Online for Life is an organization that see the fact that internet searches are used to find abortion “services” as an opportunity to reach others for life. According to their informational page, 750 babies were born that would have otherwise been aborted. The short video gives a sketch of what they do. Does a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” really need to spend its money to kill children in the womb?
A flying “church in a box” for Russian Orthodox military chaplains. Strange but true.
Christian researchers are interested in attitudes towards Assisted Reproductive Technologies such as IVF. The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, Deerfield, Illinois, has linked to this survey at their website here.
HSE is the acronym in Ireland for the Health Service Executive (HSE), which according to Wikipedia “ is responsible for the provision of healthcare providing health and personal social services for everyone living in Ireland with public funds.” It is Ireland’s HHS.
It is “Ireland’s largest employer with over 67,000 direct employees, and another 40,000 in funded health care organisations. It has an annual budget of over €13 billion, more than any other public sector organisation.”
So in the name of public health, HSE funds have been helping a website promoting threesomes for teenagers, according to Indepedent.ie.
Unfortunately I have a scheduling conflict, but Chicago-area readers may be interested in attending this evening event in Mundelein, Illinois sponsored by Act 3:
April 18 is a special opportunity for all our Chicago friends. We will host a public event at 7 p.m. at Mundelein Seminary. Fr. Edward Oakes will speak on “Christ Our Center.” A response will be given by Dr. Hans Boersma, the J. I. Packer professor of theology at Regent College (Vancouver). Conversation, and questions from the audience. will follow. This conversation and the question time will be led by me and Fr. Robert Barron, rector of Mundelein Seminary. There is no charge for this event but you must register at www.act3network.com. (Please do not call the seminary for information.)
Spring Lake, Michigan. March 29, 2013.
Earlier today a 45-foot cross that had been removed from a church building by a congregation moving in a Christianity-lite direction was put back on the church building by a new congregation occupying it. (The liberal lite church tanked and the building was sold.)
Someone I spoke with on the phone earlier today, a family relative, was there this morning and passed along one detail not mentioned: it was foggy on that side of Lake Michigan this morning and the cross was lifted up and positioned in the fog. But just when the job was finished and the cross settled into place, the fog lifted and the sun came out and shone on it. Five hundred people, naturally, broke into cheers. On the original Good Friday, the Cross brought darkness on the earth, but ever since, the Cross has been our light and our salvation.
Robin Phillips has posted an article targeting “Five Gay Marriage Myths” at the Salvo blog, Signs of the Times, worth checking out.
The Touchstone senior editors congratulate our esteemed colleague Russell D. Moore on yesterday’s announcement that he has been appointed head of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, effective June 1. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest non-Catholic denomination (or second largest church body!) in the U.S. with 16.2 million members in 44,000 congregations. Russell is an devout believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and a servant who has used his gifts well for the sake of the kingdom. We pray every blessing on him and his family and that the Lord would make his labors to prosper in his new position.
From the Chicago Tribune: Illinois Lottery firm to be fined $20 million
“The private company in charge of running the Illinois Lottery will be fined $20 million for failing to generate the $851 million in sales it had promised.”
Really? A private company is being punished for failing to adequate entice and manipulate the activities of free citizens to meet the demands of the state???
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn was measured in his criticism of Northstar today, saying “the company has understanding that they have to do better.” Quinn said he wanted to see games that encourage a broader audience to play the lottery. Historically, lottery sales are highest in low-income communities.
“We want a model that reaches everyone in our state, and they have some work to do to make that happen,” Quinn said.
State officials picked Northstar to run the lottery after being frustrated by years of stagnant sales. The hope was an outside firm would streamline operations and focus on increasing profits.
Next up: the private company to which the City of Chicago leased its parking meters (and parking spaces?) will be penalized by having all of the cars of its employees Denver-booted and towed to a Chicago car pound for failing to generate adequate parking meter revenue.
Cardinal Burke & Russell Moore, Vatican Summer, 2012
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke might be of some interest to Touchstone readers as a possible selection by the College of Cardinals meeting today to select a successor to Benedict XVI. Cardinal Burke is a reader of Touchstone. He is also a donor. He has also met with a number of the Senior Editors. How many I do not know for sure. I am certain James Hitchcock personally knows him from when Burke was Archbishop of St. Louis; I have had the honor of having lunch with him in Rome (2010) where he expressed his appreciation for the work of Touchstone; Russell Moore met him in the Vatican last summer. We like Cardinal Burke (as we liked Benedict XVI) and count him a friend. We also pray today for the selection of the right man to head the Roman Catholic Church today.
