May/June, 1997 Volume XII Number 6 - DEPARTMENTS

LETTERS


Church must repent
My family and I want to thank you for the copies of the magazine that you sent us with our story in it. We had never seen the magazine before and were greatly impressed by it. I was especially glad that you put us in an issue that was calling to task the sin of the church in the abortion debate. We personally, believe that God cannot and will not answer and remove abortion from this land until the Church repents of its great sin of birth control. We have not only been aborting our own children through the pill, but we have totally denied the sovereignty of God in the process. We (the Church) believe that we can decide who lives and does not by controlling our reproductive parts. What unabashed, blatant heresy.
I was glad to see that the pro-life movement has finally begun to wake up, even if it is 30 years too late, to the gigantic log in our eye, compared to the speck of dust in theirs. Remember, at least most of the pro-aborts are dead in their tresspass and sins, because they are unregenerate. What then is the excuse of the Church? There is none. Until the Church (God's people) who are called by His name, humble themselves and repent and turn from their wicked ways, we will have abortion in our land.
Marty Carpenter
See January issue of Life Advocate

Mountain of evidence
Congratulations on a job well done exposing the true nature of so-called "contraceptives" which are many times not. In defense of Larry Frieders and Dr. Hilgers, I would say both have a greater depth and erudition on the matter than many health care professionals. Larry, besides having a Masters of Science in Pharmacy also has a Masters in Business Administation and is currently working on a Masters of Theology while running an IV infusion pharmacy care center and teaching medical ethics at Loyola University to future doctors.
Because some women conceive and deliver babies while on the Pill (and other "contraceptives") exactly proves the point the Pill is not suppresive of ovulation. So few women do deliver babies is a statistically known factoid. What is less known, and belittled with no concrete substance, is the truth of millions of chemical and mechanical abortions occuring in the US alone yearly.
Two recent studies alone on the specialized inhibin receptors necessary for implantation and continuity of pregnancy, and how the Pill suppresses their natural function, only once again adds to the mountain of evidence that many so-called contraceptives are, indeed, abortifacients. For those who can see the truth no further proof is needed; for those who intellectually and spiritually refuse the truth, no amount of evidence will ever do it.
Bogomir M Kuhar, PharmD.
Pharmacists for Life International

Opposing NFP
Natural Family Planning (NFP) has always seemed to me to be the church-approved method to defeat God. The thought it seems to express is that God is not against contraception; he is just opposed to using pills, wires and man-made barriers to accomplish it.
By that reasoning, God would approve of murder as long as you did it with your bare hands rather than using a gun or a knife.
The issue here is not the means by which a deed is accomplished, natural or artificial, but the moral quality of the deed.
It is intrinsically evil deliberately to seek conjugal pleasure while shunning the family responsibility that God has joined with it. That is marital fornication and an unclean act.
Human life International emphasizes NFP, and thus I thought it was orthodox Church doctrine. Perhaps my assumption was wrong. Man should not try to outsmart God.
Martin Wishnatsky
Fargo,ND

Won't prescribe Pill
I received a copy of your pamphlet entitled "Understanding Birth Control" and found it very informative. Last year in a homily our pastor passed on the little-known fact that part of the effectiveness of the Pill is that it can also cause abortion. Revealing this long-secret information caused a physician friend of mine to ultimately change her family medicine practice so that she no longer prescribes the Pill.
Karen A. Knol
Annville,PA

Exceptional lady
In early 1919, in extreme Southern Missouri, a forcible rape occurred. The victim was an 18 year old girl. The rapist was a young man in his mid to late thirties; A man who just happened to be the girl's uncle by marriage. As could be expected, emotions ran high in this small rrural town. Lucky to escape terminal retribution from the girl's father, the man went to prison. Later that year, a child was born of this incident and was raised by her mother who, soon after, married.
Life took, yet again, another nasty turn for this victimized woman when cancer took her life at the age of 29. The little girl, now 10 years of age, went to live with her maternal grandparents whose standard of living, common to the area, consisted of wook stoves for cooking and heating, an outhouse, a yard full of chickens, a couple of milk cows, a smoke house, a cistern and very little more. Austere though it was, these country people were honest and true, hard working and had no idea they were missing anything at all.
The young lady finished High school, Cosmetology school, married her highschool sweetheart and opened her own beauty shop. Her husband worked at a local store and part time at the bank in town. A few years down the road would find these two in a small Central Missouri town. He would be named the President of the local bank and she would be a new full time mother of a son while contributing endless hours to civic endeavors, especially the garden club.
In the early 1990's we buried her husband, who had recently retired. Last week, at 77, she passed away. I'm reasonably sure that the family and friends of this lady would take great exception to the anti-abortionist tag of "except in cases of rape or incest." Oh well, it's just a little something to think about, as many of us did last week.
Thomas T. Stewart
Jefferson City, MO

"Child prevention"
I would like to suggest that concerning birth control, the bottom issue was correctly stated in one article: whose understanding are we going to rely upon, God or man's? (Prov. 3:4-6)
I would like to also suggest that the issue is one of "child prevention." Therefore, pointing out the abortifacients ramifications found in many birth control pills is fine, but the real issue is the motivation for wanting to prevent children (and promised blessings) and not lean upon God's understanding and allow Him to direct your paths. Choose this day who you are going to serve, man or YHWH (God).
Timothy A. Farnham
Richmond VA


Affirmation
Reading your January issue this evening was divine affirmation of something I did only this morming. I finally donned a little Christian coverage and created a literature display within my Right to Life office specifically addressing the evils and dangers of "contraceptives" and sterilization. As a former pill user (9 years non-stop) I wonder if I'll meet any children in heaven I'd never known before. Praise God, He let me keep my fertility after coming clean from all those chemicals. I'd like to add that in the sixteen years since I quit taking birth control pills, my chronic vaginal and urinary tract infections have virtually disappeared.
Name witheld
Mentor,OH

Uphill battle
Thank you for your efforts to enlighten to Christian community of the dangers of so-called birth control pills and devices. It will be an uphill battle to convince a Church that has fallen into the birth control/contraception mindset that the market has been flooded with abortifacients, but we must expose this truth to the light of day, anyway. God Bless you for your contribution to the cause-it is a great tool!
Connie Rogers Chandler, AZ

Defending NFP
In a Feb. 1997 letter, V. Mcneme raises several objections to Natural Family Planning (NFP) that I would like to address.
Viviane says that NFP is theologically the same as artificial contraception. This is not true. While artificial contraception breaks the laws of nature, NFP works in accordance with the laws of nature. Also, unlike artificial contraception, NFP is always open to the possibility of the creation of a new life if such is God's will.
Viviane claims that temporary abstinence is unnatural, that we should indulge our sexual desire for our spouse without any self-control. But it is important to remember that, as a result of the Fall, our desires, especially sexual, are unbalanced. We desire things too much, and not with the moderation which is intended. Desire may be natural, but self-control is also natural, or better yet supernatural,since it is a result of grace. In fact though, the temporary abstinence required by NFP is not that hard. Surveys of the NFP users report high levels of satisfaction with the method.
Viviane claims that natural family planning is unbiblical. But there is nothing about temporary abstinence which is unbiblical. In fact, the Old Testament includes examples where temporary abstinence is mandated. As Christians, we are not bound by all the ritual laws of the Old Testament, but you could follow those ritual laws and still use NFP.
Not everyone is called to use NFP. But for those couples who have just reasons for avoiding an immediate pregnancy, it is a method they can use in accordance with God's plan.
Tom Willis
Twillis@easystreet.com

Calling to account
We are veterans from the "anti-abortion" movement and have done many rescues and have been to jail and did what all regular protestors do. It wasn't until the Lord answered one of my prayers that we exited the "anti-abortion" movement and began our little "pro-life" "pro-conception" movement and outreach to the Churches.
I had prayed to the Lord along with the children that He would show us how to end abortion. He showed us that the answers lie in the church people wanting their children. After researching substantially and disappointingly it was revealed that over 90% of married "Christians" have used or are using some type of birth control or family planning. We began with our own church and a few signs like "All birth control/family planning is a sin against God." Almost without exception the police or sheriff were called and we usually were harrassed as if we were at an abortion mill. There have been exceptions, but not many. We also go to the Saturday Messianic Jewish services. We spent the whole year from June 1995 to May 1996 following the Promise Keepers at 50,000 plus men per outreach. My cancer got really bad and basically May '96 was the last outreach in Detroit. Then we also did Yom kippur in Sept./Oct. We take the message and the Lord does the rest.
Natalie Lochwin
Etoba, Canada

Where are our Shepherds?
Where are our Shepherds,
Why aren't they here?
Doing God's work,
What do they fear?
God loves all babies,
"Thou Shall Not Kill!"
Where are our Shepherds,
Doing God's will?
Bob Suba
Buffalo, NY

Fitzsimmon's repents?
I just recently received my first copy of Life Advocate magazine. This is by far the best publication I have ever encountered, and only regret not knowing about it years ago!
I am the Director of a crisis pregnancy center in Pennsylvania and find all aspects of your magazine extremely useful in educating both myself and my staff. Your articles are motivating and thus, make me not want ever to stop the battle for the lives of the unborn.
I just read an Associated Press article on the web tonight that Ron Fitzsimmons has admitted that "abortion opponents are right when they say the procedure (parital birth abortion) is common." He admits that the procedure is usually done on a healthy mother with a healthy fetus. We knew that all along, but it's sure wonderful to hear him admit to his error. Maybe God was working on him!
Again, please keep up the good work at your end of the battle. Please pray for all the crisis pregnancy centers across the land, as it is a major spiritual battle for us.
R. Pomon
RPomon@aol.com

Asleep in the Lord
A note to advise you that one of our Canadian pro-lifers died December 22, 1996. His name was Bill De Marois (A stage name, since he was an actor a number of years past; his birth name was Fourrier) who rescued, I believe, with the Lambs under the name "professor". He also participated in the Four Toronto rescues and attended pro-life pickets of poloticians, abortionists, etc. Perhaps somes of your readers knew Bill and would appreciate this information.
Helen and Mary Burnie
Toronto, Canada

More "responsible parenthood"
In Viviane McNemes' letter in February's 19997 issue she included natural family planning as a morally unacceptable means for married persons to attempt to regulate concieving children. The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2368 says this. "For just reasons spouses may wish to space the births of their children. It is their duty to make certain that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generousity appropriate to responsible parenthood."
NFP involves spouses cooperating through abstinence. For serious reasons this is morally acceptable. The potential to transmit life remains. With artificial contraception spouses intervene even to the point of destroying life. Artificial contraception methods attempt to exclude procreation through artificial means. This results in a contempt for conceiving children leading even to acceptance of abortion.
Stephen Gaenslen
Milwaukie, WI



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