Tuesday, October 13, 2015

If PP Used Guns, Would It Bother Us More?

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Following the Roseburg shooting, President Obama said, "We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months."

Following the 2013 shooting at the Navy Yards he said, "No other advanced nation endures this kind of violence. None."

The president said, "What's different in America is its easy to get your hands on [guns]."

From the 2013 Navy Yard shooting to the recent Roseburg shooting, 2,116,000 unwanted babies were killed on America's abortion tables because forceps, needles and scissors are easily available to doctors.

Would it bother us more if the abortion industry used guns?

Actor Kelsey Grammar's wife posted a picture of him on Instagram that says it all.


Kelsey Grammar, best know for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms "Cheers" and "Frasier", was recently photographed wearing a pro-life T-shirt that reads, "Would it bother us more if they used guns?"

Grammar's wife Kayte posted the picture on her Instagram account. Many are asking the question on the T-shirt: Should our profound concern and grief over the shootings in America also apply to unborn babies whose lives are summarily ended because they are unwanted or inconvenient?

Grammar's T-shirt represents Abort73, a pro-life organization dedicated to changing the way America thinks about abortion.

Why does America view these two ongoing tragedies differently?

President Obama's ongoing narrative gives us a hint.

The president has repeatedly admonished Republicans in Congress not to use defunding Planned Parenthood as a bargaining chip in negotiating a hike in the debt ceiling.

He explained last week no one, not even himself should hold the budget hostage "through my desire to do something about gun violence."

He said, "But the notion that unless they passed gun safety measures that would stop mass shootings, I'm going to shut down the government and not sign an increase in the debt ceiling would be irresponsible of me."

President Obama then said, "The same is true of them," regarding their interest in defunding Planned Parenthood, while telling the press and the nation the Republicans have no solutions as though the matter of guns and abortions are the same.

They are not.

Guns are no more lethal than forceps, needles and scissors. It's not the instruments. Both Huckabee and Carson have said it's a matter of the heart. And it is.

Statistics do not prove that stricter gun laws reduce shootings. Chicago, Mr. Obama's adopted home town, has one of the highest shooting incidents per capita of any city in America, while having some of, if not the strongest gun regulations.

Nor would the banning of surgical tools reduce abortions.

He is comparing apples to oranges, as they say.

It's about the heart.

Taking away guns from law abiding citizens will not reduce guns being used for violence. Do they really believe the mentally ill and the criminal elements will simply abandon the use of guns because of more invasive gun laws? And does he really believe, short of total and complete confiscation of every gun in America, guns will not be available to these people?

And what about knives, and sharp sticks?

While killing adults and killing babies are both the taking of a human life, there is a difference---but it is not the difference the far left secular progressives like to define.

Abortion is a punishable "act" of murder.

Guns are one of many "instruments" that can be used for murder.

Yet abortion is legal, defined as a choice, and funded by the government, while celebrated by the secular progressives as "progress."

Is this the "advanced state" the president refers to?

Eric Metaxas with Chuck Colson's Ministry "Breakpoint" writes, "Fertility rites and child sacrifice were the hallmarks of Canaanite worship---yet they appealed to many Israelites. Should we be shocked, or look in the mirror?"

In a recent issue of Biblical Archaeological Review, archaeologist Itzhaq Shai of Israel's Ariel University described what he characterized as "extra-ordinary finds that provided insights into the Canaanites and their religious world."

He suspects the recent finds may be the ruins of the biblical "Libnah" mentioned in Joshua, Second Kings and Isaiah, which included a large public building---possibly a temple, ceremonial masks and figurines, like idols of a nude female figure nursing two infants.

The goal of the University is to better understand the Canaanite religion for academic reasons. However, their discoveries bring stunning relevance to how very different the 2 worldviews really are.

The biblical worldview and the secular worldview are....well, worlds apart.

Reading in the Old Testament, it becomes clear that the Canaanite religion became attractive to the children of Israel. Joshua acknowledged that when he told them to choose whom they would serve.

When he told them to "put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel," it was because some, perhaps many, had embraced these gods despite everything that the Lord had done for them and their ancestors.

While Israel believed in the "One True God," many people of their day believed in many gods. Each god specialized in some aspect of human life.

The Canaanites were polytheists who worshiped many gods. An integral part of their many faceted religion was to use symbols and acts to manipulate their gods to do what they wanted them to do.

For example, worshippers of Baal and his consort Asherah engaged in symbolic sexual acts in order to ensure a good harvest.

This stood in direct contrast to the worship of God who is to be obeyed, not manipulated.

The Phoenicians, who were basically Canaanites with boats, became so immersed in paganism that archaeological discoveries reveal at least 9 Phoenician settlements that included "tophets."

"Tophets" is the biblical term for places where child sacrifice, usually by burning, was practiced.

It was not only practiced, but celebrated.

The Bible tells us the practice spread to ancient Judah along with other sites of pagan worship. It also tells us that Josiah destroyed the "tophets" in Judah along with other sites of pagan worship.

Metaxas asks, "What is the so-called 'right to choose' if not the sacrifice of children to the gods of personal autonomy and self-fulfillment?"

Comparing the issue of gun control and abortion shows how very, very uninformed political leadership can be.

It's clear in the Old Testament that Israel struggled, often unsuccessfully, with the temptation to compromise or blend her own faith with other religions.

The allure of the other religions was, at times, too powerful.

It ultimately took "exile" to cure Israel of their tendency to "blend" religious beliefs with that of the pagans.

If we're honest, we must admit the appeal to blend into our culture today is at times very compelling because it is easier for pastors and parishioners alike---and we do so under the guise of "reaching" the lost, or "relating" to those who do not know Christ, or merely in blindness concluding things are changing---truth is "evolving"---we must show love by affirming what God has never affirmed.

To remain silent, is to affirm.

If ever we need to review the challenge Joshua (chapter 24) made to God's people, it's now:

14. "Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!"

15. "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

16. "So the people answered and said: "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods."

Be Informed. Be Faithful. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Strong. Be Prayerful.