Basic HTML Version
cy." Thus, this new right (which
was described by others as a
"woman's right to control her own
body") followed logical ly in the
stream of the nationwide " rights
consciousness" begun in the mid–
'60s.
As a result of this and subse–
quent rulings, abortions zoomed
upward . In 1980, a record 1.55 mil–
lion legal abortions were performed
in the United States, terminating
about one of every four pregnan–
cies. The 1980 figure was more
than double the 774,000 legal abor–
tions performed on demand in
1973, tbe first year of legalized
abortions in the nation.
Of course in sorne states and
locali ties the figu re is even higher.
For example, in Florida, 3 1 per–
cent, or nearly one of three preg–
nancies, now end in abortion.
How ironical that sorne of the
same class of people who profess the
most concern about the outbreak of
nuclear war, also countenance the
war against the unborn in the womb!
For in demonstrating against nuclear
weapons policy, a phrase often heard
from the protestors is, "We are
doing this for the sake of our chil–
dren, and for futu re generations."
Last year , the editor in chief of
The American Spectator,
R .
Emmett Tyrrell , took note of this.
"Maybe ... we in the West are not
as fervid for human life as the dem–
onstrators would have it ," wrote
Mr. T yrrell in the April 20, 1982,
issue of the
Los Angeles Herald
Examiner.
"Sorne rather gruesome prac–
tices h ave become the norm.
. . . One and a half million abor–
tions are now practiced annually.
So what? In February [ 1982] the
newspapers carried pictures of men
d isposing of a mound of fetuses,
possibly as many as 2,000, found in
formaldehyde in California. Their
presence there remains a mystery,
but , though they were being hauled
off like trash, they looked st riking ly
like babies to me."
Vietnam Disaster
J anuary 27, 1973, only five days
after the momentous Supreme
Court abortion decision, the United
States and North Vietnam reached
accord on tbe París peace agree–
ments. But there was to be no peace.
44
Tbe pact merely secured America's
ungraceful exit.
The Soviets and the C ubans
shrewdly perceived U.S. timidity,
commonly described as the " Viet–
nam Syndrome"- meani ng pro–
phetically America's loss in the
pride of its power (Lev. 26: 19).
Author
Max
Singer observed the
effects of the "Vietnam Syndrome"
development in t he December 1982
issue of
Commentary:
" Peopl e around the world,
f riends and enemi es, used to
assume almost as a law of nature
that, although the
U
.S. might make
mistakes, we could not be defeated
and would not Jet ourselves be
humiliated or shown to be negli–
gent or incapable of defending our
interests or our word....
"But how many, even in our own
country . . . are confident of this
today?"
How God Views Amerlca!
Perhaps it is time to see how the
God that Americans
c/aim
on thei r
coinage to t rust in, views their
count ry.
lt
is a lesson for the rest of
the world to observe- and heed!
Only by discerning God's per–
spective will Americans be able to
see why so many afflictions, within
and without, are occurring to their
nation that literally ruled the world
38 years ago.
America, simply put, has lost its
way and broken loose of its moral
moorings. Drugged by years of
humanistic psychological j argon,
too many of its citizens no longer
can see the moral connection
between how they live and the suc–
cess of the nation as a whole.
In an essay in the December
1981 issue of
Harper's
magazine,
famed ltalian author Luig i Barzini
wrote this in h is article, "The
Americans":
"The Uni ted States is . .. a great
nation, in many ways the greatest
nation o f all times. ... Very few
imi tators have understood that the
secret of the Uni ted S tates ' tre–
mendous success is not merely
technology, know-how, the work
ethic or greed.
" It was a spiritual wind that drove
the Americans irresistibly ahead.
Behind their compulsion to improve
man's lot was at first an
a/1-pervad–
ing religiousness,
later the sense of
duty,
t he submission toa God-given
code of personal behavior,
the
acceptance of a God-given task to
accomplish and of all the necessary
sacri fices. Few foreigners under–
stand this, even today. The Uni ted
S tates looks to them like the triumph
of soulless materialism."
Tbese godly based ethics, noted
Mr. Barzini , are now "feebler,
dis–
credited by intellectuals,
corroded
by
t he doubts of these impious
times,
but without them, or
what is
left of them.
America would not be
what it is."
The Blble as an "lcon"
Few Americans s top to pause and
reflcct on just how far down, morally
speaking, America has skidded.
The Bible, proclaimed
News–
week
magazine in its December 27,
1982 issue, "made America." Per–
haps even more than the Constitu–
tion, noted this magazine, "the
Bible ... is our founding docu–
ment: the source of the powerful
myth of the United States as a spe–
cial, sacred nation, a people called
by God to establ ish a model socie–
ty, a beacon to the world."
In America's youth, added the
Newsweek
authors, " Bible s tudy
was the core of public education
and nearly every literate family not
only owned a Bible but
read it reg–
ular/y
and reverently."
Our contemporary modero socie–
ty would readily- and in most cases
c hcerfully- admit that tbis is no
longer the case. The Bible, con–
firmed
Newsweek,
" has virtually
disappeared from American educa–
tion.
It
is rarely studied, even as lit–
erature, in public classrooms.... "
In sum, said the editors of
News–
week,
the Bible has joined the Dec–
laration of
I
ndependence and the
Constitution as an "American
icon."
Yes, an icon, an object of idola–
trous veneration-but rarely if ever
consulted any Ionger for what its
author- the C reator God- wrote
inside its hallowed pages.
lt
is bighly significant that Pres–
ident Ronald Reagan, in early Feb–
rua ry, proclaimed 1983 as t he
" Year of the Bible ."
"Can we resolve to read, learn
and t ry to heed the greatest mes–
sage ever written-God's Word in
the Holy Bible?" the President
The PLAIN TRUTH