Current Events – In the News

Consider Job 10:8, 11, “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; … Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

”There are scriptures that teach we must defend and protect the weak, the defenseless, the innocent, the needy, and the unwanted, such as Proverbs 31:8 NKJV: “Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die.”

The United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

“Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) The pro-abortion government-run health care bill was signed into law March 23, 2010. The bill requires that at least one health care plan be promoted across the country [United States] that pays for abortions.” www.lifenews.com/2010/03/23/nat-6180/

In its March 15, 2011, issue, the Adventist Review shared the following world news from Religion News Service as a service to readers.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved May 25 [2011] a measure that would bar federal funding for the training of medical residents to perform abortions.

The House voted 234-182 for an amendment by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R.-N.C., that would have the following effects on a new program established by last year’s controversial health-care reform law:

  • Prohibit the project, which helps teaching health centers form or enlarge residency programs, from funding abortions.
  • Ban money in the program from paying for the training of abortion doctors.
  • Bar health centers funded through the program from discriminating against residents and other health-care professionals who refuse to provide or refer for abortions.

The roll-call vote on Foxx’s amendment broke down largely along party lines: 221 Republicans and 13 Democrats voted for the proposal, while 172 Democrats and 10 GOP members opposed it.

“Should taxpayers foot the bill for elective abortions or to train abortion doctors? I don’t think so,” Foxx said in a written statement after the vote. “If organizations want to provide elective abortions or train abortion doctors they need to find someone other than taxpayers to write the checks. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for subsidizing the abortion industry.” www.adventistreview.org

Current Events – Christian Institutions Stand up for Religious Liberty

New healthcare policy requires institutions to provide coverage for abortion. A flurry of lawsuits (now up to 45) have been filed against the rule in the Affordable Care Act. These lawsuits claim that forcing employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs violates their freedom and practice of religion, a Constitutional right.

The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God’s witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands. The responsibility for this great gift rests with those whom God has blessed with a knowledge of His word. We are to receive this word as supreme authority. We are to recognize human government as an ordinance of divine appointment, and teach obedience to it as a sacred duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims of God, we must obey God rather than men. God’s word must be recognized as above all human legislation. A ‘Thus saith the Lord’ is not to be set aside for a ‘Thus saith the church’ or a ‘Thus saith the state.’ The crown of Christ is to be lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates.” The Acts of the Apostles, 68.

On January 20, 2012 the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, unveiled a new policy which has come to be known as the “HHS Mandate.”

The new Mandate would require nearly all private health insurance plans to include coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, surgical sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs—drugs that interfere with implantation in the womb and therefore destroy the life of a human being in the earliest stage of development.

The United States Supreme Court has denied a request by a national arts and crafts chain with 500 stores in 42 states, to shield the company from the so-called contraceptive mandate, a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, while its legal battle plays out, after a federal court similarly ruled against the Christian-owned company. Its CEO argued that his family would have to either “violate their faith by covering abortion-causing drugs or be exposed to severe penalties.” www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/26.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life legal organization that focuses on constitutional law, achieved a significant victory in the legal battle against the mandate when a federal appeals court granted an emergency motion for an injunction putting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate on hold—preventing it from being enforced against an Illinois business and its owners.

In December 2012, a federal district court in Missouri granted an ACLJ request for an injunction—blocking the mandate from being enforced against a Missouri company. And, in November, a federal appeals court also stepped in and put a halt to the enforcement of the mandate against a St. Louis company.

Following a decision by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denying the arts and crafts chain’s request for an exemption from the administration’s HHS mandate, the Christian retail company said it will defy the mandate. www.lifenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com.

An extremely narrow exemption effectively only protects houses of worship. Business owners’ ability to run their businesses consistent with their religious and moral convictions is not protected. Accepting the Administration’s logic would limit the application of religious freedom to individuals acting within their houses of worship on weekends. It would further erode the free exercise of religion, restricting religious believers’ ability to live out their faiths in their day-to-day lives. blog.heritage.org/2012/12/18.

The freedom that has been enjoyed in the United States and protected by the Constitution in the past is being eroded away.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Wendell Phillips (1811–1884).

Current Events – Pope Francis Allows Priests to Forgive Women Who Had Abortions

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis declared Tuesday he is allowing all priests in the church’s upcoming Year of Mercy to absolve women of the “sin of abortion” if they repent with a “contrite heart.”

Reflecting his papacy’s central theme of mercy, Francis said in letter published Tuesday by the Vatican that he has met many women bearing “the scar of this agonizing” decision to abort. He said God’s forgiveness cannot be denied to those who repent, and thus is giving all priests the discretion to absolve the sin in the Holy Year of Mercy running December 8, 2015 until November 20, 2016.

The church views abortion as such as grave sin that, until now, a Catholic woman who wanted to repent for an abortion could not simply go to her local parish priest. Instead, her diocese’s bishop needed to delegate a priest, expert at dealing with such confessions, to hear the woman’s confession.

Francis is making it possible for women to bypass this complicated process and confess directly to any Catholic priest, who can grant absolution if he determines the woman is contrite.

The pontiff said having an abortion is “an existential and moral ordeal. I have met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision.” The comments draw on Francis’ decades of pastoral experience with rank-and-file faithful in his native Argentina.

“The forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented, especially when that person approaches the Sacrament of Confession with a sincere heart in order to obtain reconciliation with the Father,” the pope said.

He said that is why he has decided to concede to all priests “the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it.”

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-priests-holy-absolve-sin-abortion-123712775.html

In Catholic Church teaching, abortion is such a grave sin that those who procure or perform it incur an automatic excommunication. Usually only designated clergy and missionaries can formally forgive abortions. But not so from December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016, during an extraordinary Holy Year or “Jubilee” on the theme of mercy, all priests will be authorized to do so.

“Remission of sins can be obtained only through the merits of Christ. On no man, priest or pope, but on God alone, rests the power to forgive sins. ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). ‘As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God’ (John 1:12). ‘If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. … But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected’ (I John 1:6; 2:5). This is the message that is to be borne. On this basis Christians are free.” The Review and Herald, June 13, 1899.