Mark your calendars for March 23. That's when a new movie, October Baby, will hit movie screens.  I was able to preview the film last week and suggest you go see this one in the theater.  I'll be up front, it is a strong pro-life movie dealing head-on with abortion.  But it was powerful and compelling, without being preachy.  The message comes through loud and clear, but in a way that stirred my soul (yes, yes...I cried like 4 times -- it was intense).  And ultimately, the message is hopeful.  

It's exactly the kind of thing the pro-life movement needs more of to make a compelling argument in the broader culture.  It raises important questions like: 

• Are there morally significant differences between an unborn baby and a newborn child?
• Are there significant consequences for the mother who aborts her baby?
• Is there hope and redemption for women who have had abortions?
• How can adoption assist our pro-life efforts? 

But it raises these questions naturally, in the context of the movie's narrative, and suggests answers in the same way.  

continue reading

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from a dear friend of mine, William Melendez. He is like no other person I have ever met, his battles unique and his writing, hauntingly good. This is an honest account of his literal fight with death. Being that he wrote this article, we can assume he won that fight, but not without walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Being a person who suffers from mental illness I have dealt with the vicissitudes of aberrant mental and physical states. Nevertheless, after enduring years of mental illness and several gastric diseases, dear reader, I began to succumb to the lie of a sick man’s philosophy: life, with its ups and downs, was always something that happened to me, and of which, I had no control over. I was clinging to a deflated lifeboat, buffeted in the winds of an unruly sea. Two things controlled the course of my raft, sink or swim: the happenstance of life and the constant intervention of God on my behalf. Mostly, I spent my time praying to God that He would get me through whatever was happening to me. My only contribution to my circumstances seemingly consisted of begging.

continue reading