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restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
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Christians Must Speak Out When a Woman Is Being Starved to Death!
Dear DBO Readers:
The issue of life is not some abstract national debate to be dabbled in, but a struggle with the very forces of evil. Nowhere is this more evident than in the life-and-death struggle being played out this very day in Florida. It’s time for all of us, and especially our church leaders, to stand in the gap on behalf of the life of Terri Schindler-Shiavo. Here’s what we can and must do:
1. Educate ourselves about Terri’s case at the family’s website: www.terrisfight.org. The facts are simply mind-boggling. Among other things, the website notes: “Terri is not in a coma. Like you and I, Terri has separate periods of sleep and wakefulness. Like you and I, she is able to breathe normally, maintain a normal heartbeat and has involuntary functions other than the residual effects associated with a brain-damaged patient. Terri is not using a respirator or any other machine to stay alive.” The website further notes that renowned neurosurgeon William Hammesfahr has offered to treat Terri and to give her the rehabilitation she needs to recover because he believes (as do at least 10 other physicians the family has found) that Terri’s condition could improve with therapy. Also noted is the incredible fact that Terri’s husband lives in a house with another woman to whom he has been engaged for over seven years. They have recently given birth to a baby girl and have announced plans to marry when Terri is no longer alive.
2. Call upon Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to stop the court order conferring upon Terri’s husband the sole power to disconnect her feeding tube. It’s the governor’s constitutional duty to prevent any action that would violate Terri’s “inalienable right to enjoy and defend life” regardless of her “physical disability” as secured by Article I, Section 2 of the Florida State Constitution (see below). At the family’s website you will find a petition to the governor you can sign.
3. Pray for a change of heart on the part of her husband. God can and will work a miracle but we must implore Him on bended knee to intervene. As Doug Phillips of Vision Forum said recently, “We must pray that Terri is rescued from this evil act, and that those responsible will be thwarted from evil, either through their repentance and restitution for the crime they have committed, or through God’s righteous judgment as declared by the Psalms for all who destroy the innocent.”
4. Call upon professional pastors, theologians, and ethicists to act now and, if guilty, to repent of their apathy and indifference. Christian leaders who hide behind their “evangelical scholarship” must stand up and fight in the political arena without compromise. I therefore call upon all pastors and professors of theology and ethics to launch a Christian counter-attack immediately, using their institution’s websites or their own personal websites if they have one. It’s time we stopped just writing and lecturing about the “right to life” and began doing something about it.
To all my readers I say: Will you allow a woman who obviously has the will to live face a horrible death by dehydration? Fight for the right to live! Fight to give the Christian voice a say! Above all, fight the mentality of compromise and silence! We must not be afraid, for truth is our most powerful weapon. Our own fear and apathy are the most dangerous weapons against us.
Sincerely,
Dave Black
Addendum: From the Florida State Constitution: ARTICLE I, SECTION 2: Basic rights.— All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty, to pursue happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and to acquire, possess and protect property; except that the ownership, inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship may be regulated or prohibited by law. No person shall be deprived of any right because of race, religion, national origin, or physical disability.
October 17, 2003
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. He is currently finishing his latest book, Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.