Jim Denison on Redemptive Reframing and the Power of God

One of the most thoughtful articles on abortion I’ve seen in years was published recently in the Washington Post.

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Kathleen Parker surveys the debate over the Hyde Amendment (which limits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions) and then asks, “Shouldn’t we dedicate more effort to tackling unplanned pregnancy across all races and wealth levels before we mandate that Americans pay for others’ abortions?”

Citing the more than fifty million abortions performed in the wake of Roe v. Wade, she states: “It should be clear that we suffer a lack of imagination. Rather than arguing endlessly about choice vs. personhood, we should be talking about ways to end this primitive, barbaric procedure, which is risky, nasty, and, unequivocally, life-ending.”

Parker notes that pharmaceutical companies “surely . . . can come up with a foolproof, fail-safe method of pregnancy prevention.” She adds: “If poorer women lack sufficient access to birth control, then let’s use federal funding to get more of it to them. If boys and girls need better sex education, let’s make sure they get it.”

She concludes: “There are a hundred ideas out there waiting to be implemented.”

“IT’S NOT ALL UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS”

Here’s a second issue in the news: the US death rate from suicides, alcohol, and drug overdoses has reached an all-time high. Prescription painkillers and heroin are not the only substances driving so-called “deaths of despair.” The study points to fentanyl and other potent synthetic opioids that are creeping into illicit drugs such as cocaine.

Oddly, the states with the highest suicide and alcohol overdose deaths were primarily in the West. States with the highest drug overdose death rates were all in the mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast.

However, this tragic crisis is also an opportunity for the gospel.

Jim Quigley became addicted to opiates after a car crash and nearly died. His cousin found him a long-term rehab place at Freedom Farm Ministries in North Carolina.

Today, he is sober and serves as the ministry’s executive director. He works with about one hundred addicts a year. He requires them to read Oswald Chambers each morning, write papers on Tim Keller’s Prodigal God, and take a theology class. They learn the medical components of addiction and how to identify triggers, attend church twice a week, do physical labor, and get random drug tests.

“IT’S NOT ALL UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS”

Here’s a second issue in the news: the US death rate from suicides, alcohol, and drug overdoses has reached an all-time high. Prescription painkillers and heroin are not the only substances driving so-called “deaths of despair.” The study points to fentanyl and other potent synthetic opioids that are creeping into illicit drugs such as cocaine.

Oddly, the states with the highest suicide and alcohol overdose deaths were primarily in the West. States with the highest drug overdose death rates were all in the mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast.

However, this tragic crisis is also an opportunity for the gospel.

Jim Quigley became addicted to opiates after a car crash and nearly died. His cousin found him a long-term rehab place at Freedom Farm Ministries in North Carolina.

Today, he is sober and serves as the ministry’s executive director. He works with about one hundred addicts a year. He requires them to read Oswald Chambers each morning, write papers on Tim Keller’s Prodigal God, and take a theology class. They learn the medical components of addiction and how to identify triggers, attend church twice a week, do physical labor, and get random drug tests.

“It’s not all rainbows and unicorns—ultimately, I can’t change anybody,” Quigley said. “I just continue to present the truth to them, and see God grab hold of their lives.”

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Source: Christian Headlines