Ultrasound Insanity

January 25, 2017

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/01/ultrasound-woman-pregnancy/514109

            If you have the heart, or the stomach, to be exposed to the barbaric insanity that now characterizes the Progressive Left’s defense of abortion, I would invite you to endure the above article.  This screed attacking the use of ultrasound technology as some kind of weapon of misinformation beggars belief!  Pro death apologists are now reduced to attacking the ability to see a baby in the womb as a weapon of the pro-life Right to misrepresent and mislead the mothers of those babies. It illustrates just how desperate the defenders and providers of abortion have become as they see their denial of the humanity of the unborn  dismantled by science.

            One thing I find truly distressing in all of this is the inhumanity revealed by portions of our society who view themselves as enlightened and elite.  They position themselves as defenders of women, yet appear to be absolutely blind to the frightening callousness and hypocrisy that characterizes their position.  As they moan and groan over their fear that “women’s health” is about to be sacrificed on the altar of pro-life conservatism, what they are really bemoaning is their fear that the ability of a woman to kill her unborn child at any time during her pregnancy is being reined in.  By the way, have you noticed how the whole “women’s health” mantra has merely become the Left’s code talk for abortion on demand?  They’re really not concerned about women’s health in general.  When’s the last time you saw feminists marching in protest over obesity or drug use or alcoholism or the myriad sexual diseases associated with rampant promiscuity?  The marches last week in Washington D.C. and elsewhere had an undeniable central theme – Women must have the unfettered right to kill their unborn child whenever they choose – period.  

            President Trump’s action this week in directing that no federal funds be used overseas to fund or further abortion was met with screams of fury from the pro death crowd.  How dare he do such a thing!  They are accusing him of sentencing women to death by coat hanger or to lives of poverty and destitution!  If you read, or listen to, some of these attacks, I would ask you to take note of something.  Notice what is not mentioned.  There is absolutely no recognition of the fact that thousands upon thousands of unborn children have just been given a reprieve from execution by President Trump’s executive action.  That is not mentioned because to the pro-abortion crowd that doesn’t matter.  Understand - those babies lives don’t matter.  They are being executed on the holy altar of pragmatism and sexual license.  If their humanity must be denied, if their defenselessness must be disregarded, so be it.  In the demented value system of the left, an unborn baby is only of value, only a human being, if its mother deems it so. 

            I have four children and six grandchildren.  One of the most thrilling moments in my life was the first time I was able to see one of my children in her mother’s womb.  I will never forget it.  To see the technology that allowed that blessing denigrated and criticized because it gets in the way of denying the humanity of a child is almost beyond my comprehension.

            In the next few days one of the most important decisions President Trump will make is to be announced.  He will be presenting his nominee to fill the vacant position on our nation’s highest court.  The pro-abortion forces are already lining up to do everything they can to prevent a pro-life candidate from being nominated and approved.  Please be in prayer that God will grant us the blessing of a judge who will vote to protect the lives of our most vulnerable human beings – the unborn.

Again, I have to say, it breaks my heart that in this country we harbor, and many honor, those who openly and vociferously argue for the slaughter of the unborn.  Such implacable disregard for the sanctity of human life should send shudders up all our backs.  It is but a very short walk, logically, from the slaughter of the unborn to the selective extinction of the elderly.  The same arguments used to support one will also support the other.  We are, ethically and morally, arguing positions with, quite literally, millions of innocent lives on the line.

I believe God has granted us a brief opportunity to change the course this country has been on for the past eight years.  May men and women of courage and faith speak up for the sanctity of all human life, particularly that of the unborn.   

Happy Birthday, Daddy

January 11, 2016

My Dad, Everett Eugene Rouse, turned 92 on the 7^th of this month.

Daddy grew up in the midst of the Depression.  Most of his early years were spent on a small farm in eastern Kansas.  His father, Elbert Rouse, operated a gas station, worked odd jobs, and did what he could to feed his family.  Daddy remembers eating potatoes every meal and how happy everyone would be when there was squirrel or rabbit on the menu.  He wore hand-me-downs from his two older brothers and put cardboard in the soles of his shoes when they wore through.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Daddy was sixteen.  He remembers listening to the radio address by President Roosevelt, and how the attack galvanized the whole nation.  When he graduated from Fredonia High School, he tried to join the army.  They rejected him because he was deaf in one ear – probably from a childhood illness.

Papa worked for the Post Office for a while, then as a mechanic in a small shop.  He started to work for Beech Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas in the late 1940’s, and would work there for the next 37 years, until he retired.  He had a strong work ethic.  I don’t know how many times I heard as a kid growing up, “If you’re willing to work, you’ll always have a job.”

Daddy would marry my mother, Beatrice Marie Rouse, in 1948.  They met on a blind date around Valentine’s Day, then married in July of that same year.  They would go on to share more than sixty three years together.  Daddy had previously been engaged to another woman, but he broke it off with her when she told him she would quit smoking, then he caught her still lighting up. 

I’m the oldest of four children.  We never had much money as I grew up.  Mom was a stay-at-home Mom, and Papa didn’t make a lot of money at Beech.  However, we always had enough.  We moved out to a farm near Benton, Kansas in the early sixties, and food was never an issue.  Daddy made sure we planted a huge garden, and we always kept chickens and raised cattle and hogs.  Mom would can hundreds of quarts of green beans, corn, peas, tomatoes, pears, peaches, and apples.  We kept milk cows and so milk, cream, butter, and cheese were never an issue.

Papa was baptized for the remission of his sins in the late 1940’s – in major part won to the Lord because of my Mom’s faith and faithfulness.  He would serve as a deacon in the church of Christ for years, then eventually as an elder for more than thirty years.  As a child growing up, if the doors of the building were open, we were there for services.  Dad took his faith very seriously.  One of the memories of him I’ll always carry with me is him sitting in his chair in the living room with his Bible in his lap, studying for a class he would be teaching at Sunday School.

Mom died in 2011.  Daddy, who had always been an active and vigorous man, despite hip and knee surgeries and a bout with colon cancer, really went downhill after she passed away.  It was like half of him died when she did.  Within a year, we had to put him in a nursing home, and he has been there ever since.  His hearing and eyesight are pretty well gone, and his mind is finding it easier and easier to forget, but he still has a sense of humor and the Rouse appetite for food is as strong as ever.

Please indulge me in a few observations about a good man who’s lived 92 years so far.

Folks who grew up in the Depression are marked by that experience.  Daddy never threw anything away if he even remotely thought it could be used again.  He pulled nails out of boards, straightened them out, and put them in jars for future use.  On the farm we had lots of old tire tubes around because they could be patched if necessary;  buckets of screws and washers; used auto parts and spark plugs; he kept every tool he ever had, no matter what shape it might be in.  He wasn’t a hoarder, just the ultimate recycler.  In a day and time of throw away everything, I think about a man who really valued what he had.

Papa is a highly moral man.  He held himself to a high standard, and he did the same with others.  Some would probably call him judgmental, and with some justification.  But it is also undeniable that my father was an honorable man.  I have never known of my father to lie, ever.  His word was always his bond.  Always.  I never knew him to welch on a debt or obligation of any kind.  His speech was always pure – free of the cursing you hear so much today.  Daddy was once accused by a man he supervised at work of discriminating against him.  Part of the accusation was that Dad cursed him on the job.  All the charges were dropped when those investigating heard from Daddy’s fellow employee’s “If that man claims Big E (that’s what they called him at work) cursed him out, he’s lying.  Big E don’t cuss.”

My father has taught, by his life, the value of faithfulness.  He was absolutely faithful to my Mother.  I never saw him conduct himself in any way other than honorable toward any woman.  He has lived a life of faithfulness to His Lord.  If you spent any time with or around him, there would never be a question of his devotion to the Lord and His will.

Daddy recently asked me why he was still around; why God hasn’t taken him home.  He’s frustrated with his physical limitations and his inability to work and serve.  That’s what he spent his whole life doing.  I told him God numbers our days and he obviously wasn’t done with Papa yet.  I said maybe he’s left him here still to remind the rest of us about the importance of living your life right.

Happy birthday, Daddy.  I love you.