Female Images of God: Hosea 13:4-8

Loving mothers are known to be fierce in protecting their children.  Imagine facing an angry mother bear. 

“Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.” Hosea 13:4-8

Feticide Laws

On Tuesday, 23 October 2012, police in Walker, Louisiana (USA) responded to a 911 call to find that a man, possibly under the influence of psychoactive drugs, had stabbed his seven month pregnant wife and cut the baby out of her body.  There is an unconfirmed report that the child was stabbed in the head. 

The mother survived but the baby died.  The father has been charged with one charge of feticide and one charge of attempted second degree murder.  Second degree murder is a non-premeditated killing from an attack so dangerous that a result of death is a real possibility.

Thirty-eight of the fifty United States recognize the “unborn child” as a human homicide victim.  The laws vary in their details, with some covering differing periods of a pregnancy.

In 2004, then United States President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which views unborn children as humans if they are injured or killed during the commission of a list of specific federal crimes, including terrorism.

The United States courts have declared that these laws do not apply to legal abortions.  My question is, “Why not?”  Is the only difference that the murdered child is wanted and the aborted child is not? 

Why Life Begins at Conception, Part 4

The sperm (from the father) and the egg (from the mother) each carry one half of the parent’s genetic information.  At fertilization, a full set of genetic information is present; the exact same full set of information which is present in every cell of the adult individual.  Between thirty and one hundred fifty million sperm compete to reach an egg after each sexual act.  Each one of these sperm carries one half of the full set of the father’s genetic information.

The fertilized egg begins almost immediately to reproduce itself. Each copy carries a  full set of genetic information; the exact same full set of information which is present in every cell of the adult individual.

The cells form a flattened disk called the blastodisc and a groove, the neural groove, develops in the middle of the disk.  The walls of the groove rise up and close together to form the neural tube.  The neural tube becomes the spinal cord.  Each cell in the structure carries a  full set of genetic information; the exact same full set of information which is present in every cell of the adult individual.

This short video is of a chicken embryo, but the process is exactly the same in the human embryo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuL2wUOZKf8&feature=related

At each step of the baby’s development every cell in the body carries a full set of genetic information; the exact same full set of information which is present in every cell of the adult individual.   If a blind DNA analysis were to be performed on two separately submitted specimens, on the embryo and on tissue taken from the mother, the result would be this: the analysis would show two individuals who were related genetically.  

Why Life Begins at Conception, Part 3

(The posts in this series may not occur on consecutive days but they will make the most sense to you if they are read in consecutive order.)

This is a very simplified presentation of human conception and the passage of genetic information from the parents to the offspring.  (An aside: how can any rational, normally intelligent person see this level of complexity and order and still deny at least the possibility of an intelligent designer?)

The information may seem to be complicated and overwhelming, but at least a simplified basic
understanding is necessary for a scientific attack on abortion.  That is what I will attempt to provide for you here.  It is necessary to start at the beginning, DNA (deoxy-ribonucleic acid).

DNA is a spiral molecule consisting of two strands paired together in the shape of a helix.  DNA is present in every cell of the human body and, in every one of those cells, the DNA contains ALL the information necessary to build and maintain the entire body.

DNA is a very complex and a very simple molecule.  It basically is two strands joined by matched pairs of bases.  Only four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) are used.  Combinations of these four bases contain the entire genome; the genetic code which determines a person's hair color, voice, skin color, height, body type, number of fingers and toes, intelligence level, athletic ability, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The code determines everything about your physical body.  Literally everything, and genetic science says that all that information about you as an individual is present from the moment of conception.

A very simplified explanation is this.  In the sperm and egg cells, each cell receives one strand of the two DNA strands.  At fertilization, the two strands join to form one complete strand.  So, half of the information comes from the mother and half from the father.  The fertilized egg then is a hybrid of the two source cells, made from them but entirely different from them;  a fully separate genetic code, a separate individual.

More in the next post.
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If you wish to know more, see these links.

Very good:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss3/DNA2.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss3/dna.html&h=543&w=351&sz=42&tbnid=8CP_Dkmi3Hub9M:&tbnh=84&tbnw=54&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimage%2B%2526%2BDNA%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=image+%26+DNA&usg=__DNAoHOES8pL7lQS_Oaj3PGM13so=&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uDw6UOT9OY2s8QTIrYG4AQ&ved=0CCMQ9QEwBA

Simplified:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA

DNA to RNA to proteins

http://dna-rna.net/

Detailed information on proteins:

http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu:80/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/proteins.htm

Chromosomes

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/D/Down.gif&imgrefurl=http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/Chromosomes.html&h=318&w=430&sz=29&tbnid=4sRt4QRwm30RKM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=112&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimages%2B%2526%2Bchromosomes%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=images+%26+chromosomes&usg=__9giWb2_ajTIbvehrthPPLzjuZwA=&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hkA6UJ36EoT89gS6joGwCg&ved=0CBoQ9QEwAQ

http://images.yourdictionary.com/chromosome

Held For Ransom

“A young couple was visiting a church for the first time.  As the preacher’s sermon dragged on, their little girl became restless.  Finally, she leaned over to her mother and whispered, “Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?”

“From The Big Book of Church Jokes, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.”

I Don't Want to Go Today

"It's time to go to church,' a mother told her son, "You know today is Sunday."


"I don't want to go," he replied.  "I don't have any friends there. The music is awful. And the sermons are boring!"


"But you have to go," the mother insisted.  "You're the pastor!"


“From The Big Book of Church Jokes, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.”

Female Images of God: A Mother and Her Son

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Isaiah 49:15

Solomon and the Two Mothers

"Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.  And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.  And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.  And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.   And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.
  Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.   And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.   And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.   Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.   Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.   And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment." 1 Kings 3:16-28

Here is an animated version of the incident.

Film Comment: The Bad Seed

Maxwell Anderson's broadway play, The Bad Seed, has been filmed three times; the 1956 original, a 1963 version made in Turkey, and a made-for-television 1985 film.

The 1956 original looks like a staged play because it is directly based on the Broadway production and features the cast of the stage version.  This gives the film a very claustrophobic feel, a good thing in a classic horror film.

To her horror, a loving mother (Nancy Kelly) slowly comes to the ghastly realization that, Rhoda, her cute little eight year old daughter (Patty McCormack) is a cold-blooded psychopathic killer.  Though she loves her daughter and her daughter obviously loves and trusts her, she decides that the only way to stop the murders and to spare the little girl a life in detention, is to kill her child.

All the violence in this film is offscreen and we never see the aftermath of Rhoda's murders.  We only see her blonde pigtails and her cute smile.  This is evil masquerading as innocence.  The Bible describes Satan as beautiful (Isaiah 14:13,14, Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4).  If he were hideous or frightening we would run from him.  He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
................................
Similarly themed films: Devil Times Five, Bloody Birthday, The Good Son, Bad Ronald, The Omen, The Children

I Want to Be a Minister When I Grow Up

"After church one Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, 'Mom, I think I'll be a minister when I grow up'

'That's great, but what made you decide that?'

'Well,' said the little boy, 'I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell than to sit and listen."

“From The Big Book of Church Jokes, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.”

A Little Mother

Today at work I saw a little girl (I really can't say young woman) who was very obviously pregnant.  She was perhaps be fourteen years old ... but she looked like she was eleven, maybe twelve.  Her features were those of a pre-teenage girl.


Statistics almost always lag behind reality, but the latest numbers (2007) for births  to unmarried mothers in the United States are alarming: unmarried women accounted for 39.7 percent of all U.S. births in 2007.  Broken down by race: Black women, 72%, Hispanic women 51%, and non-Hispanic White women, 28%.


The numbers are just as troubling in other countries: Iceland, 66%; Sweden, 55%; France, 50%; United Kingdom, 44%.


The little pregnant girl I saw today faces a very bleak future: she may prove loyal to her child(ren) and spend the rest of her life as one of the working poor, or, she may dump the child(ren) with relatives and run off in pursuit of "fun."  Emily Yoffe in the Slate.com article below states that "Studies have found that children born to single mothers are vastly more likely to be poor, have behavioral and psychological problems, drop out of high school, and themselves go on to have out-of-wedlock children." 

All the statistics point out the result of devaluing traditional standards of morality.  Girls/women learn to not value and treasure their bodies and their chastity.  Instead they learn to see themselves as objects, as a commodity which they can use to get "what they want." And, strangely, some "experts" see this as liberating for women.

Christians need to use whatever influence they have to foster the traditional understanding of sexuality only within the bounds of marriage.  It is not the sexuality which is the problem, but the loss of a proper understanding of sexuality.  God gave us sex; sex is holy.  When sex is removed from its proper context, it becomes a destructive force, just another sin, like unbridled greed or unreasoning hatred or a little white lie.  One sin is as good as another.

All sin reduces to the primal sin, the worship of self instead of God.

Three articles about teenage and unwed pregnancy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051301628.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29754561/ns/health-womens_health/t/unwed-birth-rate-reaches-all-time-high-us/

http://www.slate.com/id/2185944/

Embryo Adoption

Many pro-life advocates are opposed to in-vitro (outside the body) fertilization and to embryo storage because "excess" embryos are often discarded or donated for stem cell research. For those of us who believe ** that human life begins at conception, this is nothing short of murder and it presents a special problem for those who, because of other medical conditions, can not get pregnant any other way.

There are currently about 500,000 embryos held in a frozen state. The majority will never be used for implantation. This leaves four possibilities for their future: 1. destroy them; 2. donate them for stem cell research, which results in number 1; 3. donate them to another family, or 4. keep them frozen, which will eventually lead back to number 1. The longest period of freezing known to have resulted in viable implantation is about ten years.

Christian couples who resort to this technique to become pregnant will have "excess" embryos over which they will have legal control. One option is making the frozen embryos available to other infertile couples; ie. embryo adoption, or FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer). This is an "adoption" because the baby is not the biological child of the second couple, but the second couple gets to experience a real pregnancy and a real birth. A failed implantation is not destroying the embryo, but is a failed attempt at pregnancy akin to a miscarriage.

Concerns are the cost (about $6000.00 per attempt), and the strong possibility of a multiple pregnancy.

One company providing this service in an explicitly Christian format is Nightlight Christian Adoptions, see www.EmbryoAdoption.org.

** (This is not just a religious faith statement. There is a solid scientific basis for the declaration that human life begins at conception. See my post on 29 July 2009. You can access the post at the "abortion" keyword at the end of this page.)

The abortion debate is not only based on religious beliefs

     A friend and I were talking  and somehow got onto the subject of abortion.  When I expressed my opposition to the practice he told me he was surprised at me.    He said, "You're so well read and seem to be intelligent.  How can you be anti-choice?"

     I pointed out to him that I am not anti-choice, I'm pro-life.  He started rolling out all the pro-abortion arguments.  And, he made the charge that only fundamentalist Christians and Roman Catholics oppose abortion; so, declaring that it was not necessary to invoke religion at all in the debate, I asked him a question.

     "If you take tissue from an aborted fetus and from the biological mother and submit the samples separately for DNA analysis and comparison, what will be the result?  ... The DNA analysis will demonstrate that the tissues came from two separate and totally distinct individuals.  Genetic science states that the fetus, from the moment of conception, is a separate life, not merely a patch of tissue in the mother's body."

     My friend admitted that this was true but the implications of that admission flew right over his head.  He resorted to the hypothetical game, "If your daughter were ... "

     Many people of both liberal and conservative orientations stake a claim on a particular issue on ideology and become almost automatons, chanting the established mantra over and over.  They challenge any deviation from their particular orthodoxy.  Real argument, in the classical sense, is drowned out; they merely become louder with their chanting.  If you don't agree with them you must be an uneducated boob, hopelessly confused, or, worst of all, a bigot.

     It would be a positive step if we could all learn to argue with respect.  At the end of our argument my friend and I looked at one another and laughed.  We're still friends.