Thoughts on Halloween

Should Christians take part in Halloween celebrations?

"When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do."

Deuteronomy 18:9-14

Verses such as this make my husband and me feel that is probably not a good idea to celebrate Halloween. We believe that if we are in any doubt as to whether something is right or not, it is best to err on the side of caution and not do it than to take part in something we feel might be sinful.

(I am not condemning those who do choose to celebrate Halloween - after all, let he who is without sin cast the first stone - but it is good to discuss why we do things as it helps us to consider whether our actions are right regardless of which "side" of the issue we are on.)

Fortunately for us, our church does not try to do anything for Halloween and our daughter is not in school so there is no pressure (other than trick or treaters calling) for us to take part in it however it is still important to consider such issues and be clear about them in our minds even if it is not a pressing practical concern.

Milehimama wrote a very good post about why her family do not celebrate Halloween and Jennifer did a post about alternatives to the usual Halloween activities.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Hosea: The Story of a Love That Would Not Die

  tags: Old Testament

  • Hosea: The Story of a Love That Would Not Die

• The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

  tags: Stewardship

  • From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

• The Long Hair Loom Discussion Board Links

  tags: Haircare

• Christian Radio, UCB

  tags: Christian radio

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• George Tiller: a Case Study

  tags: pro-life

  • The
    center of the American abortion industry is the state of Kansas.  This comes
    as a surprise to many, since Kansans tend to be simple, down-to-earth, conservative
    people—the kind that one would least expect to find inside the walls of an
    abortion clinic.

    
    

    Of
    all the states in this country, why Kansas?  What makes Kansas special when
    it comes to abortion?  The answer is simple: Kansas is home to George
    Tiller, the most prolific late-term abortionist in the entire western
    world.  

    
    

    Since
    1973, George Tiller—or "Dr. Tiller", as he likes to call himself—has
    performed thousands upon thousands of late-term abortions.  He is renowned
    among the pro-choice community for his impeccable record of safety: unlike
    some abortionists, he has yet to kill a woman in the process of terminating
    a pregnancy.  His apparent skill as an abortion practitioner has won
    him numerous awards, including the National Abortion Federation's highest
    honor, the Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award.

  • Among
    pro-life advocates, he is famous for the cruelty with which he treats the
    unborn.  No case illustrates the extent of this cruelty better than the tragedy
    of Baby
    Sarah Brown, one of his many victims.  In 1993, a pregnant teenager and
    her parents traveled 900 miles to Tiller's office in Kansas to receive an
    elective late-term abortion.  

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Tiller began the abortion by injecting a poisonous
    syringe through the pregnant teenager's uterus and into the upper left side
    of the unborn baby's face.  He then instructed the teenager to return the
    next day for the completion of the abortion.  

    
    

    
    

    
    

    To everyone's dismay, the baby did not die
    during the intervening hours.  After the teenager began to complain of serious
    abdominal pains, her parents rushed her to a local hospital where the baby
    was eventually born—alive.  The delivery room staff felt that life-support
    would be futile, so they wrapped the baby in a bassinet without attendance.  The teenager and her parents quickly left the scene.

    
    

    Even without medical care, the baby remained
    alive.  After many hours had passed, the delivery room staff decided to
    give her treatment.  Miraculously, she managed to survive through the entire
    ordeal.  "Sarah", as her adoptive parents later named her, lived
    until the age of 5, when she succumbed to the developmental harm done to
    her body during the abortion.  The KCl solution that had been injected into
    the side of her face had left her permanently blind and brain damaged.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Prior
    to the abortion, Sarah was a perfectly normal baby.  The relevant medical records indicate
    that she had no disabilities or deformities.  If Tiller hadn't attempted to
    poison her, she would be a healthy 9 year old girl with an entire life ahead
    of her.  Instead, she is in a grave.

  • In
    the middle of 1998, the state of Kansas instituted a mandatory reporting policy
    that required Tiller to submit information about the abortions that he performs.  The Kansas Department of Health and Environmental Statistics has recently
    published this information: http://www.kdhe.state.ks.us/hci/absumm.html.  

    
    

    The
    information sends a clear message: the majority of late-term abortions are
    purely elective.  They typically involve healthy babies and healthy mothers.  If you are inclined to disagree, or if you have a hard time believing that
    mainstream abortion practitioners would be willing to kill babies that are
    months from being born, then I ask that you continue reading.  You will be
    amazed—and hopefully outraged—when you see the data for yourself.  

  • The
    "health" exceptions built into these statutes make them absolutely
    meaningless.  They haven't restricted a single late-term abortion.  All that
    Tiller has to do to keep his atrocities within the boundaries set by the Kansas
    Legislature is find one pro-choice psychologist in the United States willing
    to claim that late-term abortion is necessary to preserve a woman's mental
    health.  If he can do that, he can do whatever he wants.  It certainly doesn't
    seem like a very daunting task, does it?  

    
    

    Since
    the concept of "health"—especially the concept of "mental health"—has
    no established legal meaning, virtually every late-term abortion that Tiller
    performs, no matter how abusive, remains legally invincible.  If he wanted
    to, he could exact a partial birth abortion on a healthy, 40 week old infant.  He would get off scot-free.  Sadly enough, prosecutors would be powerless to
    convict him of wrongdoing.  As long as he manages to find a mental health professional
    willing to vouch for his actions, there isn't really any basis for conviction.  

  • Abortion
    advocates often deflect negative attention by insisting that late-term abortions
    are in the best interests of the babies that are aborted.  They claim that
    if the babies are not "terminated", they will live lives scarred
    by illness.  The truth is that the vast majority of the babies condemned to
    death by late-term abortion are healthy and capable of living meaningful lives.  

    
    

    There
    also exists a common misconception that late-term abortions are limited to
    medical emergencies.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  From 1998 until
    2000, only one out of the 1168 abortions that Tiller performed after viability
    was done during a medical emergency.  Upwards of 97% of his late-term patients
    weren't even from Kansas—they flew in from other states to have abortions
    that they had scheduled in advance.  

  • It
    is inconceivable that the poisoning of a viable unborn baby before an induction
    could be necessary to avert physical health damage to a pregnant woman.  The
    death of a baby doesn't cure any physical illnesses.  What, then, are the "health"
    problems that are leading to these abortions?  Again, the answer lies in the
    nebulous concept of mental health—a loophole that has been tailor made to
    legalize elective abortion throughout the nine months of a pregnancy.  The
    argument put forth by the abortion industry is that unwanted babies, if they
    are allowed to live, pose a threat to the psychological well-being of the
    mothers who will have to raise them.  Consequently, they must die.  

    
    

    Let
    there be no confusion: the motivation behind these abortions is not the termination
    of an unwanted pregnancy.  Once pregnancy has reached viability, doctors can
    perform abortion without engaging in an act of killing.  The motivation behind
    these abortions is the destruction of an unwanted fetus, the elimination of
    an unwanted child.  Tiller himself seems willing to concede the point.  From
    his own mouth, "it is unplanned and unwanted motherhood that shipwrecks
    women's lives, not unplanned pregnancy."  (George R. Tiller, Victory Rally
    and Declaration of Reproductive Independence, Wichita, Kansas, July 13, 2001
    <http://www.prochoice.org/Voices/Providers/Tiller.htm>)

  • From
    January of 1999 to December 1999, Tiller performed 574 abortions after 22
    weeks.  302 of these abortions were performed on viable babies.  All of the
    abortions were done for "health" reasons; not one was done to preserve
    the life of the mother.  

    
    

    During
    the same period, Tiller performed 182 abortions with the PBA method.  Every
    single one of these abortions was performed after viability.  As in the previous
    year, he was asked to indicate, for each patient , whether the procedure was
    done to protect the patient's physical health or the patient's mental health.  His answer in every case was mental health.  

  • From
    January of 2001 to December 2001, Tiller performed 635 abortions after 22
    weeks.  395 of these abortions were done on viable babies.  As usual, all of
    the abortions were done for "health" reasons.  Not one was done to
    preserve the life of the mother.  

  • When
    considering the statistics on post-viability abortion, it is important to
    remember that they deal with "viability" as it is defined by an
    abortionist who is definitely no friend of unborn children.  George Tiller
    is well-known for putting the unborn at a disadvantage when making determinations
    about their chances of survival outside the womb.  His own former employee
    has testified to his deceptive tactics:

    
    

    
    

    
    

    "Tiller [would determine
    the baby’s] BPD (biparietal diameter), which is a measurement of the babies
    head.  Tiller gave me this simple explanation of what a BPD is: at this certain
    angle, the baby’s head is roughly egg shaped.  The ordinary method of measurement
    is to go from the top of the egg to the bottom of the egg.  That is the widest
    point of the angle.  But Tiller said he goes from side to side on the egg and
    gets a much narrower measurement.  He does not keep the photos in the medical
    records and he disposes of the babies, so there is no way to go back and see
    what he has done."

    
    

    
    

    
    

    She
    was viciously attacked by the abortion industry, but, as the statistics verify,
    her statements were very close to the truth:

    
    

    "I
    was there for about seven months, which is a fairly representative amount
    of time. In over 95% of these babies, perhaps more, there was nothing wrong
    at all. Nothing.  And these were third trimester abortions."  

  • He is killing babies that his
    clients—many of them teenagers—have felt move in their wombs for months.  What
    could be worse for a teenager's "mental health" than to spend the
    rest of her life with the after thought that she chose to have her baby killed
    in a grisly late-term abortion?  How could a twisted experience like that help
    the mental outlook of a teenager?  

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• JoyandGrace: Is Sarah Palin Queen Esther....Part One

  tags: Biblical womanhood

  • I do not know Sarah Palin, I do not know her relationship with The LORD. I can only observe how she lives her life and compare it to what the Bible has to say about what we Mothers and Wives are supposed to be doing IF we are serving the Lord. Mrs. Palin does claim to be a Christian, therefore her behavior and life choices are supposed to come under scrutiny. Even more so if she is doing these things in such a public fashion. I mean, is she a role model for Christian young women or not? Think carefully before you answer this. Are you going by God's standards...or the world's? Young Christian ladies are waiting on us, waiting to see if we really mean what we say about Titus 2, if we are willing to live it, no matter the cost.
  • I am questioning the Christians backing her. Not the ones who feel that they have to vote for her ticket in spite of her, but the ones that are saying she is "Esther" or "Deborah" (funny, no one mentions Jezebel). Mrs. Palin is an admitted "Christian" feminist and, in my humble opinion, being a Christian feminist is an oxymoron. Your are either one of them or the other, you CAN'T be both.
  • Many Christians are under the very mistaken impression that bad rulers come to power when God is out maneuvered somehow. No, many times (again, read the Bible) God allows Pagan rulers to be over his people as a punishment, as an indictment against them. So just because God ALLOWS it, doesn't mean it is a blessing. I would think anyone who has been a parent would get that concept. Ever heard of tough love?
  • Being a Christian isn't supposed to be easy and you can't change the rules whenever you want, fit them to whatever situation YOU want. This is why a lost and dying world is pointing at Christians and ridiculing us, because we claim to hold ourselves to a standard and serve our God, yet the second it becomes inconvenient...we start arguing semantics and looking for loopholes. How can you call anyone ELSE to holiness, to set themselves apart and accept Christ's sacrifice when you do not hold fast to those things He has called you to do in obedience to him to be a witness to the unsaved? This is how God's name and His word is blasphemed among the unsaved...by us!
  • And onto the myths...
    
    
    
    1. Esther won a beauty pageant. Ah, no, she was commanded to get in line to be tried out by the king with a bunch of other virgins.
    
    
    
    2. Esther was co-ruler. Really, than how come the woman who had previously held her position could be removed without so much as a by your leave? Esther had no say in her coming into the kingdom (as far as we can tell) and she became the King's WIFE, not his co-ruler.Verse 2:17 specifically illustrates that the King loved her, chose her to be his wife. He did not hold an interview for the best candidate for a co-ruler.
    
    
    
    3. Esther didn't have to obey anyone. Again, really? Read verse 2:20, she was still obeying Mordecai like when she was under him as a daughter. A QUEEN had no problem submitting to both her husband and her father figure.
  • Sarah Palin is just like Esther.."for such a time as this." I have an idea for people who like to grab "phrases" out of the Bible and then apply them to everything and anything, read the whole BOOK! Verse 4:14 is the one that I keep hearing chanted in regards to Sarah Palin. That she has come to us from God for "such a time as this", really, where is the comparison? The King fell in love with Esther and he had favor for her to the point where he married her. This was obviously God's design. She was in the KING's HEART and therefore when no one else would sway him, no one else could have his ear, no one else could dare approach him...his WIFE could. Only if he was in LOVE with and married to a woman who was of the people he had just signed a death warrant for could his heart be turned to protect her. "For such a time as this " was acknowledging the provision and providence of God AND, if you notice, her uncle tells her if she does not intercede for them that the Lord will still make a way for them. She is not the only way, she is not necessary to the Lord rescuing his people. She is a WAY that has been provided, but the rescuing is through HIM. Are these Christians suggesting that The Lord would "provide" a way to win an election (of a corrupt government) by asking a Christian wife and mother to go AGAINST his commands?

• The Ecologist - Suck On This

  tags: Breastfeeding

  • ‘There can be no food more locally produced, more sustainable or more environmentally friendly than a mother’s breastmilk, the only food required by an infant for the fi rst six months of life. It is a naturally renewable resource, which requires no packaging or transport, results in no wastage and is free. Breastfeeding can also help reduce family poverty, which is a major cause of malnutrition.’

Boxes and Lack of Sleep...

... are the two reasons why I haven't posted in a while.

I've no idea why but regardless of when I go to bed I am waking up between five and six o'clock every morning (I normally get up just before seven). Little Girl has also been waking but this has not been disturbing me as I've already been awake. It is really strange as the mornings are getting darker at the moment so I would have thought we would be less likely to wake up early rather than more likely.

I've also been very busy sorting out these:

It was actually more than that as I later found a couple more boxes I'd forgotten because they were being used as a bedside table for Hubby.

I had all of my school work, Christmas and birthday cards and letters from age eleven onwards plus loads of other random things I had decided to keep over the years. I hauled everything out of Little Girl's room (which is where it is stored) and have managed to cut it down by about half:

In order to speed the sorting process and get the boxes put away as quickly as possible I have just been sorting everything into "keep" or "not keep". I'm now sorting through a mountain of stuff sorting it into either rubbish, recycling, scrap paper, other useful stuff, and stuff to sell or give away.

(This is only a sample of the "not keep" stuff.)

This process is then doubled because Hubby had a pretty similar amount of stuff to sort through (we both come from families of hoarders) except that his letters and cards go back to preschool and his family are rather prolific letter writers so he has mountains of them.

Needless to say, we are planning to teach Little Girl how to be discerning about what she keeps so that she doesn't end up having to do the same in twenty of thirty years time.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• One Year Bible Reading Plan - ChristianAnswers.Net

  Daily focus: Mon - The Law; Tues - History; Wed - Psalms; Thur - Poetry; Fri - Prophecy; Sat - Gospels; Sun - Epistles.

  tags: Bible reading