One of my cousins spoke to me recently about my youngest brother's tears at my mother's funeral. He was born after her other three children were grown, when she was 40. While he was growing up, he and my parents were pals...she went with him to all of his ball games, etc. She died two weeks after he graduated from college. Dying with cancer, there are few tears at a time of such relief, for most of her family and friends.
One of my doctor friends took me into his office at a local veterans hospital and said, “I haven't cried in a long time, but I cried recently when I saw what had happened by military doctors to a young man who had come back from the war in Afghanistan. He had not gotten the care he deserved, his aunt brought him here to me, wounds still draining. Not even a regimen of antibiotics, we will be lucky to save his life.” I have personally shed tears over and with patients. The shortest verse in the bible is “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)
There is nothing wrong with a man crying, I have known people to shed crocodile tears over fornicators acting on screen, millionaire ballplayers losing a game, but at a time when the world is rapidly going over the cliff, real men should shed some tears...losses politically, spiritually, morally from which we will never recover.
A local black woman called me on the phone, “Dr. Morris, I have heard you on the radio many times. I need to talk with you, it will only take about ten minutes.” When she came by, she told me that as a girl of thirteen, she had been raped by her stepfather...a local black pastor. She had given birth to the baby boy and her aunt had taken the boy to Michigan where members of her aunt's family had raised him. She had never seen this child, but now at the age of 23, the child had learned about his biological mother in North Carolina, and wanted to come see her. She said, “I am married with a family, I had put this entire matter out of my life. I had certainly put the boy's biological father out of my life, just as I have put the church out of my life. I despise all black preachers, but I know this boy will want to know the truth about his father. What do you advise me to do?” I told her to tell the boy the truth, every man is able to handle the truth. I feel sure, knowing that you were raped, he will want nothing to do with his biological father, but he has a right to know the truth.
A very responsible, well known white woman came to me about a similar situation, her daughter, a freshman in college, had been raped after being drugged at a party on the beach. She said, “my husband wanted me to take her for an abortion.” I told him, “I would not compound evil with evil.” The daughter was not even sure of the biological father...just a haze of memory. The mother said, “I talked with my sister living in Boston for several hours, she came down immediately and took my daughter back to Boston, where she eventually gave birth to a beautiful daughter.” She said, “never let evil compound evil. This child was in every way perfect, even though a child of rape. She was beautiful, intelligent, she was a joy to the entire family, even though I have never let the local, nosy people know anything about the situation, as far as they knew, my daughter transferred to college in Boston, and she has continued to live there.”
She said, “the reason I want to talk to you is because of your pro-life writing, the fact that so many pro-life people think that abortion is excused in a case of rape. The horror of abortion, the taking of an innocent life is never justified, even with rape.” From inception, it is God-given life, and the children of rape, as are all children, are blessings of God. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). This is the psalm that was read in the first meeting of Congress in 1774.
The French philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose.” With God, everything is present tense, “I am”, all he asks is trust. Today is tomorrow that never came, don't depend on tomorrow, you only have today, if you are lucky. Many people put on their socks this morning and a mortician will take them off tonight.
The most generous, prosperous people in the world are Christian believers, among the pagans, the heathens, you do not find much generosity. It was the Christians who built the first universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, etc. It was Christians who built the first great hospitals, childrens homes, homes for the disabled and elderly. How many cathedrals, temples, hospitals, colleges have been built by atheists?
I have two of the historian Josephus's early books. Josephus said that before Christianity, there was little generosity in the world. He said the Romans, who were ruling during Christ's ministry were the most self-centered people in the world. It was the early Christians who gave to the needy, not only one another, but even to the Romans.
You cannot separate giving from Christianity, giving of the wealth of which you have been blessed, giving of your talent of which you have been blessed, giving of your time of which you are blessed. Selfishness is the most natural act of humanity, every child is born self-centered: “mine mine mine”. You do not have to teach a child to sin, to be self-indulged. Dr. Samuel Johnson said, “friendship should be kept in repair. Everything decent about life and living should be kept in repair.” Small children whose judgment skills have not been fully developed will often cry with the breaking of a toy. Young girls will often cry with the breaking of a heart, over some boy whose name they later cannot remember.
When you realize that your grandchildren will be paying interest on a national debt which is now increasing at a rate of 3.87 billion dollars a day, 3000 babies are being killed everyday (1500 black), and the world is in the worst economic condition in the past 100 years, old men with good sense will weep over losses which we never be regained.
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