I’m not touching anything you said because I’m worried I’d get burned at the stake. Thanks for sharing your opinion.

I’d say give that guy a flippin’ break…he already have a really tough job ahead of him…Republicans can’t wait to see him fail….and the other ex-president already got his 8 years..(and support from people)…give our new president our support and prayers…and a chance to at least make some kind of good difference.

Melinda, my response to your question is this: If we didn’t feed the hungry (student lunch program, food stamps, etc), or provide mental and physical health care to the poor (Medicade/Medicare), or assist with sheltering (section 1 housing, etc), support research to rid disease (CDC budget – 8.6 bill, HRSA budget 7.5 bill fy ‘06), or work for world peace (no country works harder to bring peace and stability to the world than ours), or make access to quality education a reality (per pupil spending over $12,000), orwork to provide clean water (EPA budget 7.1 bill ‘08), then I would whole-heartedly agree that we are as guilty as the abortionist. But the fact is, we do all these things I listed, and far more. Whenever I see someone make the argument that you’re making, with all due respect, it’s just a way to morally equivicate and let slide the pure evil that is baby killing. Sorry, I can’t agree with your reasoning.

I am pro-life. However, Obama’s response on the abortion issue is more complex than his being pro or con, when it comes to funding family planning, internationally.

Yes, the international clinics that were cut by Bush were ones that also considered abortion an option. However, the funding that was dropped also dropped all funding for preventative forms of birth control and prenatal care. The hope, initially, was that the the clinics would opt to stop doing abortions, so funding could return for the other medical care. Without funding at all, the clinics ceased to exist. Therefore, family planning, prenatal care was also drained.

Many of the countries that lost the clinics had few other options for public clinics. I am sure it is easy for us to sit here and say that we should have kept the rest of the funding in place for preventative birth control, just not the portion spent on abortions. However, to do so, we would need to have personnel on hand to monitor that abortions were not being done. Can you imagine the cost of that? Would it have been a reliable means of monitoring?

When the funding is put back into place, internationally, for these clinics, the clinics are back in full operation. Abortion is a sad reality of it. However, so is the far greater reality of women receiving preventative and prenatal care.

For those who have been quick to judge and claim they understand Obama’s reasoning behind restoring dollars to these international clinics, I pose these questions:
How would you suggest providing services of family planning and prenatal care abroad, and ensure that the abortions were not being done with the money?
What would you do differently?
What are you doing to save the lives of those already born?

I just don’t see how Biblically that there can be support of torturing people. I don’t think the question should be if torturing people for saving lives is ok, because the torturing comes first. The question should be whether it would be God honoring to torture people and that is an emphatic no for me.

My purpose for this post really isn’t to argue about torturing people or even about Gitmo…my point is that torturing life at all levels is wrong. Let’s focus there.

I’m at a loss for words. Keep in mind who is being “tortured” (which I don’t think is the right word here). These are brutal killers. I have no problem subjecting them to some loud music, and maybe some barking dogs, or a session on the waterboard, in order to protect innocent lives.. lives that are someone’s son, daughter, or wife.

We’ll have to agree to disagree, my friend.

To your question…I know for sure my opinion matters not because I don’t know what the possibilities are. I do think they should be granted rights…maybe not as full US citizens, but I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be given a fair trial and rights to go with that trial.