Mom from Bush's PBA Signing now on BEL
This is the show from Thursday May 31st, 2007.
BEST QUOTE OF THE SUMMARY:
SUMMARY:
* Lori Vance was with President Bush: in Washington in the Fall of 2003 when he signed the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, after spending years fighting for passage of the bill since her daughter Donna Joy had some medical conditions that the pro-abortion lobby used as excuses for why unborn children should be killed via PBA. Lori contacted BEL to register her unhappiness with our criticism of the immoral PBA ban. We are thankful for Lori's fight against child-killing and we encourage our listeners to pray for her and her daughter. But the ruling that Lori supports further undermines the personhood and God-given right to life of the child in many ways, including that it actually permits partial-birth abortion! The ban and recent ruling make clear that the abortionist can deliver the baby all the way up to the bellybutton and then kill it (for those who won't read the ruling itself, or our Open Letter to Dr. Dobson, at least check out the Cliff Notes version of the ban at Wikipedia and search for "navel"). Any ruling that effectively ends with, and then you can kill the baby is a corrupt ruling that violates God's enduring command, Do not murder, and should be opposed.
* The Washington Post: religion writer Alan Cooperman for the Post interviewed Bob Enyart today after the Washington Times published our Open Letter yesterday, and after reading our latest press release.
Today's Resource: You will LOVE reading Bob's awesome 170-page debate with the resident atheist, Zakath, from TheologyOnline.com. Just click on the title to find out more, Battle Royale VII, Does God Exist?, and remember, BEL offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on this and all our resources! (Now, how many ministries and stores offer a money-back guarantee on books?)
Post Show Note
Reply to Matthew 18 Criticism against Signers: Some pro-lifers complain that the signers of the Open Letter to Dr. James Dobson (May 2007, Washington Times, etc.) did not meet their Christian obligation from Matthew 18 because we did not attempt to reach him personally; or did not give Dr. Dobson sufficient time to respond prior to publication of our letter. Dr. Dobson runs a $150 million dollar enterprise, and has worldwide celebrity status, and as such (understandably), few Christian leaders can pick up the phone and talk to him. And if Dr. Dobson or any leader makes public statements that are untrue, there is no biblical requirement that a correction must first be private. But regardless, the signers have published their open letter only after an intensive two-year effort to reach Dr. Dobson personally with a warning about the partial-birth abortion travesty.
On June 29, 2005, we sent four men to Focus on the Family headquarters and they presented a lengthy warning in-person, meeting with James Dobson's V.P. of Public Policy Tom Minnery and with Dr. Dobson's judicial analysts. One result of this meeting was another meeting with a Focus staff lawyer, James Odom at the private club called the El Paso Club, which meeting he characterized as private, but during which we urgently addressed our concerns regarding his employer. Another result was a personal letter written by Tom Minnery suggesting that perhaps he would invite our group back to Focus to present our concerns to at another gathering of staff. Also, a far less confrontational open letter to Dr. Dobson was published almost exactly two years prior to the second letter, warning Focus that "today's abortionists simply use a different method on late-term babies" other than PBA, and that a PBA ban will "not cancel a single abortion as a result." Also, on May 15, 2007 we sent three Federal Express letters to Focus on the Family, one to president Jim Daly, another to Focus Institute president Del Tackett, and the third to Dr. Dobson, offering them a chance to discuss the matter with us prior to publication. The cover letters stated, "We plan to run the enclosed Open Letter as a full page ad in a Colorado newspaper and a condensed version in a national Christian magazine, signed by pro-life ministries including American Life League, Operation Save America / Operation Rescue, Denver Bible Church, and Colorado Right To Life. If you would like to discuss this with us before publication, please call Bob Enyart of DBC or Brian Rohrbough of CRTL." Focus never called. They didn't call CRTL. They didn't even call one of the signers, longtime stalwart of the pro-life movement, Judie Brown, at American Life League.
Any reader of the open letter can see our prior efforts to reach Dr. Dobson, and the letter even quotes from his own personal correspondence addressing our concerns, showing that we have in fact already reached him personally. Dr. Dobson wrote personally, probably because the letter he was replying to was mailed to his home address. On Focus on the Family letterhead, and including a hand-written note (shown in our Forty Years DVD), on Feb. 24, 2006 Dr. Dobson responded to "KGOV.com... questions" by actually defending decisions of judges who rule to kill the innocent, as long as they are following precedent. That any Christian leader would embraces such moral relativism and legal positivism is grievous; that James Dobson has done so is devastating beyond words. If this tragic development does not distress any particular Christian, then no defense of the form of our criticism will matter. In 2000, federal judge Samuel Alito voted to keep PBA legal in New Jersey; Dr. Dobson (along with Family Research Council's Gary Bauer, etc., see the Forty Years DVD) commended him for that ruling because Alito was merely following "the long-established principle" of "precedent." But there is an older legal precedent which the pro-life industry has relegated to a second-tier authority, Thou shall not murder. Over the years the pro-life movement has slid to where it now advocates the legal theory of the defendants at Nuremberg: that following precedent justifies rulings to murder the innocent. Please stop and consider this last statement. In just over a half-century, America's morality has fallen to where now our Christian pro-life leadership advocates the corrupt humanist legal theory put forth by the German defendants after World War II. This is indisputably true. Do you think this has no dire consequence? Dr. Dobson has allowed lawyers to rob the moral strength of the pro-life movement. The result is a worldview travesty that cannot provide the moral, philosophical, or legal foundation necessary for upholding the God-given right to life. Very few Christians care about any of this, or have even noticed the slide. Dr. Dobson's tragic defense of judges who voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal is only the most public indication of a thousand particulars that show the pro-life movement has adopted moral relativism and legal positivism, which principles inherently spell continued death for the unborn.
This is the show from Thursday May 31st, 2007.
BEST QUOTE OF THE SUMMARY:
SUMMARY:
* Lori Vance was with President Bush: in Washington in the Fall of 2003 when he signed the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, after spending years fighting for passage of the bill since her daughter Donna Joy had some medical conditions that the pro-abortion lobby used as excuses for why unborn children should be killed via PBA. Lori contacted BEL to register her unhappiness with our criticism of the immoral PBA ban. We are thankful for Lori's fight against child-killing and we encourage our listeners to pray for her and her daughter. But the ruling that Lori supports further undermines the personhood and God-given right to life of the child in many ways, including that it actually permits partial-birth abortion! The ban and recent ruling make clear that the abortionist can deliver the baby all the way up to the bellybutton and then kill it (for those who won't read the ruling itself, or our Open Letter to Dr. Dobson, at least check out the Cliff Notes version of the ban at Wikipedia and search for "navel"). Any ruling that effectively ends with, and then you can kill the baby is a corrupt ruling that violates God's enduring command, Do not murder, and should be opposed.
* The Washington Post: religion writer Alan Cooperman for the Post interviewed Bob Enyart today after the Washington Times published our Open Letter yesterday, and after reading our latest press release.
Today's Resource: You will LOVE reading Bob's awesome 170-page debate with the resident atheist, Zakath, from TheologyOnline.com. Just click on the title to find out more, Battle Royale VII, Does God Exist?, and remember, BEL offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on this and all our resources! (Now, how many ministries and stores offer a money-back guarantee on books?)
Post Show Note
Reply to Matthew 18 Criticism against Signers: Some pro-lifers complain that the signers of the Open Letter to Dr. James Dobson (May 2007, Washington Times, etc.) did not meet their Christian obligation from Matthew 18 because we did not attempt to reach him personally; or did not give Dr. Dobson sufficient time to respond prior to publication of our letter. Dr. Dobson runs a $150 million dollar enterprise, and has worldwide celebrity status, and as such (understandably), few Christian leaders can pick up the phone and talk to him. And if Dr. Dobson or any leader makes public statements that are untrue, there is no biblical requirement that a correction must first be private. But regardless, the signers have published their open letter only after an intensive two-year effort to reach Dr. Dobson personally with a warning about the partial-birth abortion travesty.
On June 29, 2005, we sent four men to Focus on the Family headquarters and they presented a lengthy warning in-person, meeting with James Dobson's V.P. of Public Policy Tom Minnery and with Dr. Dobson's judicial analysts. One result of this meeting was another meeting with a Focus staff lawyer, James Odom at the private club called the El Paso Club, which meeting he characterized as private, but during which we urgently addressed our concerns regarding his employer. Another result was a personal letter written by Tom Minnery suggesting that perhaps he would invite our group back to Focus to present our concerns to at another gathering of staff. Also, a far less confrontational open letter to Dr. Dobson was published almost exactly two years prior to the second letter, warning Focus that "today's abortionists simply use a different method on late-term babies" other than PBA, and that a PBA ban will "not cancel a single abortion as a result." Also, on May 15, 2007 we sent three Federal Express letters to Focus on the Family, one to president Jim Daly, another to Focus Institute president Del Tackett, and the third to Dr. Dobson, offering them a chance to discuss the matter with us prior to publication. The cover letters stated, "We plan to run the enclosed Open Letter as a full page ad in a Colorado newspaper and a condensed version in a national Christian magazine, signed by pro-life ministries including American Life League, Operation Save America / Operation Rescue, Denver Bible Church, and Colorado Right To Life. If you would like to discuss this with us before publication, please call Bob Enyart of DBC or Brian Rohrbough of CRTL." Focus never called. They didn't call CRTL. They didn't even call one of the signers, longtime stalwart of the pro-life movement, Judie Brown, at American Life League.
Any reader of the open letter can see our prior efforts to reach Dr. Dobson, and the letter even quotes from his own personal correspondence addressing our concerns, showing that we have in fact already reached him personally. Dr. Dobson wrote personally, probably because the letter he was replying to was mailed to his home address. On Focus on the Family letterhead, and including a hand-written note (shown in our Forty Years DVD), on Feb. 24, 2006 Dr. Dobson responded to "KGOV.com... questions" by actually defending decisions of judges who rule to kill the innocent, as long as they are following precedent. That any Christian leader would embraces such moral relativism and legal positivism is grievous; that James Dobson has done so is devastating beyond words. If this tragic development does not distress any particular Christian, then no defense of the form of our criticism will matter. In 2000, federal judge Samuel Alito voted to keep PBA legal in New Jersey; Dr. Dobson (along with Family Research Council's Gary Bauer, etc., see the Forty Years DVD) commended him for that ruling because Alito was merely following "the long-established principle" of "precedent." But there is an older legal precedent which the pro-life industry has relegated to a second-tier authority, Thou shall not murder. Over the years the pro-life movement has slid to where it now advocates the legal theory of the defendants at Nuremberg: that following precedent justifies rulings to murder the innocent. Please stop and consider this last statement. In just over a half-century, America's morality has fallen to where now our Christian pro-life leadership advocates the corrupt humanist legal theory put forth by the German defendants after World War II. This is indisputably true. Do you think this has no dire consequence? Dr. Dobson has allowed lawyers to rob the moral strength of the pro-life movement. The result is a worldview travesty that cannot provide the moral, philosophical, or legal foundation necessary for upholding the God-given right to life. Very few Christians care about any of this, or have even noticed the slide. Dr. Dobson's tragic defense of judges who voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal is only the most public indication of a thousand particulars that show the pro-life movement has adopted moral relativism and legal positivism, which principles inherently spell continued death for the unborn.
