A SPEECH ABOUT FAITH, FAMILY, COMMUNITY AND THE VALUE OF EVERY HUMAN LIFE

LaRee Pickup addressed the
United States National
Right to Life Prayer Breakfast
about what really matters in life:
Life itself

Nine years ago, my wife LaRee addressed the United States National Right To Life Prayer Breakfast. She spoke to an audience of over 800 people about her experience with the heartbreak of abortion, serious degenerative disease and disability of a loved-one, end of life issues, and how love (both human and divine) can transcend it all, if we let it. She spoke of the innate value of every human being for no other reason than we are all made in the image of God and deserve to be loved, included, nurtured, and protected. Her story captivated the audience from all 50 states. She spoke from her heart to their hearts about the importance of faith, family and interdependent community. You could have heard a pin drop. People openly wept at the simple yet profound truths of which she spoke—truths that build and sustain every civilized society. 

A BRIEF THOUGHT FOR TODAY ON THE SOURCE OF MEANING

Your connection with God, and your connection with other people is the most important thing you can do in life. Love is where meaning is found.

I AM A PARIAH IN MY OWN COUNTRY!

It’s federal election season in Canada. Canadians have the Liberal Party, the Conservatives, the New Democratic Party (NDP), the Peoples’ Party, Bloc Québécois (Quebec's separatist party) and the Greens to choose from as the next government. The Liberals and Conservatives are in a dead heat for 1^st place. On the 7th of October 2019, we were treated to a English debate amongst the leaders. A pretty motley group but there’s our choices. They shouted over, er, I mean debated about the economy, each others’ faulty characters, the economy, energy, the environment, immigration and so forth—the usual topics one would expect in such an election forum. At one point, the topic turned to abortion. 

The only pro-Life candidate is the Conservative Andrew Scheer. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported: 

“The debate turned briefly to the subject of abortion and a woman's right to choose, which saw Scheer facing attacks from all on the stage. 

"The laws of access on this issue have not changed for 30 years under Liberal prime ministers, under Conservative prime ministers, they will not change when I am prime minister," Scheer said.” [1] 

Pretty soft pro-Life! What’s the point of Scheer saying he is pro-Life if he’s has no intention of trying to extend Canada’s constitutionally guarantee of the right to life to the youngest and most vulnerable members of Canadian society?

What I found revealing is that the Liberals, the NDP and the Greens will not allow a pro-Life candidate to run for Member of Parliament in their parties. Liberal Leader, Justin Trudeau, challenged Scheer about why he would even sign the nomination papers of any pro-Life candidate? To 21^st Century progressive thought, it’s unthinkably to the Prime Minister that the Conservatives would allow any candidate for Parliament who would not wholeheartedly embrace a woman’s right to choose death for her unwanted or inconvenient unborn child. After all, it’s a Canadian value.

In Canada, a woman can have an abortion for any reason at all, or no reason whatsoever; and she can have as many abortions as she wants—all paid by the Canadian taxpayer. All she needs to do is call her friendly neighbourhood abortion clinic and make an appointment. Remember, It’s a Canadian value. The unfettered right of women to kill their unwanted pre-born children is so deeply ingrained into the Canadian political psyche; anyone who might give any modicum of concern to the child’s life is anathema. We are unfit for public office and should not be allowed to be Members of Parliament. The People’s House is now only for those people whose views do not offend the sensibilities of Canada’s new progressive elite in government and the media.

The pressure is on Andrew Scheer to close the door to pro-Life people in Canada’s Parliament. Our mainline secular media are fully supportive of the idea and are prepared to shame Andrew Scheer into not allowing pro-Life candidates within the Conservative roster of candidates for Parliament. I predict he will cave to the pressure.

The allure of power corrupts people and the Conservatives are no exception. They want back in power. They will throw anybody under the bus who dare speak for protecting the most voiceless of the Canadian family: Unborn children. It's an affront to the progressive ideal of Choice even when it involves killing another or oneself. Choice and autonomy trump all other considerations.

In "Canadian values" it’s now wrong to oppose euthanasia. Progressives like to use the flowery innocuous sounding euphemism Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) for lethal injection of our sickest and most disabled citizens. After all, Canadians are a polite people even when embracing what previous generations called murder. We like euphemisms that disguise ugly and unpleasant truth or deeds.

The concept of the sanctity of human life is passé—so hopelessly old fashioned for Canada’s Brave New World. Dinosaurs like me who still hold dear the concept that every life is worth living and deserves protection and care, has no place in public office or even the arena of public discourse. My views are unwelcome with Canada’s political elite. Indeed! 

I refuse to pledge my allegiance to this new Canadian value of unfettered choice, regardless of how barbaric it may be. People like me are effectively shut out. I do not fit into the country of my birth. I am a pariah.

Mark Davis Pickup 

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[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/six-leaders-debate-english-live-1.5312479

CANADA'S RESPECTABLE BIGOTRY AND "SOFT AUTHORITARIANISM"

There is a respectable bigotry amongst Canada's liberal and progressive elite. It is a prejudice against people of faith, and particularly a  prejudice against Christians. American author Wesley J. Smith has just written a penetrating article about this politically correct bigotry in an article entitled "CANADA GOES SOFTLY AUTHORITARIAN: Morality now begins and ends with government," in The American Spectator, 03 October, 2019.

MDP

WHEN YOU STAND ON HOLY GROUND

Here is holy ground. Where is that? It is that special place where we happen to be when we find ourselves at the end of our resources; our hearts are broken, and there’s no more pretending we are okay. We are not okay! It is that place in the broken human heart where we are about to give up. We desperately cry out to a yet unknown God in a universe that seems empty and without meaning. And yet we dare to hope, as though we are making our last stand with a last inkling of hope against hope. That is when we stand on holy ground, although we don’t know it. It is holy ground because that is the place where God can finally reach us.  We discover that there really is a God who can and does intervene in human affairs and even the lives of individuals, like you and me.  We discover that the universe is not empty—there is a Word that created it all and somehow that Entity is concerned about an insignificant tiny being like you and me in that insignificant place we sit in an immeasurable, vast universe. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”— John 1.1-5

Somehow, a spark of hope appears and shines through our despair where it was only darkness.  Slowly, yet wonderfully, that spark breaks into an open flame that leads us out of our darkness into the light of the Entity to which we desperately cried out. We discover that that Entity has a name: Jesus Christ.  He is the ‘He’ who was with God in the beginning.  Once we have encountered Him, we know we will never be the same again. 

The Word encompasses the idea of Divine love and is found in the person of Jesus Christ, just like those fanatical street evangelists, preachers, popes, and Christian praise and worship songsters keep saying.

“… but in these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” – Hebrews 1.2-4.

If creation is God’s general revelation, then Jesus Christ is the personal revelation of God’s love.  It is hard to believe there is a Cosmic Truth and that Cosmic Truth is the very definition of love. We are astounded to discover that we have access to that Love through Jesus Christ. But there it is: Truth.  So simple yet so utterly profound and vast.  I believe this truth of Love is simple so it can include imbeciles like me yet profoundly vast —beyond human understanding—because God is love. The experience doesn’t make sense and yet it’s the only thing that does makes sense in a way that is inexplicable but makes us weep with a child-like Joy. We discover that we are not insignificant at all! 

When we first encounter God through Christ, who is the light of the world, His light does what light always does: It drives back darkness in our lives. If you are anything like me, that light with its intense purity, reveals what men of older times called sin. Sin is what separates us from a perfect God. God takes you and me just as we are, but He does not leave us as we are. He wants us to be perfect just as He is perfect and be with him forever.  A perfect God must do that or He would not be perfect. Imperfection and perfection cannot co-exist any more than light and darkness can occupy the same place at the same time. God does not want us to remain where we are; He wants the best for us. But how can we move toward His perfection when we are so imperfect? 

We have and will continue to fall short of His perfection. We know (in our hearts) we don’t deserve to be in the light of Christ. How do we become worthy of God perfection and love? Well, on our own, we can’t.  We have fallen short of the glory of God and we will always fall short of the glory of God—if left to our own means and devises.  We know it!  That is no reason to fall back into despair. We are justified before a holy and righteous God through Christ’s righteousness.  

“… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” —Romans 3.23-26.

If our sins make us unworthy to stand before a perfect, holy and righteous God, why would He give His Son for us? Love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” — John 3.16-21.

Real love involves both mercy and truth. Mercy is grace. Truth involves righteousness. 

If God is all about love then why isn’t He willing to just forgive and forget our sins?  He is, that’s what the cross is about. Christ takes away your sins and mine through faith, confession of our sins and repentance. Like love, it’s that simple, so simple even a small child can understand and accept it. In fact, Jesus said that unless we become as a child we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. 

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Sonfrom the Father, full of grace and truth.” — John 1.12-14.

Through faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, we become children of God. Small children are totally dependent and trusting of their parents. That is how we are to be with God, our heavenly Father: Child-like faith that trusts, not childish faith that demands. We rest in the assurance that our heavenly Father knows what is best for us, and so we surrender to His will—whatever that might be. We pray Thy will be done, not my will be done. Surrender.

That is a place of holy ground. We discover a beautiful and heart-rending mystery. It is in surrender to God that we find freedom and liberty. That is holy ground. -- Mark

INSIGHT FOR LIVING INTERVIEW

I was recently interviewed by Colleen Swindol Thompson for Reframing Ministries podcast, part of Insight For Living ministries. To listen to this podcast, click here: 

AN ARTICLE ABOUT MY PRO-LIFE ADVOCACY

The Texas based online magazine The Stream published an article about my pro-Life message across North America: FIGHTING EUTHANASIA: Man With Multiple Sclerosis Travels North America Speaking On The Value of Life. My last speech was in Dubuque, Iowa on the day the Governor signed into effect "The Heartbeat bill" meaning abortions can not be performed in the state after a baby's heartbeat can be detected.

After 35 years, it seems that my time for public speaking has, for the most part, drawn to a close. I am going to dedicate my remaining time to writing this blog (it has more than 800,000 hits) and Christian and/or life-affirming screenplays. Will they be produced? I don't know but I'm going to do it anyway.

Mark