Seth & Aubrie Drayer

November 29, 2010 Dear Judah, Your heart was supposed to start beating today or tomorrow, according to my maternity nursing textbook, but instead, I spent the day grieving the end of your incredibly short life. I don’t know how to express the feelings within me. When I began to suspect your existence just a few days ago, my heart swelled with new emotions. I felt this strange new mix of excitement, fear, joy, trepidation, and mostly love. Perhaps it was the love that surprised me the most. How could I love with such fierceness someone I had never met? How could I have such a depth of affection for someone whose face I had never seen—someone who didn’t yet even have a face? When I looked at the line on the pregnancy test, I was amazed. Suddenly, merely in looking at that positive result, I had taken on a new identity. I was a mother. You gave me a new title, and with that title, a new, sacred responsibility. And although it was not a title or responsibility that...

From fund-raising to campus outreach, I have recently spent quite a few hours on the late autumn roads between the land of the Bucks and that of the Hoosiers. In order to take advantage of the time, I listened to a great American classic recorded onto DVD: Uncle Tom's Cabin . This masterpiece by Harriet Beecher Stowe holds a privileged position in the American literary hall of fame---for it portrayed the humanness of the enslaved black man to a culture which was in great need of an education. Listening to the characters argue over the institution of slavery, I was struck once again by the glaring parallels among the great injustices which continue to plague our world. Take, for instance, the following challenge issued in Stowe's oeuvre by one cynic to a character who is decidedly against human slavery: "But what would happen if we were to set all of these slaves free? They are better off this way. They can't fend for themselves." Today we recognize such an argu...

I was listening to the radio the other day, and lyrics from a song I’ve heard dozens of times suddenly jumped out at me: “Gravity is working against me And gravity wants to bring me down. . . Gravity, stay the h*** away from me.” -“Gravity,” John Mayer I can sympathize with Mayer’s point. Who hasn’t felt this way at some time or another? Sometimes it seems that the forces of nature are against us, and in these moments, it can be tempting to wish that those forces weren’t there in the first place. But the truth is that without gravity, we could not live life as we know it. Even if our bodies were designed to live without it, imagine how impossible it would be to develop relationships, visit favorite places, or enjoy the seasons without anything to hold us down. Though sometimes frustrating and certainly limiting, gravity enables us to experience the world around us at full potential. Its grounding force gives us constancy, without which we would be lost. I have observe...

Stephanie Gray, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, wrote this yesterday. I am reposting. As I sit at the end of a very long day that began with filming the arrest of 5 peaceful pro-life students at Carleton University, my mind swirls with reflections for the pro-life movement: There has been an outpouring of support for these courageous young adults. From news reports to blogs to Facebook posts and tweets, everyone is talking about this injustice. But where was that fervor for the over 270 children killed by abortion today? As I was filming the appalling arrest of these kind and respectful students, my eyes filled with tears and I held back sobs. But tonight I found myself asking, "Did I cry for the babies who were slaughtered today?" Did you? A whole community is rallying to action for these students because we /saw/ their plight. Perhaps we fail to rally for pre-born children with that same passion and fervour because their victimization i...

Please watch as dear friends of ours are silenced for exposing the truth of the grisly reality that is abortion.

“The Communists convened a congress of all Christian bodies in our Parliament building. There were four thousand priests, pastors, and ministers of all denominations—and these men of God chose Joseph Stalin as honorary president of this congress. At the same time he was president of the World Movement of the Godless and a mass murderer of Christians. One after another bishops and pastors arose and declared that communism and Christianity are fundamentally the same and could coexist. One minister after another said words of praise toward communism and assured the new government of the loyalty of the Church. “My wife and I were present at this congress. Sabina told me, ‘Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.’ I said to her, ‘If I do so, you lose your husband.’ She replied, ‘ I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband. ’” - Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ Occasionally, one reads something that deeply impacts one’s pe...

Reading a familiar rundown of the debate to define personhood today, I was struck by an odd thought: how do I know I'm a person? Tom Scheve, author of the article posted on How Stuff Works , leaves the reader utterly confused by the end of his effort to wrestle with the great divorce man has created within himself---separating his humanity from his personhood. Writes Scheve, "The question of personhood has two interrelated components: exactly when human life begins -- or ends -- and whether being alive is the same a [sic] being human. Even if everyone agreed on when life begins, there would still be wide disagreement on whether being alive gives a human automatic personhood." That personhood does not come automatically with being a member of the family Homo sapiens is considered by many to be simple fact. Nevertheless, as Scheve explains, attempting to decide what is and is not a person is a rather tricky matter. Some prerequisites for personhood are laid down---persona...