Links - Forgiveness, Anglicans, Pakistan, and more

Forgiveness, Cell by Cell - "When Christ told his disciples earlier to forgive your brother “not seven times, but seventy times seven times,” I think he may very well have meant for a single offense—because that’s how forgiveness works."

Time for a Big, Big Change -  "The Stand Firm web site is about to undergo the single biggest change in its eight-year history."

A Little Proof of a Large Thing - "Our bodies, and the pattern of our lives, make a gesture which is meaningful because of the very fact that some pattern exists. There is not nothing, and there is not chaos: there are patterns, and I cannot unsee them."

Another Pakistani Christian Woman Blasphemy Trial Set for This Saturday - Martha Bibi, a 45-year-old rural villager and mother of six, was also accused of making derogatory remarks against the Koran and blaspheming Mohammed. Her final hearing is set for this Saturday, March 17. This is one to write your congressmen about, folks, because international pressure actually has a chance of keeping her alive if the verdict goes against her. It's super-easy to email your senators these days; most of their sites have a form for it, and they may not pay attention to individual letters, but they do pay attention to volume.

Quantum Marketing - Got to love marketing advice that comes down to: "write a really good story."

Father Ailill on St. Patrick's Day - "I mean to say, take some pity on the man. He's 1500 years old. Hasn't he earned a little good manners, if not respect? If you're convinced you need a day to lower yourself to the level of the beasts, call it Bacchus Day, or Falstaff Day, or Ted Kennedy Day. Even St. Olaf Day. He liked his tipple well enough."

a bad argument for Planned Parenthood

If you're reading this, and you're one of the many women who've had an abortion, please know that I'm not writing to make you feel worse. Facing a pregnancy that will upend your world is terrifying, and there's not a one of us who hasn't done something stupid or wrong because we were scared. Along with that, it seems to me that abortion is a crime that, in many ways, carries its punishment with it, because who's going to miss the absent child more than the child's own mother? If you are in this place and sorrowing, know that there is certain forgiveness and comfort. The Lord Jesus only welcomes sinners, and so that's me and you and everyone. Please come to him and be relieved of the weight you're carrying. Set it down and be made whole. And know that there are wonderful people who will help you through your grief.

It is because of the great sorrow and weight of an abortion, though, that arguments like this trouble me so much. The pie chart seems to imply that because abortion services are only 3% of the services provided by Planned Parenthood that they carry no weight.

Does a wrong cease to be wrong just because it is performed by a person who mostly does right?

If a doctor spends 97% of his time caring for the poor, and 3% of his time euthanizing the old, are the euthanizations less criminal? If a teacher cares excellently for 97 of his students, but molests 3 of them, are those molestations less horrific? If a mechanic provides good service for 97% of his clients, but cheats 3% of them, is he less of a thief?

There are very good conversations to be had about abortion, about the care of women who become pregnant in hard circumstances, and about providing health care for the poor. But this argument? It is no argument at all.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell