Tebow pro-life Superbowl ad (Page 5)

Sigh. I vowed to never come back to these forums. These kinds of conversations are always so upsetting, But Jim had to go and invoke me, so here's my take, and why this whole thing pains me so, as a mother, a woman, a follower of Jesus, a teacher...

There is so much money being poured into anti-choice messages. SO MUCH FREAKING money. Particularly by people and groups who pay this money on behalf of their Christian beliefs. I get this, Jesus spent so much of his time loving and healing children, using "child" and orphan as metaphors in His parables, etc.  As one of my favorite Christians says, "what if Jesus really meant all that stuff?" What we we really be doing? We all go about this business differently, and as Jim said, the issue is how we define "children" and life. If we believed that Jesus really meant all that, we would be busting our butts to take care of the lives of children, especially orphans (and widows- women!) And we aren't, as a country, doing that very well.

Right now is a critical time for those of us who are moved to act for social justice, via politics, to bring about God's Kingdom here and now.  We need to be Jesus. There are so many children on this earth in crisis, from the kids in the US who are living below the poverty line, not vaccinated, poorly educated, cold, alone, homeless... there are gay teens killing themselves after being thrown away... there are wealthy priviliged suburban kids wasting away in front of machines while parents work too many hours and are unaware of their children's spiritual internal decay, or worse, don't care... Then there's the Congo. Rwanda. Sierra Leone. Girl babies in China. The thousands of babies of prostitutes rotting in orphanages in Eastern Europe, most of whom have variations of syphyllis, FAS, HIV... 

And now Haiti. The poorest country in our hemisphere that already had 380,000 orphans before the hurricane.  And the country is in unspeakable conditions and any paperwork that was in place to get some of those kids out to families who will love them is long gone. And the corruption was mind boggling BEFORE the hurricane.  Now we are being told of human trafficking and organ mining in a place where the "least of these" have already been exploited.

So, Mr Tebow, Mr Dobson et al. Please. Help those babies already here. You have the money, and you have the votes. Let's get back to basics and feed and heal our children.

Additionally, for all those who have mentioned that it is perfectly OK for other groups to buy ads, of course it is. It's OK, in that if it is your money you get to do what you want with it, unless of course the networks won't let you. See this in today's WP:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902505.html

snip below:

"Pro-choice advocates were shocked when CBS appeared to violate internal policy and accepted this spot -- reportedly at a price of at least $2.5 million -- produced and paid for by Focus on the Family, a conservative antiabortion, anti-gay group. Though CBS says it has altered its policy, the networks have consistently rejected advocacy ads on controversial topics. The United Church of Christ was turned down by CBS in 2004 when it wanted to air a Super Bowl ad that celebrated diversity and welcomed gay and lesbian Christians to the denomination. And last year NBC rejected a spot from an antiabortion group that tried to use President Obama's life story to convey its message. The rules of the game seem to have changed without warning."

Are radio stations different from TV stations?  I think CBS should be able to broadcast any commercials they want and turn down any they want for whatever reason.

Here in Houston the bigger radio stations are owned by Clear Channel and they broadcast Planned Parenthood commercials all the time.

What's the difference?

Not a fan of the organization because I am not OK with spanking and don't think gay is something you catch.  But then again there are a lot of pro-choice groups/organizatons/supporters I am not a fan of, it's impossible to avoid all the companies that support/donate to Planned Parenthood.

Well this seems to be stirring the pot today in various corners of the interweb:

Sally Jenkins, Sports columnist in the Washington Post:

Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are

I'll spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead: Tim Tebow is one of the better things to happen to young women in some time. I realize this stance won't endear me to the "Dwindling Organizations of Ladies in Lockstep," otherwise known as DOLL, but I'll try to pick up the shards of my shattered feminist credentials and go on.

As statements at Super Bowls go, I prefer the idea of Tebow's pro-life ad to, say, Jim McMahon dropping his pants, as the former Chicago Bears quarterback once did in response to a question. We're always harping on athletes to be more responsible and engaged in the issues of their day, and less concerned with just cashing checks. It therefore seems more than a little hypocritical to insist on it only if it means criticizing sneaker companies, and to stifle them when they take a stance that might make us uncomfortable.

I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the "National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time." For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do. read more...

It's starting to seem like with all of the buzz about this ad, FOTF has made a brilliant media buy.  The $2.5M is resulting in a lot of exposure.  Way beyond the 30 seconds that most of the beer buys are going to get for their money.

There is a diffenerence between having an opinion about folks or a feeling, ie judging them versus killing them based on that feeling, don't ya think?  The statement was judge, jury and executioner.... they go together to cause a problem. 

I wasn't, but I wish now that I had been.

Chastity is a beautiful thing.  It's difficult, but most worthwhile pursuits are.

It's what I teach my children, according the the appropriateness of their ages, and what I would tell any young people willing to listen.

The problem is that we live in such a sex saturated culture, that the true beauty of sex gets lost in the noise.  My kids are as effected by that as any other.

My hope is that perhaps the Tebow ad and buzz will help move the culture, if even just a tiny bit, toward sanity.

It's true. Margaret Sanger was a rabid eugenicist.  That was the founding principle of PP.

I was a long time supporter of PP.  It's full of people of good will.  However, I think now that it's core mission is still colored by the principles of its founding which rest mostly in population control.

For example, my understanding is that PP was brought in as a consultant during the Chinese cultural revolution, and helped Mao develop the one child policy.  This then has led to certain policies, among others, of forced sterilization and forced abortion.

I'm friends with one of the founders and main benefactors of a local PP clinic.  He remains unabashedly a eugenicist.  He believes there are too many people of color in the world.  He's reached the age some old men get to where they don't care if they fart in public. For my friend, instead he's willing to quietly rant about eugenic issues, not caring who hears.  He decided to support PP because of it's roots in the eugenics movement.

Sadly, my friend's intentions have been successful.  It's estimated that half of all black babies in Philadelphia are killed by direct abortion.

It's true that more services need to be provided for pregnant women. I bet if PP stopped doing abortions, there would be plenty of pro life folks who would quickly step up and help them do that.

I don't have a source tracked down for that specific claim of mine.

Here is information by Martin Luther King's niece, Dr. Alveda King regarding statictics in the general African American community.  It references the Guttmacher institute:

Black Americans, who represent one-eighth of the U.S. population, constitute 37 percent of America’s 1.2 million annual abortions. In other words, of the 45 million abortions conducted between 1973 and 2005, 17 million black children were terminated.

“I would say wiping out one-quarter of the African American population qualifies as a negative impact on a minority group,” said Dr. King.   “There is no greater violator of civil rights than the abortion industry and if the Obama Justice Department is serious about investigating discrimination perpetrated by recipients of federal money, it should start with the billion dollar abortion giant, Planned Parenthood.”

Black woman are five times more likely to abort their children than white women and two times more likely than Hispanic women, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The institute is a leading collector of reproductive health statistics.