RogueProton

Christ is King.

[Robert A. J. Gagnon @RobertAJGagnon1]

James Talarico is not a knowledgeable person about Scripture or about its application. Let's take his stance on abortion. Scripture is clear that humans are made in God's image and that already in the womb God is at work shaping the young child. The Bible affirms that God cares for babies in the womb whom he meticulously forms (Psalms 139:13-16; 22:10; Job 31:15), including even calling prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah) and apostles (Paul) from their existence in the womb (Isaiah 49:1, 5; Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:15)​.

The Bible doesn't mention every issue in society. The absence of mention of abortion is no more significant than its absence of mention of the cruelty of infant exposure. The evidence that we do have from both Testaments of Scripture and from the unified witness of early Christian texts in the period from the second century A.D. on (also first-century Judaism) leave little doubt about the church's consistent stance against abortion as a grave wrong (see appendices below).

[An early Israelite law from the "Book of the Covenant" does treat the penalty to be imposed on a man who, striking a pregnant woman accidentally, causes "what is to be born in her" to die (Exodus 21:22-25). The unborn child is given significant enough value that the one who brings about that child's death, even accidentally, can be crippled with debt sufficient to throw him into indentured servitude (debt slavery)​. And that is for an accidental blow.]

Talarico's previous assertion that God gave Mary the option in Luke 2 of aborting the Son of God conceived in her womb is laughable. In Talarico's warped theological thinking, he pictures in his head God saying through his angel: "Hey Mary, if you want to go ahead and kill the Son of God in your womb, that's fine with me. I respect your choice in the matter. I'm 'pro-choice' all the way!"

This is so monumentally absurd that it qualifies (along with his "gay marriage" claim) for the oft-quoted lines in the movie Billy Madison: "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.... Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

Appendix 1: Abortion in first-century Judaism

According to the Jewish historian Josephus (AD 37-105?), "it (viz., the Mosaic law) declares to women neither to bring on a miscarriage (perhaps by drugs) of what is sown (viz., the 'seed' or child implanted in the woman's womb), nor to utterly destroy [or: abort]* it (*Gk. dia-phtheirein; perhaps by dismemberment); but if it should happen, she would be a child-killer (Gk. tekno-ktonos), because she would be making a life [or: soul] vanish and diminishing the race" (Against Apion 2.202; ca. A.D. 100; translation mine).

There is no question here that Josephus is portraying it as a given that the Judaism of his day opposed abortion as child-killing. It is apparent that by “Law of Moses” is meant the Decalogue prohibition, “You shall not murder,” since an earlier contemporary, Philo of Alexandria, discussed the issue of abortion under that rubric (Special Laws 3.108-9), as did later Christians. There is also no question that Josephus is targeting abortion in the first clause. It is possible that the second clause could be rendered "nor to destroy it afterward," a reference to infanticide.

Appendix 2: Abortion in the Early Church

Given the warrants from Scripture and the prevailing position of early Judaism, it is not surprising that the earliest manual of Christian teaching outside the New Testament, the Didache (or "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles"; pronounced Di [as in "did"] - dak [as in "dark"] - HAY), which may date as early as ca. A.D. 100 from Syria, appears to correlate abortion with infanticide as "murder" of a "child" (2:2):

"You shall not murder a child in abortion,* nor shall you kill one (just) born" (οὐ φονεύσεις τέκνον ἐν φθορᾷ οὐδὲ γεννηθέντα ἀποκτενεῖς; my translation is literal).

*The Greek word that I have translated "abortion" is phthora (φθορά), a word meaning "destruction" that is often used for "abortion" in the medical literature of the day (e.g., the second-century A.D. physicians Soranus and Galen; compare the related verb dia-phtheirein in the Josephus quote). In all major ETs of the Apostolic Fathers (a collection of early Christian texts ca. 90-170, wherein one finds the Didache) it is translated so as to refer to abortion (Kirsopp Lake, Michael Holmes, even Bart Ehrman). This text in the Didache is reiterated verbatim in the so-called Epistle of Barnabas 19.5 (ca. A.D. 140-150), also found in the Apostolic Fathers.

Thereafter, we find frequent condemnation of abortion as murder in the Church Fathers (Athenagoras [177], Tertullian [ca. 200], Clement of Alexandria [ca. 200], Minucius Felix [ca. 200-250], Hippolytus [ca. 210-35], Basil the Great [ca. 375], Jerome [ca. 400], John Chrysostom [ca. 400]) and in other early Christian literature (the Apocalypse of Peter [ca. 100-150], the Council of Ancyra [314], the Apostolic Constitutions [ca. 375-380]).

The brief word of the Greek apologist Athenagoras is instructive. In his "Embassy (aka Apology, Plea) for the Christians," written to the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, Athenagoras defends Christians against the charge of murder and cannibalism (brought on by rumors about the Eucharist). He does so by appealing to the deep Christian reverence for life. This reverence for life is exhibited in several ways: (1) Christians "cannot endure even to see a man put to death, though justly." (2) Nor are Christians spectators of "the contests of gladiators and wild beasts" given by the emperor, for they deem that even to see a man killed in such contests causes them to "contract guilt and pollution."

Similarly, (3) Christians believe that "women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God," since Christians "regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care." If Christians abhor abortion as murder, how can they kill children that are just born? And if Christians do not engage in infant exposure, which is "child murder," how can they kill those who are reared to a later stage of life? (35).

His argument is an a fortiori argument (from the lesser to the greater): If x is the case, how much more y? This suggests a common acknowledgment that killing a child after birth is worse than killing a child before birth. And yet it does not alter the assessment of abortion as at least a lesser form of murder. If Christians regard women who abort their baby as murderers, how much more would they be averse to killing the child shortly after birth, and more so into adulthood. Even the child in the womb is "a created (human) being and therefore an object of God's care."

The Latin Church Father Tertullian, a Roman born in Carthage (North Africa), writing twenty years after Athenagoras, went further: "A murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb.... To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a human which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed” (Apology 9:8). In other words, whether one kills a human being before birth or after birth, one is still killing a human being.

We could go on with other Church Fathers, but I think the point is already well made that there is a consistent witness in the Church after the New Testament.

[Daniel C. Green | The Eagle Eye @TheEagleyeNews]

I think we need to build this.

I designed this below image, representing Lewis and Clark on the Mississippi in the style of Argonath.

At $1 Billion or more, I think it can be done.

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

This is a massive and growing problem for American national security. Unbelievable amounts of sensitive and classified information is captured, scraped, and sent back to foreign nations.

And users have no idea. Nobody expects that their TV or monitor is a surveillance tool. When I have joked that Smart TVs should be illegal, I am only half-joking.

[Maverick Alexander @MaverickDarby]

"𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦"

starring JD Vance, Alex Jones, Sydney Sweeney, and Nicolas Cage

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@MattP1Gallagher Mick and Lawson are not Williams' drivers. Williams owes them nothing.

Franco: 1) Gives a Williams driver time in an F1 seat. 2) Shows up and coming drivers William's takes their academy seriously (avoiding Piastri/Lawson situations).

This is the best choice.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@alex_albon @LoganSargeant Class act as always, Alex.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@EndWokeness "How can I respect you when you're still a Trump supporter?"
Because before a Trump supporter they are a human. Before a Trump supporter they are your family.
If a political belief is different than yours, a human no longer has inherent value?
You're the problem.

[Carlos Sainz @Carlossainz55]

Very happy to announce I'll be joining @williamsf1 next season! Excited about the project and the challenges ahead of us! 💪🏻

Muy contento de poder anunciar que el año que viene me uniré a @williamsf1! Entusiasmado con el proyecto y con los retos que tendremos por delante! 💪🏻

➡️ Full Quote / Declaración Completa: https://t.co/m4h4Ou6CUu

[Carlos Sainz @Carlossainz55]

💪🏻 @williamsf1

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@RepDanCrenshaw These two have been arrested and charged. You're calling for the death penalty before they even get a fair trial?

I'm not saying they shouldn't die if found guilty. And I'm not saying they're innocent. But how can they be arrested and charged and you're calling for their heads?

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@IGN Someone is using the thesaurus their mommy got them for Christmas. Proud of you.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@lora_life @cnnbrk It was a unanimous decision.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@wbuxtonofficial @wbuxtonofficial stick to Formula 1 please.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@IGN Play woke games, win woke prizes.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@TuckerCarlson Underwood 2024!!

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@IGN This is the best news!

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@IGN I'm sure the 5 people who watch this movie need you to tell them how to buy a ticket at the movie theater.

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@wtf1official 🔥🔥🔥/10

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@IGN @IGN hasn't done an honest review in over a decade. Buncha pander bears. 🐼

[RogueProton @RogueProton_]

@MattP1Gallagher McLaren. Merc is a very close second.