Tuesday, May 21, 2013

SWALLOWING A CAMEL

"La Sierra University faculty...who do not believe in and endorse the voted SDA belief in creation be released from service for La Sierra University," says GC President Ted Wilson


http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2013/05/21/revealing-another-conversation-could-impact-lsu-story


La Sierra, a Seventh-day Adventist university, has teachers who do not believe in a young earth. This upsets the General Conference so much that the teachers who believe in an old earth are to be fired. This is what the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists are upset about when it comes to La Sierra. 

Yet, there has been not a word spoken against this:


La Sierra University's Edward C. Allred Center honors notorious abortionist!

http://advindicate.com/?p=2560&cpage=4

Seventh-day Adventist David Read writes, "Edward C. Allred made a fortune owning a chain of abortion clinics, personally aborting hundreds of thousands of fetuses, and currently owns gambling venues in California and New Mexico. In 2010, La Sierra University founded the “Edward C. Allred Center for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship” in his honor."

For those Adventist out there reading this, you should be considering putting on sackcloth and throwing ashes upon your heads. This is a scandal beyond belief. 

The church that stands strong against tobacco and beer and wine. The church that claims it promotes the Ten Commandments. The church that clings to the Sabbath for its very life, but will rejoice and honor a man known for bragging during a 1980  interview with a Los Angeles Times reporter, "to have, personally aborted a quarter of a million fetuses in the preceding 12 years. It may seem difficult to believe that one man could perform so many abortions, but Allred tried to spend no more than five minutes with each pregnant woman."

And said: 

"Population control is too important to be stopped by some right-wing pro-life types." Edward C. Allred, M.D. quoted in Anthony Perry, “Doctor’s Abortion Business is Lucrative,” San Diego Union, October 12, 1980, pages A-3 and A-14.


The Adventist Gosnell. 

Adventists friends and family. Wake up. Protest this as you would a Sunday law. 



16 comments:

Stephen Korsman said...

The official Adventist guidelines on abortion state: "The Church does not serve as conscience for individuals" ... except when it comes to the Sabbath and other things.

Arik said...

From the Douay-Rheims: Exodus 21:22-24, If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child, and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman' s husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award. [23] But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life. [24] Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, [25] Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

There are two catholic commentaries (A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture-Dom Bernard Orchard, and A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture-Reginald C Fuller)that come to the conclusion that the fetus is not a person based on Exodus 21 which renders the fetus less value than a human being.

This view held by Catholics and Protestants alike contributed to SDA's current abortion policy. Just goes to show that even Catholics, as evidenced by the translation of the Douay Rheims, is not always correct.

Teresa Beem said...

Arik,
I can't imagine being more wrong about anything than what I just read. You are profoundly unaware of Catholicism if you believe what you wrote.

First: Your strange comment that the Catholic dogma of abortion influenced the SDA abortion policy. I would love to see the proof of that. I was on one committee that helped formulate SDA current policy and I can tell you there was no Catholic influence.

There may be individual Catholics that write on when a fetus is a person, but that would in no way affect their position that abortion is a grave moral evil. Early Catholic scholars debated WHEN an unborn child was given a soul, but no Catholics would have seen that as allowing to kill an unborn child.

Here's what is official Catholic dogma on abortion:

From Catholic Answers:


The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. This tract will provide some examples of this consistent witness from the writings of the Fathers of the Church. 
As the early Christian writer Tertullian pointed out, the law of Moses ordered strict penalties for causing an abortion. We read, "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely [Hebrew: "so that her child comes out"], but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Ex. 21:22–24). 
This applies the lex talionis or "law of retribution" to abortion. The lex talionis establishes the just punishment for an injury (eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life, compared to the much greater retributions that had been common before, such as life for eye, life for tooth, lives of the offender’s family for one life). 
The lex talionis would already have been applied to a woman who was injured in a fight. The distinguishing point in this passage is that a pregnant woman is hurt "so that her child comes out"; the child is the focus of the lex talionis in this passage. Aborted babies must have justice, too. 
This is because they, like older children, have souls, even though marred by original sin. David tells us, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5, NIV). Since sinfulness is a spiritual rather than a physical condition, David must have had a spiritual nature from the time of conception. 
The same is shown in James 2:26, which tells us that "the body without the spirit is dead": The soul is the life-principle of the human body. Since from the time of conception the child’s body is alive (as shown by the fact it is growing), the child’s body must already have its spirit. 

Teresa Beem said...

Thus, in 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion "is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors . . . I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church" (Evangelium Vitae 62). 
The early Church Fathers agreed. Fortunately, abortion, like all sins, is forgivable; and forgiveness is as close as the nearest confessional. 
 
The Didache

"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]). 
 
The Letter of Barnabas

"The way of light, then, is as follows. If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. . . . Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]). 
 
The Apocalypse of Peter

"And near that place I saw another strait place . . . and there sat women. . . . And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion" (The Apocalypse of Peter 25 [A.D. 137]). 
 
Athenagoras

"What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? 
. . . [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it" (A Plea for the Christians 35 [A.D. 177]). 

Teresa Beem said...

 Tertullian

"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed" (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]). 
"Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery. 
"There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] "the slayer of the infant," which of course was alive. . . . 
"[The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive" (The Soul 25 [A.D. 210]). 
"Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does" (ibid., 27). 
"The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22–24]" (ibid., 37). 
 
Minucius Felix

"There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. . . . To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide" (Octavius 30 [A.D. 226]). 
 
Hippolytus

"Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!" (Refutation of All Heresies [A.D. 228]). 
 
Council of Ancyra

"Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees" (canon 21 [A.D. 314]). 
 

Teresa Beem said...

Basil the Great

"Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not" (First Canonical Letter, canon 2 [A.D. 374]). 
"He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and unintentionally kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defense, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it dies upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees" (ibid., canon 8). 
 
John Chrysostom

"Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication. . . . Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine" (Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]). 



Teresa Beem said...

Jerome

"I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother. . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" (Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]). 
 
The Apostolic Constitutions

"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for he says, ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live’ [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . [I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed" (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]). 

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004

Arik said...

"The foetus is not regarded as a person, but if the woman dies the lex talionis is applied." A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, pg 220.

Teresa Beem said...

Arik;

Novice mistake. Lots of people assume that anything written by a Catholic is doctrine. Nope. If you want actual authentic Catholic doctrine you go to the Catechism.

Here's the official position of the Catholic Church on Abortion:

Abortion
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.72 (1703, 357)
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.73
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.74
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.76

Teresa Beem said...


2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,”77 “by the very commission of the offense,”78 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.79 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society. (1463)
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation: (1930)
“The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death.”80
“The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined.... As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child’s rights.”81
2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safeguarding or healing as an individual.... It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence.”82
2275 “One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival.”83
“It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material.”84
“Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity”85 which are unique and unrepeatable.

Teresa Beem said...

Arik please not the first paragraph:

From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person.

Right there the unborn is a PERSON.

Anonymous said...

As someone who is close to this situation, I know this post to be wrong headed and a waste if network traffic. The truth is that Allred is a deeply devoted Christian and believes in solid education and supports things that are close to his heart. This liable vomited by this Beem person is shameful and not Christian in any sense.

Teresa Beem said...

Are you saying that Dr. Allred didn't slaughter thousands of little unborn children? Are you truly saying that a butcher on the level of the demon Molech can in any way be considered Christian?

If Dr. Allred has publicly repented of his barbarous actions and turned from his evil ways, please let us know. For we will then of course forgive him as Christ forgives.

But until that time, we must be vigilant in condemning both a man who could do such things to little, innocent children and condemn a church who would promote such a wicked man.

This is the SDA Gosnell. No other way to see it.

Teresa Beem said...

Anonymous,
Your phrase "as someone close to the situation" has been haunting my prayers over the last twenty-four hours.

This phrase leads me to believe that you are either friends with or are a family member with Mr. Allred. And the rest of your post seems to indicate that you are unaware of his abortion business. Perhaps you are a grandchild or you are a young person who knows him from church. I have been earnestly praying for you. I know it has got to a terrible shock to learn something so horrific about someone you may respect and even love.

Know that my heart goes out to you. Even very wicked people can do nice things. Dr. Allred may be a really "nice" guy and even a good father or grandfather but that does not in any way negate the murder of little innocent children. Many, many good people in Germany thought that Hitler was a fine man because he treated his family and friends so well. No one close to him thought he was a bad person. Many of his top officials loved him so much they would have given their lives for him and some did.

I don't think anyone wants to hurt Dr. Allred. What we most want is for him to see what he has done and turn from his wicked ways and be healed. There was an abortionist, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who had done tens of thousands of abortions before God showed him how evil it was and then he repented and gave his life to Christ and became one of the world's foremost pro-life advocates. We pray for the same thing to happen to Dr. Allred. God's mercy is infinite. Jesus died on the cross to pay for Dr. Allred's sins. Jesus felt the death of all those little souls Dr. Allred killed in HIs Body and He took the pain and penalty.

If you are close to Dr. Allred, never cease to pray for him, never give up that he might one day see the depth of the wickedness of abortion and be forgiven and seek to show the world how sorry he is and help save other babies.

I will be praying for you, that you will have the courage to perhaps say something to Dr. Allred that may soften his heart towards God.

Blessings my friend. We live in such a world of pain and to awaken one day and find a friend or relative you respect to have so totally collapsed in his morality is a stunning awakening. My heart goes out to you.

Lord God, be with this person... In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti Amen.


M said...

Tesa, lots of people assume that anything written by an Adventist is doctrine. Be careful how you generalize when accusing others of generalize. It seems as if you seek out fanatics in one religion to condemn while becoming a fanatic yourself in another. Wow! What vengeance and venom you spew!

Teresa Beem said...

The fact that you called me by my childhood name, means you must know me well. You are not just a random comment. And if you know me that well, you would know that there isn't a drop anywhere in my veins of venom. You also know that I have not become a fanatic of any religion. So, I will forgive your judgment of me because I am sure you are just upset by something.

Now to my question. Is it venom to point out how Adventists say nothing about this abortionist except those who HONOR him? How is that fanatic or venomous? To me, it is the kindest thing I can do. In fact, it is a act of spiritual mercy to point it out. Blessings to you,