Disabled newborns are being killed LEGALLY in The Netherlands – LifeSiteNews.com

Disabled newborns are being killed LEGALLY in The Netherlands: here’s the proof | LifeSiteNews.com.

This chilling but not surprising news item was sent to me this week (dated May 14, 2013). In it Peter Saunders reports on the rise of the murder of babies with disabilities in both Belgium and the Netherlands since the Netherlands passed its euthanasia laws. This is indeed another example of the “slippery slope”, since any departure from God’s clear commandments sends one rushing downward into greater darkness and depravity. May God yet turn our “motherland” back to His Word and ways. Otherwise she will receive the just reward for her deeds.

Here is the fiurst part of the report; read the rest at the LifeSiteNews link above.

In an interview this morning on BBC Five Live on the Paul Lamb case I was asked by the presenter Nicky Campbell about evidence for a slippery slope following the legalisation of euthanasia in other jurisdictions.

In my answer I mentioned the steady escalation in numbers of cases in Belgium and the Netherlands (see here and here) and said that one third of nurses had carried out euthanasia illegally in Belgium and that one third of cases in some parts of Belgium had been involuntary, although the law did not allow this.

I also mentioned the ‘Groningen Protocol’ under which disabled babies had been given lethal injections in the Netherlands.

Campbell appeared not to know about this and asked me on air to email him information about it to which I agreed. Another BBC journalist phoned me after the interview to check my sources.

I sent her a link to the original paper on the ‘Groningen Protocol’ from the New England Medical Journal in 2005.

The full reference is ‘Verhagen E, Sauer P. “The Groningen Protocol—Euthenasia in Severely Ill Newborns.” New England Journal of Medicine 2005; 352(10):959-62’

It says that ‘Twenty-two cases of euthanasia in newborns have been reported to district attorneys’ offices in the Netherlands during the past seven years’ but also highlights underreporting:

‘Given that the national survey indicated that such procedures are performed in 15 to 20 newborns per year, the fact that an average of three cases were reported annually suggests that most cases are simply not being reported.’

Peter Saunders is the CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organisation with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members.

Philadelphia abortion clinic horror – K.Powers

Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column.

The MSM (main stream media) has largely and significantly (though not surpisingly) been silent on this story of the trial of Philadephia murderer-abortionist Kermit Gosnell. But Kirsten Powers, a Fox News political analyst, writing in USA Today (April 11, 2013), calls her fellow journalists to task and expresses outrage over this silence and over the murderous actions of this doctor of death. Here is a portion of what she wrote:

Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations?

It’s not your fault. Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page. The revolting revelations of Gosnell’s former staff, who have been testifying to what they witnessed and did during late-term abortions, should shock anyone with a heart.

NBC-10 Philadelphia reported that, Stephen Massof, a former Gosnell worker, “described how he snipped the spinal cords of babies, calling it, ‘literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.” One former worker, Adrienne Moton, testified that Gosnell taught her his “snipping” technique to use on infants born alive.

The actions of this doctor are revolting to the mind, heart and stomach. I cannot begin to imagine how this man could do such things to tiny infants and function in other areas of life. I cannot imagine the horrors of working in such an environment of killing.

And yet Dr.Gosnell’s actions are the logical working out of the principles to which those in the abortion industry and those who support it are committed. If unborn babies are not real persons in their estimation, then what difference does it make if you kill them before or after they are born? In fact, what difference does it make if you kill a person in his/her 40′s or 80′s by euthanasia (so-called “mercy killing) or if you take his/her life at birth?

It doesn’t, because principles always work through. This is what we are seeing in our day. Horrifying? Indeed! Logical? Yes, given the rejection of God’s principles for life and loving Him and the neighbor. And maybe that’s why the MSM ignores this story. Because it isn’t really gruesome news to them anyway. It’s all quite normal.

“Blood in the Streets” – R.C. Sproul Jr.

Blood in the Streets by R.C. Sproul Jr. | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

In connection with the theme of this month’s Tabletalk and under his usual rubric “Seek Ye First” R.C.Sproul, Jr. wrote the above-linked hard-hitting piece on our calling to defend the lives of the unborn. As Sproul points out, we have become too comfortable in our Christian lives and too complacent about the plight of the unborn and those involved in the abortion industry. Be prepared to be awakened (shaken!) to the cause and the need when you read this. I was.

Here are a few paragraphs from the article. You will find all of it at the Ligonier link above.

Our Lord reigns. His kingdom knows no bounds, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. But there remains in His realm rebellion. There is work to do. In this country, we have once again denied the humanity of an entire class of people—the unborn. In so doing, we have shown forth our inhumanity. What may be worse is that this great evil demonstrates our lack of humanity. How twisted, how distorted, is a state that God ordained to punish evildoers, but that instead uses the sword God gave it to guard the grisly practitioners of this crime? How twisted, how distorted, are men who were made to protect and defend women and children, but who now drag their girlfriends, wives, or daughters to killing centers? How twisted, how distorted, are women who were made to nurture their babies, but who now hire assassins to kill them?

This, beloved, is the battle. Here is the drama. Souls of men and women are being twisted and slowly dragged into the very pit of hell. Babies are being burned alive, on purpose. And we, even though we have been made alive, even though we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, worry more about stock markets and football teams.

Right now, in our own neighborhoods, people’s lives are at stake. Every one of our neighbors, young or old, male or female, believer or not, will die. And when they die, they will become fully, finally, and forever one thing or another.

…We don’t seek the kingdom merely when we read our Bibles or sing our hymns. We seek the kingdom when we love our wives and cherish our children. We seek it when we weep and mourn for the murder of our neighbors, and when we weep and mourn for our neighbors’ murderers. We seek the kingdom when we call on men to be men and women to be women. We seek the kingdom when we welcome the least of these into our lives, into our homes, and into our families.

Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. is a teaching fellow of Ligonier Ministries and founder of Highlands Ministries. He is author of the video series Economics for Everybody.

How Dutch legalizing of prostitution, drugs, & euthanasia is working out

How Dutch legalizing of prostitution, drugs, & euthanasia is working out.

For those of us of Dutch descent, the steady moral decline of our motherland in church and state is a cause of deep sadness. Gene Veith at his blog “Cranach” (Feb.25, 2013) highlighted a recent article in the British magazine The Spectator pointing out that the Netherlands’ legalization of so much sin has not led to the result she anticipated. But then, God is not mocked. As the Scriptures teach in more than one place, one reaps what he sows (Gal.6:7). To read the full Spectator article visit the link at the end of the quote from Veith’s blog below.

The Netherlands, that once-Calvinist land, has gone farther than just about any other country in legalizing “victimless crimes,” such as prostitution, drug use, and euthanasia.  Now that country is facing the unintended consequences, including an upsurge in organized crime, social squalor, and a  deluge of sex tourists, drug tourists, and death tourists (who only buy a one-way ticket).

From Julie Bindel,  Why even Amsterdam doesn’t want legal brothels » The Spectator:

We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists

We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists | Fox News.

This piece by Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical team, is a must read! It is a devastating anylysis of the effects our narcissistic culture (consumed by self) is having on our teenagers and young adults. His penetrating summary of what the world is communicating to our young people will awaken you to the reality of the power of sin they are facing in our time. Listen to some of what he says:

A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are decreasing.

Psychologist Jean Twenge, the lead author of the analysis, is also the author of a study showing that the tendency toward narcissism in students is up 30 percent in the last thirty-odd years.
These data are not unexpected.  I have been writing a great deal over the past few years about the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults, particularly as it regards turning them into faux celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories.

On Facebook, young people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. They can choose to show the world only flattering, sexy or funny photographs of themselves (dozens of albums full, by the way), “speak” in pithy short posts and publicly connect to movie stars and professional athletes and musicians they “like.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/08/are-raising-generation-deluded-narcissists/#ixzz2IQ9vw7FF

While this psychiatrist (secular?) calls for a plan to combat the worldly philosophy which is killing this generation (literally as well as spiritually), he does not offer one. Yet as Christians we do have the answer to this sinful selfishness which plagues not just our society but my soul and yours: the gospel of grace in Christ.

That is not simplistic or unrealistic. According to the Maker of our souls (and bodies) and the Savior of sinners (as written in His own Word) this is the only prescription. We must be emptied of sinful self and filled with the fullness of Christ. You and I must know and reject our filthy, proud “worthiness”, and then know and receive by faith our true, humble worthiness in Christ. Through the crucified Christ you and I must put to death the self-inflicted darkness and death in our souls, and then through the resurrected Christ find our new life and real living in Him. And through this precious Savior you and I then must no longer live for self, but for Him Who loved us and gave Himself for us. Not consumed with self, but consumed with Christ – that is what we must be.

Shall we not pledge ourselves to believing and practicing this gospel in such a world as this?! And shall we not commit to teaching and preaching this gospel to this generation (our children!) and all those that may follow?! May the Lord show us mercy, and deliver us and our children from this evil age – and from the evil of our own hearts.

The Obama (and Everyman’s) Culture Arrives

The Obama Culture Arrives | CNS News.

L.Brent Bozell posted this article yesterday (Dec.28, 2012) at the CNS News site. And in this case too, though what he reports on in his summary of “Obama culture” is vile and repulsive, we need to be aware of what is being produced and promoted by today’s “Hollywood”, because we can so easily become “de-shocked” and desensitized to the corruption around us. I also see no need to call this “Obama” culture, though our current President has certainly created an environment where this culture thrives. As the article itself shows, this culture simply comes from the depraved hearts of sinful men and women who are in enmity against God and man (Romans 1:18ff. paints the picture quite succinctly.). This is “everyman’s” culture, apart from the sovereign, saving grace of God in Jesus Christ.

So read this too in the light of God’s Word, seeing sin for what it is, rejecting it for its vileness, and seeking refuge in Christ alone for forgiveness and cleansing for our own contributions to this corrupt culture (such as being entertained by these people and their productions!).

Here is a small portion of what Bozell wrote; read the rest at the CNS News link above (and be prepared – some of this is quite graphic).

The year 2012 was a depressing time for people who are already pessimistic about the state of our common culture. Conversely, the re-election of Barack Obama, in large measure made possible by the heavy financial support of Hollywood, projects the optimism of the cultural Left. They anticipate increased blue-state voting patterns in favor of gay “marriage,” legalized pot, gun regulations, and what next? Legalized prostitution? Euthanasia subsidized by Obamacare?

So let’s just line up the cultural winners of Obama’s America, where the only impediments to progress are those who believe in religion, manners and “family values.”

After citing his four (4) chief examples of this culture (Seth MacFarlane, Bill Maher, Rosanne Barr, and Howard Stern), Bozell has this to say by way of conclusion:

…The slogan for Team Obama in 2012 was “Forward.” There’s nothing forward about the Obama culture, however. It is down, down, straight down, into the abyss.

Civil Union: Networks Promoting Gay Agenda

Civil Union: Networks Promoting Gay Agenda | Media Research Center.

This will come as no surprise to those who know something about TV and the mainstream media, but this report is still revealing. Indeed, this past election was far more than about the economy; it was about moral issues. And the slide our country is experiencing and the cliff it is about to go over are not so much fiscal as spiritual. In departing from the God of the Scriptures and His holy standards in all areas of life, we are exposed to and will experience the judgment of the righteous Judge.

Read the full report at the MRC link above. Here is the opening part of it:

According to exit polling of the 2012 election, just 5 percent of voters who turned out were gay. Yet voters said their states should legalize same-sex marriage by 49 percent to 46 percent. Indeed, social issues like gay marriage and the media-concocted “war on women” probably gave President Obama his margin of victory.

Consider another figure: According to a May 2011 Gallup poll, most U.S. adults “estimate that 25 percent of Americans are” gay or lesbian. In reality, the number of people who identify themselves that way is just 3.4 percent, according to a Gallup survey released in October 2012. But it’s understandable that so many people might overestimate the number.

Gay issues are sympathetically presented everywhere in the media. From gay characters and themes in movies and TV to journalists crusading for same-sex marriage, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) topics command an ever-increasing share of attention.

What same-sex “marriage” has done to Massachusetts

What same-sex “marriage” has done to Massachusetts.

For our “report on contemporary American culture” today we feature this article which I first saw on “The Aquila Report” this week. It is a eye-opening account of the tragic consequences for one state because of its adoption of homosexual marriage. Learn about what has happened in Massachusetts because of this plain overthrow of God’s law for marriage. God is not mocked. Governments too reap what they sow (Gal.6:7).

Here is the first part of the post (dated August 3, 2012); read the rest at the link above.

Anyone who thinks that same-sex “marriage” is a benign eccentricity which won’t affect the average person should consider what it has done to Massachusetts since 2004. It’s become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality on everyone. The slippery slope is real. New radical demands never cease. What has happened in the last several years is truly frightening.

On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced its Goodridge opinion, declaring that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex “marriage.” Six months later, despite public outrage, homosexual “weddings” began to take place. And that was just the beginning . . .

 

The Theology of a Market Crisis

So why did the markets not stop the problem? After all, according to some conservative pundits, the markets are like the force of gravity – neutral, impersonal, scientific, perpetually moving toward an economic equilibrium that promotes freedom, prosperity, and all-round good health – social, cultural, and above all financial. The answer, of course, is that market forces are ultimately functions of human behavior…; and human beings, being as depraved and blinded as they are, generate market forces that reflect that depravity….

…The problem with such arguments (defending the free-market system and its inability to “crash” fully – cjt) is that they take no real account of the radical nature of human depravity. They assume we know what is best for us and how to achieve it; and that, possessing that knowledge, we will abide by it. Both assumptions are woefully naive and unmitigatedly Pelagian. As a human being in rebellion against God, I automatically assume that I am the center of the universe, the measure of all things, that I know best what is good for me, and that ‘it’ – whatever bad things we care to think of – is not going to happen to me.

…A system that assumes equilibrium and stability can be achieved by my self-interest being curbed, restrained, or even neutralized by your self-interest is woefully naive. It fails to understand the narcissism that lies at the heart of fallen human existence; it fails to understand the fact that hedonism is always a more powerful drive than prudence; and, in its silly belief that competing market forces will neutralize evil, falls vulnerable to that folksy-but-true adage: two wrongs do not make a wrong.

Carl R. Truman in Fools Rush In Where Monkeys Fear to Tread: Taking Aim at Everyone (P&R, 2012), pp.73-74. Taken from chap.9, “The Freedom of the Christian Market”, originally written in 2008 when the banking/market crisis was in full swing.

Is Sandusky Really Such a Bad Guy After All? – Reformation21

Is Sandusky Really Such a Bad Guy After All? – Reformation21.

This essay is not for the faint of heart, but it is an outstanding read. It will hit you in the stomach, in the mind – and in the heart. And for that reason it is a must read.  David B. Garner writes an open review and critique of the sexual promiscuity and perversity of our age, brought to light most recently by the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State University. Pointing out the “moral outrage” that our society expresses in instances such as this, he asks the question, “Why?” And he turns this moral outrage against each one of us, who are perverse sinners in our own way and time, and who will one day face the ultimate Judge – the holy and righteous God.

Yet Garner also shows us the only light in the darkness of this depravity that is Sandusky’s – and ours – Jesus Christ. I believe you will find this post from the “Reformation21″ website to be just what we need to hear in the face of the Penn State scandal. May God use it to convict each of us and drive us to His Son.

So then, is Mr. Sandusky really that bad? Measured by today’s norms and today’s blogs, he’s a certifiable scumbag. That’s today, but what about tomorrow? Given another day and another time, Sandusky could find himself the poster child for moral self-expression. Our dominant cultural ethical paradigm turns such plausibility into likelihood.

The truth of the matter is that Sandusky is really bad, and in fact, he’s much worse than the nastiest of our current cultural fury imagines. No matter how persistent it may be, no amount of societal indignation, legal consequence, or ostracization is commensurate with the perversion of his wickedness. Yes, lives are damaged, families wrecked, and a highly respected and now badly beaten educational institution reels on the ropes. It is all ugly, despicably ugly.

But none of that tells the truly gruesome story. Sandusky’s final court is neither public opinion nor even the Attorney General. He is not bad because our current shared sentiment declares him so. Sandusky’s sin is first a sin against God, his Maker. His moral accountability is comprehensive and his guilt pervasive. He will give an account. His moral failure was not finally his violation of our floating cultural norm, but a violation in heart and deed of the law of God. Mr. Sandusky is a man in the image of God and made for the glory of God. He has fallen well short of the revealed divine standard. His sinful heart and his cruel life expose rebellion, deeply rooted and personally intractable. He has leapt from the ocean of divine moral prescription, dragging others with him. His life reeks of this rebellion, and left to his own, he cannot come back.

The media have, for good or ill, streamed his sexual escapades to the living rooms and the iPhones of millions. He is dirty, and his now public filth has dirtied us. But here is the real rub. The dirt does not come only from Sandusky. It’s in us too. To put it starkly, if he came in contact with us and our hearts, his life would be further stained.

Thus his disturbing story screams for our attention, directing us not finally against him, but rather toward us and toward our own moral compass. Americans must take this moment to look in the mirror and to think probingly, to peel back the layers of our own hearts and reckon honestly with our own obstinacy and bondage, and to acknowledge our own perversions for what they are. We need to stop talking and start listening to the voice of One who really knows and defines the moral scoop.

So then, the real question becomes: who are we before God? Have we like Sandusky claimed ourselves free, when in fact we have been duped into thinking freedom is found in rebellion against God rather than submission to him? Have we created sophisticated schemes to eclipse the dirt of our lives, our words, our hearts? Have we reckoned with the scum or sought to whitewash it with the filthy rag of dishonesty: “I’m not as bad as him?” Our hopeless devotion to self-determination and self-defense themselves reveal our own smutty and stinky rebellion.

We must come to terms with who we are and what we are doing. No doubt coming to terms with God’s law will inevitably lead us to tremble before him. We do not and cannot measure up. In fact, we have not kept the law. We have not even wanted to do so. Honesty will force us to see our consummate failure. Moreover, our constant, determined, and blatant resistance make us dirty, irretrievably stained, contorted, and condemned. We have tried to launch ourselves outside the waters of God’s laws, and though we flopped around freely in the sun for a few moments, our out-of-water rebellion has killed us spiritually, morally, and culturally. The stench of our rotten spiritual lives wafts wildly and indiscriminately.

To read the rest of this essay, go here.