Original post by spirituality - Google News and software by Elliott Back

Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:49 pm (GMT -5)
Lovelle’s Last Hours

She chose it all on the day she died

Lovelle Svart laughed, hugged, danced and said goodbye.

By Don Colburn | September 30, 2007

Lovelle Svart woke up Friday knowing it was the day she would die.

There was much to do. Her family and closest friends would be gathering at 11 a.m. in her mother’s apartment in the Southwest Portland assisted-living center where they both lived.

She directed trips to the grocery store and even called AAA to jump-start the dead battery of her 2006 Scion. She double-checked delivery of food platters from Fred Meyer: turkey sandwiches, strawberries and grapes, pretzels, almonds and sparkling water. There would be pink roses on the dining table and a boombox in the corner to play music, including the polka tunes she loved.

Lovelle made one last trip to “the bridge,” a wooden footbridge in a nearby park where she had found quiet sanctuary the past few weeks as painful cancerous tumors spread from her lungs through her chest and her throat.

The consummate planner, she had choreographed the day. She wanted to leave time — five or so hours — for storytelling, polka dancing and private goodbyes. And at 4 p.m., she intended to drink a fatal dose of medication, allowed by Oregon law, that would end her life.

A smoker since age 19, Lovelle found out five years ago that she had inoperable lung cancer. Radiation and chemotherapy slowed the cancer’s spread but could not stop it.

In June, Lovelle’s doctor warned her that she was likely to die within six months, making her eligible for Oregon’s unique, 10-year-old Death With Dignity Act.

What some call doctor-assisted suicide and others call physician aid-in-dying or hastened death is one of the most passionately argued issues in U.S. medicine and politics. Proponents frame the question in terms of personal choice, death with dignity and freedom from pain. Opponents say assisted suicide violates the Hippocratic tradition of “First, do no harm” and undermines the doctor-patient relationship by turning physicians from healers into accomplices of death.

Far more people ask for a lethal prescription than actually use the drug. Either their symptoms overwhelm them before they make a final decision, or they find other ways to control those symptoms, including pain.

Lovelle was determined to keep control, if possible, of when and how she died.

On July 1, she filled out and signed a one-page form titled, “REQUEST FOR MEDICATION TO END MY LIFE IN A HUMANE AND DIGNIFIED MANNER.” By signing, she agreed that she knew the expected result — death — and was aware of alternatives, such as hospice care.

By law, she also had to make two oral requests at least 15 days apart. Her doctor wrote the prescription for a lethal dose of barbiturate in late July, and she had it filled Aug. 7. She kept the orange bottle of clear liquid in a plastic grocery bag on a stack of towels in her bedroom closet — “hidden in plain sight,” as she put it.

She was still unsure whether she would take the drug, but said she took comfort in knowing it was there.

Once she knew she had less than six months to live, Lovelle also decided to try to start a more open public discussion of dying. During the past three months, mostly through a series of online video diaries for The Oregonian, she shared publicly the experience of facing death.

Lovelle, 62, has “touched a chord” by chronicling her “deeply intimate struggle with mortality,” said Dr. Susan Tolle, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University.

“People are following closely,” Tolle said Friday. “They want to know what happens to her.

“Lovelle has become their friend.”

Friday morning, Lovelle stuck a yellow note on the door of her mother’s apartment: “Please Do NOT Disturb. Unless Urgent. Thank you.”

She wore a blue sweat suit over a “Cancer Fighter” T-shirt.

Lovelle delighted in Friday’s blustery weather and a forecast that included possible thunder and lightning about the time she planned to die. “Oh, the woo-woo crowd will have a blast with that,” she said.

After AAA jump-started her car, she left the engine running to recharge the battery, returned to her apartment and set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes to remind her.

When a friend later expressed shock that Lovelle had spent part of the last morning of her life dealing with a dead car battery, Lovelle explained:

“The car goes to my sister. I didn’t want it to be dead.”

In the living room, her family and friends sat and told stories and jokes, sometimes with political references. Sometimes they laughed a bit too loudly, out of nervousness at the occasion. Twice, Lovelle came out of the bedroom where she was having private meetings to say, “No politics!”

A bit later, Lovelle and George Eighmey, head of Compassion & Choices of Oregon, an advocacy group that works with most of the Oregonians who end their lives under the Death With Dignity Act, danced a brief but rousing polka.

By midafternoon, the studiously punctual Lovelle was falling behind her schedule. No one complained.

But a little before 4 p.m., she decided it was time to make her final preparations. First, she had to take the two pre-medication pills — to calm her stomach and control vomiting. They were hard to swallow, given the tumors in her neck, but she got them down with water.

“It” would be in about an hour, she told her family. Time now to sit alone with her mom, Vi Svart, in her bedroom for the last time. The rest of the group sat in the living room, debating whether they wanted — and whether Lovelle wanted them — to be in the room with her at the end.

Lovelle’s three siblings and her mother, despite deep misgivings about her decision to end her life, supported Lovelle in her choice.

“I feel so at peace,” she said. “I’ve had such a good time. . . . And today has been so wonderful.

“I’m really ready to go. I’m ready.”

About 4:30, Lovelle announced she wanted “a hugging line” — one last hug for everybody. “You’ll be first and last,” she said, turning to her mom.

Lovelle stood in the center of the living room and embraced them one by one — long hugs with tears and laughter.

Then one last cigarette break on her favorite sitting stone next to the parking lot. Afterward, Lovelle took the elevator up to the third-floor apartment and hung up her coat and hat.

“OK,” she said to no one in particular. “I’m going to get into bed now.”

In many ways, Lovelle fits the pattern of Oregonians who choose to end their lives under the Death With Dignity Act.

Like most, she had cancer. She was in her 60s. Well educated and insured. Not formally religious. White. Enrolled in hospice care.

And fiercely independent.

“I could be very gregarious — and very private,” she said. “Very much the partygoer — and very much want to stay home and read.”

She was chosen Miss Cafeteria at Crater Lake Lodge in the summer of 1963, and she has the lemon-yellow rayon dress to prove it. She left it hanging in a plastic dry-cleaning bag on her bathroom door.

She loved surfboarding and polka-dancing and both her first and last names, “because they are different, and I like things that are different.”

And she liked, as she was the first to admit, being in control.

Lovelle decided it was more important to die by taking the lethal drug while she had a degree of control over her body than to wait for nature to take its course. But how to decide when?

Her symptoms — shortness of breath, stomach distress, weakness and pain — were intensifying. If she waited too long, she would be unable to drink and swallow the lethal drug on her cupboard shelf.

Lovelle sought a shifty window between life-worth-living and incapacity, “this tiny bit of freedom” when, for her last act, she could swallow a fatal potion in the company of family and friends. “That’s when I want to go.”

Last Sunday, after a painful, restless night, Lovelle decided it was almost time.

Swallowing was more painful than ever, like choking on broken glass or razor blades, she said. She had barely eaten in two weeks. She started taking morphine to dull her pain.

She told family and friends to come Friday.

Lovelle sat on the foot of the bed, while 10 others gathered around. A photograph of Lovelle as a curly-haired 5-year-old stood on one bedside table; on the other were a glass tumbler containing the liquid medication, which looked like water, along with a container of morphine and Lovelle’s ever-present mug of Gatorade. On the wall above the head of the bed were five more family photographs.

With some help, Lovelle yanked off her shoes and socks and slipped partway under the covers.

Eighmey stood by her bedside. He has attended more than three dozen deaths of this kind.

“Is this what you really want?”

“Actually, I’d like to go on partying,” Lovelle replied, laughing before turning serious. “But yes.”

“If you do take it, you will die.”

“Yes.”

Ever the detail person, she reminded him that she wanted her glasses and watch removed, “after I fall asleep.”

Eighmey warned her that the clear liquid would taste bitter. She needn’t gulp it. She would have about a minute and a half to get it down.

Lovelle dipped her right pinky into the glass and tasted.

“Yuck,” she said. “That’s why I need the Gatorade.”

Holding the glass, Eighmey asked her again to affirm that this was her wish.

Yes, she replied.

Someone asked, “Can we have another hugging line?”

One by one, they came to head of the bed for hugs and teary whispers.

“Sweet dreams.”

“It’s all right.”

“I know.”

“Thank you for being my big sister.”

“All the church is praying for you.”

Lovelle was sitting up in bed, three pillows propping her up.

She held the glass tumbler in her right hand, raised it to her lips and drank. It was 8 minutes after 5.

“Most godawful stuff I ever tasted in my life,” she said, making a face before taking a sip of Gatorade and plain water.

She laid back and scrunched down under the covers, glasses still on to see her loved ones.

She reached for her mother, who leaned closer, then laid down next to Lovelle, stroking her hand.

“Are you OK, honey?”

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“You’re not sick?”

“No. I’m peaceful. It stopped raining, the sun’s out. And I’ve had a wonderful day.

Her eyes closed.

“It’s starting to hit me now.”

For a while, no one moved or spoke, as Lovelle drifted into a coma. Then Lovelle’s mom asked for a prayer. Others spoke up with prayers and memories, which prompted other stories. Lovelle’s brother Larry read part of William Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality.”

Lovelle lay motionless but for the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Her heart slowed but didn’t stop.

About an hour into the vigil, Lovelle’s mom lit three white candles in cut-glass candlesticks in the living room. “She’s still with us,” she said.

Hours passed. Given what Lovelle’s body had been through — not only lung cancer but also open-heart surgery in 2004, Eighmey was surprised how long she was lingering. But not her family.

“I hate to say this,” one said with a smile, “but this is just like her.”

“A little spitfire,” agreed another.

“Above average — that’s Lovelle.”

“One last reminder that she’s the one in control.”

Jane O’Dell, a volunteer for Compassion & Choices, sat at Lovelle’s bedside all evening, holding her right hand, monitoring her breathing and regularly checking the pulse in her wrist and neck.

About 10:30 p.m., more than five hours after she had taken the drug, O’Dell signaled that Lovelle’s breathing had become shallower and more labored. Her pulse dropped, her skin turned pallid and her fingernails bluish. It was more than a minute between breaths.

Family and friends resumed their bedside vigil, and silence again fell over the dark room. Lovelle’s chest stopped moving.

Eighmey leaned over at 10:42 p.m. and put his ear to her chest to listen for a heartbeat. He stepped back, shaking his head and spoke in a quiet voice.

“She’s gone.”

Don Colburn 503-294-5124

doncolburn@news.oregonian.com

Editors decide to give voice to Lovelle Svart’s story

publiceditor@news.oregonian.com

She chose it all on the day she died

_________________
http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back

Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:12 pm (GMT -5)


Religious right may blackball Giuliani

Christian conservative leaders privately consider supporting a third-party, antiabortion candidate should Rudy Giuliani win the GOP nomination.

By Michael Scherer

Sept. 30, 2007 | WASHINGTON — A powerful group of conservative Christian leaders decided Saturday at a private meeting in Salt Lake City to consider supporting a third-party candidate for president if a pro-choice nominee like Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination.

The meeting of about 50 leaders, including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who called in by phone, took place at the Grand America Hotel during a gathering of the Council for National Policy, a powerful shadow group of mostly religious conservatives. James Clymer, the chairman of the U.S. Constitution Party, was also present at the meeting, according to a person familiar with the proceedings.

"The conclusion was that if there is a pro-abortion nominee they will consider working with a third party," said the person, who spoke to Salon on the condition of anonymity. The private meeting was not a part of the official CNP schedule, which is itself a closely held secret. "Dobson came in just for this meeting," the person said.

The decision confirms the fears of many Republican Party officials, who have worried that a Giuliani nomination would irrevocably split the GOP in advance of the 2008 general election, given Giuliani’s relatively liberal stands on gay unions and abortion, as well as his rocky marital history. The private meeting was held Saturday afternoon, during a lull in the official CNP schedule. Earlier in the day, Vice President Dick Cheney had traveled to Utah to deliver a brief address to the larger CNP gathering. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also addressed the larger group.

The decision has also been reported in an unsigned article by WorldNetDaily, a conservative online news service. "Not only was there a consensus among activists to withhold support for the Republican nominee, there was even discussion about supporting the entry of a new candidate to challenge the frontrunners," the article said. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, WorldNetDaily’s editor, Joseph Farah, attended the larger CNP gathering.

According to a New York Times profile, the CNP was established in 1981, with the help of Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, and the Rev. Tim LaHaye, the bestselling author of the "Left Behind" book series. In recent years, President Bush, former Undersecretary of State John Bolton and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have met with the group, the Times reported. CNP membership is a closely held secret, and its meetings are not publicly announced or open to the press.

Dobson, who is one of the nation’s most outspoken Christian leaders, has previously announced that he does not support Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain or former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson as nominees for the Republican Party.

Attendees at the Saturday afternoon meeting also discussed the possibility of recruiting another person to run for the Republican nomination, said the person familiar with the proceedings. Several names have already been floated, though no decision on a possible candidate has yet been made, the person said.

mscherer@salon.com

Giuliani Argues He Can Beat Hillary

By LIZ SIDOTI – 3 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani has focused on November 2008 — and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton — from the outset of his presidential bid with a strategy as uncertain as it is necessary.

"I’m not running against my Republican opponents. I’m running against the Democrats," Giuliani insists as he brushes aside reality: before going toe-to-toe with that party’s nominee, he must win the GOP nod.

It’s a tall — though not impossible — order.

The former New York mayor with the messy personal life and moderate-to-liberal positions on social issues is an unorthodox choice given that conservative voters usually hold considerable sway in Republican primaries.

But since the year began and to the surprise of many party pundits, the politician whose identity is forever linked to 9/11, has maintained his strong-contender status.

Republican strategists attribute his staying power in no small part to his central argument to GOP voters desperate for victory next fall: He can win against a Democrat — and one in particular.

"I’m the only Republican candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton," Giuliani often says.

Could be true.

But he’s got to capture his own party’s nomination first.

"There’s no question he is running a general election campaign and attempting to portray himself as the inevitable nominee," said Ed Rollins, who advised President Reagan. "But, there’s still a hard battle ahead for the Republican nomination, and he has a long way to go."

Consider that the race is remarkably fluid.

Giuliani still leads in national surveys but his advantage has eroded some over the past few months and since actor-politician Fred Thompson entered the race. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, leads in Iowa and is in a tight race with Giuliani in New Hampshire. Arizona Sen. John McCain still has a double-digit base of support nationally and appeals to independents who also are drawn to the ex-mayor.

While Giuliani is competing to varying degrees in early voting Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, he’s clearly taking a nontraditional — and untested — route to the nomination by making a stand in delegate-rich Florida on Jan. 29. It’s a gateway to the big-prize Feb. 5 primaries in California, New York and other states that Giuliani backers contend will be more amenable to a candidate of his ilk.

Perhaps more so than any other Republican rival, Thompson is a threat to the case Giuliani has been making. The Southerner is arguing, subtly thus far, that not only can he beat Clinton but that he also has conservative positions on cultural issues. But his first month as a candidate was hardly impressive.

In many respects, Giuliani has little choice but to make the "I’m electable" argument.

"This is his best strategy for getting from here to there, given who he is, where he comes from, and where the minefields are," said Stephen Hess, a George Washington University professor who has worked in several Republican administrations. "It’s out of necessity … unless he wants to recreate himself."

Giuliani is a thrice-married candidate from the liberal bastion of New York who supports abortion and gay rights, and has a past record of backing gun control measures. All that may prove a tough sell for conservative primary voters.

So, he’s asking them to overlook what he doesn’t offer — right-leaning views on cultural issues they care about — for what he says he does offer: the best opportunity for Republicans to thwart another Clinton presidency.

Aides argue that GOP voters are seeking someone who encompasses the whole package, rather than casting their ballots on a single issue.

They also point to polls that show him winning in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with Clinton. But surveys 14 months before a general election are hardly predictive.

Still, relying on such polls, Giuliani claims to be the only Republican able to put in play Democratic-leaning states with lots of electoral votes, such as New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois.

"The reality is we need a candidate who can run in all 50 states," Giuliani says. "I can."

That theory, thus far, is just a theory.

Giuliani takes great care not to criticize his GOP rivals and sidesteps invitations to do so. He does, however, counter their charges. In the most high-profile case, Romney has accused Giuliani of reigning over a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants in New York. Giuliani, in turn, claimed Romney allowed such cities to flourish in Massachusetts as governor.

For weeks, Giuliani hammered, as far as Republicans are concerned, the ultimate trifecta of liberal bogeymen — the left-leaning interest group MoveOn.org, The New York Times and Clinton. He blasted MoveOn for buying an ad in the Times that assailed the top U.S. commander in Iraq, challenged Clinton to denounce it, and criticized the newspaper for slashing the price of it.

Giuliani would have his share of vulnerabilities as a general election candidate, not the least of which is his personal life.

A top Clinton backer recently suggested all that would be fair game. Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, referencing Giuliani’s marriages and estrangement from his two children, said: "There’s a lot that the rest of the country is going to get to know about Mayor Giuliani that the folks in New York City know."

In that sense, Giuliani as the GOP nominee could actually end up being the Democrats’ greatest gift.

EDITOR’S NOTE _ Liz Sidoti covers presidential politics for The Associated Press.

_________________
http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back

Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:16 pm (GMT -5)
A Comeback for Confession

Thursday, Sep. 27, 2007

By TIM PADGETT

One of the first things Roman Catholics do when they enter the confessional is utter how long it has been since their last confession. But Franca Gargiulo can’t remember the last time. Gargiulo is a spiritually thoughtful woman who went to Catholic school as a girl and at 44 still attends Mass at St. Dominic Catholic Church in San Francisco. Confession–telling your sins to a priest and receiving absolution–is one of her faith’s seven sacraments, but for Gargiulo it now seems as anachronistic as prayer veils and meatless Fridays. “It lost its efficacy for me,” says Gargiulo. “It was too much a perfunctory exercise about church rules instead of Christ’s teachings.”

Increasingly, it seems the only thing U.S. Catholics confess these days is that they rarely if ever confess. In a 2005 survey by the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate at Georgetown University, 42% said they never go to confession. Only 14% said they go once a year, and just 2% said they go regularly. The fading away of one of Catholicism’s best-known traditions has finally gotten alarming enough that bishops have begun turning to modern marketing tools to reverse it. “Confession isn’t about rationalizing or explaining away the wrongs we do,” says Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who has used radio commercials and billboard ads to promote the sacrament in his archdiocese. “It’s about having the courage to admit them and experience the healing forgiveness that’s waiting.”

Any revival effort has a long way to go. Confession has been in steady decline for decades. Reasons range from long-standing doubts about church teachings to the current obsession with public mea culpas that have largely supplanted the confessional booth. One oft mentioned cause is Vatican II, the 1960s church council whose reforms stressed what Pope John XXIII called “the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.” Since confession, with its accompanying penances, is all too often associated with the latter, many Catholics use Vatican II as a cue to scratch the sacrament from their to-do list. Some also cite Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), which reaffirmed the church’s ban on contraception. Because few U.S. Catholics consider birth control immoral, Humanae Vitae has led to a wider re-evaluation of what constitutes sin–and whether confession is really necessary.

The church’s sexual-abuse scandal has also taken its toll. Catholics felt that the bishops–many of them accused of enabling pedophile priests–were arrogantly evading the same kind of penance they demand from their flocks. “The very teachers of the sacrament of confession seemed to be ignoring a constitutive part of that sacrament,” says the Rev. James Martin, associate editor of the Jesuit-run magazine America. “It made the confession crisis worse.” Wuerl, who in fact was praised for taking a hard line on abusive priests, concedes that those are “significant issues.” But he also believes that Catholics are tired enough of America’s no-accountability culture to make the rite of owning up appealing again–as long as it involves, he adds, a “spirit of gentleness.” A campaign Wuerl ran this past Lenten season–dubbed “The Light Is On for You”–made confessions available on Wednesday evenings as well as the traditional Saturday afternoons. Priests were instructed to create warm and well-lit atmospheres at their churches.

Some parishes reported the effort a bust, but many others got results. At St. Patrick’s in Rockville, Md., the Rev. Adam Park took a book along the first evening, but instead of reading it, heard confessions for two hours straight. “I think folks rediscovered that getting rid of that weight in a confidential setting can be a freeing experience,” he says. Mary Ellen Gwynn, a nurse in Upper Marlboro, Md., who often drove by one of the campaign billboards, agrees: “It reminded me that while telling mistakes to a friend can be cathartic, this seems to do something deeper to help me fix them.”

Dioceses in Philadelphia, Phoenix and Toledo, Ohio, say they’re planning similar Lenten campaigns for 2008–and some priests are even hearing confessions in venues likes shopping malls. Church watchers like Martin applaud all this as a sign that “the church, like Jesus, is capable of being creative about getting these things across to people.” Others, like Gregory Baum, emeritus professor of theology at McGill University in Montreal, call it a belated Hail Mary pass. “Traditional confession,” he says, “just isn’t part of Catholic spirituality anymore.” Maybe, but for now the church is keeping the light on, just in case.

_________________
http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back

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Original post by spirituality - Google News and software by Elliott Back

Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:19 pm (GMT -5)

A ‘gay’ guide to GOP candidates

WorldNetDaily

Between the Lines

Joseph Farah

September 27, 2007

1:00 a.m. Eastern

Link to original

Salon magazine recently performed a public service for homosexuals – publishing a thorough "gay" guide to the GOP presidential candidates.

But it’s not just a public service for homosexuals. It’s also a public service for those of us who see the homosexual political agenda as extremely dangerous to the very survival of our nation.

I thought I would perform a public service myself by making it unnecessary for you to read through a voluminous report in a publication littered with soft-core porn, obscenity, vulgarity and profanity by summarizing it right here.

Who is the most homosexual-friendly of the Republicans seeking the presidency?

It’s Rudy Giuliani, hands down, according to the report.

It mentions his comfort in dressing in drag and squealing "with girlish delight when real estate mogul Donald Trump nuzzled his fake breasts." It mentions how, after his divorce, he moved in with his close friends – a homosexual couple he agreed to marry "if they ever legalize gay marriage." It mentions how Giuliani marched in "gay pride" parades and, as late as 2002, wrote a letter commemorating the "triumph" of the 1969 Stonewall riots, the Lexington and Concord of the homosexual activist movement. It mentions that he opposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage – even in his bid to remake his image as the second coming of Ronald Reagan.

I agree with Salon. Giuliani is, far and away, the most homosexual-friendly person seeking the Republican nomination. It’s one reason I wouldn’t vote for him. On so many cultural issues, he’s part of the problem, not part of the solution for America.

Who’s next?

According to Salon, it’s John McCain.

"With rare exception, he has avoided engaging in the politics of sexuality through much of his political career, evidently because he doesn’t really see much of a role for government in these matters," explains Salon.

The report also reminds us that during his 2000 run for president, he launched blistering attacks on Jerry Falwell and other evangelical leaders, calling them "agents of intolerance."

He, too, opposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage – the only way to prevent it, as far as I can see.

I have other reasons for having decided not to vote for McCain, no matter what. But for those who see him as a viable alternative, consider this virtual endorsement by an advocate for the homosexual activists.

Who is the third most homosexual-friendly GOP candidate?

This might surprise some people. According to Salon, it’s Ron Paul. And that makes sense given his view of the institution of marriage. Paul said, at the debate I moderated last week, "Marriage only came about, and getting license only came about, in recent history for health reasons."

Actually, those of us who read and believe the Bible see it a little differently. The first marriage was between Adam and Eve. It was God-ordained. It’s an institution created in heaven, not on earth.

Ron Paul is not on my list of possibilities for other reasons. But I’m finding new reasons to oppose him all the time.

The fourth most homosexual friendly Republican in the running is, according to Salon, Fred Thompson.

Thompson famously declared his opposition to a constitutional amendment to define marriage as an institution between one man and one woman by explaining it was unnecessary. On Sept. 7, he declared, "There have been no state legislatures that have affirmatively allowed gay marriages in the United States." That same day, California legislators did just that.

While initially somewhat excited about Thompson as a possible electable alternative to the other front-runners, responses like this and his avoidance altogether of the Values Voters Debate has rendered me extremely skeptical about voting for him under any circumstances.

In fifth place is Mitt Romney, dubbed by Salon, "the switch-hitter." The report notes that his position on the issue today is 180 degrees opposite from the way he governed in Massachusetts.

"The Romney record on these issues is such a muddle that his performance in the White House is difficult to predict," concludes Salon.

I agree. Anyone willing to take a chance on that crapshoot? Not me.

In sixth place is Mike Huckabee.

"He has told reporters that he is open to state-sponsored civil unions that would bestow the legal rights of marriage on gay and lesbian couples," says the report.

It strikes me that Huckabee is trying to be everything to everyone. Didn’t we have enough of that with the election of another Arkansas governor by the name of Bill Clinton?

The other candidates vying for the GOP nomination could all be safely described as open, unadulterated opponents of the homosexual agenda, according to both Salon and my own research. They are: Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback and Alan Keyes.

It seems to me homosexual activists have more choices among the Republican candidates than do traditional Republicans.

_________________
O Crux, Ave, Spes Unica!

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back

Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:18 pm (GMT -5)
Student Sues School For Rejecting Anti-abortion Club

Saturday , September 29, 2007

Link to original

AP

STAFFORD, Va. —

A Stafford County high school student is suing the county’s school system for refusing to let her start an anti-abortion club.

The conservative Alliance Defense Fund is representing the student, who is not named in the lawsuit because she’s a minor claiming her constitutional rights were violated.

Alliance Defense Fund lawyer David Cortman says the school should immediately permit the formation of the "pro-life club."

Colonial Forge High School Principal Lisa Martin denied the request for the club, saying it doesn’t relate to the curriculum. In a letter to the student, Martin said the family life curriculum prohibits teachers from discussing abortion.

But Cortman says the school has other clubs that don’t appear to be directly linked with studies, like the Young Republicans and Young Democrats.

_________________
TRADIDI QUOD ET ACCEPI

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back

Original post by spirituality - Google News and software by Elliott Back

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It’s been a packed week but good. We have moved into the new offices in Canton (Dr. Stapfs old office) and are set up. Office hours temporarily are 10: till 2 and come by anytime. We also will be having our first service tomorrow on the new stage and new seating arrangement at the warehouse. The booth at the fair was a success as hundreds were met. I announced Wednesday night that we will be changing our service format in the near future. Our Sunday nights will be for small groups meeting at the warehouse doing bible studies. There will be several groups meeting and each will last approx. 7 weeks. Because we will be meeting at the warehouse there will be child care and children’s classes available as well. We will be moving our Sunday night service to Wed. with full praise and worship and message. Our prayer meeting will be on another night which we will announce later. Please be praying for all that is going on, that souls will continually be saved, and that many will continue to grow in their faith.

We will be having another coffee house on New Year’s Eve. Let us know if you are interested in coming. If the attendance is as great as with the last one we may have to issue tickets because of seating capacity. The bands will be announced later upon confirmation.

Ground is broken on the new building of which we will be using 3000 sq. ft. for youth, children, and nursery. Also there will be offices included in this space. this will be up and going by the first of the year.

God is so good!

Blessings
Matt

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back

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Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:42 pm (GMT -5)
San Mateo Catholic Church bans anti-abortion activist

By Mark Abramson

MediaNews

San Jose Mercury News

09/28/2007

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7027605

St. Matthew Catholic Church in San Mateo has banned anti-abortion activist Ross Foti from the parish following a disagreement between the pastor and Foti about whether Foti should cover up his graphic anti-abortion message and which Masses he should attend.

The Rev. Anthony McGuire notified the 72-year-old Belmont resident, in a sharply worded letter dated Sept. 24, that he is not welcome at the church.

"You informed me that you would not conform with one of the demands which we had agreed to on Thursday, Sept. 20; namely that you would not attend the children’s Mass on Friday mornings," McGuire wrote to Foti. "You also agreed to cover the pictures and words on your truck when you came to church. Because you reversed your position … you are no longer welcome at St. Matthew’s Church."

Parents have long complained that their children were being exposed to his graphic poster-size images of aborted fetuses and written words on his truck, which he parks in a public lot adjacent to the church during Mass several days a week. He protests at Planned Parenthood on Palm Avenue in San Mateo after Mass.

"He was not keen about covering up the words, but he was OK with it," McGuire said. "I felt for a while he was moving in a good direction, but it unraveled."

McGuire threatened to call police if Foti entered church property again.

Parents say their children see the pictures and words when they are dropped off for school.

Claire Grant, one of the parents who met with Foti and McGuire earlier this year in an effort to resolve the dispute, filed a court order against Foti to stop him from any harassing activities. Grant could not be reached for comment.

Foti refutes McGuire’s contention that he agreed to stop attending the children’s Mass permanently, and said he never agreed to cover up the anti-abortion words on his truck.

"I’m not going to give up. I’m going to find every which way I can to beat this in a legal manner," Foti said. "He didn’t have a reason to kick me out. I am very distressed and saddened that the pastor sided with the parents."

Parents have contacted San Mateo city officials, which prompted the city to look into selling the parking lot to the church.

"The city’s interest in conveying the property to the church is there is no public benefit from the parking lot because of its location," City Attorney Shawn Mason said.

Foti said he wants a public apology from the church and that he wants to be invited back to St. Matthew. He also contends that the graphic pictures do not harm children. "In time I intend to park there again," Foti said.

Original post by mattpruett@faith-net.net (Faith Community Church of Canton NC) and software by Elliott Back