Roe vs Wade and Penumbra Dr. Ben Carson Revisited

 

Written and published by Jean-Louis. 2010

 Roe vs. Wade and Penumbra

Yesterday, Sunday, my family and I were watching a movie depicting the life of Dr. Ben Carson, the world-renowned brain surgeon. At the time when Dr. Carson was asked by his superior to push for the separation of Siamese twins joined at the head, he asked for more time.

 

What really struck me are the wisdom and the courage with which he approach this very portentous decision. After all everybody knew that if he failed and one the twins survived he would have at least saved one life. But there was something else at work in the mind of this brilliant man. He knew because of his deep trust in God that if it was God’s will, the Lord would empower him to do the impossible. He was waiting patiently and prayerfully for the Lord to give him the green light regardless of what others might think. He was no people pleaser! And when the right time came, the operation was successful.

Another thought struck me. Never was the divide between good and evil so visibly manifest. Here we have a man educated in the land of opportunities, where hard work and perseverance are rewarded. A land in which more people are blessed with access to the education and careers of their choice. The examples abound: poor, black people, Latinos, immigrants of all nationalities, reaching the highest positions as CEOs, Supreme Court justice such as Justice Clarence Thomas, doctors such as Dr.Carson,and lawyers, and now even a president -- the long list shows the blessings that this country bestowed on its population when the people were faithful to our God and creator the Lord Jesus Christ. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”

Do you ever wonder what kind of schizoid country this has become when you wake up in the morning? How is it possible to witness such a contrast between the miracle working of the love and power of our God through the gifted hands of a brain surgeon and the total disregard for life in its most vulnerable moments as manifested in the abortion murder of growing millions of unborn, partially or even out of the womb babies? What is even more revolting is that a group of men and women whose life is dedicated to equal justice could grant a legal "Carte Blanche' encouraging doctors and women’s organizations to make huge profits from their trade.

The Bible talks about such divide in the following terms in Malachi 3:16-18:“Then those who fear the Lord talked to each other, and the Lord listened and heard… A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. They will be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day when I make I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his own son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve the Lord and those who do not.”

At this point I would like to quote from an article I read this morning written by Joseph Farah in World Net Daily; Roe v. Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al. Posted: March 29, 2010.

"Have you ever noticed the way certain people selectively apply what they claim as "constitutional rights"? This question occurred to me as I thought about the actions of the Congress and president last week. But, before I get to that, a little background is in order.

Back in 1973, a Supreme Court at the height of its activist history wrestled with a constitutional justification for allowing the indiscriminate slaughter of unborn babies in the infamous Roe v Wade case. "We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision," Justice Harry Blackmum wrote in the majority decision.

Search the Constitution as you might for the word privacy or any synonym and you will come up empty. But seven justices were determined to overturn duly enacted abortion laws throughout the United States, so they located this right in the due process clause. Ironically, it is the due process clause that forbids the taking of life, liberty or property without an impartial hearing. Yet, this decision ensured tens of millions of lives would be snuffed out with no due process. But the court found support for this "privacy" argument in the "penumbra" of the Bill of Rights.
In case you are unfamiliar with the term "penumbra," perhaps a dictionary definition will help you:
1. "The partial or imperfect shadow outside the complete shadow of an opaque body, as a planet, where the light from the source of illumination is only partly cut off."
2. "The grayish marginal portion of a sunspot."
3. "A shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area."
Does that help?

In other words, the court understood it was dealing in the realm of shadowy, indefinite and marginal areas of the law – but it was still, on this admittedly shaky basis, willing to pronounce death sentences on millions.”

It is in fact so simple to see and show that this use of the gray area is a bogus argument that doesn’t hold water. And it really takes a spiritual blindness to not see the self deceit from our elected representatives in the government and nominated officials who are supposed to protect the freedom and lives of all citizens, born or unborn with making just and right decisions and application of the laws.

If we find ourselves in a gray area, to know our destination, it is a matter of knowing in which direction we are walking.

This is the course of action Dr. Carson recommends. I posted this commentary from WND, written by Star Parker in 2007 in which she quotes him as recommending the following:

"In his new book, Carson discusses his approach to dealing with risk, a core issue for exercising personal responsibility. He has a simple but effective approach that amounts to examining the best and worst outcomes that can result from a given course of action.

It is very clear. If you don’t know where to go, ask yourself if you are going towards the growing light or towards the growing darkness. Here is what God says in his Word:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
Who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
But deny justice to the innocent.” Isaiah 5:20, 23.

“When the Lord stretches out his hand,
He who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall;
Both will perish together.” Isaiah 31:3.

The Lord Jesus said:
“The blind lead the blind and both fall in the ditch.”

I John 1:7 gives us the only solution when we have lost our way in the uneasy, undefinable, treacherous gray areas that relativists enjoy so much dwelling on: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all… But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son, purifies us from all sin.”

Interestingly enough, the commentary on the life of Dr. Ben Carson is the most sought after article on my blog. It goes to show that people are still thirsty for truth and righteousness and searching for a few good examples to emulate. I hope that his words and deeds will not fall on deaf ears and will encourage our hearts to follow his leading example.

Column One: Rubio, Cruz and US global leadership - Caroline Glick

• Reblogged from jpost.com via servehiminthewaiting.com

• GOP contenders highlight Obama as a wedge in Jewish support

• Washington Watch: Cruz ’n Jews

For the first time in a decade, Americans are beginning to think seriously about foreign policy; But are they too late?

US presidential candidate and Republican senator of Florida Marco Rubio acknowledges the applause of the audience after speaking at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's forum in Waukee, Iowa. (photo credit:REUTERS)

At some point between 2006 and 2008, the American people decided to turn their backs on the world. Between the seeming futility of the war in Iraq and the financial collapse of 2008, Americans decided they’d had enough.

In Barack Obama, they found a leader who could channel their frustration. Obama’s foreign policy, based on denying the existence of radical Islam and projecting the responsibility for Islamic aggression on the US and its allies, suited their mood just fine. If America is responsible, then America can walk away. Once it is gone, so the thinking has gone, the Muslims will forget their anger and leave America alone.

Sadly, Obama’s foreign policy assumptions are utter nonsense. America’s abandonment of global leadership has not made things better. Over the past seven years, the legions of radical Islam have expanded and grown more powerful than ever before. And now in the aftermath of the jihadist massacres in Paris and San Bernadino, the threats have grown so abundant that even Obama cannot pretend them away.

As a consequence, for the first time in a decade, Americans are beginning to think seriously about foreign policy. But are they too late? Can the next president repair the damage Obama has caused? The Democrats give no cause for optimism. Led by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential hopefuls stubbornly insist that there is nothing wrong with Obama’s foreign policy. If they are elected to succeed him, they pledge to follow in his footsteps.

On the Republican side, things are more encouraging, but also more complicated.

Republican presidential hopefuls are united in their rejection of Obama’s policy of ignoring the Islamic supremacist nature of the enemy. All reject the failed assumptions of Obama’s foreign policy.

All have pledged to abandon them on their first day in office. Yet for all their unity in rejecting Obama’s positions, Republicans are deeply divided over what alternative foreign policy they would adopt.

This divide has been seething under the surface throughout the Obama presidency. It burst into the open at the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night.

The importance of the dispute cannot be overstated.

Given the Democrats’ allegiance to Obama’s disastrous policies, the only hope for a restoration of American leadership is that a Republican wins the next election. But if Republicans nominate a candidate who fails to reconcile with the realities of the world as it is, then the chance for a reassertion of American leadership will diminish significantly.

To understand just how high the stakes are, you need to look no further than two events that occurred just before the Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate.

On Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to close its investigation of Iran’s nuclear program. As far as the UN’s nuclear watchdog is concerned, Iran is good to go.

The move is a scandal. Its consequences will be disastrous.

The IAEA acknowledges that Iran continued to advance its illicit military nuclear program at least until 2009. Tehran refuses to divulge its nuclear activities to IAEA investigators as it is required to do under binding UN Security Council resolutions.

Iran refuses to allow IAEA inspectors access to its illicit nuclear sites. As a consequence, the IAEA lacks a clear understanding of what Iran’s nuclear status is today and therefore has no capacity to prevent it from maintaining or expanding its nuclear capabilities. This means that the inspection regime Iran supposedly accepted under Obama’s nuclear deal is worthless.

The IAEA also accepts that since Iran concluded its nuclear accord with the world powers, it has conducted two tests of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons, despite the fact that it is barred from doing so under binding Security Council resolutions.

But really, who cares? Certainly the Obama administration doesn’t. The sighs of relief emanating from the White House and the State Department after the IAEA decision were audible from Jerusalem to Tehran.

The IAEA’s decision has two direct consequences.

First, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday, it paves the way for the cancellation of the UN’s economic sanctions against Iran within the month.

Second, with the IAEA’s decision, the last obstacle impeding Iran’s completion of its nuclear weapons program has been removed. Inspections are a thing of the past. Iran is in the clear.

As Iran struts across the nuclear finish line, the Sunni jihadists are closing their ranks.

Hours after the IAEA vote, Turkey and Qatar announced that Turkey is setting up a permanent military base in the Persian Gulf emirate for the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. Their announcement indicates that the informal partnership between Turkey and Qatar on the one side, and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State on the other hand, which first came to the fore last year during Operation Protective Edge, is now becoming a more formal alliance.

Just as the Obama administration has no problem with Iran going nuclear, so it has no problem with this new jihadist alliance.

During Operation Protective Edge, the administration supported this jihadist alliance against the Israeli-Egyptian partnership. Throughout Hamas’s war against Israel, Obama demanded that Israel and Egypt accept Hamas’s cease-fire terms, as they were presented by Turkey and Qatar.

Since Operation Protective Edge, the Americans have continued to insist that Israel and Egypt bow to Hamas’s demands and open Gaza’s international borders. The Americans have kept up their pressure on Israel and Egypt despite Hamas’s open alliance with ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula.

So, too, the Americans have kept Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at arm’s length, and continue to insist that the Muslim Brotherhood is a legitimate political force despite Sisi’s war against ISIS. Washington continues to embrace Qatar as a “moderate” force despite the emirate’s open support for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and ISIS.

As for Turkey, it appears there is nothing Ankara can do that will dispel the US notion that it is a credible partner in the war on terror. Since 2011, Turkey has served as Hamas’s chief state sponsor, and as ISIS’s chief sponsor. It is waging war against the Kurds – the US’s strongest ally in its campaign against ISIS.

In other words, with the US’s blessing, the forces of both Shi’ite and Sunni jihad are on the march.

And the next president will have no grace period for repairing the damage.

Although the Republican debate Wednesday night was focused mainly on the war in Syria, its significance is far greater than one specific battlefield.

And while there were nine candidates on the stage, there were only two participants in this critical discussion.

Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz faced off after weeks of rising contention between their campaigns.

In so doing, they brought the dispute that has been seething through their party since the Bush presidency into the open.

Rubio argued that in Syria, the US needs to both defeat ISIS and overthrow President Bashar Assad.

Cruz countered that the US should ignore Assad and concentrate on utterly destroying ISIS. America’s national interest, he said, is not advanced by overthrowing Assad, because in all likelihood, Assad will be replaced by ISIS.

Cruz added that America’s experience in overthrowing Middle Eastern leaders has shown that it is a mistake to overthrow dictators. Things only got worse after America overthrew Saddam Hussein and supported the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak.

For his part, Rubio explained that since Assad is Iran’s puppet, leaving him in power empowers Iran. The longer he remains in power, the more control Iran will wield over Syria and Lebanon.

The two candidates’ dispute is far greater than the question of who rules Syria. Their disagreement on Syria isn’t a tactical argument. It goes to the core question of what is the proper role of American foreign policy.

Rubio’s commitment to overthrowing Assad is one component of a wider strategic commitment to fostering democratic governance in Syria. By embracing the cause of democratization through regime change, Rubio has become the standard bearer of George W. Bush’s foreign policy.

Bush’s foreign policy had two seemingly contradictory anchors – a belief that liberal values are universal, and cultural meekness.

Bush’s belief that open elections would serve as a panacea for the pathologies of the Islamic world was not supported by empirical data. Survey after survey showed that if left to their own devices, the people of Muslim world would choose to be led by Islamic supremacists. But Bush rejected the data and embraced the fantasy that free elections lead a society to embrace liberal norms of peace and human rights.

As to cultural meekness, since the end of the Cold War and with the rise of political correctness, the notion that America could call for other people to adopt American values fell into disrepute. For American foreign policy practitioners, the idea that American values and norms are superior to Islamic supremacist values smacked of cultural chauvinism.

Consequently, rather than urge the Islamic world to abandon Islamic supremacism in favor of liberal democracy, in their public diplomacy efforts, Americans sufficed with vapid pronouncements of love and respect for Islam.

Islamic supremacists, for their part stepped into the ideological void without hesitation. In Iraq, the Iranian regime spent hundreds of millions of dollars training Iranian-controlled militias, building Iranian-controlled political parties and publishing pro-Iranian newspapers as the US did nothing to support pro-American Iraqis.

Although many Republicans opposed Bush’s policies, few dared make their disagreement with the head of their party public. As a result, for many, Wednesday’s debate was the first time the foundations of Bush’s foreign policy were coherently and forcefully rejected before a national audience.

If Rubio is the heir to Bush, Cruz is the spokesman for Bush’s until now silent opposition. In their longheld view, democratization is not a proper aim of American foreign policy. Defeating America’s enemies is the proper aim of American foreign policy.

Rubio’s people claim that carpet bombing ISIS is not a strategy. They are right. There are parts missing from in Cruz’s position on Syria.

But then again, although still not comprehensive, Cruz’s foreign policy trajectory has much to recommend it. First and foremost, it is based on the world as it is, rather than a vision of how the world should be. It makes a clear distinction between America’s allies and America’s enemies and calls for the US to side with the former and fight the latter.

It is far from clear which side will win this fight for the heart of the Republican Party. And it is impossible to know who the next US president will be.

But whatever happens, the fact that after their seven-year vacation, the Americans are returning the real world is a cause for cautious celebration.

www.CarolineGlick.com