Producer's Desk — abortion

• Obama’s Abortion Extremism - Gerson

  “…But Obama’s record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion…”

• Pro-choice’s guinea pigs - National Post

  “According to obstetrician Barbara Luke’s classic Every Pregnant Woman’s Guide to Preventing Premature Birth, “If you have had one or more induced abortions, your risk of prematurity with this pregnancy increases about 30%.” After two, a woman’s chance of an XPB doubles. A woman who has had four or more abortions runs nine times the risk of XPB, an increase of 800%.

  Studies of black American women throw the problem into bold relief. Black American women, although only 12% of the American population, undergo 35.2% of all abortions. In 1987 it was reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that black American women with two previous abortions had a 91% higher relative risk of a subsequent pre-term birth.”

• Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate - Heartland

  “The 1990 IPCC Summary completely ignored satellite data, since they showed no warming. The 1995 IPCC report was notorious for the significant alterations made to the text after it was approved by the scientists – in order to convey the impression of a human influence. The 2001 IPCC report claimed the twentieth century showed ‘unusual warming’ based on the now-discredited hockey-stick graph. The latest IPCC report, published in 2007, completely devaluates the climate contributions from changes in solar activity, which are likely to dominate any human influence…”

  • (Thanks to Cornwall Alliance for bringing this to our attention.)

Life Should Be Valued, Not Neglected

Has the buckle of the Bible belt become the Mecca of gambling?

Churches have contributed to the success of America by encouraging virtue, but social science research has also shown that churches provide direct and indirect economic and social benefits to communities.

Also, some states reconsider Sunday alcohol laws and increasing the alcohol content of beer.

Richard Land publishes the Feb 26th edition the ERLC’s weekly “Faith and Family Values” newsletter (FFV).

This week’s FFV Includes the following:

• Harry Reid made it clear he’s waiting for a “new president, hopefully of a different party than the one now occupying the White House…”
• The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock finds connection between Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood.

The Pew Forum releases the results from its massive survey on religion in America. A few tidbits:

• Americans = 78.4 percent Christian, 4.7 percent other faiths and 16.1 percent unaffiliated.
• The nation’s Protestants make up just 51 percent of the U.S. population and is close to becoming a religious minority.
• While 62 percent of Americans 70 and older are Protestant, compared to only 43 percent of Americans 18-29.
• Jews outnumber Muslims, with Jews comprising. Muslims are the most racially diverse faith group.

Also, former Bush speech writer Michael Gerson looks into the future of evangelicalism. Gerson writes:

“…there is something essentially countercultural about Christianity that should make evangelicals restless in any political coalition… It is often hard where liberalism is soft, and soft where conservatism is hard.

…If evangelical Christianity were identical to any political movement, something would be badly wrong. It is supposed to look toward a kingdom not of this world, one without borders, flags or end. And by this standard, homelessness is a natural state.”

I joined a panel discussion with Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Joel Hunter of Northland Church, Laura Olson of Clemson U. and host Warren Olney on this To the Point radio broadcast on NPR.