November 2011

Penny and me on Time.com

Bonnie Rochman has a new article at Time.com called "Are Kids With Down Syndrome on the Road to Extinction?" which features a picture of Penny and me and (on the second page) a few comments from a conversation we had a few weeks back. Although the new prenatal tests for Down ...

Concluding the Abortion Debate--Did You Change Your Mind?

A few final words, in the wake of the essays and discussion surrounding Christians who are pro-life and pro-choice, respectively. First of all, a big thank you to Karen and Ellen for the time and effort you both put into writing these pieces, engaging comments, and then following ...

Part Two: Questions for Ellen Painter Dollar on Being Pro-Choice

What restrictions would you put on reproductive choice?

Fervent pro-choice advocates face a dilemma as reproductive technologies such as prenatal diagnosis, IVF, PGD, and surrogacy become more sophisticated and ubiquitous. The ability of parents to select the gender of their ...

Questions for Ellen Painter Dollar on Being Pro-Choice Part One

We have three more posts related to abortion–Ellen Painter Dollar's answers to my questions, which will appear here this morning and this afternoon (and, in longer form, on Ellen's blog Choices That Matter). And then tomorrow morning I will post a summary of what I've learned ...

Questions for Karen Swallow Prior on Being Pro-Life

Two weeks ago, I posted two essays about abortion. In the first one, Karen Swallow Prior articulated "Why I Am Pro-Life." In the second, Ellen Painter Dollar wrote "Why I Am Pro-Choice." Both of these women are friends and colleagues, and I am very grateful to them and to those ...

Life, Love, Penny, an Interview with Stephanie Riggs

I had an interview with Stephanie Riggs of Divine Calling in Denver last week. We had a chance to talk about what makes life interesting, the hard things that other people say, and how Penny is doing in kindergarten, among other topics. You can listen to the whole interview ...

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for God's sweetness to us, which sounds very cheesy, but I use the word "sweet" because it is unnecessary and yet so kind of God to make sure we know we are loved. It has happened this year through answered prayer, through other people's words, through songs and ...

Why People Who Aren't Christians Should be Glad When Christians are Around...

I live in the Northeast, where it's kind of unusual, and certainly suspect, to be an evangelical Christian. To believe in the Trinity and the Resurrection and forgiveness of sins and all that. But I do believe those things, and I go to a church where they believe those things, ...

Will Your Kids Keep the Faith?

I had a post last week on her.meneutics, "Why Teens Drift Away From Faith" that reviewed a new book, Sticky Faith, by Dr. Kara E. Powell and Dr. Chap Clark. It begins:

Every week after Sunday School, I try to figure out if our kids have learned anything. Do they understand the ...
Pro-Choice and Pro-Life or Somewhere In Between?

Much thanks to Ellen Painter Dollar and Karen Swallow Prior for their posts last week on Why I Am Pro-Life (Karen) and Why I Am Pro-Choice (Ellen). And great thanks to all of you who read and commented with respect, thoughtfulness, and genuine concern for both the women and ...

Why I Am Pro-Choice by Ellen Painter Dollar

I became interested in reproductive ethics for very personal reasons: Nine years ago, my husband and I underwent preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD, which is in vitro fertilization with genetic screening) to try to conceive a child who would not inherit my disabling bone ...

Why I Am Pro-Life by Karen Swallow Prior

I am a Christian. And I am pro-life.

These two labels don't always or necessarily go together. They certainly don't always go together in practice: I know both pro-choice Christians and pro-life secularists. And for many people, the labels don't necessarily ...

What Do You Think About Abortion?

Abortion has been legal across the United States for forty years now, and yet the debate continues about both the ethics and the legality of the deliberate action to end the life of a fetus in the womb. There have been casualties, literally, on both sides. Last month, two workers ...

A Good and Perfect Gift Recent Reviews

Marilee and I head up to Boston today, and I'm looking forward to visiting with friends and family, reading with old and new friends at the Vineyard Church tonight, meeting with my aunt's book club tomorrow and reading again at Gordon-Conwell College on Friday.

Meanwhile, just ...

Faith, Down syndrome, and Becoming Human

I read Kathryn Soper's The Year My Son and I Were Born when it was published a few years ago. I reread it recently because I was invited to interview her about her book/experience as the mother of a child with Down syndrome, and I was struck on rereading with the beauty of her ...

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