Thursday, May 10, 2012
Tupac Knows
making the most of one’s life can depend on understanding how one’s
unconscious, this adaptive unconscious, can sometimes be shortsighted, impulsive, prejudiced,
or overly confident. Maybe that’s part of what Tupac was getting at in this last verse of his
‘Letter To An Unborn Child’:
Ha, Take care, Run wild, Be Smart
Follow the rules of the game
Maybe sometimes it's confusin
But the rules of the game is gonna get you through it
All day, everyday
Watch out for these saints and fakes
First comin down to death1 6
“Letter 2 My Unborn,” Until the End of Time (Interscope Records, 2001).
15
Research for this paper was supported in part by a Summer Grant from the Office of the
1 5
Provost at the University of Virginia. That support is here gratefully acknowledged.
Be an individual, Work hard, study
Get your mind straight, trust nobody
1
http://people.virginia.edu/~msg6m/MGreenonhiphop.pdf
Sometimes such ways of talking are confused or misleading, or, as
Jay-Z would say, they leave room for “Reasonable Doubt.”
Rhetorical Strategies
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/lshulman/rhetoric.htm
There are several rhetorical strategies you can use to make your writing more powerful. It is often a good idea to use several of these strategies in combination, although not every strategy will be applicable to every essay or topic you are discussing.
- Exemplification: Provide examples or cases in point. Are there examples - facts, statistics, cases in point, personal experiences, interview quotations - that you could add to help you achieve the purpose of your essay?
- Description: Detail sensory perceptions of a person, place, or thing. Does a person, place, or object play a prominent role in your essay? Would the tone, pacing, or overall purpose of your essay benefit from sensory details?
- Narration: Recount an event. Are you trying to report or recount an anecdote, an experience, or an event? Does any part of your essay include the telling of a story (either something that happened to you or to a person you include in your essay)?
- Process analysis: Explain how to do something or how something happens. Would any portion of your essay be more clear if you included concrete directions about a certain process? Are there any processes that readers would like to understand better? Are you evaluating any processes?
- Comparison and contrast: Discuss similarities and differences. Does your essay contain two or more related subjects? Are you evaluating or analyzing two or more people, places, processes, events, or things? Do you need to establish the similarities and differences between two or more elements?
- Division and classification: Divide a whole into parts or sort related items into categories. Are you trying to explain a broad and complicated subject? Would it benefit your essay to reduce this subject to more manageable parts to focus your discussion?
- Definition: Provide the meaning of terms you use. Who is your audience? Does your essay focus on any abstract, specialized, or new terms that need further explanation so your readers understand your point? Does any important word in your essay have many meanings and need to be need to be clarified?
- Cause and effect analysis: Analyze why something happens and describe the consequences of a string of events. Are you examining past events or their outcomes? Is your purpose to inform, speculate, or argue about why an identifiable fact happens the way it does?
- Argumentation: Convince others through reasoning. Are you trying to explain aspects of a particular subject, and are you trying to advocate a specific opinion on this subject or issue in your essay?
Abortion Blog #3
May 8, 2012
COSTA MESA, Calif.,
May 8, 2012/Christian Newswire --
Pastor Chuck
Smith, the patriarch of Calvary Chapel, has once again
disappointedChristians by handing out extra-biblical advice
claiming that children are a liability and that Christians should use birth
control.
"We are deeply
disturbed by this latest gaffe by Pastor Chuck Smith. The Bible clearly
teaches Christians that children are a blessing, a reward, a joy, and a gift.
Grandchildren are a crown to the aged. The Bible nowhere mentions children as a
liability," said Troy Newman, President of Pro-Life
Nation. "Smith's thinking is of the kind that has given us eugenics,
abortion, and other human rights abuses."
The statements came on
the radio program "Pastor's Perspective," which aired Monday, April
30, 2012, after a caller named Sophia asked the following question: "I
have a question in regards to Christians and contraception. Should we be
engaged in taking contraception?"
Pastor Smith indeed
recommended that Christians use contraception to control family size and went
on to encourage artificial birth control because of the high cost of raising
children and because they do not produce any financial benefit to the family.
In addition to
advocating for artificial birth control, Smith's co-host, Don Stewart,
espoused the false notion that the world is over populated and offended many
Christians with strong convictions about birth control by openly mocking
natural family planning methods. "Whatcha call people who use that? You
call them 'parents' because that never seemed to work there." Smith
stated:
You know it used to be
that a lot of children were assets. A child coming into the home was an asset
because it was an agrarian society and you all had your own farms and the more
children, the more help you had on the farm, and all.
But, you know, as time
when on and we became really a - no longer an agrarian society, but, you know,
one that was really sort of dependent upon manufacturing, and so forth,
children no longer became an asset, but they became a liability and I think
that when you figure now how much it costs to raise a child through high school
and all, a lot of people, you know, they just say, "Well, who needs
them?" You know, because it does just cost a huge amount of money to
clothe them and feed them and all when they're not really producing or are
productive at bringing back into the family, you know, financial assets and so
forth, and thus they are a liability, rather than an asset today.
Smith's answer
reflected a Malthusian philosophy and utilitarianism, rather
than Biblical Christianity. Malthusianism is a philosophy that advocates
population control through artificial contraception as a preventative for
poverty and environmental harm.Utilitarianism is a theory of
pragmatic ethics that teaches things -- and people -- have value only as long
as they are useful. Smith blends both philosophies by indicating that if
children cannot contribute financially, then they become a liability whose
birth should be prevented.
This is consistent
with comments made by Smith on the same radio program on Feb
8, 2011, where he advocated for the abortion of conjoined twins.
"It's awfully
hard to actually suggest abortion," said Smith. "But, you know, I'm
sure that, uh, in a case like this where the life expectancy is just, you know,
is so bleak, and all, that I'm sure that the Lord would not
condemn her if she went ahead and had an abortion at this early stage of the
development of the fetus."
Certainly if we
abandon the doctrine that man is the image bearer of God, then
destroying those who cannot contribute to society becomes easy. However, if we
accept the doctrine that man is made in the image of God, then destroying human
life becomes not only a crime, but an act of war against the God whose image we
all bear.
It is the Christian
way to put the lives of others above our own. It is the Christian way to love
one another - faults and all - just as Christ loves us and gave Himself for us.
That is the pattern that should guide our actions as Christians.
"Because innocent
lives are at stake, we felt compelled to speak out to correct this erroneous
teaching from Pastor Smith lest families deny themselves the blessings of
children, or worse, take the lives of innocent children in the womb wrongly
thinking they have the blessing of God. We pray for Pastor Smith that wisdom
from God, and not humanist philosophies, would be the basis of his speech, and
that if he will not better consider Biblical teachings on life and children,
that he would abstain from publicly discussing such issues," said Newman.
Abortion blog #2
April 29, 2012
Raining Cats, Dogs, and Hypocrisy
A privileged feline
named Boots, who "walked from a bizarre death sentence," was the
star in this recent post by Professor
Jonathan Turley:
Boots was the pet
of Georgia Lee Dvorak of Berwyn, Illinois. When Dvorak died, she specified in
her will that 11-year-old Boots should be put to death. However, the
executor of her $1.3 million will -- the Fifth Third Bank -- could not get
themselves to euthanize the friendly cat. So they went to court and got the
language set aside in a rare judicial intervention.
"We didn't want to
euthanize this healthy, living animal," said bank senior vice president
Jeffrey Schmidt. The judge agreed, and arrangements were made for the cat
to be adopted into a "loving home."
"It raises an
interesting question of the limits of a person in specifying
conditions in a will," according to Turley. "While animals are
property, they have more protections than a sofa."
The comments on Turley's
post are quite revealing -- most in sympathetic support of the bank, the judge,
and the cat.
Proper judicial
intervention? Or law compromised in the name of compassion? Who can help
but note the inconsistency among liberals as to the proper role of the courts,
application of the law and privacy rights, and further, the stunning hypocrisy
when it comes to regard for the life of a pet versus an unborn baby? In
the progressive legal view, both pets and sofas in estates apparently have more
protection than do unborn children.
The witty and wise G.K.
Chesterton once wrote:
If
it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in
skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two
deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do;
or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians
do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution
to deny the cat.[i]
Substitute
"exquisite happiness" with something like "justified," then
replace Chesterton's evil of "skinning a cat" with "aborting a
baby" -- and it becomes evident how society has rationalized the act by
simply denying that abortion is a sin that separates man from God.
Now we have Chesterton's
"new theologians" supporting a California
Planned Parenthood's "Forty Days of Prayer." As PJ Tatler explains, they are
"literally making a sacrament of abortion." The
"prayers" include thanksgiving for the availability of abortion
services, abortion's legality, and the "sacred" nature of the care
that abortion providers offer. There are even prayers against pro-lifers.
Another "prayer" is offered for "...the families we've chosen.
May they know the blessing of choice."
Planned Parenthood has
invoked Orwellian doublespeak: instead of "prayer changes things,"
"things change prayer."
In further attempts to
change the ugly truth, liberals and the mainstream media have labeled the
battle to protect religious freedom and the lives of unborn babies as a
"war against women." Turley's "2011 Top Legal Opinion
Blog" that noted the court's role in protecting the life of Boots the
cat posted another column that argues that
the men of the GOP (referred to as "male vagina vigilantes") are
"trying to gain authority over the opposite sex by taking control of
contraception...[sic]and women's bodies."
Yet that same sarcastic
post and its author's subsequent comments that fretted over women's
"health" and abortion "rights" mentioned not a word about
the health or rights of the unborn nor the validity of any opposing legal or
moral arguments. Neither did its hundred-plus commenters.
In
"progressive" society, the abortion issue is generally not addressed
as the gruesome procedure that it really is, and instead framed as the more
rights-evoking concept of pro-choice or positive-sounding idea of women's
reproductive health. When a baby is wanted, available scientific technology
helps ensure its survival; when not, it's merely considered a "clump of cells" or a "punishment" and destroyed,
even if it survives a botched procedure. Not only does the
solution of "privacy rights" deny Chesterton's cat, it affirms
society's imagining that it, and not God, created the life in the
first place.
Is our society more
concerned with orphaned cats and things like nests of turtle eggs? This
summer as families head to the beaches for vacation, many will find themselves
banned from certain dunes and areas with fences and signs warning them to keep
away. Beachgoers will be urged to help protect the eggs as well as
hatched turtles from potentially disorienting lights.
And little girls like
this one who might play on
that beach believes the world would be a better place if people "didn't
exist," having become "eco-indoctrinated" to consider that
"trees, rocks, rivers, and animals take precedence over human life."
Dogs, cats, turtles,
chickens about to be slaughtered, spotted owls, "endangered species"
that liberal environmentalist groups spend millions of dollars studying and
protecting and lobbying for -- or unborn babies.
People should think
about that paradox the next time they hear that a friend or relative is
expecting, because they'll likely not receive any "clump of cells,"
"contents of uterus" or "fetus" shower invitations. Nor
would friends send notes of congratulation to a mother who makes her supposedly
constitutionally-protected private decision to treat her reproductive health or
"fulfill her dreams" by aborting her
baby. And instead of "prayers" offered in thanksgiving for abortion
clinics, real prayers will ask that God forgives and heals the broken hearts.
The leftists and the
media attempt to control life's narrative, but they cannot redefine the truth.
Rose and her Lily
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2012
Nothing too small for His love
Corrie Ten Boom is one of my spiritual heroes. I find that so many of her stories, I carry around with me and recall them throughout my days and in different circumstances of life. Here is a story from Corrie's message, Effectual Fervent Prayer. She talks about how nothing is too small for God's love:
I learned that in the difficult class of life’s school when I was a prisoner. When you are in a difficult class, then you learn much, especially when the teacher is good, and my teacher was the Holy Spirit. And He taught me so much. And one of the things was about there’s nothing too small for God’s love. I was a few days in the concentration camp, and I said to my sister, “Betsy, I’ve caught a cold and I have no handkerchief. What must I do?” Betsy said, “Pray.” I did the same like you. I laughed. But she didn’t laugh. She folded her hands and said, “Father, in Jesus name I pray that you will give Corrie a handkerchief. She has caught a cold. Amen.” And she had hardly said “Amen” when I heard that they called out my name and there stood a friend of mine, a fellow prisoner, who worked in the hospital. I said, “You’ve come, Tomika. You visit me.” And she said, “No, no, I have no time. I just come to bring you a little present.” And she gave me a very small package, and I opened it and it was a handkerchief. I said, “How in the world did you know that I needed a handkerchief?” She said, “I found an old sheet, and I was sewing handkerchiefs from that old sheet, and when I was busy there was a voice in my heart who said, ‘Bring a handkerchief to Corrie Ten Boom.’” Can you understand what a handkerchief tells you in such a moment? That there is a Father in Heaven who hears it when on a very small planet, the earth, some one of His children prays for impossible small things, for a hankie, and that Father in Heaven tells one of His other children, “Give a handkerchief to Corrie Ten Boom.” That is the foolishness of God. But the foolishness of God is the greatest wisdom. And I learned so much by that handkerchief.
Just imagine when your little child or grandchild cries because an old doll is broken. And she brings that doll to her daddy. She says, “Oh Daddy, my doll is broken.” What does Daddy say? “Oh girl, put it away. That doll is not worth a dime.” No, Daddy doesn’t say that. He says, “That’s too bad. Come here, come to Daddy. I will try to mend it.” And that grown up man tries to repair that old doll. How in the world, can a grown up man give so much time to such a valueless thing as a broken doll? Because he sees it through the eyes of the little one. Because he loves the little one. And so God sees your problems through your eyes because He loves you. ~Corrie Ten Boom
"There’s nothing too great for God’s power. There’s nothing too small for His love." ~Corrie Ten Boom
Oh Jesus, may we trust that You care about the smallest details of our lives! May we learn so much by that handkerchief. And may You show us in our own lives Your great love.
Here is a small reminder in my life that nothing is too small for my God's love:
Lily is layed to rest in my hometown of Crozet, Virginia. I live in North Carolina though, so I don't get to go up there often. I don't get to take flowers and things to her grave much, so it means a lot to me when others think to do so. I haven't been able to afford a headstone for Lily, which really bothers me. So, even when people go to visit Lily's spot, they can't find her. The only thing there was a windchime. My dear friend, Elise, took her a birthday balloon and flowers on her special day. It is really important to me to get Lily a permanent headstone. Maybe this doesn't mean much to others, but it does to me. You see, Lily is my only child. She is the only one I can do anything for on earth. I don't have other children to care for. And it feels like it will be honoring her when I can get her a headstone. Permanent engraved words that say, she was real. She was here. She had weight in this world. So, people can go visit her and easily find where she is because her name is clearly marked, for all to see. I really have no idea when I will be able to get a headstone for Lily.
The reason I am sharing all this is because Jesus cares about the smallest matters in our lives. He knows how important it is for me to have something there, as a special marking for Lily. Around Lily's birthday, my Aunt Nana took a beautiful angel statue to Lily's grave. I haven't been able to see it in person yet, but I can't wait to! It feels like something special, just for her. Now, I can tell people to look for the beautiful angel statue. This means so much to me to have something there until I can get a permanent marker. Isn't it amazing that my Jesus would lay that on her heart, when she had no idea how much that would mean to me. I want to plant some flowers around her spot once the headstone is in. I know that my Jesus cares about a headstone for Lily because I do. I am His daughter, and just as a father mends the broken doll of his daughter, how much more does our Heavenly Father care for us!
I see that my God cares about the small things in our lives, in my life. And I know that one day, I will have a headstone for Lily. I am praying that He will provide that for me, just as He provided a handkerchief for Corrie.
I learned that in the difficult class of life’s school when I was a prisoner. When you are in a difficult class, then you learn much, especially when the teacher is good, and my teacher was the Holy Spirit. And He taught me so much. And one of the things was about there’s nothing too small for God’s love. I was a few days in the concentration camp, and I said to my sister, “Betsy, I’ve caught a cold and I have no handkerchief. What must I do?” Betsy said, “Pray.” I did the same like you. I laughed. But she didn’t laugh. She folded her hands and said, “Father, in Jesus name I pray that you will give Corrie a handkerchief. She has caught a cold. Amen.” And she had hardly said “Amen” when I heard that they called out my name and there stood a friend of mine, a fellow prisoner, who worked in the hospital. I said, “You’ve come, Tomika. You visit me.” And she said, “No, no, I have no time. I just come to bring you a little present.” And she gave me a very small package, and I opened it and it was a handkerchief. I said, “How in the world did you know that I needed a handkerchief?” She said, “I found an old sheet, and I was sewing handkerchiefs from that old sheet, and when I was busy there was a voice in my heart who said, ‘Bring a handkerchief to Corrie Ten Boom.’” Can you understand what a handkerchief tells you in such a moment? That there is a Father in Heaven who hears it when on a very small planet, the earth, some one of His children prays for impossible small things, for a hankie, and that Father in Heaven tells one of His other children, “Give a handkerchief to Corrie Ten Boom.” That is the foolishness of God. But the foolishness of God is the greatest wisdom. And I learned so much by that handkerchief.
Just imagine when your little child or grandchild cries because an old doll is broken. And she brings that doll to her daddy. She says, “Oh Daddy, my doll is broken.” What does Daddy say? “Oh girl, put it away. That doll is not worth a dime.” No, Daddy doesn’t say that. He says, “That’s too bad. Come here, come to Daddy. I will try to mend it.” And that grown up man tries to repair that old doll. How in the world, can a grown up man give so much time to such a valueless thing as a broken doll? Because he sees it through the eyes of the little one. Because he loves the little one. And so God sees your problems through your eyes because He loves you. ~Corrie Ten Boom
"There’s nothing too great for God’s power. There’s nothing too small for His love." ~Corrie Ten Boom
Oh Jesus, may we trust that You care about the smallest details of our lives! May we learn so much by that handkerchief. And may You show us in our own lives Your great love.
Here is a small reminder in my life that nothing is too small for my God's love:
Lily is layed to rest in my hometown of Crozet, Virginia. I live in North Carolina though, so I don't get to go up there often. I don't get to take flowers and things to her grave much, so it means a lot to me when others think to do so. I haven't been able to afford a headstone for Lily, which really bothers me. So, even when people go to visit Lily's spot, they can't find her. The only thing there was a windchime. My dear friend, Elise, took her a birthday balloon and flowers on her special day. It is really important to me to get Lily a permanent headstone. Maybe this doesn't mean much to others, but it does to me. You see, Lily is my only child. She is the only one I can do anything for on earth. I don't have other children to care for. And it feels like it will be honoring her when I can get her a headstone. Permanent engraved words that say, she was real. She was here. She had weight in this world. So, people can go visit her and easily find where she is because her name is clearly marked, for all to see. I really have no idea when I will be able to get a headstone for Lily.
The reason I am sharing all this is because Jesus cares about the smallest matters in our lives. He knows how important it is for me to have something there, as a special marking for Lily. Around Lily's birthday, my Aunt Nana took a beautiful angel statue to Lily's grave. I haven't been able to see it in person yet, but I can't wait to! It feels like something special, just for her. Now, I can tell people to look for the beautiful angel statue. This means so much to me to have something there until I can get a permanent marker. Isn't it amazing that my Jesus would lay that on her heart, when she had no idea how much that would mean to me. I want to plant some flowers around her spot once the headstone is in. I know that my Jesus cares about a headstone for Lily because I do. I am His daughter, and just as a father mends the broken doll of his daughter, how much more does our Heavenly Father care for us!
Not very good picture quality, but here is the statue.
I see that my God cares about the small things in our lives, in my life. And I know that one day, I will have a headstone for Lily. I am praying that He will provide that for me, just as He provided a handkerchief for Corrie.
The entrance to the cemetery where Lily is buried. It's called Hillsboro Cemetery, so if you live
anywhere near Crozet, Virginia or are passing through that area, I'd love it if you stopped by! Look for the angel statue! And pretty soon, there will be a permanent headstone there too :-)
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