Wednesday 20 January 2021

Blessing today's inauguration with dignity and peace.




 

10 comments:

The Rev. Susan Creighton said...

Blessings upon you for your prayers today. I watched the inauguartion, and was encouraged by the many calls for truth, and reconciliation, especially after the insurrection of January 6. But I know the way forward will be difficult and dangerous. So it always is when truth challenges the evil allure of cultic power. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Pen Wilcock said...

Yes, Lord have mercy on us all as we learn the difficult lessons urgently forced upon us in these days.

Megs said...

Thank you! Your postings have helped me through this difficult four years. When I commented here that I felt I was trapped on a runaway train, you gently reminded me someone was in charge.

Pen Wilcock said...

And I do believe we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! x

Anonymous said...

Amen!


DMW

Pen Wilcock said...

:0)

Julie B. said...

Thank you dear Ember. While I cannot support President Biden's abortion policies, I sincerely support him in prayer and with respect. I was moved by his inaugural speech. I am not a Trump supporter either, just for clarification. :) I feel more compelled than ever before to pray for our world leaders. May God guide and help them all. And may He help us to love and pray, and be careful and building with our words and actions. I'm very grateful for you and your blog friends, Ember. xoxo

Pen Wilcock said...

On abortion, I am interested in outcomes not rhetoric. So I look for governments under which abortions decrease. Where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and health care is denied, abortions increase. Democrat governments are good news for unborn children. I am also interested in the outcomes of children who have already been born. An administration that puts children in cages and increases danger for non-white children would not appeal to me. The issue is more nuanced than anti-abortionists make it out to be.
Where a child is developing in the Fallopian tube, or where there is an ectopic pregnancy, or where the mother's health is incompatible with survival for both mother and child, or where there is gross deformity — eg a baby's organs (including brain) are developing outside the body, or where the mother is too young to bear a child without ruining her own health, I cannot see how criminalising abortion would add anything useful to the scenario. Where abortion is criminalised, you also get women who have suffered miscarriages and still birth accused of abortion and in some cases imprisoned. I think you are so, so wrong on this one. And to dismiss all that Biden stands for, in the present circumstances whereby the American President has posed a threat to the entire world, and vote on a single issue, is, in my view, extremely misguided.
I am so glad you are praying for your country and all world leaders — I absolutely believe your prayers make a difference.
May you be blessed, may you be well, may you be peaceful, may you be happy.

Julie B. said...

Dear Ember, I think I probably didn't make myself very clear with my previous comment. I apologize. I am in no way for the criminalization of abortion. I would never judge a woman for the difficult decision she makes. I hope you know that I deplore children put in cages, being torn from their parents, and my heart was sick at these things. I so want President Biden to do well. I strive to love people and honor them even if I don't agree with everything they do. I want to be teachable. I was just commenting based on my personal experiences, and I perhaps shouldn't have. If you think it would be better to delete my comments, please do that -- I would be fine with that. My love and friendship to you, dear Ember. xoxo

Pen Wilcock said...

Hiya — no, it's great for your comment to stay, as I suspect you (like me) tend to avoid discussion of this online because it's a contentious issue. The thing is, Joe Biden, like everyone else, isn't in favour of abortion per se (who could be?), it's just that the Democrats don't want it to be criminalised, but leave the choice to the woman.
As for Joe Biden himself, in his 2007 book "Promises to Keep", he said that he is personally opposed to abortion, but didn't feel he had the right to impose his own views on the rest of society.
The thing is, many Christians whose vote was guided by morality over this single issue, helped (either by voting Republican or splitting the vote) put Trump into power, and those votes directly contributed to the children in cages and the increased hardship of the poor that pushes up the abortion rate, and I think we do have to face that squarely. That's what I'm saying, really. In our votes, we have to asses which way the wind is blowing, and vote for the best outcome for all issues. If our vote hinges on a single issue, then the likelihood is increased that candidates like Trump, who will say anything, end up in power. I've seen women on Facebook insisting that Hillary Clinton personally murders babies and so they couldn't vote for her. What they got instead did no one any favours, as we've seen.
But I think it's fine (and helpful) for you to comment and say what you think — and yes, I know we are friends. You can rely on that. xx