– This is a contrary belief, you believe if you abort a baby… you have a reduction in infant mortality?

Aborting a baby increases infant mortality! By killing the baby before it is birthed.

You have the right to your belief, you do not have a right to the facts. An abortion stops a beating heart, look it up.

We all know what the code word for 'family planning' is. On the other hand, if you are talking about contraception; that is an ethical way to reduce infant mortality.

– This is a contrary belief, you believe if you abort a baby… you have a reduction in infant mortality?

Aborting a baby increases infant mortality! By killing the baby before it is birthed.

You have the right to your belief, you do not have a right to the facts. An abortion stops a beating heart, look it up.

We all know what the code word for 'family planning' is. On the other hand, if you are talking about contraception; that is an ethical way to reduce infant mortality.

Wilberforce shouted down the injustice of the slave trade. Ghandi shouted down the injustice of the Raj, and King shouted down – quite literally – the injustice of Jim Crow. What is lacking on the issue of abortion is a unified Christian voice shouting “STOP”. Instead, we have Christians who if they don't actively support abortion are embarrassed by those with the bad taste to bring it up.

Why? Here's what I think. I think that many of those on the religious Left know that they would lose their friends in the Democratic Party if they began speaking “prophetically” about abortion. They would quickly find themselves labelled “extremists” and “intolerant” if they stood up for the unborn, and so they don't. They have made a tacit pact with the secular Left: accept us at the table on the issues of poverty and war and we won't be a bother on abortion. It is a mirror image of the pact the religious Right has made with the Republican Party: accept us at the table on the issue of abortion and we won't be a bother on war and torture. And it is as cyncial and disheartening to see Christians on the Left abandon the unborn as it is to see Christians on the Right abandon the poor.

My point is only this: There is more than one point.

One does not become more committed to reducing abortions by measuring all things against that standard. It requires us becoming a people with a love, ethic, and way of life that transcends issues and answers the questions better than Planned Parenthood and others whom we believe to be the opposition.

They exist and thrive because they are answering some questions better than we are. We can listen, learn, change, grow and become transformative. Or we can shout louder.

How do you feel the “shout louder” strategy has worked?

If you are planning to inform me that Planned Parenthood does some good things in addition to killing unborn children, I'll ask you in return how a Christian can be so callous as to pit the life of one innocent child against another.

Do you “listen with two ears” to the racist? The warmonger? The slavemaster? The corporate exploiter of the poor? No, you condemn racism, war, slavery and exploitation, as you should.

Why, then, do you choose to listen to the abortionist? To the multinational corporation that pulls in millions a year in fee-for-killing services? Why do you celebrate the billionaires who underwrite the killing? Why on this issue alone is some “level of discourse” invoked as an excuse for passivity and acquiesence?

We have no moral right to assert global leadership on anything—if we can't take into account the life, safety and health of humanity in all we do.

Plannned Parenthood will continue to drive a great big extra-wide mobile clinic through the gaping holes left by a level of discourse that fails to see any legitimate agenda but one. Where did I indicate any expression about not caring about those aborted? I believe those committed to justice must listen with two ears and speak with one mouth.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by openvoicepbx: An Altar Call from Bill and Melinda Gates – Jim Wallis – God’s …: An Altar Call from Bill and Melinda Gat.. http://bit.ly/1bZ02e…

Good for Congress on one part: It IS the faith community, and any other interested individuals' responsibility, NOT the US government to make the investment and work on the issue of global health. And good for Gates in putting his money where his mouth is and using his voluntarily offered resources. As for more tax money going out…whether it is war in Iraq or nation-building in Afghanistan, it shouldn't be done.

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish” -Mother Teresa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JfGki00T0c

And there was no real comprehension that the Enemy's strategy was not war; colonialism; competing powers; etc. It was the waging of disease.

Bill Gates and Dr Winter, in some ways, started down very similar paths about the same time. I don't know if they ever crossed paths.

I think this summary of changes in global health and wealth over last 50 years is remarkable. I think it very important to simply conceive of the change that has been underfoot. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state.html (20 mins)

(It is also an interesting graphic representation of complex data–that can be accessed on Google)

If the healthcare bill supplied measurable outcomes to watch for which would deactivate it and restore freedom to the market, I might support it. Even better if it were restricted to only a few special cases (e.g. chronic/inborn problems and the health of the very poor).