Category Archives: Francis Schaeffer

Truth Tuesday: Saving Schaeffer by Jackson Watts

May 27, 2014 – 1:49 am

Saving Schaeffer by Jackson Watts

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Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode 8 – The Age of Fragmentation

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Francis Schaeffer- How Should We Then Live? -8- The Age of Fragmentation

Joseph Rozak·

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEmwy_dI2j0

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I love the works of Francis Schaeffer and I have been on the internet reading several blogs that talk about Schaeffer’s work and the work below by Jackson Watts was really helpful. Schaeffer’s film series “How should we then live?  Wikipedia notes, “According to Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live traces Western history from Ancient Rome until the time of writing (1976) along three lines: the philosophic, scientific, and religious.[3] He also makes extensive references to art and architecture as a means of showing how these movements reflected changing patterns of thought through time. Schaeffer’s central premise is: when we base society on the Bible, on the infinite-personal God who is there and has spoken,[4] this provides an absolute by which we can conduct our lives and by which we can judge society.  Here are some posts I have done on this series: Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” , episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”, episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation”, episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” , episode 6 “The Scientific Age” ,  episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” , episode 4 “The Reformation”,  episode 3 “The Renaissance”, episode 2 “The Middle Ages,”, and  episode 1 “The Roman Age,” .

In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented  against abortion (Episode 1),  infanticide (Episode 2),   euthanasia (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.

Saving Schaeffer

Nov 26, 2012 by

On a shelf in the library archives of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is a box. Inside is an aging, well-worn Bible. Finding a Bible in a library is nothing special—but this one is. It, along with thousands of letters, cassette tapes, and videos comprise the Francis Schaeffer literary estate.

While many Christians aren’t familiar with his books, many have heard his name. Some have even seen pictures of this unique man donning knickers and a scraggly goatee, who has been dead nearly 30 years [1]. Unfortunately, a number of writers in recent years have criticized him. Some of these critiques relate to his early life in American fundamentalism. Others concern his association with Religious Right politics. Still others criticize his brand of Reformed theology, claiming that it was undermined by his apologetic tactics.

Though debate concerning Schaeffer’s legacy will continue, his influential ministry was marked by an emphasis on the Christian worldview and Reformation thought. Because of this, a summary of Schaeffer’s contributions is a fitting way to conclude this emphasis month. My hope is also that this essay will have some collateral impact on the portraits of Schaeffer that often obscure his important contributions to evangelical faith.

Community

The Schaeffers’ most significant contribution didn’t occur pastoring in America. Though he began and ended his life on American soil, their most fruitful ministry occurred in the Swiss Alps. There Francis and Edith ministered to countless seekers, skeptics, and young Christians at their retreat center known as L’Abri (French for “shelter”). Many who visited were either converted or prompted to significant achievement, including Os Guinness (prolific author), William Edgar (Westminster Seminary), Jerram Barrs (Covenant Seminary), Nancy Pearcey (Houston Baptist University), and countless others.

It was within the context of L’Abri that many experienced love, authentic community, and engagement with serious ideas. Despite the commitment to Christian thought and persuasion, “there was more going on at L’Abri than merely an intellectual defense of the Christian faith” [2]. The Schaeffers’ work began there in 1955 and continued until they were detained in the states for ministry and Francis’ battle with cancer. Today, L’Abri has spawned study centers in over half a dozen other foreign countries.

Influence

In God and the Philosophers, Thomas Morris presents a collection of essays by professional philosophers in which they describe their religious and intellectual journeys. Interestingly, Schaeffer was an early influence on four of the contributors. Jerry Walls explains, “Reading Schaeffer transformed my understanding of Christianity. He helped me to think of my faith in a much more comprehensive fashion than I had done before” [3].

Besides the Schaeffers’ ministry in Switzerland, Francis occasionally lectured on American university campuses—Christian and secular. While not all would be equally congenial to Schaeffer’s generalist approach, he would gain the admiration of Chuck Colson (1931-2012) and others through public lectures and private correspondence.

There were others with whom Schaeffer partnered who God used to assist Schaeffer in his ministry. Several stand out. For instance, during Schaeffer’s travels, he met Hans Rookmaaker who eventually became a significant art critic. Rookmaaker contributed to the aesthetic analysis Schaeffer offered in both Art & the Bible (1973) and How Should We Then Live? (1976).

Another important collaborator was C. Everett Koop, the eventual Surgeon General during the Reagan administration. Koop administered care to two of Schaeffer’s children and eventually helped him produce Whatever Happened to the Human Race? This book/film brought attention to the crisis surrounding abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia in a way that few had until this point. Schaeffer’s influence in the political realm eventually extended to both President Gerald Ford and Senator Jack Kemp.

Like all significant figures, some of Schaeffer’s relationships were strained due to disagreement. His early break from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church was reflective of the separatism common to fundamentalism. Although the Schaeffers served as missionaries and worked with several organizations, they believed separation was sometimes spiritually warranted.

Some of Francis Schaeffer’s most contentious disputes occurred nearer to the end of his life. His A Christian Manifesto (1981) was indicative of a deeply held conviction about America’s Christian heritage and how that should inform public policy. This led to a lengthy exchange between himself and historians Mark Noll and George Marsden. Francis would also have a brief, sharp correspondence with Karl Barth as he saw a new form of liberalism gaining traction in American thought.

Apologetics

Schaeffer’s apologetics was peculiar such that it has prompted much evaluation. His approach combined a nuanced use of logic and attention to the existential crisis of man. His apologetics was “pre-evangelistic” in that it always had conversion as the ultimate aim. Though Schaeffer was taught by Cornelius Van Til, his approach was more eclectic. While he drew from his former teacher’s emphasis on presuppositions, he practiced what Gordon Lewis calls “verificationism.” Christian truth claims are tested against the metaphysical, epistemological, and moral necessities that Schaeffer felt many would acknowledge.

The lasting legacy of his approach is two-fold. First, his concept of “taking the roof off” is valuable. In this, Schaeffer would attempt to show how the conceptual framework within which many attempted to live was inadequate. This approach forced unbelievers to see how their faulty worldviews led to consequences they weren’t prepared to accept.

Schaeffer’s second apologetic emphasis was sharing the truth with love [4]. While it would be easy to reduce this to winsomeness, it is tied closely with the prior contribution. Schaeffer used everything from popular music, the regnant drug culture, or other aspects of society to show the futility of false worldviews. Yet this was always coupled with a loving demeanor—much like the one Schaeffer taught in The Mark of a Christian (1970) and The Church Before the Watching World (1971).

Today

That Schaeffer needs “saving” rests on the assumption that his work is of little-to-no value today. The proverbial page needs to be turned. Jeff Jordan of the University of Delaware notes that while he profited from reading nearly every Schaeffer book during college, he concedes that “it seems to me today that Schaeffer’s work, in the end, is too general and of limited value.” Yet Jordan follows this by saying, “Nonetheless, he had a powerful effect on many people of my generation, opening our eyes to the rich interplay possible between Christian faith and the great ideas of philosophy” [5].

Many acknowledge that Schaeffer’s most important contribution was inspiring a generation to realize that Christianity speaks to all of life. However, he accomplished this because of his ability to evaluate the trajectory of ideas. He understood their consequences and antecedents. Furthermore, he knew how to equip Christians to make sense of them. Consider the following:

– Schaeffer never wrote a treatise on postmodernity, but he certainly anticipated it as he spoke of despair, synthesis, and the contradictions of life and theology not founded on Christian premises.

– He warned of a coming generation that would be characterized by relativism of the likes of which the church had never seen.

– In works such as Death in the City (1969) and Pollution and the Death of Man (1970) he offered insight into the coming ecological crisis, the complexity of modern, industrial life, and how Christianity addressed it. In other words, Schaeffer was talking about creation care before evangelicals were having conferences on the subject [6].

– In No Final Conflict (1975) he anticipated the coming conflict over the Scriptures that would endure beyond his time. Additionally, his Genesis in Space and Time (1972)would address the corollary issue of the historicity of the Genesis account—an issue still sparking great controversy.

– Schaeffer introduced many idiosyncratic phrases such as “true truth,” the “line of despair,” the “final apologetic,” as well as the difference between “upper-story” and “lower-story” truths.

Though Schaeffer was a generalist who erred in his analysis (particularly of Aquinas and Kierkegaard), no other evangelical has offered such an overarching Christian assessment of Western thought and culture.

Tomorrow

Holding Francis Schaeffer’s Bible was surreal. It reminded me of a simpler portrait of Schaeffer—one of a thoughtful evangelist whose books gave young Christians permission to think about how Christianity touched all of life. It is “true truth,” as he would say. In his award-winning book, Barry Hankins says,

Many Christian scholars today criticize Schaeffer, not only because of [his] reliance on modern rationalism, but even more because of his interpretation of the course of western intellectual history, what he called ‘the flow’, was problematic in its details. Some Christian scholars who critique Schaeffer’s arguments, however, might not be scholars at all if not for his influence [7].

Twenty-first century Christians should likewise consider the influences that have forged the legacy they have inherited. For those wanting an instructive example for ministry in contemporary culture, Schaeffer’s legacy offers much. Alongside the contributions of Luther, Kuyper, and Lewis, Schaeffer’s work remains a valuable component for cultivating a Christian worldview in the spirit of the Reformation.

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[1] (b. 30 January 1912; d. 15 May 1984)

[2] Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2008), 72.

[3] Jerry L. Walls, “On Keeping the Faith,” in God and the Philosophers: the Reconciliation of Faith and Reason, ed. Thomas V. Morris (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 107.

[4] Bryan Follis’ work found in the bibliography below is the best book-length summary of Schaeffer’s apologetic. However, there are many other articles and individual book-chapters that speak to this.

[5] Jeff Jordan, “Not in Kansas Anymore,” in God and the Philosophers, 132.

[6] Ironically, the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society was held on November 14-15 in Milwaukee, WI. The theme: Caring for Creation.

[7] Hankins, xiv-xv.

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Selected Biographical Works:

Scott Burson & Jerry Walls, C. S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer: Lessons for a New Century from the Most Influential Apologists of Our Time (IVP Books, 1998).

Lane T. Dennis, editor. Letters of Francis Schaeffer: Spiritual Reality in the Personal Christian Life (Crossway, 1986).

Colin Duriez, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life (Crossway, 2008).

Bryan Follis, Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer (Crossway, 2006)

Bruce A. Little, ed. Francis Schaffer: A Mind and Heart for God (P&R, 2010)

Thomas V. Morris, Francis Schaeffer’s Apologetics: A Critique (Baker Books, 1987)

David Outlaw, “An Overview of Francis Schaeffer’s Worldview.” Integrity: A Journal of Christian Thought (FWB Commission for Theology Integrity, 2006).

Louis Gifford Parkhurst, Francis Schaeffer: The Man and His Message (Kingsway, 1986).

Ronald W. Ruegsegger, editor. Reflections on Francis Schaeffer (Zondervan, 1986)

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Selected Works of Schaeffer:

The God Who is There (1968)

Escape from Reason (1968)

He is There and He is Not Silent (1972)

The Mark of a Christian (1970)

True Spirituality (1971)

How Should We Then Live? (1976)

The Great Evangelical Disaster (1984)

Francis Schaeffer

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

By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Open letter to President Obama (Part 591) Ross Douthat of NY Times on Dr. Gosnell

May 27, 2014 – 12:04 am

Open letter to President Obama (Part 591)

(Emailed to White House on 5-17-13.)

President Obama c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here. I know that you don’t agree with my pro-life views but I wanted to challenge you as a fellow Christian to re-examine your pro-choice view.

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Many in the world today are taking a long look at the abortion industry because of the May 14, 2013 guilty verdict and life term penalty handed down by a jury (which included 9 out of 12 pro-choice jurors)  to Dr. Kermit Gosnell. During this time of reflection I wanted to put forth some of the pro-life’s best arguments.

In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented  against abortion (Episode 1),  infanticide (Episode 2),   euthanasia (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.

Francis Schaeffer

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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 1) ABORTION

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Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

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Tony Perkins: Gosnell Trial – FOX News

Published on May 13, 2013

Tony Perkins: Gosnell Trial – FOX News

April 18, 2013, 3:51 pm 140 Comments

Kermit Gosnell and the Politics of Abortion

Several years ago, Jennifer Senior wrote a fascinating, agonized essay for New York Magazine on abortion and the challenges facing the pro-choice cause. Of the piece’s many memorable passages, this stretch in particular stood out:

… if you want to hear honest talk about the realities of abortion, go speak with those abortion counselors and providers. Even the most radically pro-choice will tell you that the political discourse they hear about the subject, with its easy dichotomies and bumper-sticker boilerplate, has little correspondence to the messy, intricate stories of her patients. They hear about peace and guilt, relief and sin. And it is they who will acknowledge, whether we like it or not, that the rhetoric and imagery of the pro-life movement can touch on some basic emotional truths. Peg Johnston, who manages Access for Women in upstate New York, remembers the first time her patients unconsciously began to co-opt the language of the protesters outside. “And it wasn’t that these protesters were brainwashing them,” she says. “It’s that they were tapping into things we all have some discomfort about.”

This is quite a brave confession for Johnston—or any pro-choice person—to make. It means making oneself vulnerable to opportunist pro-life activists, who’ll happily take those words about uncertainty or moral qualms and repurpose them for their own ends. Back in the late eighties, Charlotte Taft, who first pioneered the practice of writing notes on hearts in her Dallas clinic, mentioned to a journalist that women knew “abortion is a kind of killing,” and poor Kate Michelman, at NARAL, was forced to go on the defensive for days. Last year, Lisa Harris, a Michigan doctor, wrote an incredibly powerful essay for Reproductive Health Matters, trying to come to terms with the goriness of second-trimester abortions while simultaneously recognizing their validity: “What do we do when caught between pro-choice discourse that, while it reflects our values, does not accurately reflect the full extent of our experience of abortion and in fact contradicts an enormous part of it, and the anti-abortion discourse and imagery that may actually be more closely aligned to our experience but is based in values we do not share?”

… [her essay described] performing an abortion on a woman who was 23 weeks along and then immediately running to deliver a premature baby … of 23 to 24 weeks. “I thought to myself how bizarre it was that I could have legally dismembered this fetus-now-newborn if it were inside its mother’s uterus,” she writes, “but that the same kind of violence against it now would be illegal, and unspeakable.” Later she notes, “Currently, the violence and, frankly, the gruesomeness of abortion is owned only by those who would like to see abortion (at any time in pregnancy) disappear.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about this passage, and the tensions it illuminates, while following the debate over whether the national media has adequately covered the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia M.D. charged with murdering both the women who went to him for late-term abortions and the post-birth infants whose spines he allegedly severed with scissors after they were delivered. Since the story was finally forced into prominence late last week, it has inspired a number of eloquent critiques of how the press covers abortion (I recommend reading Carl Cannon and Melinda Henneberger, in particular) as well as various pieces defending the media from charges of bias and pinning the lack of coverage on other factors.

But the most interesting response by far has come from voices on the uncompromisingly pro-choice left. These writers have basically made two interlocking arguments: First, that there was no “liberal media” blackout, because feminist bloggers wrote about the story from the beginning, and second, that if there was a breakdown in mainstream coverage, it was the failure to recognize the ways in which the Gosnell story is actually about inequities in access to medical care and the perverse consequences of abortion restrictions, rather than (as the pro-life side would have it) the inherent horror of the procedure itself.

These arguments have showed up in a lot of places, but they’ve been developed most extensively by Irin Carmon at Salon. From her initial piece on the case:

If you’ve never heard of the Gosnell story, it’s … probably because you failed to pay attention to the copious coverage among pro-choice and feminist journalists, as well as the big news organizations, when the news first broke in 2011. There would be something rich, if it weren’t so infuriating, about these (almost uniformly male, as it happens) reporters and commentators scrambling to break open this shocking untold story. You know, the one that was written about here, here and here, to name some disparate sources.

I can’t speak for big news organizations like CNN and the networks, but let’s think about this question another way: How often do such places devote their energies to covering the massive health disparities and poor outcomes that are wrought by our current system? How often are the travails of the women whose vulnerabilities Gosnell exploited — the poor, immigrants and otherwise marginalized people — given wall-to-wall, trial-level coverage? If you’re surprised that in the face of politicized stigma, lack of public funding or good information, and a morass of restrictive laws allegedly meant to protect women, the vacuum was filled by a monster — well, the most generous thing I can say is that you haven’t been paying attention.

And then, in a follow-up piece:

By all means, let’s talk about Kermit Gosnell — who is accused of acts that are already illegal — but in a fact-based fashion. As Philadelphia Weekly reporter Tara Murtha put it, this was about a “multi-level, panoramic, institutional negligence, a culture of passing the buck and flagrant disregard for patient’s welfare, [which] prevented any meaningful investigation.” This is not about how Gosnell performed “late term abortions” (a highly imprecise term) as much as it is about the fact that the women who went to him felt they had nowhere else to go, an issue I have yet to see all the right-wing grandstanders fully address. As Erin Grant of the Philadelphia Women’s Center wrote, ”Now, instead of people who morally oppose what I do just being outside my door on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, they are emboldened on the state Senate floor to ‘save women’s lives.’ Yet, nothing has been done to provide low-income women with dignified health care, including safe abortion care.”

Some of Carmon’s commentary on the press coverage feels like obfuscation: The voices complaining about the media blackout obviously weren’t talking about a lack of coverage in The Nation, and the claim that the people taking an interest in the story are “uniformly male” is just nonsense. (As I noted in my Sunday column, the two writers who put the most energy into pushing this story into the mainstream were Kirsten Powers in U.S.A. Today and Mollie Ziegler Hemingway of GetReligion; it’s one recent appearance on a Sunday roundtable was courtesy of Peggy Noonan; one of the best pieces on the lack of media coverage was the Melinda Henneberger column I noted above … you get the idea.)

But her obfuscation is woven together with a legitimate point. The most rigorously pro-choice writers really did cover the Gosnell case more assiduously than the mainstream media, because they really do see it, not as an embarrassment to the cause of abortion rights, but a vindication of their worldview.

And not without reason. In a society more comprehensively pro-abortion than our own, there would presumably be more doctors willing to perform late-term abortions and certainly more government funding for abortion generally, both of which would reduce the “market share,” if you will, available for a monster like Gosnell to exploit. His practice allegedly operated in a gray area created by the combination of 1) Pennsylvania’s restrictions on post-viability abortions and 2) pro-choice Pennsylvania administrations that didn’t want to enforce those restrictions. But obviously if the state had no restrictions whatsoever and spent public money subsidizing abortion, his abattoir would have had more clean, well-lit, sanitary competitors. Thus Matt Yglesias’s conclusion that from a rigorously pro-choice, pro-Roe v. Wade perspective the lesson of the Gosnell horror show is not that the regulations he flouted should have been better enforced; rather, it’s that Pennsylvania needed an ”above-board competitive marketplace with multiple legal providers of late-term abortion facilities,” and the restrictions on late-term abortion unfortunately prevented that marketplace from emerging.

The only things missing from this clean, airtight, entirely consistent argument are, well, all the dead babies in the Gosnell clinic — or the dead “precipitated fetuses,” to employ the language Gosnell and his associates used to euphemize their practice of delivering and then “snipping” rather than aborting in utero. Their absence is not necessarily a problem if you’re willing to argue that those babies were non-persons before delivery and became persons immediately after (in which case Gosnell is guilty of infanticide but a more competent late-term abortion facility wouldn’t be), or if you’re willing to argue, with Peter Singer and some others, that personhood is something that emerges gradually at some indeterminate time after birth (in which case Gosnell’s “snipping” wasn’t murder at all). The former, I think, is the more common form of pro-choice absolutism, and the latter belongs to the more philosophically-inclined fringe (although the debate over “born-alive” bills has moved the official consensus fringeward). But if you’re already committed to absolute support for abortion rights, either argument will suffice to justify treating Gosnell’s conduct as irrelevant to the broader abortion controversy.

What neither argument seems likely to do, however, is do much to persuade the many, many “pro-choice but …” people who aren’t already so committed, and whose support for abortion rights tends to waver most when they’re confronted with the reality of what abortion actually does to fetal life — in clean, well-funded facilities as well as filthy ones, and in the womb as much as on Gosnell’s operating tables. This is, of course, the central reason why the pro-life side assumes that mainstream reporters didn’t particularly want to cover the trial: Because the mainstream press leans pro-choice, because mainstream journalism is pitched to readers in the mushy middle on abortion, and because the practice of “after-birth abortion” makes fetal humanity manifest in ways that almost inevitably push that middle in a more pro-life direction.

And it’s this reality that the pro-choice commentary on the case, with its focus on making these procedures safer and more accessible (and keeping them in utero), has a very hard time addressing. If you’re one of the 28 percent of Americans who believe that abortion should be legal in all circumstances (or, to take a more specific Gallup question, one of the 14 percent who think that “all circumstances” should include the third trimester), then Carmon’s points, or Yglesias’s, will tend to confirm you in that position. But if you’re a typically-conflicted American — the kind of person for whom stories about neonates gasping for breath before their spines get severed makes you question whether abortion isn’t murder after all — then the insistence that Gosnell case just reveals the advantages of an “above-board competitive marketplace” in late-term abortion isn’t really much of a response.

Which brings us back to that Senior essay, because I think what you’re seeing from the pro-choice side of the Gosnell debate is exactly the dilemma she describes. To respond effectively to the doubts about abortion that fetal snipping summons up, pro-choice advocates would need arguments that (to rephrase Senior’s language) acknowledge and come to terms with the goriness of third-trimester abortions while simultaneously persuading the conflicted and uncommitted of their validity, and that somehow take ownership of the “violence” and “gruesomeness” of abortion (to borrow Harris’s words) without giving aid and comfort to the pro-life cause. And in the absence of such arguments, the pro-choice response to Gosnell feels either evasive and euphemistic, or else logically consistent in ways that tend to horrify the unconvinced — and in either case, inadequate to the challenge his case presents to the cause of abortion rights.

But of course it’s possible that those arguments are absent because they simply don’t exist.

Political Cartoons by Steve Breen

By Steve Breen – April 23, 2013

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Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your commitment as a father and a husband. I also respect you for putting your faith in Christ for your eternal life. I am pleading to you on the basis of the Bible to please review your religious views concerning abortion. It was the Bible that caused the abolition movement of the 1800’s and it also was the basis for Martin Luther King’s movement for civil rights and it also is the basis for recognizing the unborn children.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com

Related posts:

Al Mohler on Kermit Gosnell’s abortion practice

Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 1) ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE Published on Oct 6, 2012 by AdamMetropolis ________________ 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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part U “Do men have a say in the abortion debate?” (includes the film SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS and editorial cartoon)

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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part T “Abortion is a dirty business” (includes video “Truth and History” and editorial cartoon)

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 […]

“Sanctity of Life Saturday” Abortion supporters lying in order to further their clause? Window to the Womb (includes video ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE)

It is truly sad to me that liberals will lie in order to attack good Christian people like state senator Jason Rapert of Conway, Arkansas because he headed a group of pro-life senators that got a pro-life bill through the Arkansas State Senate the last week of January in 2013. I have gone back and […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part D “If you can’t afford a child can you abort?”Francis Schaeffer Quotes part 4 includes the film ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE) (editorial cartoon)

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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part C “Abortion” (Francis Schaeffer Quotes part 3 includes the film SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS) (editorial cartoon)

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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part B “Gendercide” (Francis Schaeffer Quotes Part 2 includes the film ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE) (editorial cartoon)

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 […]

SANCTITY OF LIFE SATURDAY “AngryOldWoman” blogger argues that she has no regrets about past abortion

Sometimes you can see evidences in someone’s life of how content they really are. I saw  something like that on 2-8-13 when I confronted a blogger that goes by the name “AngryOldWoman” on the Arkansas Times Blog. See below. Leadership Crisis in America Published on Jul 11, 2012 Picture of Adrian Rogers above from 1970′s […]

“Sanctity of Life Saturday” The Church Awakens: Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (includes the video ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE)

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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part H “Are humans special?” includes film ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE) Reagan: ” To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all”

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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part G “How do moral nonabsolutists come up with what is right?” includes the film “ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE”)

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 […]

Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part E “Moral absolutes and abortion” Francis Schaeffer Quotes part 5(includes the film SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS) (editorial cartoon)

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 […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 1 0   Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode X – Final Choices 27 min FINAL CHOICES I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes. B. But society has to be […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 9 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IX – The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence 27 min T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 8 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VIII – The Age of Fragmentation 27 min I saw this film series in 1979 and it had a major impact on me. T h e Age of FRAGMENTATION I. Art As a Vehicle Of Modern Thought A. Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 7 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VII – The Age of Non Reason I am thrilled to get this film series with you. I saw it first in 1979 and it had such a big impact on me. Today’s episode is where we see modern humanist man act […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 6 “The Scientific Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 6 How Should We Then Live 6#1 Uploaded by NoMirrorHDDHrorriMoN on Oct 3, 2011 How Should We Then Live? Episode 6 of 12 ________ I am sharing with you a film series that I saw in 1979. In this film Francis Schaeffer asserted that was a shift in […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 5 How Should We Then Live? Episode 5: The Revolutionary Age I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Francis Schaeffer noted, “Reformation Did Not Bring Perfection. But gradually on basis of biblical teaching there […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 4 “The Reformation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IV – The Reformation 27 min I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer makes three key points concerning the Reformation: “1. Erasmian Christian humanism rejected by Farel. 2. Bible gives needed answers not only as to […]

“Schaeffer Sundays” Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance”

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance” Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 3) THE RENAISSANCE I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer really shows why we have so […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 2 “The Middle Ages” (Schaeffer Sundays)

  Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 2) THE MIDDLE AGES I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer points out that during this time period unfortunately we have the “Church’s deviation from early church’s teaching in regard […]

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

Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 1) THE ROMAN AGE   Today I am starting a series that really had a big impact on my life back in the 1970′s when I first saw it. There are ten parts and today is the first. Francis Schaeffer takes a look at Rome and why […]

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

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in President Obama, Prolife | Comments (0)

“Schaeffer Sunday” Abortion debating with Ark Times Bloggers Part 3 “What size of crowd shows up at abortion marches in Arkansas?” (includes the film ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE and editorial cartoon)

May 25, 2014 – 12:49 am

I have debated with Ark Times Bloggers many times in the past on many different subjects. Abortion is probably the most often debated subject and I have noticed that many pro-life individuals are now surfacing on the Arkansas Times Blog.  Here are some examples. Arhogfan501 asserted: This is the beginning of the end for recreational abortion in Arkansas. Songbird777 noted: Babies have a right to live and not be chopped up for someone else’s convenience. The person using the username “baker” commented: Planned Parenthood (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.

Here is another debate I got into recently on the Arkansas Times Blog and I go by the username “Saline Republican”:

On March 14, 2013 on the Ark Times Blog story “Stop the War on Women: March 23″   wrote:

Organizers of the “Protest at the State Capital” event are calling on women who are appalled at the treatment the Arkansas legislature has handed them this session to rally at the Capitol at 3 p.m. March 23, and so far more than 1,000 people (men and women) have indicated on the event”s Facebook page that they will attend.

Organizers Donna Shade and LeeWood Thomas issued a press release today about the event today and said a speaker line-up is being formed. (Press release on the jump.)

The rally will protest the newly-enacted laws unconstitutionally rescinding abortion rights and well as bills still under consideration to grant personhood to the embryo and defund Planned Parenthood.

I responded on 3-14-13 on the Ark Times Blog:

1000 PEOPLE ARE GOING TO SHOW UP FOR PRO-ABORTION EVENT IN ARKANSAS? I doubt that very much. (Actually 500 came out when the day came according to Ark Times Blog.) Of course there has been a lot of lies spread out there in the past about how many show up for pro-abortion events. Here is a post I did from 2011:
Go to Fox 16 website and you will read this story below and watch a video clip on both marches. What you will not read is the fact that only 150 people showed up for the pro-choice march on Jan 22, 2011 while over 5000 came out for the pro-life rally the following day. In fact, on the video the reporter notes, “A similar scene on Saturday..” The reporter summarizes, “Both pro-choice and pro-life rally organizers say they were pleased with the crowd their events drew.” In the article on the website are these words, “Both pro-life and pro-choice rally-goers came out strong, equally passionate about their beliefs.”

Read this info below from the Fox 16 website:

LITTLE ROCK, AR – Thousands of Arkansans marched near the Capitol this weekend to make their voices heard. Saturday it was those in favor of a woman’s right to choose. Sunday, pro-life supporters gathered for the 33rd Annual March for Life. Both pro-life and pro-choice rally-goers came out strong, equally passionate about their beliefs. Lauren Long is pro-life and says, “I’m 16 today because my mom chose life and I’m really proud of that.”Politicians, doctors, religious leaders and even the famous TV family from Arkansas, the Duggar’s, came out for the Right to Life March. Jill Duggar says her family is a prime example of what it means to be pro-life. “Life is precious and a lot of people don’t understand the significance of it. It’s not just a ball of tissue, it’s a baby from the very start.”

Dr. Matt Sellers is an OB/GYN with the Cornerstone Clinic for Woman. He says, “Every unborn life is a treasure that should be treated as such.”

Congressman Tim Griffin also attended Sunday’s pro-life rally. He says, “We need to respect life and all our policies in the way we treat other people, and the way we think about public policy, we need to think about life.”

Pro-choice rally-goers lined the steps of the Capitol on Saturday. Senator Joyce Elliott spoke to the crowd. “Trust women, show respect for women and the choices they make.” Senator Elliott also added, “It’s in our national and economic best interest to make sure women have the choice of good healthcare services.”

Stephanie Oshrin, with the National Organization for Women says, “We believe every person has a right to choose their family and plan their family. We advocate strong, healthy women, and happy children.” Oshrin also mentioned, “We’ve made monumental gains over the last decade, however we recognize with all the gains, we still have many struggles that we will continue to fight for.”

Both pro-life and pro-choice rally organizers say, they’re pleased with the crowd their events drew, and hope to continue to spread their messages long after these rallies are over. Both rallies were peaceful and respectful, and while police were present at both events, there have been no reports of any problems. Both crowds drew larger numbers than last year.

https://thedailyhatch.org/2011/01/24/fox-16…

_______________

The person using the username “DeathByInches” replied:

I’d like to see a picture of ole Saline. Judging from his views he must be in his late 110s…..

Jennifer Coates Johnson added:

Saline must also have lady parts — since he’s so interested in legislating them.

Ozarkrazo piled on with this:

Jennifer, saline has NO “parts”. He’s more of a platyhelminthes.

Plainjim came on and put in some great thoughts:

We should not denigrate salinerepublican personally here on the blog. We should simply denigrate his ideas. Unlike most trolls, he does not insult people or call them names; he simply provides opposing ideas. Unlike larock (a/k/a coolbeeze). Steven E., arhogfan, and the other obnoxious trollers on the blog, I would call him a positive troller, someone who throws out assertions that we can all disagree with. As far as I can tell from his posts, he has never gotten angry with people who disagree with him.

____________

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.

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.

Many liberals actually truly do argue for abortion rights over human rights. Prochoice advocate Elizabeth Williams came out and said that on 1-23-13 in her article on Salon. We hear reasons for abortion such as poverty,and  child abuse,  but why not consider adoption? Instead, the political left will stop at nothing to push the pro-abortion agenda. Why not stop and take an honest look at when life begins for the unborn child and when she begins to feel pain?

Francis Schaeffer Whatever Happened to the Human Race (Episode 1) ABORTION

_____________________________________

 

Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

Dr. C. Everett Koop pictured above.

Great  quotes from “Whatever happened to the human race?”  by Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop (from the shelter website):.

Summary

Francis Schaeffer and, former Surgeon General, C. Everette Koop deal directly with the devaluing of human life and its results in our society. It did not take place in a vacuum. It is a direct result of a worldview that has rejected the doctrine of man being created in the image of God. Man as a product of the impersonal, plus time and chance has no sufficient basis for worth.

For a while, Western culture — from sheer inertia — continued to live by the old Christian ethics while increasingly embracing the mechanistic, time-plus-chance view of people. People came more and more to hold that the universe is intrinsically and originally impersonal — as a stone is impersonal. Thus, by chance, life began on the earth and then, through long, long periods of time, by chance, life became more complex, until man with his special brain came into existence. By “chance” is meant that there was no reason for these things to occur; they just happened that way. No matter how loftily it is phrased, this view drastically reduces our view of self-worth as well as our estimation of the worth of others, for we are viewing ourselves as mere accidents of the universe.
(Francis A. Schaeffer and C. Everette Koop, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, Ch. 1)

Ten Outstanding Pro-Life Articles

Posted by Matt on January 22, 2013

Today is the 40th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision – as good a day as any to pass along some pro-life resources that I’ve found particularly insightful:

  1. Bad Pro-Choice Arguments (Neil Shenvi): Dr. Shenvi debunks a number of popular, yet seriously flawed, pro-choice arguments. Examples include “The unborn is not a human being, it is just a mass of cells” and “We should combat abortion by reducing poverty, not by making it illegal.”
  2. Questions for Pro-Choice People (Michael Pakaluk): Dr. Pakaluk poses some tough questions to those who support legalized abortion. This is a must-read for anyone who considers himself “pro-choice”, but nonetheless has a few inner qualms about the actual practice of abortion.
  3. A Future Like Ours (Clinton Wilcox): This summary of Don Marquis’s “Future Like Ours” argument appeared recently on the Secular Pro-Life Perspectives blog. The argument states that murder is wrong, in part, because it deprives the victim of future experiences. This “future value” of a living entity constitutes a sufficient reason to presume that killing is wrong. Abortion is thus tantamount to murder…even though the embryo or fetus is at an early developmental stage, and may lack some of the physical qualities that we otherwise associate with “humanness”.
  4. The Pro-Life Position and the Bible (J.W. Wartick): My friend J.W. demonstrates how Scripture compellingly supports a pro-life stance. He’s written extensively on the issue of abortion, and you can check out an index of his pro-life posts HERE.
  5. Why I Lost Faith in the Pro-Choice Movement (Jennifer Fulwiler): In this powerful narrative, Ms. Fulwiler explains how she came to abandon her support of “abortion rights”. In particular, she discusses the widespread fear of information within the pro-choice movement, as well as the startling lack of interest among many pro-choicers in defining when, exactly, we should start protecting life.
  6. Unstringing the Violinist (Gregory Koukl): The well-known “violinist argument” for abortion rights (sometimes formulated as the “parasite argument”) is widely regarded as one of the most persuasive pro-choice arguments. Mr. Koukl uncovers some serious flaws with this argument, however, and explains why its strength is only illusory. In addition to Mr. Koukl’s criticisms, I would also emphasize the issue of implicit consent to the possibility of pregnancy that comes with the act of sex – at least in the vast majority of abortion cases that don’t involve rape.
  7. Why Your Friends are ‘Pro-Choice’ (Scott Klusendorf): This article analyzes the common claim, “I don’t like abortion, but I don’t think the government should be involved in taking away a woman’s choice” (or, “Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.”). Abortion is wrong not because pro-lifers find it distasteful, but because it violates rational moral principles.
  8. Responding to Pro-Choice Bumper Sticker Speak (Jennie Stone): This is a great response to some of the more common pro-choice ‘one-liners’. I also recommend checking out the articles she cites near the beginning (by Kristen Walker and Kristi Brown, respectively).
  9. Pro-Life or “Anti-Abortion”? Who Decides? (Richard Evans): Richard reflects on how terminology (“pro-life” vs. “anti-abortion”) is used to re-frame the debate. He also raises some important questions about what “choice” really means…and when it should take place.
  10. Guest Post on BadCatholic (Michael Frances): In the “pro-choice” vs. “pro-life” debate, which viewpoint is the scientific default, and which viewpoint must rely on philosophical or religious assumptions? The answer might surprise you.

As a bonus, I’ve listed below a few of my own previous articles on the issue of abortion:

  1. The Roots of the Abortion Debate: I explain why pro-life and pro-choice advocates both seem to genuinely believe they are acting ethically. The answer, I believe, often boils down to one’s philosophical views on the value of life.
  2. Abortion Methods: An Overview: I describe the various surgical and non-surgical methods used to terminate a pregnancy. I intentionally avoided using gory photographs, but the content is nonetheless quite disturbing. As it should be.
  3. Possibly the Worst New York Times Op-Ed in the History of New York Times Op-Eds: This was my response to a NY Times opinion piece by Thomas Friedman. I point out the hypocrisy of those who support a “woman’s right to choose” when it comes to killing her unborn child, but not when it comes to consuming “giant sugary drinks”.
  4. In Defense of the Pro-Life Movement: A Response to Greg Rubottom: In this post, I respond to attacks on the pro-life movement from a member of the “progressive Christian” community. In the comment section, you’ll see that this also involved some interaction with Frank Schaeffer (the son of Francis Schaeffer).
  5. This is a fine editorial cartoon on the issue of abortion.

    (This is a womb and not a tomb.)

  6. Related posts:

    Francis Schaeffer’s prayer for us in USA

     Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 1) ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE Published on Oct 6, 2012 by AdamMetropolis The 45 minute video above is from the film series created from Francis Schaeffer’s book “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” with Dr. C. Everett Koop. This book  really helped develop my political views […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    E P I S O D E 1 0   Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode X – Final Choices 27 min FINAL CHOICES I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes. B. But society has to be […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    E P I S O D E 9 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IX – The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence 27 min T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    E P I S O D E 8 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VIII – The Age of Fragmentation 27 min I saw this film series in 1979 and it had a major impact on me. T h e Age of FRAGMENTATION I. Art As a Vehicle Of Modern Thought A. Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    E P I S O D E 7 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VII – The Age of Non Reason I am thrilled to get this film series with you. I saw it first in 1979 and it had such a big impact on me. Today’s episode is where we see modern humanist man act […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 6 “The Scientific Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    E P I S O D E 6 How Should We Then Live 6#1 Uploaded by NoMirrorHDDHrorriMoN on Oct 3, 2011 How Should We Then Live? Episode 6 of 12 ________ I am sharing with you a film series that I saw in 1979. In this film Francis Schaeffer asserted that was a shift in […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    E P I S O D E 5 How Should We Then Live? Episode 5: The Revolutionary Age I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Francis Schaeffer noted, “Reformation Did Not Bring Perfection. But gradually on basis of biblical teaching there […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 4 “The Reformation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

    Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IV – The Reformation 27 min I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer makes three key points concerning the Reformation: “1. Erasmian Christian humanism rejected by Farel. 2. Bible gives needed answers not only as to […]

    “Schaeffer Sundays” Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance”

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance” Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 3) THE RENAISSANCE I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer really shows why we have so […]

    Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 2 “The Middle Ages” (Schaeffer Sundays)

      Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 2) THE MIDDLE AGES I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer points out that during this time period unfortunately we have the “Church’s deviation from early church’s teaching in regard […]

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

    Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 1) THE ROMAN AGE   Today I am starting a series that really had a big impact on my life back in the 1970′s when I first saw it. There are ten parts and today is the first. Francis Schaeffer takes a look at Rome and why […]

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

    Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 5) TRUTH AND HISTORY Published on Oct 7, 2012 by AdamMetropolis This crucial series is narrated by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. Today, choices are being made that undermine human rights at their most basic level. Practices once […]

    Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 4) THE BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY

    The opening song at the beginning of this episode is very insightful. Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 4) THE BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY Published on Oct 7, 2012 by AdamMetropolis This crucial series is narrated by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. Today, choices […]

    Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 3) DEATH BY SOMEONE’S CHOICE

    Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” (Episode 3) DEATH BY SOMEONE’S CHOICE Published on Oct 6, 2012 by AdamMetropolis This crucial series is narrated by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. Today, choices are being made that undermine human rights at their most basic level. Practices […]

    Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” (Episode 2) SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

    Francis Schaeffer: “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” (Episode 2) SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS Published on Oct 6, 2012 by AdamMetropolis This crucial series is narrated by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. Today, choices are being made that undermine human rights at their most basic level. Practices […]

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

    It is not possible to know where the pro-life evangelicals are coming from unless you look at the work of the person who inspired them the most. That person was Francis Schaeffer.  I do care about economic issues but the pro-life issue is the most important to me. Several years ago Adrian Rogers (past president of […]

    The following essay explores the role that Francis Schaeffer played in the rise of the pro-life movement. It examines the place of How Should We Then Live?, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, and A Christian Manifesto in that process.

    This essay below is worth the read. Schaeffer, Francis – “Francis Schaeffer and the Pro-Life Movement” [How Should We Then Live?, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, A Christian Manifesto] Editor note: <p> </p> [The following essay explores the role that Francis Schaeffer played in the rise of the pro-life movement.  It examines the place of […]

    Who was Francis Schaeffer? by Udo Middelmann

    Great article on Schaeffer. Who was Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer? By Francis Schaeffer The unique contribution of Dr. Francis Schaeffer on a whole generation was the ability to communicate the truth of historic Biblical Christianity in a way that combined intellectual integrity with practical, loving care. This grew out of his extensive understanding of the Bible […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Prolife | Comments (0)

“Sanctity of Life Saturday” Abortion debating with Ark Times Bloggers Part 12 “Is there a biological reason to be pro-life?” and the article “How Francis Schaeffer shaped Michele Bachman’s pro-life views” (includes the film TRUTH AND HISTORY and editorial cartoon)

May 24, 2014 – 12:37 am

 

I have debated with Ark Times Bloggers many times in the past on many different subjects. Abortion is probably the most often debated subject and I have noticed that many pro-life individuals are now surfacing on the Arkansas Times Blog.  Here are some examples. Arhogfan501 asserted: This is the beginning of the end for recreational abortion in Arkansas. Songbird777 noted: Babies have a right to live and not be chopped up for someone else’s convenience. The person using the username “baker” commented: Planned Parenthood (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.

Here is another debate I got into recently on the Arkansas Times Blog and I go by the username “Saline Republican”:

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The person going by the username “Steven E” asserted:

Not snarky and unsubstantiated lunacy as stating that it is not life, or whatever nonsense you spouted.

It is fine to go after those that spout only from faith, but what about biology?

I replied:

Steven E asks, “It is fine to go after those that spout only from faith, but what about biology?”
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How about the secular man Dr. Bernard Nathanson who left the abortion movement in the 1970’s because he was convinced the unborn baby could experience pain? Is that an argument from biology? (Dr. Nathanson later converted to become a Catholic from agnosticism.)

At the time of Dr. Nathanson’s death in 2011 I read this article by Dr. George. Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and previously served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
“Bernard Nathanson: A Life Transformed by the Truth about Abortion.” (Feb 11, 2011)

(Here is a portion of that article.)

Nathanson later in his life became a pro-life advocate.In 1985, Nathanson employed the new fetal imaging technology to produce a documentary film, “The Silent Scream,” which energized the pro-life movement and threw the pro-choice side onto the defensive by showing in graphic detail the killing of a twelve-week-old fetus in a suction abortion. Nathanson used the footage to describe the facts of fetal development and to make the case for the humanity and dignity of the child in the womb. At one point, viewers see the child draw back from the surgical instrument and open his mouth: “This,” Nathanson says in the narration, “is the silent scream of a child threatened imminently with extinction.”

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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.

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Francis Schaeffer Whatever Happened to the Human Race (Episode 1) ABORTION

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Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

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I read a very good article back during the middle of the Republican Presidential Primary about Michele Bachman and how her pro-life views evolved after reading the works of Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop. Here it is:

Bachmann: Christian Writer Francis Schaeffer Shaped Pro-Life Views

by Steven Ertelt | Des Moines, IA | LifeNews.com | 7/26/11 12:06 PM

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is one of the several pro-life advocates seeking the Republican nomination to face pro-abortion President Barack Obama and she cites Christian writer Francis Schaeffer as an influence on her pro-life views.

In a campaign stop to speak to local residents at a church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Bachmann shared her testimony and talked about the Christian faith she and her husband share. That faith, which has matured thanks to the writings of Schaeffer, has led Bachman to a pro-life view that has seen her compile a 100% pro-life voting record in Congress and adopt dozens of foster children.

“One thing that Dr. Schaeffer said is that [God is] not just the God of theology. He’s not just the God of the Bible,” Bachmann said, according to the Des Moines Register. “Since he is the Creator God, he’s the father of biology, sociology, of political science, of you name the subject. … And that altered our way of thinking, that God had something to say about our career.”

“Francis Schaeffer also said that life is the watershed issue of our time, and how we come down on how we view human life will impact all other issues,” she said. “And so Marcus and I decided we didn’t want to be pro-life only, just as speaking… We wanted to live a life of being about pro-life.”

The Register indicates Bachmann told the audience that, upon the encouragement to put her pro-life views into action, she and her husband began counseling and praying with single mothers and helping them get to pregnancy and adoption centers to provide further practical support instead of abortion.

“This is not to condemn any woman who here has ever had an abortion or participated in one,” she said, according to the newspaper. “Because God is there also with grace and mercy in that situation, but to say that he is the life-giving only God who has answers in the midst of our trying times.”

Dave Andrusko, of the National Right to Life Committee, says he is not surprised Schaeffer helped shaped Bachmann’s faith and pro-life views.

“There are a couple of reasons it’s useful to talk about Congresswoman Bachmann’s talk—her testimony. Like almost all the GOP candidates current running, and most of the few who may still jump in, she is staunchly pro-life,” he says. “Schaeffer is perhaps best known to pro-life veterans for co-authoring with Dr. C. Everett Koop (later Surgeon General) the hugely influential “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” Both as a book and a video series, the impact of “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” cannot be exaggerated. It awakened and mobilized Evangelical Protestants as nothing before had ever done.”

He called the Bachmanns “loving pro-lifers” who have expressed their Christian faith and pro-life views “through the hands and feet” of action.

President Obama talks a lot about hope and change but how does that apply to unborn babies? This editorial cartoon touches on this issue.

Related posts:

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Prolife | Comments (0)

Open letter to President Obama (Part 587) Tony Perkins on Kermit Gosnell Trial

May 21, 2014 – 12:57 am

Open letter to President Obama (Part 587)

(Emailed to White House on 5-17-13.)

President Obama c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here. I know that you don’t agree with my pro-life views but I wanted to challenge you as a fellow Christian to re-examine your pro-choice view.

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Francis Schaeffer Whatever Happened to the Human Race (Episode 1) ABORTION

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Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

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Tony Perkins: Gosnell Trial – FOX News

Published on May 13, 2013

Tony Perkins: Gosnell Trial – FOX News

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Hey Obama, Kermit Gosnell Is What a Real War on Women Looks Like

by Tony Perkins | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 4/18/13 1:13 PM

At nearly six weeks, the Gosnell trial has something in common with its unborn victims: it has a heartbeat now, and not just in the conservative press. The story is pulsing through the mainstream media, as alive as it’s ever been in the two years since Kermit Gosnell’s conviction. For once, the bloodcurdling accounts–so otherworldly that Snopes had to separate it from urban legend–are receiving the attention the pro-abortion press never wanted to give it.

Of course, now that the media has been shamed into doing its job, a handful of reporters can’t help but try to spread the blame around. Taking its cues from Gosnell apologists like NARAL, outlets likeSlate, The Atlantic, and Huffington Post have the audacity to condemn pro-lifers for the clinic’s barbarism. If women were forced to go to Gosnell, they claim, then they were “driven there by fear of anti-abortion protestors outside Planned Parenthood facilities.” Others insist that conservatives areexploiting the crimes “to further reduce access to safe, legal abortion,” which, if you’ve read the Delaware news, is a far cry from what Planned Parenthood has been offering.

In Gosnell’s torture chamber, the urine-stained hallways are nothing compared to his method for disposing bodies. During one of the most nauseating accounts yet, Gosnell’s janitor told the court that he threatened to quit because “he refused to pull any more flesh from aborted babies out of the plumbing.” “He told the jury toilets backed up one to two times a week,” and he was forced to open the pipes and see “fetal parts such as babies’ arms come spilling out.” He testified that he “scooped up body parts with a shovel and put them in a bag that was taken to the rat-infested basement,” where a cat roamed the clinic, using plants as its litter box.

As one staffer described it, the dirty bathrooms were a central part of the abortion process. “If… a baby was about to come out,” she said, “I would take the woman to the bathroom. They would sit on the toilet and basically the baby would fall out and it would be in the toilet.” When these tiny victims weren’t “precipitated” like sewage, the aborted children were stored in makeshift coffins like “cherry limeade containers” in the refrigerator.

Despite all of this, despite even the spine-chilling stories of newborn babies crying out in pain during their execution, the media still insists on calling the born-alive sufferers “fetuses.” To them, admitsthe Washington Post‘s Melinda Henneberger, a baby butcher gets in the way of their preferred narrative, which is alerting people to “every single threat or perceived threat to abortion rights.” If a serial killer doesn’t prick the press’s collective conscience, maybe his cruelty toward women will. Karnamaya Mongar’s family tried to tell their daughters’ story in court through tears. Karnamaya wasn’t there to testify herself, because she was left to die in Gosnell’s filthy clinic recliner after an overdose of Demerol. Paramedics raced to the scene–but they couldn’t get cut through the padlocked back door fast enough to save her.

This is the war on women. A profit-driven abortion industry, so focused on making a buck that they can’t be bothered to clean rusty equipment, wipe down bloody operating tables, appropriately sedate patients, or monitor mutilated women. Even President Obama, who never let the facts get in the way of premature statements before, says he “cannot take a position on an ongoing trial.”

That’s interesting, Ken Blackwell writes, since he had no trouble doing so during his friend’s arrest in Boston or the Treyvon Martin case. Obviously, his crusade for women’s safety is as contrived as his selective concern for kids. Where is the man who insisted nothing else matters “if we don’t come together to protect our most precious resource: our children”?

Kudos to the congressional members who ARE speaking out. Reps. Marsha Blackburn(R-Tenn.) and Steve Scalise (R-La.) spearheaded a letter signed by 70 of their colleagues chastising the major networks for ignoring this important story. Members continue to go down to the House floor as well to make it clear that this gruesome case is no anomaly.

LifeNews Note: Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council.

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

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Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your commitment as a father and a husband. I also respect you for putting your faith in Christ for your eternal life. I am pleading to you on the basis of the Bible to please review your religious views concerning abortion. It was the Bible that caused the abolition movement of the 1800’s and it also was the basis for Martin Luther King’s movement for civil rights and it also is the basis for recognizing the unborn children.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com

Related posts:

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 1 0   Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode X – Final Choices 27 min FINAL CHOICES I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes. B. But society has to be […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 9 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IX – The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence 27 min T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 8 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VIII – The Age of Fragmentation 27 min I saw this film series in 1979 and it had a major impact on me. T h e Age of FRAGMENTATION I. Art As a Vehicle Of Modern Thought A. Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 7 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VII – The Age of Non Reason I am thrilled to get this film series with you. I saw it first in 1979 and it had such a big impact on me. Today’s episode is where we see modern humanist man act […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 6 “The Scientific Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 6 How Should We Then Live 6#1 Uploaded by NoMirrorHDDHrorriMoN on Oct 3, 2011 How Should We Then Live? Episode 6 of 12 ________ I am sharing with you a film series that I saw in 1979. In this film Francis Schaeffer asserted that was a shift in […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 5 How Should We Then Live? Episode 5: The Revolutionary Age I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Francis Schaeffer noted, “Reformation Did Not Bring Perfection. But gradually on basis of biblical teaching there […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 4 “The Reformation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

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

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in President Obama, Prolife | Comments (0)

Truth Tuesday:Francis Schaeffer: Nature Theologian by Dean Ohlman

May 20, 2014 – 4:40 am

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Francis Schaeffer: Nature Theologian by Dean Ohlman

The Scientific Age

Uploaded by  on Oct 3, 2011

 

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Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode 8 – The Age of Fragmentation

NoMirrorHDDHrorriMoN

 

Francis Schaeffer- How Should We Then Live? -8- The Age of Fragmentation

Joseph Rozak·

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEmwy_dI2j0

 

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I love the works of Francis Schaeffer and I have been on the internet reading several blogs that talk about Schaeffer’s work and the work below by Dean Ohlman was really helpful. Schaeffer’s film series “How should we then live?  Wikipedia notes, “According to Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live traces Western history from Ancient Rome until the time of writing (1976) along three lines: the philosophic, scientific, and religious.[3] He also makes extensive references to art and architecture as a means of showing how these movements reflected changing patterns of thought through time. Schaeffer’s central premise is: when we base society on the Bible, on the infinite-personal God who is there and has spoken,[4] this provides an absolute by which we can conduct our lives and by which we can judge society.  Here are some posts I have done on this series: Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” , episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”, episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation”, episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” , episode 6 “The Scientific Age” ,  episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” , episode 4 “The Reformation”,  episode 3 “The Renaissance”, episode 2 “The Middle Ages,”, and  episode 1 “The Roman Age,” .

In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented  against abortion (Episode 1),  infanticide (Episode 2),   euthanasia (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.

Francis Schaeffer

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Francis Schaeffer: Nature Theologian

From Dean Ohlman on November 22, 2010

In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited – yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God! (Romans 8:18-21 J. B. Phillips paraphrase)

I remember keenly the era that gave birth to the modern environmental movement. Those memories are often poignant and painful—memories of protest songs and protest marches; of “liberation” from the establishment and its values; of a bloody, frustrating, no-win war; of naked Woodstock revelers; of unkempt, barefoot hippies storming the fences of nuclear power plants, and of radical college professors excoriating Christianity for bringing civilization to the eve of doomsday.

It was an agonizing time of soul-searching for the church, and one of the important commentators of the time was Francis Schaeffer. Thousands of Christians pored over his books to discover the reason for unreason and to understand why Western civilization had come to such a state. At the end of the process, we all asked with Schaeffer, “How should we then live?” Much of what this philosopher/theologian said about the demise of Christianity in the West was quickly understood and accepted as the basis upon which a revitalized Church could once again make its message heard in a “post-Christian” world.

Curiously, however, one of Schaeffer’s books was overlooked or, perhaps more correctly, ignored as an aberration of an otherwise astute thinker: it was titled Pollution and the Death of Man: A Christian View of Ecology. The book title and the cover itself—a photograph of a skull on a pile of dirt— likely added to its lack of popularity: Were not the rants of  “Hanoi” Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden enough? Did we really need another negative message to add to our burden of bad news? We had ministries to run and families to raise; how could we be expected to be enthusiastic about another message of impending disaster?

Those who took the time to read Pollution and the Death of Man (published in 1970) discovered, however, that its message was not just another commentary on the decline of Christianity, but it was a challenge to the church to apply biblical principles to the world’s environmental crises.

What follows is the core of Schaeffer’s theological argument:

What Paul says [in today’s passage from Romans] is that when our bodies—bodies of men—are raised from the dead, at that time nature, too, will be redeemed. The blood of the Lamb will redeem man and nature together, as it did in Egypt at the time of the Passover, when the blood applied to the doorposts saved not only the sons of the Hebrews, but also their animals. . . . As Christ’s death redeems men, including their bodies, from the consequences of the Fall, so His death will redeem all nature from its evil consequences at the time when we are raised from the dead.

Now in Romans 6 Paul applies this future principle to our present situation. It is the great principle of Christian spirituality. Christ died, Christ is your Savior, Christ is coming back again to raise you from the dead. So by faith—because this is true to what has been in Christ’s death and to what will be when He comes again, by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit—you are to live this way substantially now. “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him . . . . Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:9,11). So we look forward to this, and one day it will be perfect. But we should be looking now, on the basis of the work of Christ, for substantial healing in every place affected by the Fall.

Now we must understand that even in our relationship with God a distinction has to be made here. By justification our guilt was completely removed, in a forensic way, as God declared our guilt gone when we accepted Christ as our Savior. But in practice, in our lives between becoming a Christian and the Second Coming of Christ or our death, we are not in a perfect relationship to God. Therefore real spirituality lies in the . . . moment-by-moment looking to the blood of Christ, and upon the basis of the work of Christ seeking and asking God in faith for a substantial reality in our relationship with Him at the existential moment. I must be doing this so that substantially, in practice, at this moment, there will be a reality in my relationship with the personal God who is there. . . .

What we should have, individually and corporately, is a situation where, on the basis of the work of Christ, Christianity is seen to be not just “pie in the sky,” but something that has in it the possibility of substantial healing now in every area where there are divisions because of the Fall. First of all, my division from God is healed by justification, but then there must be the “existential reality” of this, moment by moment; second, there is the psychological division of man from himself; third, there are the sociological divisions of man from other men; and last, there is the division of man from nature, and nature from nature. In all of these areas we should expect to see substantial healing.

I took a long while to settle on that word “substantial,” but it is, I think, the right word. It conveys the idea of a healing that is not perfect, but that is real, evident, and substantial. Because of past history and future history, we are called upon to live this way now by faith.

When we carry these ideas over into the area of our relationship to nature, there is an exact parallel. On the basis of the fact that there is going to be total redemption in the future, not only of man but of all creation, the Christian who believes the Bible should be the man who—with God’s help and in the power of the Holy Spirit—is treating nature now in the direction of the way nature will be then. It will not now be perfect, but it must be substantial, or we have missed our calling. God’s calling to the Christian now, and to the Christian community, in the area of nature— just as it is in the area of personal Christian living in true spirituality—is that we should exhibit a substantial healing here and now, between man and nature and nature and itself, as far as Christians can bring it to pass.

Related posts:

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

“Schaeffer Sunday” Abortion debating with Ark Times Bloggers Part 2 “What does the Bible have to say about abortion?” (includes the film TRUTH AND HISTORY and editorial cartoon)

May 18, 2014 – 12:43 am

I have debated with Ark Times Bloggers many times in the past on many different subjects. Abortion is probably the most often debated subject and I have noticed that many pro-life individuals are now surfacing on the Arkansas Times Blog.  Here are some examples. Arhogfan501 asserted: This is the beginning of the end for recreational abortion in Arkansas. Songbird777 noted: Babies have a right to live and not be chopped up for someone else’s convenience. The person using the username “baker” commented: Planned Parenthood (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.

Here is another debate I got into recently on the Arkansas Times Blog:

The person using the username “DeathByInches” on the Arkansas Times Blog on 3-5-13 wrote:

Saline slips in partial birth abortion, not the subject we’re discussing and something that is very rare in the US. It’s something I never had to face, thank Allah and something I want to know NOTHING about.

You people feed on stories like you copy/pasted and stories about… plays about aborted children dropping from space to have a discussion with the parents who aborted them. Clearly you and I don’t think alike at all.

I also have to say based on evidence on this blog that Saline is unable to choose the right people to read or listen to. He pulls out the damnedest experts, most who are totally discredited by thinking beings on the Internet. I think this goes back to my Republican friends who still believe Obama is a Kenyan Socialist and GWB is a hero…..you get down to it and it’s obvious they don’t know the difference between a good President and a bad one.

I’ll admit I don’t know the difference between a good horse or a bad horse, a good table saw and a bad one or even a good bra from a bad one, but I try not to comment on such things in hopes of keeping my ignorance a secret from my blog family.

…..Saline, you must not really believe in the Bible that teaches many many lessons about the poor and nothing about abortion. I just checked my facts about the Bible and abortion and found nothing credible at all….at all! … This whole abortion debate at this late date of 2013 is sickening and a total waste of our time.

I responded:

DBI you say that the issue of abortion is not addressed in the Bible.
A Biblical argument for life beginning at conception from Psalms 139 from Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries:

One of the key verses to understand in developing a biblical view of the sanctity of human life is Psalm 139. This psalm is the inspired record of David’s praise for God’s sovereignty in his life. He begins by acknowledging that God is omniscient and knows what David is doing at any given point in time. He goes on to acknowledge that God is aware of David’s thoughts before he expresses them. David adds that wherever he might go, he cannot escape from God, whether he travels to heaven or ventures into Sheol. God is in the remotest part of the sea and even in the darkness. Finally David contemplates the origin of his life and confesses that God was there forming him in the womb:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (vv. 13-16).

Here David speaks of God’s relationship with him while he was growing and developing before birth. Notice that the Bible doesn’t speak of fetal life as mere biochemistry. The description here is not of a piece of protoplasm that becomes David: this is David already being cared for by God while in the womb.

In verse 13, we see that God is the Master Craftsman fashioning David into a living person. In verses 14 and 15, David reflects on the fact that he is a product of God’s creative work within his mother’s womb, and he praises God for how wonderfully God has woven him together.

David draws a parallel between his development in the womb and Adam’s creation from the earth. Using figurative language in verse 15, he refers to his life before birth when “I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.” This poetic allusion harkens back to Genesis 2:7 which says that Adam was made from the dust of the earth.

David also notes that “Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance.” This shows that God knew David even before he was known to others. The term translated unformed substance is a noun derivative of a verb meaning “to roll up.” When David was just forming as a fetus, God’s care and compassion already extended to him. The reference to “God’s eyes” is an Old Testament term used to connotate divine oversight of God in the life of an individual or group of people.

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.

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Francis Schaeffer Whatever Happened to the Human Race (Episode 1) ABORTION

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Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

Dr. Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical flow of Truth & History (intro)

Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical Flow of History & Truth (1)

Dr. Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical Flow of Truth & History (part 2)



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Francis Schaeffer never backed down from his position that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Dr. Gene Veith, Jr. says: “Schaeffer showed that orthodox Christianity, uncompromised and undiluted, is strong enough to challenge secularist thought in its own territory.” I love taking Schaeffer’s work and applying it to today’s social problems. He knew where humanism would take us. It is not a pretty sight.

Francis A. Schaeffer

In Philadelphia in the late 1920’s, a young teenage boy decided that he didn’t need God. He had tried church, and it didn’t give him the answers he was looking for.

After a time of living as a self-proclaimed agnostic, he decided to read the Bible, beginning with Genesis, and see for himself if God exists. Within six months, he was convinced that God is real and that the Bible is His revealed Word to mankind. In 1930, eighteen-year-old Francis August Schaeffer prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.

From that day, for more than fifty years, Schaeffer was passionately committed to the proclamation and rational defense of the Gospel. One of the foremost Christian thinkers and apologists of this century, he wrote twenty-four books, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. Schaeffer’s basic message is the same – God’s Word is the only guide man needs to interpret his past and solve contemporary problems.

When Schaeffer graduated from Faith Theological Seminary in 1938, the United States faced many perplexing new social and religious problems. The evangelical movement was threatened by encroaching liberal ideologies, which argued that the Bible is not a reliable source of truth. He and his wife Edith, whom he had met at a church theology debate, were both eager for opportunities to speak out in defense of conservative doctrine.

As a pastor of several churches throughout Pennsylvania and Missouri, Schaeffer was grieved at the compromise he saw in many mainline Protestant denominations. Then, in the late 1940’s, he toured Europe on behalf of the American Council of Christian Churches. To his astonishment, he saw even greater needs there and moved to Switzerland to work with youth.

The Schaeffers founded the Children for Christ ministry in 1948 in Lausanne. With three daughters himself already, Schaeffer was familiar with the challenges of teaching young people. In the meantime, he continued touring, lecturing, and studying history and philosophy.

In 1951, Schaeffer’s heart became troubled. He wasn’t sure where God was leading him, and he questioned his convictions. He remembers, “I felt a strong burden to stand for the historical Christian position, and for the purity of the visible church. As I rethought my reasons for being a Christian, I saw again that there were totally sufficient reasons to know that the infinite-personal God does exist and Christianity is true.”

But what was the best way to reach cultures so closed to God’s Word? Schaeffer was convicted to start right where he lived in Switzerland. In 1955, he formally opened his chalet in Huemoz as a “home” for solid Bible teaching, where anyone could come and listen to thought-provoking analysis of Scripture. This haven of spiritual rest and discovery was named L’Abri.

Throughout the remainder of the 1950’s, but especially in the 1960’s when authority and “the establishment” were most severely questioned, L’Abri drew thousands of visitors. How did it keep going? Edith Schaeffer explains: “We prayed that God would bring the people of His choice…send in the needed financial means to care for us all, and open His plan to us.”

Scholar and WJI teacher (2002) Dr. Harold O.J. Brown says, “L’Abri’s initial theological impact was not made institutionally…but indirectly, through individuals whom the Schaeffers came to know and whose lives they changed.”

In 1968, Schaeffer published his first two books – Escape From Reason and The God Who Is There. In these landmark works he explored ways in which other philosophies have failed to adequately come to terms with real-world problems. Gradually, the work that Schaeffer had been developing for years gained recognition, especially in the United States.

It was largely the U. S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which opened the door to legal abortions on demand, that drew Schaeffer’s interest back to America. In the book How Should We Then Live?, Schaeffer addressed the foundational problems which led to this devaluing of human life.

Such a breakdown of values can eventually lead to further violations of human life in the forms of euthanasia and infanticide. With former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and his son Franky, Schaeffer published Whatever Happened To The Human Race?, which tackled these social issues specifically.

Schaeffer was frequently criticized by non-Christians, but more surprisingly by many Christians who were worried by the explicit stand he took for the bold and consistent application of the Bible.

However, Schaeffer continued to proclaim the message of the inerrant Bible. Dr. Gene Veith, Jr. says: “Schaeffer showed that orthodox Christianity, uncompromised and undiluted, is strong enough to challenge secularist thought in its own territory.”

When Schaeffer was diagnosed with cancer in 1981 and given only six months to live, he did not cease his labor. He had three more years of active teaching and exhorting. His illness, with its long and sometimes debilitating treatments, gave him fresh opportunities to address nationwide medical concerns.

Schaeffer died in his home on May 15, 1984. As President Ronald Reagan said: “It can rarely be said of an individual that his life touched many others and affected them for the better; it will be said of Dr. Francis Schaeffer that his life touched millions of souls and brought them to the truth of their Creator.

IN TOUCH® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 IN TOUCH MINISTRIES®, ITM, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, USA, used with permission. All rights reserved.

The Bible held someone responsible if they killed an unborn baby and this editorial cartoon makes a similar point:

Related posts:

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Prolife | Comments (0)

“Sanctity of Life Saturday” Abortion debating with Ark Times Bloggers Part 11 “Abortion and the AMA” and the article “Abortion and infanticide” by David L. Skeen (includes video “Slaughter of the Innocents” and editorial cartoon)

May 17, 2014 – 12:32 am

I have debated with Ark Times Bloggers many times in the past on many different subjects. Abortion is probably the most often debated subject and I have noticed that many pro-life individuals are now surfacing on the Arkansas Times Blog.  Here are some examples. Arhogfan501 asserted: This is the beginning of the end for recreational abortion in Arkansas. Songbird777 noted: Babies have a right to live and not be chopped up for someone else’s convenience. The person using the username “baker” commented: Planned Parenthood (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.

Here is another debate I got into recently on the Arkansas Times Blog and I go by the username “Saline Republican”:

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On 3-25-13 on the Arkansas Times Blog the person that goes by the username “Arkie” asserted:

SalineRepublican

I see your five doctors and raise you the AMA.

The Principles of Medical Ethics of the AMA do not prohibit a physician from performing an abortion in accordance with good medical practice and under circumstances that do not violate the law.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-…

The person going by the username “Steven E” responded:

Arkie, your AMA link is short, and old, but still valid. It also states that will not violate the law. So far, the law, which I agree with, is set by Roe v. Wade, which acknowledges the issue of viability, and give the legal protection infantcidal crones like Norma refuse to accept….Except for one uncomfortable fact, the science of life. It is nice to go off on tangents, and even include the relevance of the religious zealots who claim life begins at conception, and for some, even BOEFORE conception.

What about objective science which shows that despite your assertive lies, that fetus is a life, is a human, is a baby. Before it is out of the womb, it is a human life, and there fore some small consideration shuold be shown for its welfare.

Not snarky and unsubstantiated lunacy as stating that it is not life, or whatever nonsense you spouted.

It is fine to go after those that spout only from faith, but what about biology?

I replied:

Arkie you had a reply that would seem to make a lot of sense when you asserted:
SalineRepublican

I see your five doctors and raise you the AMA.

The Principles of Medical Ethics of the AMA do not prohibit a physician from performing an abortion in accordance with good medical practice and under circumstances that do not violate the law.
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However, I wonder how respected that organization is today when they have turned their back on the Hippocratic oath. Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop (who was praised by several on this blog recently) wrote in there book WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?(published in 1979):

The graduates of American medical schools have traditionally taken the Hippocratic oath, which goes back more than two thousand years at the time of their commencement. The Declaration of Geneva (adopted in September 1948 by the General Assembly of the World Medical Organization and modeled closely on the Hippocratic oath) became used as the graduation oath by more and more medical schools. It includes, “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life; from the time of conception.” This concept for the preservation of human life has been the basis of the medical profession and society in general. It is significant that, when the University of Pittsburgh changed from the Hippocratic oath to the Declaration of Geneva in 1971, the students deleted “from the time of conception” from the clause beginning “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life.” The University of Toronto School of Medicine has also removed the phrase “from the time of conception” from the form of oath it now uses.

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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.

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.

Good quote below from Francis Crick that is in chapter 2 of Whatever Happened to the Human Race?

Abortion and infanticide

This article from the UK Telegraph from late February summarizes (and links to) an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics which argues that “newborn babies are not ‘actual persons’ and do not have a ‘moral right to life’. The academics [Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva] also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born.”  Giubilini and Minerva “use the phrase ‘after-birth abortion’ rather than ‘infanticide’ to ‘emphasise that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus’.”

So less than 40 years after abortion on-demand was legalized in the US, we see an article in an academic journal making the argument that because abortion is morally acceptable, infanticide is also morally acceptable.  For Christians who have opposed abortion for decades, this development is not surprising.

In their 1979 book Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop wrote:

At a population control conference in Washington DC, as reported by editor-writer Norman Podhoretz, one speaker saw “no reason why anyone who accepted abortion should balk at infanticide.”  Another urged certain medical qualifying tests for all newborns.  These would determine their genetic characteristics and, thus, whether their right to life should for forfeited.  Of course, at present only a few hold these ideas, but unfortunately they are presenting these ideas again and again.  Taken a little more seriously each time, they become a little more thinkable each time….

Without the Judeo-Christian base which gives every individual an intrinsic dignity as made in the image of the personal-infinite Creator, each successive horror falls naturally in place.  Combine arbitrary law (in which a small group of people may decide what is good for society at that moment of history) with the Supreme Court ruling on arbitrary abortion and the gates are opened for many kinds of killing under the guise of social good.

In his 1980 book The Right to Live, The Right to Die, Koop wrote:

It is, further, absolutely astounding to me that Justice Blackmun could have included the following sentence in his decision: “We need not resolve the question of when life begins.”  Where does this lead?  It leads to infanticide and eventually to euthanasia.  If the law will not protect the life of a normal, unborn child, what chance does a newborn infant have after birth, if in the eyes of Justice Blackmun, he might be less than normal?…

Koop quoted James Watson, who wrote in an American Medical Association publication (in 1973): “If a child were not declared alive until three days after birth, then all parents could be allowed the choice only a few are given in the present system.”  Koop also quoted Francis Crick (in a 1978 interview): “No newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment and that if it fails these tests, it forfeits the right to live.”  So we can see scientific voices (Watson and Crick were Nobel laureates) arguing for infanticide decades ago.

In the US, we have seen our laws become increasingly arbitrary. In some states, euthanasia has been legalized. The Obama administration has given federal funding to embryonic stem cell research, where embryos are destroyed in the hope of finding medical cures.  Perhaps a state will legalize infanticide, probably in limited circumstances at first.  If this occurs, and the statute is challenged in the courts, how would the Supreme Court would rule on it?  In all likelihood, the Court would make another arbitrary ruling.

Our nation has drifted further and further from a fundamental commitment to a God-given right to life, which we had recognized in our Declaration of Independence.  If we continue on this path, we can anticipate successive horrors falling naturally in place.

Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith pictured below.

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Francis Schaeffer Whatever Happened to the Human Race (Episode 1) ABORTION

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Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

Partial birth abortion is such a dirty business and here is an editorial cartoon on this issue:

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Related posts:

Francis Schaeffer’s prayer for us in USA

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Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 6 “The Scientific Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

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“Schaeffer Sundays” Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance”

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

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By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Prolife | Comments (0)

Open letter to President Obama (Part 583) Top 10 Revelations of Kermit Gosnell Trial

May 15, 2014 – 12:54 am

Open letter to President Obama (Part 583)

(Emailed to White House on 5-17-13.)

President Obama c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here. I know that you don’t agree with my pro-life views but I wanted to challenge you as a fellow Christian to re-examine your pro-choice view.

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Francis Schaeffer Whatever Happened to the Human Race (Episode 1) ABORTION

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Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR

Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?)

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All-American Horror Story: Top 10 Kermit Gosnell Trial Revelations

by Kristan Hawkins | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 4/12/13 3:38 PM

Since so many in the media have failed/refused to report on the late-term abortionist/infant serial killer Kermit Gosnell trial happening right now in Philadelphia – because they are sooo busy reporting on Jay-Z and Beounce’s trip to Cuba – we’ve rounded up a top 10 list of the most gruesome, horrific revelations that have come out during the trial to help speed up their reporting. You’re welcome, Rachel Maddow!

1) A young woman who worked at Kermit Gosnell’s abortion clinic as a teenager testified that shesaw a baby’s chest move even after the gruesome snipping procedure Gosnell used to end the baby’s life. “The chest was moving,” she testified. The baby was so large that another worker even took a cellphone picture of it. Prosecution experts, based on the picture, say the baby was well past 24 weeks, the legal limit for abortion in Pennsylvania.

2) Another former employee described how she heard a baby scream during a live-birth abortion. “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” he testified, telling a judge and Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury that the body of the child was about 18 to 24 inches long and was one of the largest babies she had seen delivered during abortion procedures at Gosnell’s clinic.

3) Stephen Massof, who does not have a medical license, described how he jabbed medical scissors into the backs of babies’ necks to kill them. He assisted Gosnell in “snipping” the spinal cords of babies, calling it, “literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.”

4) According to a news report, Massof told the jury that women were often given drugs to speed up delivery of the baby so the abortion/infanticide could take place: He testified that at times, when women were given medicine to speed up their deliveries, “it would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”

5) One day after a former employee described how she heard a baby scream during a live-birth abortion, another worker at the Kermit Gosnell “House of Horrors’ abortion clinic testified that she saw a baby “jump” when she snipped her neck in an abortion. “It jumped, the arm,” she said, showing the jury by raising her arm.

6) Another Gosnell clinic worker testified that she took photos of one particularly large baby, referred to by prosecutors as “Baby A,” with her cell phone that was estimated to be about 30-weeks gestation. Baby A had been delivered alive into a toilet where she cut the baby’s throat.

7) Baby A was described as being so large that his feet and arms hung out over the sides of the shoebox they put him in. Gosnell actually joked about the baby’s size saying, “This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.”

8) Prosecutors have cited the dozens of jars of severed baby feet as an example of Gosnell’s idiosyncratic and illegal practice of providing abortions for cash to poor women pregnant longer than the 24-week cutoff for legal abortions in Pennsylvania. In her opening statement to the Common Pleas Court jury, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore mused that the jars of feet were some kind of bizarre “trophy” Gosnell kept.

9) Gosnell’s sister-in-law testified that it was it was part of her cleaning duties to dispose of the large bottle on the suction machine that would fill with blood and fetal remains. She would pour the blood and baby parts into the sink and grind them up using the garbage disposal.

10) It was revealed that on the night patient Karnamaya Mongar died the emergency exit was found to be locked and down a hallway crammed full of broken office furniture and other debris. Workers could not find the key as emergency personnel sought a way to get their Code Blue patient out of the facility and into an ambulance.

And if you want even more gruesome details of Gosnell’s house of horrors, check out the Grand Jury Report here.

There you go, media! We’ve done your job for you – no more excuses.

Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley

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Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your commitment as a father and a husband. I also respect you for putting your faith in Christ for your eternal life. I am pleading to you on the basis of the Bible to please review your religious views concerning abortion. It was the Bible that caused the abolition movement of the 1800’s and it also was the basis for Martin Luther King’s movement for civil rights and it also is the basis for recognizing the unborn children.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com

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

 

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Truth Tuesday:Compassionate Engagement: A Brief Survey of the Life of Francis Schaeffer, Part 1

May 13, 2014 – 4:44 am

Compassionate Engagement: A Brief Survey of the Life of Francis Schaeffer, Part 1

The Scientific Age

Uploaded by  on Oct 3, 2011

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Episode VII – The Age of Non Reason

 

Dr. Schaeffer’s sweeping epic on the rise and decline of Western thought and Culture

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I love the works of Francis Schaeffer and I have been on the internet reading several blogs that talk about Schaeffer’s work and the work below by Derek Brown was really helpful. Schaeffer’s film series “How should we then live?  Wikipedia notes, “According to Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live traces Western history from Ancient Rome until the time of writing (1976) along three lines: the philosophic, scientific, and religious.[3] He also makes extensive references to art and architecture as a means of showing how these movements reflected changing patterns of thought through time. Schaeffer’s central premise is: when we base society on the Bible, on the infinite-personal God who is there and has spoken,[4] this provides an absolute by which we can conduct our lives and by which we can judge society.  Here are some posts I have done on this series: Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” , episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”, episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation”, episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” , episode 6 “The Scientific Age” ,  episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” , episode 4 “The Reformation”,  episode 3 “The Renaissance”, episode 2 “The Middle Ages,”, and  episode 1 “The Roman Age,” .

In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented  against abortion (Episode 1),  infanticide (Episode 2),   euthanasia (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.

Francis Schaeffer

 

Compassionate Engagement: A Brief Survey of the Life of Francis Schaeffer, Part 1

By Derek Brown on January 5, 2012

Francis Schaeffer was one of the first well-known evangelicals in the twentieth century to promote Christian thinking about philosophy, art, culture, and other important areas of modern learning.   Prior to Schaeffer, evangelicals, beginning in the early to mid-20th century, had been, in large measure, guilty of shirking these kinds of intellectual pursuits and retreating into pietism, anti-intellecutalism, prophetic fanaticism, and separatism.

Schaeffer’s lasting legacy, however, is not found primarily in the soundness of his philosophical reasoning or the strength of his historical interpretations; some suggest his arguments here were sometimes lacking detail and far too simplistic.  Rather, Francis Schaeffer’s greatness should be centered in his enduring influence upon a Christian subculture that had determined cultural engagement was unworthy of its attention.  Barry Hankins, author of Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America, interprets Schaeffer’s legacy succinctly: “Schaeffer was the most popular and influential American evangelical of his time in reshaping evangelical attitudes toward culture, helping to move evangelicals from separatism to engagement” (xv).

In the next few posts I will trace the life of Francis Schaeffer and the development of his thought, following him from his early days as a separatist pastor to his time in Europe and the subsequent opening of L’abri, ending with the latter part of his life as a Christian activist.  After this biographical sketch and a survey of a few of his most significant works, I will end with a brief concluding post on Schaeffer’s lasting legacy upon evangelicals and Evangelicalism.

This survey of Schaeffer’s life self-consciously omits discussion of Schaeffer’s involvement the inerrancy debate of the 1970s and early 1980s.  Although Schaeffer’s involvement with the issue of inerrancy is a significant aspect of his life, I focus here on his influence among evangelicals with regard to their intellectual engagement with wider culture. 

Next: Schaeffer’s Early Life and Pastoral Ministry

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

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