when it doesn’t suit. Now politicians attempting to correct a situation are made out to be evil doing hate mongers. It is a skewed society in which we live….To add to my last comment, I also add a man pays for all of his medical bills. We pay for prostate exams, as well as other personal medical conditions. It is up to both men and women to be responsible regarding sexual activity. It is not a requirement of the tax payer to cover the blatant disregard of responsibility of anyone! Being ignorant of the law has never been a valid excuse, nor has being drunk been a valid excuse for our mistakes. We take exception to this when it comes to sexual behavior while we certainly don’t give a tax break to the drunk driver, or the person “ignorant’ to any given law. Our society is removing accountability. It is as simple as that.

I also got a chance to put my say:

Some people wonder why Jason Rapert is doing what he is doing and the answer can be found here last week in this story about Dr.Koop.

Diana Chandler of Baptist Press wrote:
Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, widely credited with energizing evangelicals against abortion, died peacefully Feb. 25 at his home in Hanover, N.H., at age 96….In the 1979 book “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” Koop and the late Frances Schaeffer made a case for the importance of mankind’s intrinsic God-given value in the preservation of humanity.

“If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity. There is no good reason why mankind should be perceived as special. Human life is cheapened,” the two wrote. “We can see this in many of the major issues being debated in our society today: abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, the increase of child abuse and violence of all kinds, pornography (and its particular kinds of violence as evidenced in sadomasochism), the routine torture of political prisoners in many parts of the world, the crime explosion, and the random violence which surrounds us.”

Koop and Schaeffer endeavored to “awaken the evangelical world — and anyone else who would listen — to the Christian imperative to do something to reverse the perilous realignment of American values on these life-and-death issues” including abortion and infanticide, Koop reflected in his 1991 autobiography, “Koop: The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor.”

Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has written that “it is difficult to overestimate the incredible impact” Koop and Schaeffer had on evangelicals in the 20th century.

“Everyone devoted to the pro-life cause owes an incalculable debt of gratitude to Francis Schaeffer and to Dr. C. Everett Koop,” Land wrote for National Right to Life in 2003. “First Schaeffer, and then Dr. Koop, helped inform and energize a whole generation of evangelical Christians to engagement with a culture that had veered dangerously off course from its Judeo-Christian foundations. The pro-life movement owes them an enormous debt.”

C. Ben Mitchell, professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., hailed Koop’s legacy.

“We have lost the nation’s doctor,” Mitchell told Baptist Press. “As a gifted physician and faithful Christian, he taught us how to heal both body and soul. As a public servant he helped us navigate some tumultuous waves, even causing a few of his own. As a protector of human dignity and the sanctity of human life he cared for the tiniest and most vulnerable among us.”
________________
Before Dr. C. Everett Koop arrived in 1981 as Surgeon General could anybody ever name who the Surgeon General was? Koop also caused lots of editorial cartoons to be drawn about him because of his positions he took on health issues. This cartoon below sums up the issues he tackled.
http://thedailyhatch.org/2013/03/07/rememb…

In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented  against abortion (Episode 1),  infanticide (Episode 2),   euthenasia (Episode 3), and then there is a discussion of the Christian versus Humanist worldview concerning the issue of “the basis for human dignity” in Episode 4 and then in the last episode a close look at the truth claims of the Bible.

I truly believe that many of the problems we have today in the USA are due to the advancement of humanism in the last few decades in our society. Ronald Reagan appointed the evangelical Dr. C. Everett Koop to the position of Surgeon General in his administration. He partnered with Dr. Francis Schaeffer in making the video below. It is very valuable information for Christians to have.  Actually I have included a video below that includes comments from him on this subject.

___________

Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 5) TRUTH AND HISTORY

Published on Oct 7, 2012 by AdamMetropolis

________________

Schaeffer’s works prepared him for the coming battle on abortion. He was truly a prophet that knew what was coming down the pike. In 1969 my former pastor Bill Elliff was a college student and someone told him about Francis Schaeffer speaking at Wheaton college in Chicago. He drove up  there and heard him speak. He spoke about abortion and assisted suicide and many of the social changes that would be happening in the next few decades. Schaeffer really did see where humanism would take our society and he was right.

Compassionate Engagement, Part 4: A Few of Schaeffer’s Most Significant Works

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  November 29, 2012 – 7:30 am

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  January 8, 2012 – 12:54 am

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  January 1, 2012 – 12:51 am

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  December 25, 2011 – 12:45 am

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  December 18, 2011 – 12:41 am

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  December 11, 2011 – 12:37 am

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  December 4, 2011 – 12:33 am

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  November 27, 2011 – 12:26 am

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  November 20, 2011 – 10:03 am

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  November 13, 2011 – 12:13 am

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  November 6, 2011 – 12:01 am

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  November 8, 2012 – 7:56 am

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  November 7, 2012 – 7:06 am

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  November 6, 2012 – 8:01 am

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  November 5, 2012 – 6:31 am

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  Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 1) ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE

  November 2, 2012 – 8:52 am

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  November 2, 2012 – 8:46 am

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  Who was Francis Schaeffer? by Udo Middelmann

  November 2, 2012 – 8:11 am

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The Francis and Edith Schaeffer Story Pt.1 – Today’s Christian Videos

The Francis and Edith Schaeffer Story – Part 3 of 3

Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 1) ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE

Published on Oct 6, 2012 by AdamMetropolis

________________

Mrs. Schaeffer became a missionary in Switzerland.

Associated Press / April 4, 2013

____

Picture of Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith from the 1930′s above. I was sad to read about Edith passing away on Easter weekend in 2013. I wanted to pass along this fine article below which was actually written 3 years ago.

A Tribute to Edith Schaeffer . . . and to a Good Friend!

February 26, 2010 by Margaret L. Been

The saying that books are friends is so eternally true, that it cannot be labeled “an old saw”!  More times than I can count, books have come through where people have goofed.

As a new Christian, 39 years ago, I was catapulted into a foreign-to-me culture.  Although I now held the deeper answers to life in Scripture, some questions concerning lifestyle surfaced.  Suddenly I was supposed to be a “church lady”.  But I was shocked and horrified by the church ladies who tried to entice me into their midst.

I discovered that, in this fellowship, church ladies met frequently for “prayer meetings”.  The prayer meetings consisted of a perfunctory opening prayer, lots of cake, and an overload of social conversation mainly focussed on those who were not present.  We were supposed to pray for the absent ladies.  To “help” us pray, personal details of their lives were spilled out for all to hear.  The actual prayer following this chatter consumed—at the most—5 minutes.  Also characteristic of church lady meetings were jokes and criticisms targeted toward husbands.

After a couple of these church lady gatherings, I realized I simply could not stomach any more!  I have always detested gossip, and I believe that husbands deserve our loyalty.  (If there would be a husband problem, a church woman’s group—or any kind of a group for that matter—would not the place to share!)

When I came to faith, I already had many long-standing friends—some of whom I’d grown up with.  Although most of the women I knew did not publically profess faith in Christ—and they certainly did not run around with Bibles in hand—they were gracious, kind, and considerate.  Gossip was anathema.  My friends were home-loving women, steeped in arts and crafts, committed to creating beauty, and dedicated to gracious family living.

Hence, the gossipy church ladies were an enigma to me—especially because I had thought that, with Scripture in their hands, they would be extra sensitive kindred spirits.  Not so!  I was soon thought to be “odd” because I didn’t want to socialize with the women, and doubly “odd” because I was so very contented at home—knitting, making bread, reading, etc!

I had expressed my passion for the natural world (after all, it was God’s witness in creation that finally led me to Him at age 37) and that passion made me appear to be a kind of pagan.  Coupled with my interest in old-fashioned home crafts, my penchant for nature branded me:  I was an old Hippie in the church ladies’ eyes!

You can imagine my dilemma.  I wanted to be friendly to those who shared my new faith, but I was constantly aware of their thinly veiled disapproval of my lifestyle.  Was there actually something wrong with me, for hating gossip (even when it was called a prayer request) and wanting to stay home or hike in the woods?

God saw my confusiuon and loneliness, and came through by putting the perfect book in my hands:  THE HIDDEN ART OF HOMEMAKING*, by Edith Schaeffer.  I had already found answers for intellectual questions from books by Edith’s husband, Francis Schaeffer.  Now here was a book by Francis Schaeffer’s wife—a treasure advocating the lovely, creative aspects of being a “keeper at home”.

The chapters in this book deal with ways to incorporate every area of arts and crafts into family living.  HIDDEN ART is a joyous book, and it affirmed that my chosen vocation of homemaker was pleasing to God.  Old Hippie or whatever, I was exactly where I was supposed to be.  The church ladies had it all wrong!

I’m eternally grateful to Edith Schaeffer for HIDDEN ART, and the other faith and family based books she wrote.  According to web sources, Edith is still alive with some of her family in Switzerland.  I hope that somehow this blog entry will reach her or other family members!

The ongoing ministry of L’Abri, started by Francis and Edith Schaeffer in the 1950s, has produced (and will continue to bear) fruit which will astonish us when we get to Heaven and learn the facts!  And the fruit of this godly couple’s books may be like the stars in the sky and the sands in the sea!

*THE HIDDEN ART OF HOMEMAKING is still available, but now it’s called HIDDEN ART.  Sometime in the 1980s the word “homemaking” was dropped, during a time when homemaking was becoming less popular (how very tragic!).

Shortly after reading Edith Schaeffer’s book, I met a woman whom I consider to be the best, most thorough Bible teacher in the area:  Judy Dalton, of APPLES OF GOLD ministry.  (Judy is still faithfully teaching Scriptures, at 2 different locations outside of Milwaukee.)  Through Judy’s study, I met many kindred spirited keepers at home.  I left that first church with its gossipy scenario, and never looked back.

Meanwhile there’s a current groundswell of younger Christian women who make bread, knit, and home school their children!  Some of the women even raise chickens, rabbits, and sheep—like I did for 2 decades, on my little “funny farm”!

I am happy to report that in at least some of our local fellowships, the ”church lady” culture has become inspiring and fun.  My friend, Judy Dalton, has had a lot to do with the upbeat focus.  And I know that Edith Schaeffer’s writings have made a positive influence on Christian women as well! 

Margaret L. Been—All Rights Reserved

Here is an editorial cartoon about abortion.

Sad

(Francis did a great job in his film series “How Should we then live?” in looking at how humanism has affected art and culture in the Western World in the last 2000 years. My favorite episodes include his study of the Renaissance, the Revolutionary age, the age of Nonreason, and the age of Fragmentation.)

Related posts:

Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 1) ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE

Related posts:

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 1 “The Roman Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer | Edit | Comments (0)