While the summer sun keeps shining and the children are playing and enjoying their break from school, the seemingly endless days of summer with limited commitments and a generally slow start to each day, is coming to a close for most.
And it needs to!
This year – 2015 – is an important year for all those who work to restore the culture.
Throughout the world each individual country has its own specific attacks against life, faith and family to defend. The common thread is that self-centredness and relativism is now embedded into cultural mores; one’s neighbour is disregarded and the focus is on so-called personal “rights”. What results is a denigration of the dignity of the human person. We have chaos.
As 2015 unfolds the reality of the task ahead hits with an almighty thump! The urgency with which we must act is critical. Lives are at stake. Eternal souls are in danger.
What is on the horizon as 2015 unfolds?
More preborn children will be aborted because their mothers feel they have no other choice.
14,073 abortions were recorded in the year ended December 2013. The majority were killed before 12 weeks. Many are unaware that New Zealand’s law allows abortion for the physical and mental health of the mother until birth.
73 preborn children, 20 weeks+ were aborted in 2013.
It is generally considered that a 24 week baby is ‘viable’ – that means he or she has a good chance of surviving. In 2013 Statistics NZ record that 13 precious children 24 weeks+ were not afforded that chance to live.
So-called Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) are becoming more popular
Organisations like Family Planning are pushing LARCs as a great way to prevent pregnancy – especially to youth. LARCs are devices such as IUDs and ‘contraceptive’ implants like Jadelle or Implanon; as well as the Depo Provera shot.
These so-called contraceptives, while aiming to prevent conception in the first place, can also work to prevent a newly conceived human being from implanting in the womb. This action is abortifacient (causes early abortions).
It is impossible to calculate how many little ones are aborted this way each year.
Sex education is a constant threat to our youth
The promotion of sex education is designed to desensitize our youth into believing that sexual relations outside of marriage is normal and to be desired. Increasingly, the aim of sex education is to affirm homosexuality and to engineer the notion that gender is fluid.
Following the horrifying Roastbusters incident, a great deal of attention has been turned towards the issue of consent. While it is incredibly important for both boys and girls to understand just what rape actually is (in a society where anything to do with sex has been confused), it should be noted that this emphasis on consent still reinforces the notion that sexual activity outside of marriage, when mutually desired, is acceptable.
Sex education is responsible for much of the moral decay we see in society today as it has chipped away at morality – generation after generation.
The ever present threat of euthanasia and assisted suicide
While there is no Bill sitting in the ballot box right now waiting for selection on this issue, pro-euthanasia/assisted suicide propaganda is being regularly fed to the New Zealand public. The aim is to sway people into believing that every person should have the right to end their own lives. Then, when the time is perceived to be right, the euthanasia advocates will pounce, bringing in legislation (most likely the End of Life Choice Bill), that will lead us down a slippery slope of legalised killing on demand. The old, the young, the mentally and physically disabled will all be at risk.
The latest piece of euthanasia propaganda was published by Stuff yesterday.
Synod on the Family
The second Synod on the Family is to take place October 4th to 25th in Rome. It directly follows the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia (September 22nd to 27th).
Given the drama of the first Synod on the Family and the significant discussions surrounding homosexuality and communion for the civilly divorced and remarried, this second Synod is most important.
The theme of the next Synod is The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world.
Ongoing threats to a culture of life and a civilization of love
Of course the above points are just a few of the serious attacks on life, faith and family in the coming year. We could easily add to the list:
- IVF and the insane loss of life in the process, as well as the dilemma of what to do with the thousands of surplus frozen embryos;
- the ongoing attack against marriage and family through the legal status of same-sex unions (what is commonly referred to as ‘marriage’);
- the search and destroy mission of many medical professionals who wish to eradicate people with Down syndrome, Spina bifida and other disabilities before they are born, and to further shorten the lives of those preborn babies who may be born still or live for only a short time after birth;
- the targeted sterilization programme in South Auckland, which is a low socioeconomic area with a high population of Maori and Pacific Islanders; and
- the push to remove abortion from the Crimes Act.
The attacks are great and numerous. They cannot be underestimated. Yes, it may even seem overwhelming. And it is if only a few have the courage to speak up and do something!
This list (which is incomplete) should serve to encourage each and everyone of us to act with URGENCY. Lives are at stake. Eternal souls are at risk of being lost forever.
The team at Family Life International know we have a big year ahead.
Through our Family Life Crisis Pregnancy Centres in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin we have the opportunity to talk with mothers all over the country (and the world) about their unexpected pregnancy concerns. We offer practical help, friendship and support. Already this year we have fielded a significant number of emails, Facebook messages, texts and phone calls. Service to those who are in their greatest hour of need is key.
We aim to educate by giving the facts, to as many people as we possibly can – both the young and the old – through educational presentations, print publications and our online presence – website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
And we pray.
“You can do more than pray once you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed” rightly said the philosopher John Bunyan.
Prayer is what sustains us and gives us the courage to keep going. Our faith and trust in God, and obedience to His commands, is the foundation from which all our works to restore the culture to one that embraces life, flows.
We are all called to be at the service of life, St John Paul II reminds us. It is every person’s duty everywhere, at all times. Each of us has very specific talents and life experiences that are very necessary in this great battle.
How will you work to restore the culture in 2015?
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