Yesterday, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that will ban most abortions in that state. The law, which passed the Iowa house 51-46 .
The new law will ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected (roughly six weeks into gestation). This is the most restrictive abortion law on the books in the country. Some women don’t even realize they’re pregnant prior to six weeks. This new law gives a very short window when a pregnancy could e terminated in Iowa.
This law is facing backlash and criticism from abortion advocates.
NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue said that it was “a sad day for women and families in Iowa”
In an official statement, governor Reynolds:
“I believe that all innocent life is precious and sacred, and as governor, I pledged to do everything in my power to protect it…I understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. But if death is determined when a heart stops beating, then doesn’t a beating heart indicate life? For me, it is immoral to stop an innocent beating heart. For me, it is sickening to sell fetal body parts. For me, my faith leads me to protect every Iowan, no matter how small.”
The law will undeniably face legal challenges and could potentially go before the supreme court.
I applaud the Iowa governor of Iowa and the state’s legislature as they make a law that will protect unborn babies in their state.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons @rodhullandemu
Alfie Evans is a British baby who is fighting for his life with a rare medical condition.
There is a hospital in Italy that will treat the child. Italy has arranged to transport the child from Britain.
But British courts are disallowing this. Instead, they’re scaling back treatment on Alfie which will result in his death.
I heard a chilling argument today. The logic of it was that the parents are biased (after all, it’s their kid) and that they’re not really in a position to objectively evaluate this decision.
The problem with that argument is that it’s assuming that if they were in a position to be more levelheaded, they would see what makes sense and just let their son die. But that goes against the instincts of any good parent. Furthermore, it’s not as if most sets of parents who aren’t in this situation look at it and think “Of course they should let him die.” For most parents, they would fight for their child to get treatment, as a moral absolute.
The other part of the argument that I found disturbing was that it argued that since the parents wouldn’t be good judges of what was best to do in this situation, courts and panels would be better equipped. After all, they have educated professionals who are able to evaluate the case.
But groups of educated professional people have concocted some of the most egregious evils in history.
This shouldn’t even be a debate. This literally costs the United Kingdom nothing. Another country is paying and willing to transport Alfie.
A civilized and free country should not interfere with this. It’s evil.
Pray for Alfie and his parents.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
Alfie Evans is a 23 month old British baby who has a rare neurological condition. He is in a semi-vegetative state. Machines have been keeping the baby alive. Courts have ruled that the treatment must be discontinued, even though there is an Italian hospital which has offered to attempt treatments for him. Alfie has been granted Italian citizenship.
There has been a long legal battle. Yesterday, Alfie was taken off of life support.
His parents are continuing to appeal.
They are actually giving the child mouth-to-mouth, literally breathing life into him in shifts to keep him alive in hopes of getting a new appeal.
What a tragedy.
What love from his parents. They’re fighting tooth and nail to keep him alive.
How sickening it is that the British government and courts have this type of power. Alfie is not the court’s son. A court should have nothing to do with this case. His parents want to take their son to Italy for treatment. Let them go.
Unfortunately, this is not the first such case we have seen from the United Kingdom.
Last summer, another British baby, Charlie Gard died in a similarly tyrannical case. Gard has an extremely rare mitochondrial DNA disease. There was an experimental treatment tat Gard could have received in the United States. Funds were raised. But the British courts would not allow the family to take their own son to the US.
Courts should not be able to judge if a baby lives or dies. In both cases, foreign governments were allowing these two babies to receive treatment on their soil, so it’s not like either would have been taking resources from the United Kingdom.
Certainly, in both situations, the odds of successful treatment were and are highly uncertain and unlikely. But it’s still worth trying.
Unfortunately, this story seems to be very underplayed in the States. I’ve done searches on some popular news sites like CNN and MSNBC and there is no mention of Alfie Evans on either site.
But we’re not all that different from the British. We have similar sensibilities. And it’s chilling that the courts are ruling against the life of a child for the second time this year.
We must have a value in the sanctity of human life.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
A long investigative story from the Chicago Tribune reports on several allegations of moral filings from Bill Hybels, the founding pastor of Willow Creek, a suburban Chicago church which is one of the largest churches in America.
The article says:
The alleged behavior included suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss, and invitations to hotel rooms. It also included an allegation of a prolonged consensual affair with a married woman who later said her claim about the affair was not true, the Tribune found.
I visited Willow a few times when I was in seminary. I like the church. I truly hope that these allegations are not true. But the most important thing is the truth. Unfortunately, it seems that these types of sins are often swept under the rug. Some of these allegations go as far back as the 90s. Willow Creek did an internal investigation through an outside party who cleared Hybels of any wrongdoing after conducting 29 interviews and reading through hundreds of emails.
I hope it’s not true.
But where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. The Tribune article includes on the record statements of several people who allegedly misconduct. The group also included former pastors and staffers at the church, notably former Willow Creek teaching pastor John Ortberg who’s now pastoring a church in the Bay Area.
I’m sometimes skeptical of church internal investigations. In megachurches, a founding pastor, especially one as dynamic as Hybels, is crucial to the health of the organization. It can be crippling to the entire congregation’s longterm viability to lose the pastor, especially amid scandal.
I guess I don’t understand why other respected leaders would say that there’s truth to these allegations if they didn’t think that. I don’t think there’s a massive conspiracy from within the Christian community against Bill Hybels or Willow Creek for no reason.
In society, it’s become something of a punchline: well known Christian leaders having and/or pursuing affairs. It’s tragic. Just a couple days ago, a megachurch pastor in Tennessee (rightfully) stepped down/was pushed out after revealing a sexual assault perpetrated by him in 1998.
Stories like these should be a reminder to all church leaders (and to all Christians) to continue to walk in integrity daily, to live out what we believe, and to fight temptation and compromise. The truth matters. Victims of assault deserve the truth to be brought to light.
I pray for the people of Willow Creek, and for the victims.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
I’m pro-life. I believe life begins at conception. At the moment of conception, a fertilized ova is genetically distinct from both of the parents.
My home state, Ohio, has a proposed bill that would totally ban abortion.
The nation is roughly evenly split on being pro-life vs pro choice. There is also a lot of nuance within both of those positions. For instance, most people who are pro-choice are not proponents of late term abortions. And most people who are pro-life are not pro-life is an absolute where they think there’s never a circumstance in which an abortion is morally justified.
It’s interesting as I’ve seen my camp (the conservative evangelical camp) approach this issue.
With the question of constitutionality, if Ohio’s bill were passed and signed into law, I am seeing pro-life Christians arguing as to why it would be constitutional. Others are arguing that even if it were unconstitutional, who cares about the courts, and that the state should just ignore it for the sake of protecting life (not saying I disagree with that sentiment).
I think this is the wrong starting place.
It doesn’t matter if it would be constitutional or not. Because no state would pass a law where abortion were legally viewed as tantamount to murder. Even among pro-life people, that view is a minority.
The idea that states can simply ban it, when there is no ban, when most people favor it in certain circumstances, as moral as the suggestion might be, what’s morally right is not always realistically passable.
I think this “all or nothing approach” overlooks the real efforts that lawmakers are working on in states all over the country. 41 states have passed laws where there must be a licensed doctor providing the procedure. 42 states have passed laws that limit when an abortion can happen within a pregnancy.
More work needs to be done. I’m not saying this is ideal. I’m not saying the current laws are good. I’m just saying that as much as Christians (myself included) might want more laws to protect the lives of the unborn, that we also need to be pragmatic in pursuing something that is an uphill battle and that millions of people disagree with. That millions of people see as a right. All victories for the pro-life movement are hard fought.
Even if a total ban were proposed, it would likely be struck down (an Ohio law banning abortions on fetuses with downs syndrome was put on hold last week). And even if the state chose to ignore a court ruling, you would still need to find a jury of 12 people who would convict a doctor or a mother for having an abortion?
We need to keep beating the drum, educating people that life truly does begin at conception. We need to make sure that the necessary programs have the sufficient funding to support a baby that goes up for adoption. We need to keep chipping away at the laws.
To think an all out ban could pass is to be divorced from reality.
Once again, I’m pro-life, I feel that a baby has a right to be born and to live. It’s a child created in the image of God. And it’s tragic.
But it’s a sinful and fallen world, and we can’t always accomplish everything we want in one fell swoop.
I feel like these attempts are trying to sprint a marathon.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
Yesterday, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that will ban most abortions in that state. The law, which passed the Iowa house 51-46 .
