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Help at Home
Our state, "Pennsylvania offers various social services for citizens age 60 and up", as shown in the photo. Agape Restoration Society helps residents and others get needed assistance so they can live at home, either in our handicapped-accessible ARCs or other housing. Then "Home Health Care" and "Meals on Wheels" can go a long way toward keeping you at home! - that is, if your home is suitable for this when you need it to be.
The basic problem, however, is that most people don't want to think about such things... until it's too late. Psychologists call this "the normalcy bias" - our brains work in terms of past experience, so we assume that everything will simply keep on going on "like normal" just as it has in the past. But when we stop to think about it (if we ever do take time to stop to think...), we realize deep-down that someday we're going to die, and more likely (70% probability!) first will come slowing down, having a hard time climbing up or going down stairs, feeling exhausted after walking 100 feet, needing a walker or a wheelchair, etc. - the old heart, back, legs, etc. are getting tired and worn out. Are YOU going to be pro-active and stop to think about it now, or will you wait until it's too late to choose which accessible housing is best for you? Then you'll have to depend on relatives - who are busy with their own lives - to take time out to do it for you.
What is an ARC - an Agape Restoration Community? Perhaps first of all we should say what an ARC is not: it is not a nursing home, a personal care home, an assisted living center, or an independent living facility. Think of an ARC as a Christian community where you own your living unit, can move about, come and go as you please without the physical barriers of stairways, steps at porches or decks, or narrow hallways and doorways that hinder movement by people with mobility impairments. An ARC also provides common spaces for worship and other group activities so you're not cooped up at home alone.
Why an ARC? See the article "The Changing Demographics of Nursing Home Care: Greater Minority Access… Good News, Bad News": as our population ages, more and more elderly people of minority groups are being placed in nursing homes as an increasing number of white Americans move into assisted living or independent living facilities that they can afford. Will you be able to afford thousands of dollars per month for such hotel-like accomodations?
The elderly of minority groups and the poor tend to rely more on Medicaid that has strict limits of what it will provide only if medically necessary: a basic double-occupancy room with two TVs, three meals a day, limited-staff nursing care, a shower once a week, and perhaps some physical therapy to keep in shape. Picture yourself in a room with two TVs and both residents want to watch and listen to (loud!) their favorite programs... one late at night and the other early in the morning!
But this doesn't mean that more and more nursing homes are being built: quite the opposite, in fact! Because of Medicare's and Medicaid's stricter limits on how much and what they will pay for, thousands of nursing homes have shut down in the past thirty years: see "In the Nursing Home, Empty Beds and Quiet Halls" -
"Thirty years ago, 90 percent of Medicaid dollars for long-term care flowed to institutions and only 10 percent to home- and community-based services. Now, the proportions have flipped, and nursing homes get only 43 percent of Medicaid’s long-term care expenditures.
"A report from the federal Government Accountability Office earlier this year pointed out, for example, that Medicaid covers assisted living for 330,000 people. A demonstration program called Money Follows the Person has moved more than 75,000 residents out of nursing homes and back into community settings.
"It's good news for consumers — but not so good for nursing homes. The 31 largest metropolitan markets have 13,586 fewer nursing home beds now than in late 2005, the investment center reports.
"This could prove a temporary crisis. When the baby boomers enter their 80s and need residential care, occupancy could pick up again."
But will the beds be there when the baby boomers need them? Another article, "The Need for Long-Term Care Continues to Grow", tells of the 10,000 "Baby Boomers" retiring every day: they were born from 1946 to 1965 and number seventy million people, about one-fourth of the entire U.S. population. Most retirees don't need accessible housing right at age 65: disability usually begins around age 75, so the tsunami of disabled "Baby Boomers" will likely begin in 2021. We need to be ready!
As more and more of the "Baby Boomers" leave the workforce to retire, fewer and fewer people will be paying into Social Security and general public funds while more will be drawing from these funds. This article states - "An estimated 70% of people currently turning 65 will require long-term care in their lifetime, and they will receive care for an average of 3 years." This is obviously a danger, but also an opportunity... for Christians to form "intentional communities" to show compassion by providing accessible housing and care for the elderly and infirm.
And a fourth article, "Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees Out of Nursing Homes", relates how that people who think they have plenty to retire on find out that it's used up after just a few years, maybe even less, together with hospital bills. It tells about Alice Jacobs, age 90, who once owned a factory and horses, exhausted her savings at an assisted living center and now "relies on Medicaid to pay for her care at Dogwood Village, a nonprofit, county-owned nursing home." Wouldn't it have been wiser to get "Home Health Care" and "Meals on Wheels" while living in an ARC and not burning through those savings?
Our first news article HUNGARIAN PM ORBAN HOLDS TALKS WITH PATRIARCH OF MELKITE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH tells of a church delegation from Syria seeking foreign aid for persecuted Christians. Who are the Melkites? They stem from the first-century Church of Antioch, which later tended to not recognize the "Great Schism" of A.D. 1054. In 1729, Patriarch Cyril VI of this church was recognized by the Roman Pope as the legitimate Patriarch of Antioch. Thus the Melkites who observe the Eastern Orthodox liturgy came under the Pope. The phrase in the article "rather than 'bringing trouble over to Europe'" refers to the fact that Hungary does not allow Middle Eastern refugees into the country; instead, it has decided to help them survive in their own countries.
The expression "violent extremism" in our second news article KYRGYZSTAN: FIGHTING AGAINST VIOLENT EXTREMISM? is originally used by the former soviet republics of Central Asia in their new laws to supposedly "combat violent [Islamic] extremism" but in reality to clamp down on all groups and individuals that do not support these governments' neo-socialist policies. These dissenters are labeled "violent extremists" simply because they pray to and worship God in a way that is unacceptable to the state.
Please go to 
https://mewe.com/challenge - check off which social media accounts you have, and it will show you how many "tracking cookies" are stalking you. As you see by this photo, FaceBook is *BY FAR* the biggest offender: FB spies on you at every website you visit, even when you're not signed in at FB. As of yesterday, I've deleted my FB account, all my cookies, and I've joined MeWe that guarantees it won't track me or sell my personal information to advertisers. MeWe makes money by selling premium services. Here's my invitation link for you to keep in contact with me on MeWe.com - www.mewe.com/i/roberthosken. See you there!
As promised in our last issue of Hosken-News, here is a follow-up on Bishop Gedeon: UKRAINE ANNULS BISHOP GEDEON'S PASSPORT FOR PROVIDING FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT CITIZENSHIP. Keep in mind this news article is from Interfax-Religion, a Moscow Patriarchate-backed source, and they are admitting that he provided false information when applying for a Ukrainian passport: at that time he had both Russian and U.S. citizenship and passports of those countries. The other admission is that he had a "link to special services of the aggressor country" (Russia). In other words, he was acting as an agent for Russian intelligence services.
You may think it strange that Interfax-Religion would admit to this, but during our 17 years in Russia, I had a friend in then-Metropolitan (now Patriarch) Kirill's office who was helping with editing Agape-Biblia: he told me flat-out that he was reporting about me to the FSB (the new name for the KGB) and he was certain that I was reporting to the CIA. I objected, saying that I would not and could not do such a thing because it is illegal for American missionaries to do this. But for Russians it is perfectly normal and acceptable to report on foreigners to the authorities.
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Our fourth news article UOC-MP BISHOP GEDEON NOT GRANTED ACCESS TO UKRAINE gives more details about Bishop Gedeon: he was born in what was the Ukrainian S.S.R. but left for the U.S. just before the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. He served as a Russian Orthodox priest at a parish in Santa Barbara, California, during which time he obtained U.S. citizenship. He came to Kyiv in the late 1990s and should not have been allowed to automatically obtain Ukrainian citizenship because he had been away from Ukraine for too long, but somehow he managed to get a Ukrainian passport. He was involved in construction of a church building without obtaining legal permission and also was involved in politics, working as an assistant to Yuri Miroshnychenko, a member of parliament from the Russia-oriented Party of Regions.
So Bishop Gedeon was known to be a Russia-oriented political operative and a somewhat shady character, operating on the fringes of the Ukrainian legal system. When he arrived at the Kyiv airport last month, his invalid Ukrainian passport was confiscated and he was held there for several hours until he was put on an airplane to Frankfurt, Germany, the city he had flown in from.
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UKRAINE CHURCH LEADER: "MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE" IN UKRAINE FULLY DEPENDENT ON RUSSIA, our fifth news article, explains that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) or UOC(MP) for short is defined in the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church as a subsidiary part of the Moscow church. Although the Moscow Patriarch and his metropolitans claim that the UOC(MP) is "fully autonomous," the decisions regarding it are made in Moscow and often without reference to the titular head of the UOC(MP), Metropolitan Onufriy. Thus it should be abundantly clear to all that, just as with Bishop Gedeon, Metropolitan Onufriy is an agent of Moscow and that the UOC(MP) is merely an instrument used by Moscow to direct the loyalties of its Ukrainian adherents.
Once again, as KAZAKHSTAN: ONE CITY, TWO RAIDS, THREE FINES - our sixth news article relates, some Unregistered Baptists in Kazakhstan have been raided and fined for worshipping without state registration. This movement of Baptists in the former Soviet Union goes all the way back to the 1960s when Khrushchiov demanded that churches register with the state, turn over lists of all members, refuse to allow children under 18 to attend church, and report on the churches' activities. Some churches went along with these demands but a group of Baptist churches refused to comply and organized themselves as "unregistered" Baptists. They are similar to Jehovah's Witnesses in not obeying laws that they believe conflict with their faith: for example, they do not observe copyright laws, reprinting Christian literature without permission from the original publishers. Because of this spirit of antinomianism, they have been persecuted for the past fifty-plus years.
NOW, THE NEWS:
HUNGARIAN PM ORBAN HOLDS TALKS WITH PATRIARCH OF MELKITE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH
from: Hungary Today
(26 Feb.) Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, together with Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen, held talks with Youssef Absi, the patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, in the form of a luncheon in the Carmelite monastery in Budapest, the PM's press chief said on Tuesday. The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Dormition in Damascus.
Given the absence of direct diplomatic links between Hungary and Syria, the Hungarian government aims to assist the country's Christian communities via its Hungary Helps humanitarian programme, Bertalan Havasi cited the Hungarian leaders as saying.
Orban said his government has reviewed the aid proposals sent by the local church leaders and has begun delivering the necessary supplies to the communities in need. Between autumn 2016 and January 2019, Hungary set aside a total of 7.63 billion forints (EUR 24m) to help keep persecuted Christian communities in their homelands.
The government's policy remains unchanged: help should be provided at the point where it is needed rather than "bringing trouble over to Europe," Havasi said. [read more...]
KYRGYZSTAN: FIGHTING AGAINST VIOLENT EXTREMISM?
by Mushfig Bayram: Forum 18 News Service
(8 Mar.) Violent attacks are continuing in 2019 in Issyk-Kul Region against local Christians and Muslims friendly with Christians after an October 2018 attack on a young Protestant, Eldos Sattar uuly, which left him injured and in need of immediate hospitalisation. The authorities brought inadequate charges against Sattar uuly’s attackers, who are still walking around free despite being supposedly under house arrest.
"In the most recent case, 10 people violently attacked a Muslim friend of the family," a local person who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told Forum 18. The Muslim was attacked "just because he is a good friend of Sattar uuly’s family, and refused to stop being friends with them."
None of the victims of the attacks want to complain to the authorities as they are afraid of repisals against themselves and other local people, Forum 18 was told. "The state does nothing”, the local person told Forum 18.
Complaints by Sattar uuly's lawyer Zhanara Askar kyzy to Issyk-Kul Regional Prosecutor reulted in the police replying that "our investigation did not confirm your claims .. When you make such claims, please present concrete facts." She was also threatened with prosecution under Criminal Code Article 299 ("Incitement of national, racial, or religious hatred”) which carries the possible punishment of up to eight years in jail.
During a formal police questioning of witnesses to the case – held in a police station in the capital Bishkek because of fears for Sattar uuly's safety - Sattar uuly and Askar kyzy were both verbally attacked by the attackers' lawyer and police investigator, Askar kyzy was physically violently attacked resulting in her needing two days' hospitalisation, and she was threatened again with criminal prosecution. Police also stopped Askar kyzy being taken to hospital by ambulance. Officials have denied to Forum 18 that any such incidents took place. [read more...]
UKRAINE ANNULS BISHOP GEDEON'S PASSPORT FOR PROVIDING FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT CITIZENSHIP
from: Interfax-Religion
(15 Feb.) Bishop Gedeon of Makarov (Yury Kharon), a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who was barred from returning to Ukraine on Thursday, provided false information about his citizenship when submitting documents to receive Ukrainian citizenship, so his Ukrainian passport has been ruled invalid, the Ukrainian State Migration Service said.
"The Migration Service's department for the Volyn Region received certain information from the Ukrainian Security Service in 2018, conducted an inquiry, and determined the fact of the acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship in violation of the law by a citizen of the Russian Federation and a representative of a religious organization whom the media link to special services of the aggressor country. In particular, it has been determined that, when submitting documents to acquire Ukrainian citizenship, this individual provided false information about citizenships that he held," the Migration Service said.
Following an inquiry conducted based on the Ukrainian Security Service's letter, the decision to register Bishop Gedeon as a Ukrainian citizen and issue him Ukrainian passports were canceled in June 2018. "In line with Ukrainian law, the said person's Ukrainian passports (both the internal and the foreign travel ones) were rendered invalid and added to the relevant database of the State Migration Service," it said.
The State Migration Service restated that an attempt by a foreigner to cross the Ukrainian border with invalid documents was prevented on February 13, that this person's invalid Ukrainian foreign travel passport was confiscated, and that the foreigner was returned to the country from which he attempted to enter Ukraine with invalid documents.
It was reported earlier that at about 6:00 p.m. on February 13, while passengers who had arrived from Frankfurt at Kiev's Borispol Airport were undergoing border-control procedures, border guards seized Bishop Gedeon's Ukrainian foreign travel passport on the grounds that he had citizenships of several countries. An interview with him revealed that he "was engaged in anti-Ukrainian propaganda and was an active adherent to the 'Russian World' idea." [read more...]
(14 Feb.) More details about the biography of Bishop Gedeon (Kharon) in an investigation by RISU: Yuri Samuilovich Kharon (ordained name of Gedeon) was born in Odessa in 1960. In the late 1980s, he was appointed to serve in Russia. In 1991 he emigrated to the United States. There he was the rector of a church in Santa Barbara, San Francisco.
At the end of the 1990s, he arrived in Ukraine and immediately became a clergyman of the elite St Elias Church in Kyiv. Leaving Ukraine back in the days of the USSR, and returning in the late 1990's, he could not automatically obtain the citizenship of Ukraine.
In 2005, Kharon was appointed rector of the Church of the Tithes by the UOC(MP). A year later, he installed a tent, which in a strange way first turned into a wooden chapel, and then completely became a major building. The unauthorized construction of a new church of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate along with the archaeological remains of the ancient Cathedral of Tithes, which is a historical monument, was not only illegal, but also provoked a protest by the public and historians.
In 2009, the Holy Synod appoints Gideon as the vicar of the ancient Monastery of Tithes, but legally the monastery was never created. The Holy Synod of the UOC(MP) in May 2018 approved Gideon as bishop. He was also an assistant to the MP of the Party of Regions, Yuri Miroshnychenko.
In one interview, Kharon himself admitted that he had American citizenship. MP Igor Lutsenko has published a copy of a passport issued by the Russian Embassy in Ukraine, valid until 2013, by Yuriy Kharon. Lutsenko also made public the Ukrainian passport of Kharon, issued in 2011. It is not clear how he received Ukrainian citizenship, bypassing the Commission on Citizenship under the President, as stated in the Presidential Administration. Thus, the monk had, besides the illegally acquired Ukrainian citizenship, the citizenship of two more states: the United States and Russia.
On the website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a request was made by MP Lutsenko, in which he proves the absence of legally acquired Ukrainian citizenship, by Kharon. Therefore, the deportation of Kharon was obviously imminent. His Ukrainian passport was previously considered invalid. Now it was confiscated. Kharon is not considered a citizen of Ukraine, and therefore he must adhere to the rules of entry for foreign religious figures.
In order to enter the territory of Ukraine, Bishop Gedeon (Yuriy Samuilovich Kharon), as a foreign citizen, must receive an invitation from a religious organization, as well as approval of his visit by the state. This is a direct requirement of Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations." Since he did not have the relevant documents, he was not allowed to enter Ukraine. If it were allowed it would be a violation of the current legislation. [read more...]
UKRAINE CHURCH LEADER: "MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE" IN UKRAINE FULLY DEPENDENT ON RUSSIA
from: Unian
(4 Mar.) In their latest statements, the Russian Orthodox Church didn't even mention the formal head of what was formerly known as UOC-MP, Metropolitan Onufriy. Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epifaniy has explained why the former Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) is a structural part of the Russian Orthodox Church rather than an independent entity they claim they are.
"They are not an independent church but a metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church, as in Belarus. Perhaps, they have more rights than the Belarusian Orthodox Church, but in general, if you open the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church, there is a section 'Ukrainian Orthodox Church.' So is it an independent autocephalous church, or is it autonomous if its primate is the first permanent member of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church?" Epifaniy said in an interview with the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda.
Epifaniy added that in their latest statements, the Russian Orthodox Church didn't even mention the formal head of what was formerly known as UOC-MP, Metropolitan Onufriy, which indicates that Moscow "no longer even cares about the role of Metropolitan Onufriy," so statements are drafted without him being aware, without his participation.
"This indicates they are fully dependent on the Russian Orthodox Church," Epifaniy said, noting that the church's decision-making center is in Moscow. "If Metropolitan Onufriy was present at the Synod, being the first member of the Synod, what does this mean? I am not a member of the Holy Synod of the Church of Constantinople. We have a tomos, a real document, where it is stated that we are an independent autocephalous local Orthodox Church," Epifaniy pointed out. [read more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: ONE CITY, TWO RAIDS, THREE FINES
by Felix Corley: Forum 18 News Service
(4 Mar.) Police anti-terrorism officers and other officials raided two Baptist worship services on successive Sunday mornings in February in Taraz in the southern Zhambyl Region. Police issued three summary fines of one and two months' average wages and two warnings to punish meeting for worship without state permission.
The two congregations belong to the Council of Churches Baptists, who choose not to seek state registration in any of the former Soviet countries. They also follow a policy of civil disobedience, refusing to pay fines handed down to punish the exercise of their freedom of religion or belief.
The man who answered the phone at Zhambyl Regional Police's Anti-Extremism and Anti-Terrorism Department in Taraz did not respond to Forum 18's questions as to why the Baptist communities were raided and put the phone down. When Forum 18 called back, the line had been switched to a fax machine.
One police officer admitted that he had taken part in the first raid. But he refused to answer any of Forum 18's questions as to why police raided the community. The head of the Regional Religious Affairs Department in Taraz told Forum 18 he had no information about the raids and that his officials had not been involved. But he insisted that people cannot meet for worship without state registration.
Similarly, Balgabek Myrzayev, acting head of the Social Harmony Committee (which restricts rfreedom of religion and belief) in the capital Astana, told Forum 18 on 4 March that he was not informed about the raids on the Baptists and fines in Taraz. [read more...]
OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:
SLOVENIA ARCHBISHOP SAYS SEXUAL ABUSE NOT SYSTEMIC WITHIN CHURCH
from Total Slovenia News
THE CLERICAL ABUSE CRISIS: NOT OUR PROBLEM?
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine
DOORS OPENING FOR LITERATURE MINISTRY IN EASTERN EUROPE
from Mission Network News
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH(MP) METROPOLITAN HILARION NOTES CHRISTIANS' ROLE IN ENDING COLD WAR
from Interfax-Religion
ROC(MP) METROPOLITAN HILARION CALLS BILLY GRAHAM'S SERMONS "ORTHODOX"
from RIA Novosti
BILLY GRAHAM'S BOOK 'HAPPINESS OF LIVING IN CHRIST' PRESENTED IN STS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS INSTITUTE
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate
LECTURER FIRED FROM TBILISI SEMINARY-ACADEMY FOR STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF UKRAINIAN SCHISMATICS
from Orthodox Christianity
AZERBAIJAN ERASING ITS ARMENIAN CHRISTIAN PAST, DESTROYS 89 MEDIEVAL CHURCHES, 5,840 INTRICATE CROSS-STONES, AND 22,000 TOMBSTONES
from ChristianPersecution.com
BLOWN UP ARMENIAN CHURCH IN ALEPPO TO REOPEN IN SPRING AFTER RECONSTRUCTION
from Panorama.am
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The Integrity of the Family
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
"Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him, and saying, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?' He answered, 'Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?" So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don't let man tear apart'" (Mat. 19:3-6).
This passage from the Gospels has until fairly recently been a central part of wedding ceremonies in the U.S. for centuries. It is repeated in Mat. 5:31, Mark 10:7-8 and Eph. 5:31. Jesus went on to say, according to this passage, that the only reason for divorce was unfaithfulness: not "incompatibility" or financial troubles or disagreements over child raising. But recently the idea of "no-fault divorce" has hit the scene, resulting in millions of broken homes and families. This is not only a family tragedy, it is a national tragedy.
John Quincy Adams, son of a co-founder of the United States John Adams, wrote in 1842 -
"The social compact, or body politic, founded upon the laws of Nature and of God, physical, moral, and intellectual, necessarily pre-supposes a permanent family compact formed by the will of the man, and the consent of the woman, and that by the same laws of Nature, and of God, in the formation of the Social Compact, the will or vote of every family must be given by its head, the husband and father.
"The union of the sexes, founded in the law of nature necessarily precedes the social compact which constitutes the body politic, which is an association of families. The human being comes into life, the child of two parents, male and female, both of one species, but of different constitutions, adapted to each other for union. [Monogamy is] one of the most excellent purifications of the law of nature, by the precepts of Christianity."
From this, we see that the natural family precedes and forms the basis for the "social compact" - the state. The state does not give the family the right to exist; rather, the natural family gives the state the foundation on which the state exists.
But today there are forces and ideologies that seek to overthrow the state by undermining the natural family. Not only no-fault divorce, but also "the Pill," state encouragement of single motherhood, HIV-AIDS, abortion, "open marriage," Ebola, transgenderism, and homosexual "marriage" all discourage or do away with normal familial relationships of mutual love and respect. When the natural family breaks down, of course the state steps in, replacing normal relationships that should be based on love and trust with legal relationships based on force or the threat of force.
Consider "the Pill" - oral contraceptives were introduced in the 1960s allegedly for "family planning" purposes, for married couples to avoid having children they could not afford to raise. But in actuality, almost immediately these birth control pills were being prescribed to unmarried young women who just wanted to have sex "without the consequences." Here's where the "Rule of Unintended Consequences" kicked in:
According to the article Oral Contraceptives and Cancer Risk on a U.S. Government website, there are increased risks for various types of cancer from taking birth control pills, mostly breast cancer and cervical cancer. This is because these pills contain female hormones that mimic pregnancy, which causes these organs to respond in order to prepare for birthgiving and nursing.
Another article, Birth Control, Blood Clots, and Untimely Death: Time to Reconsider What We Tell Our Teens? tells of a seemingly healthy twenty-year-old woman, a college student who last year "collapsed in the driveway of her parent’s home. She was rushed by ambulance to Duke University Medical Center and, for twelve hours, surgery and post-ops teams tried to revive her. At the end of the day, the doctors told Alex’s parents that she had little to no brain activity. On September 27, after being removed from life support, Alex died." An autopsy revealed that she had blood clots in both lungs and died from a pulmonary embolism - a clot going from the lungs to the heart.
She had obtained birth control pills from Planned Parenthood that were supposed to reduce the risk of certain cancers, but the only warning about clots is directed to people who smoke. Such a "venous thromboembolism" (VTE), however, can also occur - albeit less frequently - with women who do not smoke: about 200 women die each year from VTEs when taking "the Pill." As the article states,
"When that risk is combined with the added risk of stroke and heart attack, between three and four hundred women die every year in the United States due to their choice to use hormonal contraception. To give some perspective, meningitis killed 45 people (of all ages) in 2017. Most states in the US mandate meningitis vaccination for college and university students. Would they consider the same kind of prevention campaigns for the deadly blood clots caused by hormonal birth control?"
Why do colleges and universities encourage students to take the "Pill" and get vaccinated against meningitis, but fail to warn them about the other consequences of premarital sex? It's because these institutions promulgate the worldview of statism and socialism, which need to undermine the natural family in order to succeed.
God's purpose for the family is not only for procreation, but also to provide an example to the children of how much Christ loves the Church: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the Church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself" (Eph. 5:25-28).
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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Please remember to pray for Christians in socialist countries, and for...
Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. Taking a middle of the road position is dangerous. You can get knocked down by the traffic from both ways.
- 9 Mar. 2019