Today’s LifeNews.com and LifeNews Radio carry a story on pro-abortion media bias.
I am not only old enough to remember when Alabama Governor George Wallace was seen on evening news essentially repenting for his position against desegregation (I was a father then, in 1982), but I am old enough to remember in my childhood his clean-cut face, tight upper lip, and stern clenched fist opposing federal involvement in his state to effect that desegregation. Maybe he was like King David who repented of his ways—God alone knows the whole story.
While Governor Wallace at least tried to publicly turn around, will pro-abortionists have the inner workings to even try to do the same when the injustice of 44 million abortions is fully uncovered, fully recognized? There is even a more poignant question. What will the enabling media do to make amends? People like segregationists, people like any sinner or set of sinners can repent. But can we ever expect such from a news media whose only job has become the selling of commercials?
Or will the advertisers who blatantly supported a pro-abortion culture both by their advertising and by their own corporate policies incur some liability? Can a soul-less entity like a corporation—public or private—repent?
No. But someone must make amends to those who suffer from a culture of death, from the deceit that has been sold to countless women. And the task falls to us.
Thank you for being the ones to carry just a bit of the message of reconciliation. Even more must be done and we must prepare ourselves for a future when the offended ones look for their own inner turn-around as well as their own healing—someone to help heal the wound of abortion.
44 million abortions will need a lot of healing.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for February 27, 2006
Once you have considered the intrinsic nature of evil in abortion—the powerful killing performed by those who are strong, against those weakest ones who are nothing but vulnerable—then you see that life is not fair. To add to the injustice, it seems at first glance that those who do evil act directly, with impunity, while we are continually called to act with prudence. This apparent unfairness is part of why some wrongly and audaciously turn to violence—to make things “fair” or “even”.
But many of us both misread our opponents’ actions and we misunderstand our greatest weapon. Our opponents do not act with impunity. They have well-drawn plans and have acted with a greater degree of prudence than we have—all to evil outcome, however. We should do what they do. I see strong disagreements among different factions of pro-aborts. But you will never see them express their disagreements in public. In fact, they make sure to invite and promote the work of their opponents, so long as it presents a united front and creates a united effect.
Man! I hear of many pro-life groups who fight like cats and dogs! If such words prick your conscience—Repent!!! And now.
On the other hand, we are at least ‘tempted’ to think that our seminars or our education or our activism—or even our newscasts—make a huge difference. My wife reminds me that unless God is in my work, I am merely another Don Quixote, charging at windmills, hoping to slay some dragon.
Our real strength, our real weapon is in our knees. Action is great. Action directed by God is even more of what we are after. But prayer is our strength and it should be our priority.
Pray. Then work. As St. Benedict wrote, “Ora et labora.” “Pray and work.”
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for February 24, 2006
Because I have some contact with those from other countries, I have often thought about what these and other citizens of foreign lands think of my country. It’s not that I feel some overpowering need for affirmation, though I often regret seeming to them to be a little more sensitive. But the reason my views even get me in hot water in the first place is that often other countries citizens’ only view this country by what our media offers them. Yes, the same media that shield abortion advocates from scrutiny, rather than run stories on their deceit. And it is my simple view of the unborn and the marginalized elderly and disabled that gets me in trouble.
That brings me to my point. The world is being sold the idea that the greatest thing happening in regards to the U.S. is the war in Iraq. That is patently false. You and I both know the story. If you count body bags both coming from Iraq and the coffins staying in Iraq, the numbers do not deserve to be considered even a fraction of the deaths offered to the unborn.
Some could counter that war is very violent. They might offer that I should think of the assault on enemy strongholds within Iraq—so violent. I would retort that the assault on a woman’s body to get it to let go of the life inside is a greater violence—and the life inside is not worthy of being considered a combatant. Yes, I wonder if those who watch the TV have much hope of clearly understanding what the U.S. is doing today, even those watching from within our country.
May God bless us all…
Commentary for February 22, 2006
Let’s get just a couple things straight. Words mean something. While sometimes it might seem that people like me are straining at gnats when we make this case, the implications of words are what make arguments. I, for one, want to win the argument over where our culture goes.
The stakes are high. I was recently reminded of a warning Ronald Reagan gave that we are at risk of falling into “a thousand years of darkness” if good people do not take the day. The words I try to use are like the little, elemental skills of a game that make a football go through the goalpost, or that make a ball go just over the fence at a baseball game.
Lately, I have heard many educated and even distinguished pro-life advocates ‘get sloppy’ with their descriptions of what our jurists actually do. I may understand why our opponents wish to derail clear speech, but not those on our side. I wish for us to understand some of what jurists do and to support why we should speak well and accurately of how they do what they do.
I would like us to ‘get straight’ that Supreme Court justices do not “vote” on any issue, nor do they, despite appearances, merely cast ballots on cases put before them. And Justices Alito and Roberts—or for that matter Ginsburg, Stevens, Souter, Kennedy, Scalia, Breyer and Thomas—are in no way to be connected with political agendas.
Why is this important? It is important because justice can not work that way. Justices must “render” and “support” opinions, not vote for the idea they like the best (as if the court were somehow like a school class voting on the gender of a rabbit). Justices must be involved in sound legal thought. And Justice Alito is not a political hack for even my ideas on even life—even if he is considered a swing ‘opinion’. He and each justice must form rulings on how laws must be applied—‘when’ there is contention between a law or its use, and the constitution.
Because I believe in natural law, I believe laws must be seen by all to be just. The courts must make such application of law that makes justice readily apparent to all. It is part of peace and civility and justice and ordered societies. My pro-life views must either be upheld by justice or they may have no place at all in the prevailing culture. But we must go through that vulnerable process where truth seems subject to a society’s form of justice for truth to be made readily perceptible in a society.
The American experience is considered by many to be an experiment which must yet prove itself. By a view of recent decades, I concur. The way we measure our words and hone our debates and inform our neighbors may well be the deciding factor in how the American epoch of history is recorded.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
©2006 James R. Anderson
Commentary for February 21, 2006
Of all the things that death tries to extract from us, I think truth is the most surprising. I visited my mother yesterday with three of my five children. Mary Theresa Anderson has lived 80 years and we do not know what time is left as she keeps bouncing back and getting strong again after ever deeper episodes of congestive heart failure, kidney failure, diabetic crashes and falls. Some say it’ll be any time.
My mother has too long been a showman. Friends—and she has thousands of them—know to expect a little entertainment, a little show, and eventually a someone—like the rest of us—just trying to be real. But yesterday, instead of a ‘show’ before another of our human attempts at sincerity, I saw my mom—as real as I have ever seen her. And I told her that I admired this new conversion of heart.
Truth. Honest and sincere. Hopeful and still kinda’ funny. My mom, just being who God made her to be. I was surprised. And glad that I had one more visit. And one more example of what dying can do for a human soul.
“I am crucified with Christ.” St. Paul
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for February 20, 2006
My mother is back on my ‘front burner’. Nothing eminent, but she is refusing some of her kidney dialysis. This is, of course to those who follow such ethics, something within her practice of prudence—refusing extraordinary care. What is more troubling and speaks to other problems in the heart of all of us, is the use of food in ‘perhaps’ a poor fashion. Eating her favorite broccoli is a no-no with dialysis, even a favorite drink is a no-no for diabetics. But I think answers to such things look less like chastisement, and more like a simple visit from her son, daughter-in-law and grandkids. Maybe there is an answer lying in kindness…
…and your prayers for us all.
May God bless us all…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for February 3, 2006
I mentioned over the last two evenings that my mother was dying imminently And I believe she was—until so many of us prayed! Don’t get us wrong, I think my mom is ready to go. But at age 80, she has bounced back from crisis. The kidneys started working again, though her heart had to have been hurt.
I aroused so much support, it was very touching—while just a little embarrassing now that she has recovered so well. I responded to one email earlier today after I came back from Portland and a limerick came to me. Perhaps I should share it with you to relieve my discomfiture.
My mother is made of rubber
I wonder if she’s real
She keeps knocking down death’s door
All to ignore its divine and heavenly appeal
So the bottom line is that when I asked a hospice nurse if two years more of life might be remotely possible for my mom, she said emphatically ‘no’. When I suggested two more months, she said that is more in the range.
So thank you for your prayers. I will be preparing for some time away from my microphone, but God only knows what might happen should you all start praying again!
Some say God is good. And I couldn’t agree more. But, really, isn’t God interesting? I had the best time with my mom today and I am learning too much to be able to share.
Thank you and may God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for February 2, 2006
How often do we do all we can to avoid or ignore suffering? Yesterday I shared that my mother is approaching death—at age 80 after decades of diabetes and years of dialysis, the machines and shots are doing less good. The kidneys are failing and she is ever thirsty and congestive heart failure stalks my mother’s tired body. The topic of suffering and our avoidance of suffering comes to the forefront of my mind as I consider what we family members, siblings are doing with the suffering we will see as my mother approaches death. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what suffering each of us will feel at and after her death, one final separation.
Do we fight an awareness of suffering so much that we deny that we are hurting? Do we fight it enough to ignore the suffering of others like my mom? Do we fight it enough to keep joy from others who suffer? The parallel is that here is where American attitudes about abortion lay. We often do great amount of work to remain in ignorance about the trauma suffered by means of abortion.
One of my daughters did a paper on abortion—you might guess where her sentiments lie. But the amazing thing is that three pro-choice people took up the same subject and after facing the reality of what it does to women, to families, to children, each of them at least backed way off their full approval of abortion—and everyone in the class was moved with them. Ignorance must be fought and even if we do not get full ‘conversions’ on the subject, seeds are planted and I am convinced that full knowledge of abortion will create full rejection of the popular understanding of ‘choice’.
‘Choice’ the way we like it is not forever something that is in front of us.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for February 1, 2006
A request for prayer and understanding over perhaps the next few weeks…
I will try not to do too much with this over the next few days or weeks, but these comments which accompany my newscast to stations and often appear with the http://abortionstate.blogspot.com/ web log, may take on a personal pro-life note. My mother, it seems, is preparing to die. Maybe I should say she is simply making final preparations as I hope we all recognize that we prepare daily. She tells me she is ready and I think I sense a deeper conversion in her than before.
Nevertheless, I have a lot to learn and maybe some to share about how a family goes through this. I am no stranger to the process. I have buried one sister, my dad and two daughters—one of whom I held and baptized, and another too small to do anything but prepare for burial. I ask prayers for courage and simplicity as sentiment or fear often tries to displace separation and human loss. My four sisters and I are often each at different ‘places’ in our faith, so I pledge to be kind, gentle and sincerely loving. I hope I can be a light to any dark places.
Please pray.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 31st, 2006
Why is prayer so important? Is it because God wants to tie up so much of our day? Is it so our day goes better?
I’m really asking here—because sometimes I am not convinced that prayer is such a good idea if we don’t want to ‘rock the boat’. But then, I’ve always been a ‘rock the boat’ sort of guy. Just this week, I find myself getting deeper into prayer. While I am closer to my family and find myself, as it seems, operating with more grace, I also am given more insight into the work I must do. Even pro-life work.
Prayer, I think, is like that. Not only do I get the ‘warm, fuzzy feelings’ of being closer to Christ (I speak as if that should be so predictable), but I am closer to the work of Christ. I am closer to the heartache of my family members and their real needs, closer to my own shortcomings (you know, the ones that we ask God to work on), closer to how he feels about the experiment called the human race.
So I could say prayer is important. I could say getting close to Jesus is important. Or I could just say that I recommend both to you in the solitary exercise of talking and being with God.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 30th, 2006
Every once in a while there is a time like that represented in the month we are about to close. These are not common times. If we ever have a chance to start actually recording history again, these days may be regarded as a turning point. We’ve seen glimpses lately of a glorious future in conversion stories and stories of healing and polling data and research—not to mention something as subjective as a different look in people’s eyes—which I think shows a new openness to, or even a new hoping for, good news.
Jesus said that you can not pour new wine into old wineskins and he also said that you may not take over a strong man’s house without first tying up the strong man. I see in these two parables a simple lesson. If you ever want to convert an entire culture, you simply must command the ‘strong man’ who controls the culture. I think sin is that strong man. Sin blinds people, so—in a sort of chicken-or-the-egg conundrum—you have to get people to stop sinning long enough to get large numbers to convert from being sinners. We have signs that we may be doing that as abortion rates fall and attitudes in our schools change.
You have to give new wine a fresh context so it may be inserted into the culture without both breaking the culture and wasting the new wine. We are beginning to do that, too. To win, we must create a new context. And we are just beginning—mind you—to give a significant portion of our youth a different paradigm by which to live, a new wine skin.
Our most vociferous, our most strident opponents are staying that way by blinding themselves to the reality of a culture change. Reasonable people are beginning to realize that we have gone wrong and we must go back. These people see that such change has less to do with some superman or religious leader, bishop or prophet—and a whole lot more to do with the job we make of raising our children.
The hope to all this is not as simple as letting it happen. The hope lies in that we, in our ordinary ways, will take advantage of this sea change and evangelize. I, for one, hope we will make ourselves ready to take the simplest of opportunities to reach out with love to anyone passing our way.
Should we do that, we really could see—maybe just a beginning, in our lifetimes—“the glory of the Lord” covering “the earth as the waters cover the sea.”
May God bless us all…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 25th, 2006
This mess about Samuel Alito is at least 95 percent about the ‘next’ nominee that George W. Bush may nominate for the Supreme Court as well as appellate and circuit court appointments. When you and I call even our most ardent pro-abortion, anti-Alito Senators and tell them what we think, we make a huge difference. And that is regardless of what they do now. Pressure is pressure no matter who tries to tell you otherwise.
I will again call my two Senators—and you likely don’t have two who are as unyielding on the issue of abortion as the two ladies from Washington State, Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Do it!
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 24th, 2006
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” St. Paul to the Ephesians
I am surprised how much working in the life movement teaches me about people. Jesus gives me the presumption of innocence because I am baptized by water into his death. When I offer that assumption to others, when I look for the most innocent motives in others, I often begin to find them. That is not to say that the work of some of our adversaries is not set on fire by hell itself (I recognize the fire of hell by my own experience as a sinner, playing with it), but I am amazed at the interviews and the responses I get from pro-aborts when I simply and kindly ask.
But then there is the heart ache at listening to the complete disregard of innocent and nascent human life in the womb. Quite often it seems as if the ignorance is only for the sake of another night of illicit sex. Or maybe it is to cover up the hurt—often the agonizing, gut-wrenching hurt—of the past.
Today’s gospel reading for Catholic mass has Jesus saying that you cannot enter someone’s house (dare I equate that with the core of someone’s life?), unless you first bind the strong man of the house. Maybe somehow, by miracle, we could go further in reaching souls for Christ if we could address the issue of what holds them captive. My experience of being among some of our cultural adversaries is that it is often like confronting the ‘strong man’, or at least getting in his way. This kind of work is beginning to renew in me a deeper understanding of the words that follow the verse above—the words which read, “(But we wrestle) with principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in high places.”
I am in need of prayer after this kind of work, so I again ask for your help in this. Let’s all engage the culture—the conflict is engaged only on our knees and face-to-face.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 23th, 2006
Everything comes through the family. Everything, and everyone, from souls as malformed as Hitler’s to those as well formed as Karol Wojtila—including the answers to our current predicament—every answer to evil is sitting in our families. What we tell our children and how we join with them in raising grandchildren steers the universe.
When I am pessimistic, I am looking at the battlefield and the lives lost and the pain caused by unanswered evil. But when I am optimistic, it is because I have been spending time looking at what we have, to which our opponents have no answer. And it is not a matter of raw numbers or from strength generated by armies or economic power, but our answer to evil lies in the potency of the faith and life and seed of God planted in the hearts of our children.
Do you want to help win the culture? Do that which helps raise extraordinarily well-loved and well-taught—and well-protected—families.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 20th, 2006
I would like to introduce to you the work of Mauricio Torres and his companions from Totus Tuus, a lay apostolate (which means that while some might call them a ‘ministry’, they simply say they are ‘sent’). Mauricio says that while their work of evangelization is really wonderful, that his work and that of his companions among the poor and the very young is most interesting.
He is preparing to build a hospice to help abandoned and dying children face death with the grace of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Believe it or not, he says that this happens in the United States. His first hospice, though, already has land in Columbia where poor parents, faced with the pressing need of keeping their healthy children fed, feel compelled to abandon their dying child.
His website is open and, though still undergoing refinement and completion, I thought you might like a sneak peek at a work in progress. Mauricio has letters of recommendation of several Catholic bishops and you can investigate his cause. He is available for interviews and he can be contacted at mauriciototustuus@hotmail.com or (786)712-2009.
May God bless us all…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 19th, 2006
We have lived in a culture that places a high premium on instant gratification. Don’t expect that much of our work will receive that kind of gratification. We face a disorder so strong that it may well take more than one generation to fix. The work for the family to be restored to soundness will be a long and enduring work. Every remedy for our culture must come from parents becoming again the first teachers of the next generation. And with families in disarray, the great families we see today will be the models for their children’s adult generation.
That is great hope! Don’t mistake my words as pessimism. The change that comes at the hands of sound families is a renewal that will be difficult for our cultural adversaries to counter. So Pope John Paul the Great was much more than correct when he said, “The future of the world comes through the family.” Make yours a strong one. Go back and bind up the loose ends. Repair what is broken. It may be your life’s greatest work.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 18th, 2006
We lost more than a court case yesterday. While the conclusion was not a great surprise, I think we crossed a threshold yesterday in the Supreme Court Gonzales v. Oregon ruling.
We took a big slide in our ability to show we can govern ourselves. The American experiment has surprised many observers, but perhaps not so many any more. Our former Attorney General, John Ashcroft, made his point based on a moral understanding of government securing rights (the right to life and happiness being protected from the illicit use of drugs—even by a doctor), and the majority on our Supreme Court had no place to put such thought.
Plato said that the cruelest form of tyranny was a democracy. I heard the illustration of a boat with 8 passengers, one woman and seven men. The men take a vote to do with the woman (specifically her body) as they would wish. That is the democracy feared by Plato.
But here is why the moral experiment of the United States of America has withstood these problems (and no, it is not merely because we are a ‘republic’): We have had a moral basis to law which preserves and secures the rights of all and proved our ability to self-govern.
Someone please give me a different way to understand this. But as I see it, the majority of this Court had no ears to hear the moral basis presented by John Ashcroft. He said that there was no “legitimate medical purpose” and the Court was unable to respond because the court had no ability to hear. It listened for merely a utilitarian reason to act and could not hear anything else. Like an old rock star in a hearing aid store, the cochleae no longer pick up a signal. Blind justice gives no regard to those who possess great power; with deaf justice, the weak or those whose interests are only preserved by a rule of law, have no protection.
Yet in our genius system (yes, it is a republic, and a bit more), at least the old court has Congress to help spell things out. And hope also comes in new justices who may surprise us all with wisdom beyond this current milieu.
May God bless us all…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 17th, 2006
In today’s news at www.LifeNews.com, Starr Parker tells yet another part of the sad tragedy of the greatest injustice of our time—aborted children numbering in the tens of millions, with a large and disproportionate number of these taken and robbed from the African American community. But talk of justice is cheap. The life movement seeks to right the greatest injustice—the theft of the right to life itself.
Maybe you have seen the bumper stickers that read, “If you want peace, work for justice.” While the intent here is commonly good, I disagree. Peace is greater than our imaginations of no war—and it is greater than justice. Justice is derived from peace, not the other way around. Nevertheless, peace must be defined well.
Ultimately we must reconcile our injustices by means of peace. And peace is a victory. It occurs when nothing less than the only, truly good one wins—and this is God. His terms of peace are the surrender of our entire soul: our mind often expressed in our intellect, our will expressed in our ability to obey, and our bodies expressed in offering to God all that comes from these. Justice is derived from peace.
Pursue peace—peace with God. Let’s find a culture of life.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 13th, 2006
Some people, in trying to do the work of Christ, seem to have a distorted view of how Christ taught us to live. I might stake out my ‘territory’ and act like my ‘ministry career’ is the one most important element of what is being done. It is a ‘me first’ mentality.
Christ taught us differently. When he said ‘me first’, it was when he touched and healed the ostracized and untouchable leper. When he said ‘me first’, it was washing his disciples’ feet. When Jesus said ‘me first’, he laid down, stretched out his hands, crossed his feet and let himself—the sinless one—be the pierced and broken offering for sin for the rest of us.
“Have this mind among you that is also yours in Christ Jesus: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” …Saint Paul to the Philippians, Chapter 2
May God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 12th, 2006
Do you know what you would say to our opponents, those so-called “pro-abortion” people? Do you realize they are people just like us, only with unanswered questions? Make sure you take the time to pray and consider what you might say to someone who is waiting for an answer to why there is this evil in the world that seems to necessitate that we take a life. Why disordered sexuality? Why abuse? Why don’t easier answers present themselves to problems like crisis pregnancies? Why doesn’t someone tell me that life can be lived with the simplicity of God’s love?
Be ready, because ultimately—just like any old-fashioned ‘battle’, this ‘culture war’ will come down to hand-to-hand, or rather face-to-face confrontation. God will only use you and me.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 11th, 2006
I do appreciate that the meaning of “doctor” is literally, “teacher”. So I look for doctors to teach, and I relish finding one who really does his or her job. I think the Juris ‘Doctor’ degree Princeton School of Law granted Samuel Alito was not wasted. And I could not be prouder to be an American as I watch our ingenious system work to correct the injustice of poorly crafted laws.
Just at the moment in history when we most need to be taught, abortion’s supporters have demanded that we have these great and public hearings televised to the nation and that their advocates on this committee grill the nominee. They hope this will rally support for their cause. Instead, it is giving a greatly misinformed public access to… A teacher. A real teacher, Judge Samuel A. Alito.
Beware what knowledge and understanding can do in a people if your industry has created its success from public ignorance of injustice.
May God bless us all…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 9th, 2006
What is choice? Isn’t it found in human willfulness? No one wants to have their own will countered, not even by God. If it were not for faith, for hope and for love, I doubt anyone would ever have come to what is known as “the obedience of faith”. I think it should be obvious that there should be more pro-“choice” people among those with no faith.
Or what if faith has not brought forth any obedience? With no practice at obeying even when love is abundant, how should someone come to give up their ‘right to choose’?
Here’s something from the first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel:
“He was in the world, and the world even came into being through him. But the world did not know him… His own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name—these are they who were born not by natural generation nor by the will behind human conception, but of God.”
So perhaps I am pro-choice: God’s, not mine.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 6th, 2006
Is the Church the answer to a culture of death? Yes—but... The Church is God’s answer to evil itself, though if we do not act accordingly, are we the Church? If we are not the Church, are we Christian, do we even have faith? Saint James faced this dilemma and said “faith without works is dead”.
Each person has something to do, that God has prepared for them alone to do. However, such work is not drawn from an impassioned, frantic, or sympathetic search for merely something to do. It is drawn from intimacy with Christ. Get close to Christ, make him your beloved friend. And in that intimacy ask your friend, your Lord, what he would have you do.
Be part of God’s answer to evil in the world, help turn a culture of death on its heels. Get close to Jesus and let him write his plan for you on your heart.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 4th, 2006
We must be the answer to evil that St. Augustine sought and preached. We must be who God will use in our day. There exists no other answer in all time, no other people here and now. Why do you think you have experienced what your life contains to this moment, other than for God’s purposes? Our culture often thinks that all we have is to be consumed by us, but life is too short to predict even what we may enjoy.
Live for God’s glory. When you go to church, consider what God would ask of you. When you go to receive Christ, open yourself to his will for you. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden light. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest for your soul.”
Back to Augustine, “Our souls are restless until they rest in You.”
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 3rd, 2006
Are we asking God for a miracle, or just for something just extraordinary enough to change all ‘those’ people—those sinners around us? The miraculous work of God will threaten us more than those we deem to have more sin or more abortions or more of whatever behavior gets them into trouble.
The miracle is more threatening to us, because God often chooses to use me and you to be part of the miraculous and that can get a little uncomfortable. God uses anyone he wants to use, but he often uses those prepared for service. For me, it has meant more conversion. For me it has meant more work, making myself more available to holiness. And I can imagine that if you are asking God for the miraculous, He is working on you, too.
Ask God for a miracle, ask God for a culture of life. Just be prepared for the ride of your life!
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for January 2nd, 2006
So we begin a new year. Do you think that anyone really has any idea of what the new year might bring?
In today’s LifeNews Radio newscast, Joseph D’Agostino offers good reason for the use of RU-486 to come to a rapid end. And he offers us good reason for optimism. RU-486 is popular because it makes abortion so convenient. Hearings begin in February and a house subcommittee will investigate just how the FDA has allowed people to rely on convenient but dangerous abortions with the abortion protocol.
Who knows what that might mean for the new year. Combined with a reformed Supreme Court, will history books write that 2006 was the year that abortion ‘rights’ declined? And might they actually say that it was not rights that were lost, but rather life rights that were restored and a slaughter of children and a maiming of women that was exposed for what it was?
Who knows? And yet for us such speculation does not matter. What matters is whether we will participate or not.
God bless you. . .
Jim Anderson
Commentary for December 30th, 2005
Love is a reason for itself. The same is said of God, of course. So maybe St. John was being even more of a logician-philosopher than might at first be evident when He wrote, “God is love.” And a child, formed from conception in the image of God, is by itself reason enough to be protected. Love works that way. Love is pro-life. Make your stand for life. Make your stand for love and for God.
Thank you for all you do for life. Look for me again in the new year—“at dawn on the third day”. I am here to serve your great works.
God bless you. . .
Jim Anderson
Commentary for December 29th, 2005
There are many reasons I am pro-life, even some seemingly a non-religious reasons. One such reason is that I love children. And I have enough of them to prove it: I have three children at home and two grown children who have given me five grandchildren. But in reality, love is a religious reason for being pro-life and for ‘doing’ love. The apostle John wrote, “God is love.”
We should encourage those who love children in practical ways to remember that this virtue is a close ally to faith. Moms and dads, particularly young ones, are often unwitting giants of faith—All because of love.
God bless you. . .
Jim Anderson
Commentary for December 28th, 2005
I offered my faith in Jesus to a lady today. I wasn’t surprised when it fell to the floor. But it still hurt.
What does that have to do with anything pro-life? Well, for one thing, without an offer of faith or a tremendous amount of well-reasoned natural law, I do not think it is possible to be pro-life today. Pro-life is sadly not something to be taken for granted. Without faith or extraordinary reason, a view of human life may be nothing more than either a lucky string of conveniences or a tragic string of loss. This was driven home for me in our conversation. She could not see any purpose in faith or Jesus or a Church.
I was gentle with her and loved her with Father Benedict Groeschel as my model of gentleness—and humor. She opened up some and shared with me. I am struck how miraculous it is to have faith. We who draw close to Him who is infinite love must be struck with humility. Instead, she says has only met those who shunned her or sought to coerce faith from her. As if that could ever work. Such is the work of another master, a thief and liar. No, the gift of faith is a miracle created within the chambers of broken hearts by none other than the Holy Spirit.
Little does she know that I have a couple friends who might pray for some water on a little seed hopefully well planted in her heart. Maybe the most pro-life thing you might do today is pray for this lady. I’ll let you call her Frieda. Please.
God bless you. . .
Jim Anderson
Commentary for December 27th, 2005
The Hebrew prophets had one unifying message—“Know the Lord!” Perhaps that is why I love reading the Word of God--why I really love reading the scriptures to others. I particularly love proclaiming the word, either in evangelization as I have done on a few occasions in public, or in a congregation. There is a sense in which Christ is made present in such proclamation and I love knowing his presence. Perhaps that makes the most sense when we understand that our baptism into Christ makes us prophet, priest and king with and by Christ.
And this is why human life is so unique. We alone of all God’s creation have the capacity to know God, both by our birth and by our baptism. And that is not in just some vague and abstract way. We can come to know God’s presence just as surely as I can come to know the presence of my wife or any of my sisters or children. Get that! We are given such an incredible gift! We can be sure that if we participate in the preservation of merely one life, we have participated in a miracle.
And the miracle is in you. We can know God more and more. It works both ways: We participate in a culture of life by offering to others the opportunity to know God, just as we participate in that culture of life by coming to know God more fully ourselves.
Know the Lord!
God bless you…
Commentary for December 26th.
Welcome to the morning after. . ..
Hmmm? There is no ‘morning after’ Christmas on December 26th! Christmas goes on for the Christian. Christ comes to us, makes himself intimately available for us always. We indicate that by having the twelve days of Christmas—beginning on Christmas day. In many denominations, the liturgy, the ordered service of prayer that reminds us of where we are, who we are and who God is, not only declares that Christ is come, but in this time leads our hearts to be yet further converted by his coming.
His coming speaks to us of the value of all life.
Merry Christmas!
God bless you. . .
Jim Anderson
Commentary for December 23th.
I hope for you that Jesus’ coming into the world is replicated in your life. My hope is that just as God surprised everyone by becoming such an unlikely king, that both God and you would surprise all of us by revealing Christ in your life. May the special and unique person that you are bring a tremendous effect to a culture of life in this world.Commentary for December 22th.
May you know peace this Christmas.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
So what can someone like me say to someone like you for Christmas? You who read this likely share my love for the gift of life. If I offered you three reasons why Jesus’ incarnation is a reason to support the cause of life, you might list three reasons of your own quite easily.
So what can I offer you? Peace. Though, when people say ‘peace’ at Christmas, it is often a sentimental wish for no war. But peace is far more than the absence of bad noises or even death. And whether CNN likes it or not, the wars they have covered are nothing compared to the war on innocent life.
Peace is when the one, truly ‘good one’ wins. Because peace is essentially goodness spread really thick, and God alone is truly good… May you have peace. Rich and abiding, intimately close to your heart—Jesus loving you and yours. His Spirit setting your hearts afire with love, and you and yours loving God as fully as they ever have loved. This is peace.
May the peace of Christ be with
you.
God bless you. . .
Jim Anderson
Commentary for December 21
I have met African Americans who were dying of sickle cell anemia. We should shout from the highest rooftop that this disease is on its way out, thanks to pro-life Congressman Chris Smith. The incurable is now curable, now that doctors will have the tools needed to access the therapy that has for too long been out of reach. Listen for good news in today’s LifeNews Radio.
God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Commentary for November 25th.
Sin really bites. Just when you think you can have a little of it and everything else is ‘just fine’, you find that your ‘one sin’ has blinded you to another, often more pernicious error or practice. I speak not only from experience, but from observation of our opponents, those who play with embryos or ‘voluntary termination of pregnancies’. They really want to package each ‘problem’ as a world to its own. But “sin crouches at the door” not to be ‘packaged’, but to take mastery of those who could play with it.
So I comment on this in today’s LifeNews Radio after telling how a Korean scientist tries to make good after violating scientific ethics.
A culture of death brings with it not merely a set of acts that are void or empty of goodness, or as Christians say “sinful”. No, that is not all. A culture of death and its accompanying actions brings with them a blindness, a blindness of heart and of even intellect. Embryonic stem cell research is not evil merely because it fails to work or because it is an economic scam or because some researchers fail to follow ethical esearch principles. It is evil because it takes a human life to operate the system. Its progress is born on the backs of other empty acts like invitro fertilization and so-called leftover embryos.
Commentary for November 24
On Thanksgiving Day, we must answer a question that parallels the question, “How can a God of love allow…?” How ‘do’ we give thanks in the midst of such tragedy? Even God is profaned by the discarding and disregarding of His love.
Of course, we do give thanks for life. We give thanks that, while we wish for more, there are so many really wonderful human beings fighting for the right to life. I cry sometimes tears of gratitude when I think of you. You, that one person who does not ‘get’ to do this or that ‘fabulous’ task, but you act nonetheless—and you pray. Some of you, I know, pray for people like me. And I am deeply grateful.
We give thanks for where we are today. I, for one, have always wanted—even just as a witness—to be on the front lines—even as a dirty, worn foot soldier—of a tremendous struggle to bring glory to God. I get my wish and I’m thankful.
We give thanks that ‘where’ we are today is a good place. The debate is being joined: if our opponents don’t respect us, they are learning to fear us. But even greater than the debate being joined is that as one, the life movement wishes good for our adversaries. We really want them to be converted to regard their life and all life as sacred.
I think it is safe to say that there has never been such a conflict where one side actually loved the other as much as we love abortion advocates and embryonic stem cell advocates and euthanasia advocates. That is something for which to be thankful. When Jesus said “Love your enemies”, he meant it. And to be doing something this much in conflict with the ‘other side’ and to have love…
…Maybe God is pleased. And that is something for which to be thankful.
May God bless you and may your heart be full of gratitude. . ..
Jim Anderson
Jim Anderson of Life News Radio and Sacred Heart Radio AM 1050 in Seattle writes and records commentaries on politics, pro-life issues, and the culture war. Below is Jim's commentary for November 17th, 2005. We are grateful to have him and Sacred Heart Radio in our area.
I do not like what is happening in D.C. Pro-abort senators like Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer refuse to recognize the role of the president in nominating nor his role in approving appointments. When Mr. Bush again became President Bush these people lost in their bid to choose nominees to the high court. Each time someone pulls our democratic republic down through another rat hole, we all lose. It is yet another cycle down in the culture, specifically the culture as reflected in the formation of public policy. Pro-abort lawmakers think it’s okay to do this not because it is democracy forming public policy, but because they presume an elite right-ness in everything they think and their way must win or hell must pay. And on the way we all pay with another cycle down the destruction of culture. And hell could care less.God bless you…
Jim Anderson
Jim's commentaries will be a permanent part of the Abortion in Washington blog. If you'd like the audio of this commentary please send me an email and I can email it to you. You can also hear Jim each weekday on Sacred Heart Radio Seattle on AM 1050 at 10:55 am.
God bless you Jim and all you do to build a culture of life.
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