Category Archives: Essay

Political demonstration

The Syzygy of Clowns

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During my time in America, the beautiful balance of forces converging in my driveway each summer showed a Divine Hand guiding all things. Just as migratory birds appeared on schedule every spring, another strange and wonderful connection between God and His creatures also occurred every August, right in my own driveway.

In August, the US Congress took its annual summer recess, just as the maggots reappeared in my garbage can. It happened as certainly as political lawn signs in September. The year I noticed this, both events coincided with National Clown Week. It was three-for-one.

My garbage bin was a wheeled black plastic 30-gallon larvae incubator. It absorbed prodigious amounts of solar heat. With a full load of week-old garbage it became a fetid cesspool of a nursery, fit only for the lowly housefly and her offspring.

Judging from the wheely-bin’s productive output each summer, maggots do very well in a slightly anaerobic atmosphere at about 50 degrees Celsius. This positions them to do well in a post-global warming world.

On the steamy afternoon in question I made a plastic-sacked deposit, and was greeted by the usual stampede. Thousands were suddenly crawling eagerly toward the light faster than Congress members after a donor checkbook.

Maggots? No worries, nothing a hose can’t fix. It gave the birds a snack off the front yard.

The entire scene: garbage can, maggots, hose job… it brings the thought of Congress back time and again.

Those maggots were my annual reminder that Congress is most dangerous when it is loose outside the Beltway. August was the time to watch out. When the Members hang around the Capitol, we know where they are and what they are up to. After all, we elected ‘em to keep ‘em out of our way, didn’t we?

But when they descended on the home district, it meant those pesky telemarketers soon called, and town hall meetings invaded the summer quiet. It marked the return of trespassing political operatives who vandalized my lawn with signs in the middle of the night.

When the clowns from DC mixed with the general population, it was hard to feel happy and secure. But no matter what they perpetrated, even bone-headedness of Washingtonian proportions, I now recall it’s not possible to remain unhappy if you are surrounded by real clowns.

That’s the truth of it. There I was, washing out the bin that summer long ago, musing on the redundancy of “political stupidity,” when out of nowhere, a miniature fire engine motored by, covered with real clowns!

It looked like a wheeled orange Chia Pet.

The clowns were on their way to a nearby celebration. I waved joyfully. They stopped and gave me a balloon and candy.

I like real clowns. They momentarily make other clowns more bearable. And they give away suckers instead of taking me for one.

Now of course, we are in a post-global warming world, or so they say. The maggots have taken charge. Checks and balances appear to have been thrown out the window. We don’t have mob rule, rather, by the opinion-du-jour. The loudest voice wins.

Send in the clowns. There ought to be clowns.

Don’t you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you’d want what I want
Sorry, my dear
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns
Don’t bothеr, they’re herе

From ‘Send in the Clowns’ © 1973 Stephen Sondheim

Image by Vincent M A Janssen via Pexels

Couple with unborn baby pictures

Why Abortion is a Men’s Issue

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(A seven-minute read)

Did the title of this piece get your attention?

We don’t talk about this enough: abortion is a men’s issue as much as a women’s issue, and in some respects more.

Don’t Misunderstand Me

I generally don’t write to help people feel safe, so I encourage you to hang in there. You may read something important. In the end you may have something important to share back to me. If you bail on me now, pre-judging this as just more mansplaining, all you do is stay in your own intellectual silo. And that’s too bad.

Two Important Points

First, if you or someone you love had an abortion, I don’t condemn you. That’s not the topic here. Abortion, whether actively or reluctantly sought, is painful and challenging. It’s emotionally hard and morally fraught. I have no business in your personal business. But then, you have no business in mine either. But I’ll share it anyway.

Second, women bear a great burden (no pun intended) in pregnancy. To do it alone makes it greater. The frequent abandonment of women by men is a main reason why men have a say about abortion. An obscenely large number of children are born to single mothers. As they grow, they are borne by single mothers. It’s unconscionable, and it’s wicked on the part of the men who bailed.

My Personal Business

So, to my personal business, where I confess to possibly being an accessory to manslaughter. It was a grave crime. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time. But with my help, a baby died.

It was the spring of 1972. Two of my best friends at school engaged in a private display of affection, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. It was, as we said back in the day, ‘Big Trouble’. Oh, an abortion was the only solution, we thought. It was completely justified, we believed. There was good reason for it. (Isn’t there always?)

Having a baby out of wedlock in 1972 changed lives forever and carried a huge stigma for a pair of teenagers, and especially for the baby. You are a bastard! This was a day and age when that term still meant something and was a shameful millstone.

Looking back, I can only see it as a murderous business. I prevailed upon my parents to work through our family physician to arrange an abortion for my friends. All very illegal in our state, legal elsewhere. All very hush-hush. It was all resolved quietly and no one spoke of it again.

There was no talk of ‘family planning’ or ‘women’s reproductive rights’ or ‘health care options’ in those days. It wasn’t a political issue either. It was just a pair of scared kids deciding to end an innocent life to make theirs easier to bear.

So why do I air this dirty laundry? Why do it a half-century after the fact?

Three Reasons

First, as a Bible-believing follower of Christ, I know that all life is precious, so abortion is wrong, no matter what situation it alleviates. I don’t get to choose; God’s word prevails in this matter. 1

Second, because of the first bit, I want to repent for my part in what I now acknowledge was a sin and a crime.

Finally, I also must acknowledge my own youthful premarital indiscretions which, thank God, never led to an unplanned pregnancy. Neither I nor my partners ever availed ourselves of UnPlanned Parenthood. Why do I call it that? Well, if you are planning parenthood, you don’t look for an abortion, do you?

Okay, Take a Deep Breath

Why the roundabout introduction? To show you that I’ve had some skin in the game. As a man, I have to take responsibility for my actions. All of them.

I’d like to think that if one of my youthful escapades had resulted in a pregnancy, I’d have ‘done the right thing’. In my day and age, that meant marriage, no question. Nowadays, with more than half of American and UK babies born out of wedlock, that would at least mean being an active and responsible father.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it? It takes two to tango, but when that third party joins the dance, many of the men leave the floor.

It’s wrong, it’s ugly, and has led to two ugly outcomes.

The first is the wholesale slaughter of millions of babies under the euphemistic fiction of ‘family planning’ or ‘reproductive health.’ How many abortions are ordered up because the father is either absent, going to be absent, or refuses to take responsibility for a lack of self-control? How many would be prevented if men did their part?

After that, for babies allowed to be born, many of them grow up fatherless. The long-term implications of this are frightening. Fifty years of statistics prove this. We see it lived out every day. Fatherless boys become fatherless men. They are emotional orphans. They are more likely to turn to crime, use drugs, join a gang or engage in other anti-social behavior. The vast majority of men in prison grew up without a strong, loving dad. The truth of this is inarguable.

Boys without fathers search for fathers. And they will take whatever they believe gives them a strong identity, even if it is evil. This is not a new concept. There is research on this going back to the 1820s.

Boys disguised as men are also more like to unthinkingly father children for whom they will take no responsibility. They do what they’ve learned. This leaves two victims: a betrayed and wounded woman, and a dead or fatherless child.

What Do We Do?

I don’t know much beyond supporting organizations that build strong two-parent families, or which build strong, protective, loving men. In personal relationships, we can encourage the men we know to be more selfless.

Selfless men are godly men. They take responsibility for what they do, and they live honorable lives. They are willing to protect women: all women. These are men who know what a zipper is for. These are men who are willing to be accountable to others, especially other men. If they make a mess, they clean it up and make amends. If they need help, they ask for it.

Protecting Women Beyond Abortion Rights

The abortion debate (mostly passionate and violent shouting) has been all about women on one hand, and about babies on the other. Women, because they incubate, carry and bear children. Babies, because they are silent, innocent victims of abortion and – if born – too often have no father.

But the discussion should welcome and include men as well. Too many men play their part, unthinkingly, unconsciously and unconscionably and then walk away. ‘It’s your problem, Babe – you sort it out. I’ll even pay for it,’ they might say.

Or they may just disappear. Or they may turn up later demanding their ‘rights.’ They may become violent.

By their negligence and selfishness, these men essentially force women into the pain of abortions after giving them the pain of betrayal. Or force them into the pain of single parenthood. Either way, they ruin lives.

A Call to Men

I saw this quote3 recently: ‘Strong men live according to their morals. Weak men live according to their urges.’ But morals alone aren’t enough because morals have to be lived not just held. And they have to be lived in community. In the right kind of community. A community built by fathers who want to raise children, not kill them.

Family Business

Finally, I have a legacy to dispense with. Family history tells me that my grandmother, a nurse, worked directly with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Because I believe unequivocally that abortion is murder, I publicly renounce my family’s historical connection to this organization.

I know Planned Parenthood has provided much-needed pre-natal care to many women, but by all accounts, its primary purpose in recent years has been to kill innocent children.

The wrangling about Margaret Sanger’s history, and whether she was a racist or a eugenicist is for others. For myself, I’m only sorry my family was involved, and I publicly apologize to anyone who has been misled or hurt by Planned Parenthood in any way.

1. We can argue about this later
2. Ephesians 5:25-33
3. I apologize that I cannot attribute this quote. I jotted it down at the time without noting the author.

Image by Rodnae Productions via Pexels

don't doubt - do

WWJD Moments

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(A three-minute read)

When I face a dilemma, it’s too easy to become impaled on its horns. I don’t need an answer then. I need wisdom.

The dilemma is the choice of fears: Fear God? Or fear man? It’s age-old, universal and can be petrifying.

Here in the West, it’s been too easy for too long to give lip service to the fear of God and trundle along pretending I’m not afraid of what you think. But the day of complacency is about over. The day of decision is about to dawn, not just for me, but for every Christian believer.

The days are darkening. Christians in the global West are beginning to realize that the persecution and martyrdom long faced by our brothers and sisters in the global East and the global South is headed our way.

The signs aren’t subtle to those who can see them.

For example, here in the UK it is now illegal for me to pray silently within 150 metres of an abortion provider.

Yes, silent Christian prayer is now considered a crime. What I think in the privacy of my own being can now be ruled a violation of the law. How is one to answer an absurdity like that? It will take great wisdom. Fortunately, there is an answer.

Jesus promised that if I pray for wisdom I should expect to get it. That’s what I need most: Godly wisdom. If I’m to step out in faith fearing God and not the world’s venal immoralities, how to best respond? These are definitely WWJD moments, aren’t they? 1

Instead of ‘We Wait, Jesus Does,’ I’m always tempted to respond to difficult situations by preparing a defence. Defending myself is that mental thing I do, and I mean ‘mental’ in both senses of the word. Ha ha. It means having imaginary conversations with people who aren’t here, to be ready in case they are.

Have you ever done that and actually had the conversation go the way you imagined? I sure haven’t. But I sometimes do it anyway. It’s probably one definition of insanity. It’s a sign my faith is weak and I’m afraid of man, instead of trusting in God.

Jesus makes it clear2 that I should not prepare any defence in advance. For anything. Ever. In fact, I think He used the Aramaic word for fugeddaboudit. He promises He Himself will step in and give me the wisdom I need in dire circumstances.

That would be a really cool superpower if I’m stopped by police, but I suspect that’s not what Jesus meant. He meant ‘listen to Holy Spirit’ (who lives in me).

It’s gotten better over time. I used to greatly struggle with this defending-myself thing, and what’s worse, I’d make it conditional: ‘Hey God – you do this, and I’ll do that.’ God doesn’t do conditional, at least not when I try to initiate the deal.

Not any more. Instead of stupidly speaking with invisible persons, I have to take the advice of Jesus’ half-brother James.3 His catch is that I have to ask in a certain way, or it doesn’t work. I have to ask in faith, James wrote, or I get nothing in return.

Here then, is the deal: I have to focus. I can’t be double-minded to get through whatever is coming. I must avoid arguing cases with myself. It’s past time to waver, and past time to go it alone without wisdom from above.

Why? Because the day of judgment is coming. First will come the day of man’s judgment, judgment of me and my faith, and then, at last, will come the Lord’s day for the judgment of all.

May I not be found wanting on either day.

Yet I am not disheartened, despite it all. You shouldn’t be either. Take heart, Christian. Don’t celebrate the darkening of the world. Be encouraged by the sure knowledge of Christ’s victory. And take a stand.

I’m not called to pray about any of this silently 151 metres from an abortion clinic, either. I’m called to shout it from the housetops.5

So here ya go.

1. We Wait. Jesus Does.
2. Luke 21:14-15 ‘Therefore resolve in your hearts beforehand not to practice your defense. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your opponents will be able to neither refute nor resist.’
3. James 1:5 ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and without criticism, and it will be given to him.’
4. James 1:6-8 ‘But let him ask in faith, without wavering. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed with the wind. Let not that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.’
5. Matthew 10:26-28 ‘Therefore do not fear them. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light. And what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’