This will speak for itself. And yes, I am wearing a pink shirt under that button up. Wish me luck, people!

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!)

Last night I read an article posted on Albert Mohler’s blog entitled Black Children Are an Endangered Species? The post, was about abortion and how painfully disproportionate it is in ‘favor’ of black women. Citing some statistics in particular, like 37% of abortions every year are performed on black women, while the black population in America only makes up about 13%. And, that if those black babies since Roe v. Wade hadn’t been aborted, the black population would be around 19% today!

Most of the quotes in Mohler’s post came from Catherine Davis, a pro-life advocate with a focus on the black community, and the website toomanyaborted.com.

The reality of abortion is a shameful stain on our culture. And while it has evolved into something appearing to be ‘benevolent’, it’s roots in the eugenics movement (a pseudo-science aimed at selectively breeding the ‘superior humans’, and sterilizing the ‘unfit’ ones) are grotesque.

Davis thoroughly believes that abortion is a prevailing piece in a huge conspiracy to ‘cleanse’ the human race of black people. I suppose it could be, but that doesn’t seem like the most rational answer to me.

Now hear me out and please, don’t confuse what I’m saying. I hate abortion. I hate the idea that human beings of any kind can be nullified in the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘choice’. Americans have choices and freedom, but only to a point. And this is true across the board. I have the freedom to face an accuser, or not to. But I don’t have the freedom to rob him, or kill him. I have the freedom to quit my job and live on the streets begging for money. But I don’t have the freedom to steal my food and clothing.

Similarly, a woman has the freedom to engage in sex with whoever is willing, but she shouldn’t have the freedom to simply dodge the consequences that may follow when that means violating another person’s freedoms—the child she inadvertently conceived.

The abortion industry has an obvious slant toward black people. Though the statics are skewed. It also has an obvious slant toward low-income people in general. Unfortunately, this often means the Hispanic and black parts of our culture.

The abortion industry is incredibly lucrative. There is tons of money to be made. And this, I believe, is the pressing matter. Money. Not racial cleansing or hate. Liquor stores also have a concentration in minority areas as well. Yet I doubt there is a racially based conspiracy driving liquor sales.

It would seem to me, more likely, that there are cultural and economic situations in these particular people’s lives that make them more likely to pay for these procedures. Or, at the very least, makes public programs which pay for such procedures for these people much easier to achieve while appearing to do social good.

Even slavery throughout history wasn’t driven primarily by hate, but by money. ‘Free’ forced labor is ‘good’ for a business owner’s bank account. Or, at least in the short run it is.

Consider this, as a middle-class, white American, I am much more likely to walk by an Apple store. And, their marketing is almost definitely targeting me. But is that racist, or simply economic? It’s economic. There are all kinds of cultural and economic things that make me more likely to buy, and so their marketing campaigns have their crosshairs set.

I see no problem in speculating what may be the motives of those perpetuating something as terrible as abortion. But that really can’t be verified. And, staking a claim like racism or genocide, I believe, may have some really dangerous social consequences.

It hasn’t been that long since blacks in America were considered sub-citizens and it wasn’t long before that that they were considered by Europeans and new Americans to be sub-human. Those are deep wounds and they will take more time to fully heal. I believe that taking something as widespread and socially ‘acceptable’ as abortion and building an uprising against it on the claim that it is motivated by racist conspiracy will work against the efforts for social healing and reconciliation.

In fact, I think part of the reason her movement is gaining so much steam is because those wounds still exist and are very real. If you can fuel a social cause with something else people are passionate about, they will be more emotionally connected to the whole thing. But, while I think this could lend itself well to brining an end to abortion, looking back it may also go a long way to stunt the healing of a huge group of people.

I commend Davis for speaking out, and particularly for speaking out to the black community. However, I don’t think it is necessarily beneficial, or even responsible, to build that following on the possibility of racially motivated conspiracy. We want our children, who are lucky enough to survive the womb, to grow up secure in and loving their racial heritage, but also loving and respecting everyone else’s.

Kudos Davis. But please, reconsider the talking points.

I went to Burger King with some friends today. They, as well as a handful of other fast-food chains are participating in some ambiguous charity involving kids and shamrocks. I looked around the restaurant. There wasn’t much explanation.

This little information flyer was sitting on each table. Unfortunately it didn’t explain much. It also didn’t make me want to give money. I mean, you’d think they’d have some people look over something like this and point out things that might be better reworded or omitted altogether.

$30 – Flu Shot. Okay, I’m down with that. Kids need flu shots.

$80 – One Minute of Research. Wait, really? Okay, I get that research can be expensive (never mind the fact that I really have no idea what they’re researching), but this really isn’t going to make anyone feel like they can help. $80 for a minute of research? I think we could omit that one.

$100 – Support Group Session. Maybe I’m missing something. I thought support groups were just a bunch of people in similar circumstances helping to support each other.

$150 – Physical, Occupational, Respiratory and Speech Therapy Consultations. Okay, so at 150 bones, the kids get to figure out what’s wrong with them and maybe even how to fix it. But with research costing $4,800 an hour, good luck affording whatever it is.

$300 – Initial Diagnostic Workup at an MDA Clinic. Okay.

$500 – Annual Repairs of Durable Medical Equipment. Ahem. “Annual Repairs” doesn’t seem to go so well with “Durable Equipment”. Just saying. How about “Preventative Maintenance”?

$800 – Week at MDA Summer Camp. Sounds like a blast.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure whatever this schizophrenic organization is doing is great. But I’m sensing there is a pretty crucial staff member missing—the guy who actually reads print material before it’s sent to press.

Mikey is my newly adopted dog. He’s a black and white beagle/something-or-other mix. He doesn’t have a chip. We have messages in with the local animal shelters and lost and founds, as well as Craigslist. After a few weeks, we’ve still not heard anything back.

Welcome home, pooch.

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!)

In Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit God’s he has a chapter devoted to the allurement of power and how, as human beings, we often elevate power a success (both socially and professionally) to the level of a deity.

As Americans we often have the idea that we can do ‘whatever we set our mind to’, but Keller asserts that:

“We are not nearly as responsible for our success as our popular views of God and reality lead us to think.”

As Keller describes, we have a tendency to want to see our lives as a blank canvas for us to draw on as we go. As children and young adults, we see things in our family and parents that we vow never to emulate. But before long, any rational assessment of our lives will reveal just how much our family and life circumstances have shaped who we are, what we do and what we like to do.

With just a quick step back, we can see these are things we have had no control over whatsoever. We do no choose when we are born, where we are born and to whom we are born.

If these are three things shape a massive amount of our character and person, they are also sure weights in the balance of our success in all kinds of areas of life.

We are therefore profoundly naive to ever honestly believe we are really ‘in control of our destiny’ so to speak. If we believe in the God of the bible, we must be humble and confess that we are not in control of our lives in the way that we would like to be.

Keeping this in mind is a humbling thing and massive step toward trusting God and having confidence in his decision making.

The past several weeks, I have been in something of a love affair with country music. For my age and the company that I keep, this is very unusual. People have a tendency to scoff at country music. But, like a friend articulated a few days ago, country music is a simpler form of expression and there is something to be said about that.

Well, after a few weeks exploring and taking recommendations I’ve decided on some of my favorites. In no particular order:

Josh Turner
Would You Go With Me

Brad Paisley
Make A Mistake

Brooks & Dunn
Cowgirls Don’t Cry

George Strait
Check Yes Or No

Gloriana
Wild at Heart
Lead Me On

Jack Ingram
Lips of an Angel

Keith Urban
Sweet Thing
You’ll Think of Me
I Told You So

Lady Antebellum
Need You Now

Love & Theft
Runaway
You to Miss

Rascal Flatts
These Days
I’m Movin’ On

Toby Keith
God Love Her
She Never Cried in Front of Me

So that’s what I’ve been listening to. Have any suggestions for me?

I am one who enjoys a healthy debate. I like a good, sometimes heated, discussion about serious matters. Okay, even some not-so-serious matters. On more than one occasion I have seen substantial shifts in my opinion come from a good debate. And, I’ve known plenty of others who share that experience.

But, with the internet nosing its way into virtually every part of our lives, more and more often those healthy discussions take up residence on the net. And from there, they suffer from a kind of environmental infection rendering them almost completely useless. In fact, I’d even venture to say harmful.

Yeah, you read that correctly. Internet debate, I think, almost always leads nowhere good.

I think it has a lot to do with the impersonal nature of the internet. We’re all covered in what we feel is a shroud of privacy when we converse on the net. In real life we tend to avoid conflict. But on the net most people come out guns-a-blazin’. In less mature circles, online debate spirals into a flame war.

But in more mature circles, I think it manifests in far more subtle ways.

For example. In real life, conversations and debates usually progress nugget by nugget and our answers are not usually rehearsed. They coming off the cuff. That means the conversation moves bit by bit. Rarely is one detail exhausted, but rather, many small details are swept over as the come up in conversation.

But, on the internet it’s just the opposite. I am able to state an opinion or an idea. Someone who disagrees is then able to respond to me. But, instead of responding to one portion of what I said and following the conversation from there like we would in real life, they are able to respond to every detail all at once. Researching on the net, revising their thoughts and looking for leaks in their argument. All before ever hitting submit. That might sound like a benefit. But I don’t think that it is.

See, from there, if the person who had the thought in the first place wishes to respond, it will have to be in length. Once again responding to each point. This, while our facts may be right, does more for our pride than anything else. And by the time the debate is over, you have a thread of conversation that would make a masters thesis blush.

And, as I mentioned before, I think it mostly comes back to the impersonal nature of the internet.

When you converse with someone in real life, by simply making your opinion known, or contending with someone else’s, you are exposing yourself to vulnerability. And, in order for debate to actually be healthy and have any positive impacts on us, we have to be vulnerable to a reasonable extent. It’s humility 101. Something almost no one exercises on the internet.

I submit that the invulnerability we feel on the internet goes a long way to nullifying our debates and making them essentially useless. So for me, I will try and keep my serious debate (at least with those I do not know well) in the real world… or at least video chat.