Here’s what we’re watching today:
– In international politics, South Korea is considering restricting Christian missionaries’ travel to the Middle East because of potential terrorist attacks. South Korea sends more missionaries than any country but the U.S. In 2007, 23 church volunteers were abducted by the Taliban. The South Korean government negotiated for the group’s release after they had killed two men.
– The Wall Street Journalrounds up the discussion on abortion and health care. Earlier this week, Factcheck.org and Time wrote articles that under the proposed health care legislation, abortion would be federally subsidized.
– After South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer called for Governor Mark Sanford to resign, he said it would be “heaven on earth,” but no. “I very much appreciate the offer. In that light, I mean, in some ways, the proposal is – is almost a representation of something close to heaven on Earth, because … it would represent heaven on Earth to take him up on that offer of him taking my spot here for the last 16 months,” Alex Koppelman quotes him as saying. After Sanford admitted he had had an affair, he compared himself to David in the Bible.
– A Kentucky judge ruled that a law stating that the Kentucky’s Homeland Security must declare dependence on “Almighty God” is unconstitutional. “Even assuming that most of this nation’s citizens have historically depended upon God, by choice, for their protection, this does not give the General Assembly the right to force citizens to do so now,” the judge wrote.
– And if you aren’t tired of TedKennedy coverage yet, Catholic News Service notes that he wasn’t always pro-choice. In a 1971 letter, he wrote:
“While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life,” Kennedy wrote.
“Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized – the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old. When history looks back at this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”
Dan Gilgoff also has an interview with his biographer on his Catholicism.
– On our main site, be sure to check out the review of Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity and a piece by Frank Wolf and Tony Hall, writing that The Fellowship is no theocratic cabal. Last week, we had posted a news article on The Fellowship and accountability.
