“Yes” was the answer! 

That is, we will be kind and compassionate to each other. Great! We are all made in the image of God, so all of us have the capacity to be kind and compassionate. No one group has the sole copyright or monopoly on this ability.

However, the back narrative is seen in the picture from the market with the Bible verse:  “… just as in Christ, God forgave you.” 

That really is the ultimate in kindness and compassion – Jesus coming to love us and give himself for us, so that we can be restored and reconciled to God.

This is through God forgiving those who have accepted Jesus as their substitute. Forgiven for their ignoring and previous rejection of God. And then changing, because they want to please their wonderfully kind and gracious God!

Great news!

Depends on how you define “love”

That word has about as broad a use in society as the word “Christian”!

The scope goes from the cheap “made with love” label of a mechanically manufactured biscuit, to the sublime relationship between some couples of self-giving kindness and faithfulness. In between are the rest of us with our use, or misuse, of the word…

In the past, “to make love” related to having sex, with or without the pure love component.

When “love” is really sexual immorality, combined with only impure “lust”, then could we call it false “love”?

If a short, or even longer term relationship is spoken about in the terms of love, when it really is only lust, then that would seem to be using someone for one’s own fun. The other person doesn’t matter. It’s all about me. We normally call that selfish and manipulating behaviour. 

Negative consequences follow from our negative actions?

They usually do, but not always. For instance, sickness doesn’t necessarily follow, unless we have been adopting an unhealthy lifestyle.

It is to do with the law of cause and effect. You could even say cosmic justice. 

Most of us would like there to be such a principle in the universe, so that the Hitlers and the Stalins et al could be held responsible for their crimes. 

However, we would rather we ourselves were not hauled up to such a court!

A universal law maker? 

If we accept there is universal right and wrong, good and evil, we then have to acknowledge there must be a moral law maker, such as God.

However, if we consider ourselves to be just an insignificant part of a vast, random and purposeless universe, why should we feel strongly about what is right and wrong? To be consistent, Secular Atheism should hold this view. 

Personally, I believe there is a universal right and wrong. I base that on the Bible, the book passed down accurately through the centuries. That topic deserves a full Post for those who may be sceptical of my statement!

The Ten Commandments are a good start to universal right and wrong. I read each as “You will be happy if  you …”

The “Golden Rule” of Jesus works well too.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

Where do you get your right and wrong from?

‘Pro-Choice or Pro-Life? 

Does being pro-life mean that society is more civilised, or does being pro-choice mean that?

You can see from the blackboard result opposite that the majority of respondents in the market thought the latter.

I do find that difficult to accept

It is hard and inappropiate to call abortion anything other than the process of killing a baby in utero. It cannot be honestly sanitised to an alternative definition. Baby is the special word we have come to call the living human in the pregnant mother. We never hear a pregnant mum say her ‘foetus’ is kicking, or ‘just some tissue’ is starting to move, or has a heartbeat.

Once we know about the process of abortion, and especially if we see it on a live video, there is also no way we can think of the baby as anything other than living, and abortion as anything other than the killing of it. The reality is that the process is truly horrible to watch.

A mother’s love is normally accepted as the most exemplary of all forms of human love, isn’t it? Maybe there should be more forms of support for an expectant mother, so that she is more able to support and carry her baby to its birth?

I like that saying I heard somewhere – “Love them both.” They both have rights.

The WHO statistic is disquieting, isn’t it?

Nowadays it’s difficult to know what percentage of pregancies end in spontaneous abortions (miscarriages), and what percentage from induced abortions (terminations of pregnancy).

It seems that the spontaneous ones are mostly due to chromosomal problems, while the induced result from human choice. Whatever the reason, both are tragic. Very understandably, the events sum up to a huge rollercoaster of emotions for those intimately involved.

The womb should be the safest place to live. After all, when a lady is pregnant, the baby is the most delicate and vulnerable of us all.

Ultrasounds are amazingly detailed these days, and also show that detail earlier and earlier in the pregnancy.

Seeing the skull, the spinal cord, the limbs, as well as the beating heart, touches us in a most amazing way. We are usually full of wonder at these sights.

Whenever my wife has been pregnant, my reflex desire has been to love and care for them both.