“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

25th Anniversary for a Pregnancy Care Centre!


This column is boastful on my part. I confess my infernal Pride and will confess this sin after I post my blog.

My wife and I recently attended the 25th anniversary of Edmonton’s Pregnancy Care Centre. It was a moving experience for me because I co-founded this Christian pro-Life ministry to women in crisis pregnancies.* All evening I was close to tears to see what they have accomplished throughout two and a half decades. A few years after the ministry was established, back in the 1980s, I was forced to leave because my health was deteriorating due to multiple sclerosis.

Today, the Pregnancy Care Centre serves more than 1,800 women a year. Since its beginning, the Centre has helped an estimated 20,000 women!

At one point during the anniversary banquet a woman and her 15 year old daughter introduced themselves to my wife and me. The mother was helped by the Pregnancy Care Centre in 1993 when she was in a crisis pregnancy. She chose to give birth to her baby rather than abort her. Apparently at the banquet the mother pointed me out to her daughter as the person who co-founded the ministry. Her daughter wanted to thank me.

After their introductions and explanations were completed, I nearly wept. If it hadn’t been for the Pregnancy Care Centre the young girl standing in front of me might have been aborted. This occurred years after I was forced by poor health to step down from the ministry's Board.

There are very rare occasions in a person’s life when they realize that they made a life or death difference in the lives of others. It was one of those occasions for me and I am indebted to that mother and her daughter for letting me know that.

The day after the banquet, my wife decided it was time to clean our home’s basement of its clutter. She brought box after box of my papers upstairs for me to go through and throw away. All day long and into the night I sat in front of the backyard fire-pit burning papers, thinking about the millions of Canadian children whose mothers did not choose life for their babies. At one point in the paper purging process I came across my files pertaining to the establishment of the organization that eventually became the Pregnancy Care Centre. I had not seen them in years and found some speaking notes for an address I delivered to an evangelical church in 1984. I was asking them to get involved with the fledging ministry. This is part of what I said:

“We stand at edge of a precipice of a great and terrible day. Abortion is a package deal: Euthanasia and infanticide are the other parts of the deadly package. It is a slow walk from the abortion chamber to the nursery and the nursing home. The same arguments can be used for killing the severely disabled adult as the unwanted child in the womb: The life in question would be a burden on their family; the life in question is not even wanted by anyone; the quality of life for the individual in question will not be good.”

I continued: “Brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot just sit back while this silent holocaust of abortion continues, and worsens, as it surely will. We must understand and believe in the sanctity of all human life ─ born or preborn, sick or well. We are all made in the image of God.”

Thinking I was on a roll, I concluded with these words: “Do you not see that the hour is dark? Do you not sense that Almighty God is grieved at the insult of abortion? I tell you this: Abortion is a denial of the God’s sovereignty. It is tantamount to telling the Giver of life that He doesn’t know what He’s doing. Abortion throws the gift of life back in God’s face unwanted, unopened, stamped Return to Sender.”

Christians did support the ministry not only with their financial gifts but
personal volunteerism. Many churches supported the Pregnancy Care Centre within their yearly budgets, and continue to do so.

The Centre expanded into public education, school programs about abstinence and prenatal development, post-abortion counselling, pregnancy care and support, mentoring, life-skills training and educational supports that enable young mothers to complete their education. At the Pregnancy Care Centre the operative word is love: love for people that is rooted in love for God. It’s shoe-leather Christianity at its best. Check out their website at http://www.pregnancycarecentre.ca/ .

The slow trains of infanticide and euthanasia have arrived. Disabled newborns are routinely killed in hospitals across North America. Neonatologists refer to the child they are about to kill as a ‘neonate’ in an apparent attempt to distance the baby from its humanity. Euthanasia is legal in Oregon and the state of Washington and other jurisdiction in Europe. Canada’s Parliament has been asked to consider a euthanasia bill under the guise of “death with dignity.” Much of the public has erroneously bought into accepting that euthanasia and assisted suicide are merciful.

Christians once again face a stark reality: We have entered a great and terrible day where vulnerable human life is now at risk outside the womb. We must again respond with love and compassion yet refusing to acquiesce to those who want help taking their own lives or the lives of sick or dying loved-ones. Let us take a cue from the Pregnancy Care Centre and reach out in life affirming Christian ministry to vulnerable populations at the other end of the life spectrum.

Mark Pickup

*The parent organization for Edmonton's Pregnacy Care Centre is the charitable Outreach For Life. It was based upon the U.S. based Christian Action Council, now called CareNet.

Friday, October 23, 2009

St. Augustine

"Breathe in me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may be holy. Act in me, Holy Spirit, that my work too may be holy. Draw my heart, Holy Spirit, tat I may love only what is holy. Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy." -- St. Augustine

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years


To see blog entry about the book series The Christians: Their first two thousand years. Go to http://markpickup.org

HLM

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

New York Times and abortion photography

Well, well, well, -- the New York Times actually posted on its blog photographs of bodies of aborted children. A charter member of the liberal establishment peeked out from behind the "blob of tissue" myth so tenaciously held by abortion ideologues. See http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/behind-19/?scp=2&sq=damien%20cave&st=cse

For a brief moment the NYT apparently gave a passing nod to the holocaust of abortion as the slaughter of the youngest members of the human family. They could not, however, bring themselves refer to the unborn child as any more than a "fetus". Abortion must stop or North America will face judgement of the Almighty.

Mark Pickup

Monday, October 5, 2009

LaRee & Mark Pickup to give keynote address to US National Right to Life Prayer Breakfast


LaRee and Mark Pickup will give the keynote address to the 2010 US National Right to Life Prayer Breakfast in Pittsburgh, PA. They will share their life experiences that have closely followed the major Life issues of our time.

CRISIS PREGNANCY

As teenagers, LaRee became pregnant with Mark’s baby. They chose abortion and grieved that terrible decision for decades. Their case was a classic abortion scenario repeated millions of times each year across North America. They present the perspectives of both a woman and a man involved in an abortion. This presentation confirms that post-abortion trauma and grief does exist and can last for decades.

But their experience with critical Life issues of our time does not just involve abortion and post-abortion grief.

DISABILITY

In 1984, Mark was diagnosed with aggressive multiple sclerosis. He went from being a healthy and athletic thirty year old man to being triplegic and wheelchair dependent. (Only his left
arm is unaffected by disease.) Throughout their grief journey, they confronted fundamental issues revolving around the profound sorrow and grief that often comes with acquired catastrophic disability ― and can draw people to question the value and purpose of life.

LaRee and Mark will explore reasons why people choose assisted suicide and family dynamics that contribute to such a terrible decision or deciding to euthanize a terminally/chronically ill loved one.

They will illustrate parallels between a mindset that sanctions abortion at the beginning of life and the acceptance of euthanasia consciousness at the other end of life.

LaRee and Mark will conclude with a challenge and plan to counter the prevailing culture of death.

To find out more about the 2010 National Right to Life Conference in Pittsburgh June 24-26, and the Prayer Breakfast contact the National Right to Life Office in Washington, DC., at:
Tel:(202) 626-8800, or by email at NRLC@nrlc.org Also see: http://stoptheabortionagenda.com/convention/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/nrlc2010-1pg-091009.pdf

HLM

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Truth or Comfort


"Seekers of truth may eventually find comfort but seekers of comfort will not find truth." -- taken from Mark Pickup's personal blog for 01 October 2009 entitled Truth or Comfort.

Read the rest at http://markpickup.org

HLM