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Christianity Today, December, 2008 |

SERIOUSLY DISTURBED

Needed: More 'Miracles'

My grandchild barely survived birth. Worldwide, too many newborns do not.

Kay Warren | posted 12/03/2008 09:29AM

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Health-care access isn't initially as riveting a cause as rescuing children from the sex trade or finding a vaccine for HIV. But when someone you love needs medical help fast, your perspective changes. Suddenly, your world is reduced to one objective: Help her survive. Let him live. Americans are used to hospitals minutes away, doctors and nurses on duty, lifesaving procedures, and the latest technology and medication available. When you live in a developing country, all bets are off.

When will this unconscionable disparity touch our hearts? When will it begin to dawn on us that the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots is a subject worthy of our passion? When will North American Christians decide that what they consider essential for their families is essential for all?

Our miracle baby is nearly a month old. Another miracle baby was born 2,000 years ago—a different situation, certainly. But the baby born in the manger grew up and showed us how much he values children, each one a precious miracle deserving a chance to live.

Related Elsewhere:

Kay Warren's previous Seriously Disturbed columns include:

The Only Hope for Monsters | We can't defeat evil in the world without facing the evil in ourselves. (October 15, 2008)

Joining the Resistance | It took seeing seven-year-old prostitutes to jolt me out of my apathy. (August 13, 2008)

Talk and Walk | Getting our body in sync with our message. (June 5, 2008)

Wiping out HIV | It's good for the soul to fight the virus. (April 28, 2008)

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December 2008, Vol. 52, No. 12

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H. D. Schmidt

Posted: December 06, 2008 11:26 PM

Why is it that in the part of the world I was born, in a German farm community, where most ladies were married at age 20, many even younger like our mother, she was 17 when she married and had my brother only a year or so after and had 7 children, with mothers even giving birth to at times more then ten. Yet, I do not remember a mother dying in labor ever, and just about all gave birth at home with the aid mostly by a so called midwife, with very little training at all. It is a fact of life that the older a woman is and tarting a family it gets very difficult even to get pregnant. I just saw recently posted where the Hospitall prideed itself to have helped women to get pregnant and than more and more C sections. Question and not that I support teen unmarried ladies to get pregnant and have a child, nevertheless the question: Has any ever had a difficult life threating birthing? Besides as so much is said about women with osteoporosis nowadays, there was no such in our community!

fleur

Posted: December 06, 2008 12:13 AM

I would like to see Kay Warren use her influence to persuade Americans to embrace a value system that those living in Third World countries have and that we do not: an appreciation of Life so deep and profound that a mother would never accept or condone or even consider the snuffing out of her preborn baby. Do any countries in Africa practice infanticide the way we do? I've been to one of the poorest countries in Africa and seen the deep love and affection even the poorest mother has for her babies. I'm sure that the thought of killing one her babies while it is still in her womb is totally unfathomable to her. Oh that we Americans could learn that one lesson. Regarding Kay's guilt. I try to tell guilt-ridden Westerners, especially Americans, to lay down their guilt and pick up gratitude. Gratitude does not preclude charity but guilt just ministers condemnation and depression.

Cindy - USA

Posted: December 04, 2008 6:42 PM

Kay is feeling guilty that her grandchild is living when many around the world would not have lived. That's okay, a waste of emotion, and wrong, but it's just her. When she uses her name and influence to try and make the rest of us feel her guilt, she's spreading that wrong unfairly. Our advantages are a result of our culture. As a group, we work hard, we value health care, (maybe too much) among other things. I was a missionary to Belize, Central America for a couple years. That was enough to see how much lack of concern exists in other cultures, enough lack of concern to doom their own children, families and themselves. Don't put their cultural failings on me, Kay. We can and should help as we can and feel called to. We can't change their culture to value what we do.

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