By James Mallonee

#1 I do not believe in abortion for any reason. Personal story time... A girl in my church youth group, 15, was raped. She wanted to marry another young man and try to raise the baby, or at least give the child up for adoption. Why? Because she did not believe that the child should pay for what had happened, and she believed that human life is important. Her parents did not want a scandal and did not want the church or community to find out. They were pressuring her. I went to Basic Training during this time and when I returned home after Basic, I found a changed young woman. Hurt, scared emotionally and physically. No, I don't believe that a person ever has the right to kill a child for "convenience".

#2 If a person is hurt doing something that is dangerous, do we ban that activity? If a person is hurt committing a crime, do we make it acceptable in society in general? These are things that we as a society are doing. "Legalize Pot". "Physician Assisted Suicide". "Mandatory seat belt and motor cycle helmet laws". "Suing tobacco companies". What happened to self control and personal responsibility? Most people seem to have the idea of "freedom" mixed up with "license", that is "I can do whatever I want to do with absolutely no responsibility". When something bad happens, that's when they blame someone else.

#3 Our society has changed. It continues to change. 20 years ago few people were alarmed at the changes. Most churches denounced abortion, but few did anything about it. Now people have realized that something has been lost in the American culture (see above). Ex-President Clinton was a symptom of some of those changes. I believe that things will get a lot worse.

#4 Abortion is not new. The worship of Moloch is described in the Bible as "passing a child through the flames". An unwanted child would be placed on the outstretched arms of an idol and burned to death in the hopes that the "god" would grant a request. The people of Carthage had a similar practice, as did the Aztecs. Their civilizations were destroyed. When will God's blessing be taken from us?

#5 You can curse the darkness or you can light a candle. Light illuminates and vermin scurry for cover when their deeds can be seen.