The Parson's Page
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Sermons
  • C David Hess
    • A Raging Moderate
  • About

Abortion and Frog Jumping  

12/31/1995

 
Picture
This may kind of blow your minds, but I want to write in this column about frog jumping contests and abortion.Let me be honest by saying that I am filled with ambiguity about both issues. I do feel sympathetic to the pain of little frogs, but I have generally favored the Fourth of July frog jumping contest. When forced to declare whether I am pro-choice or pro-life (a false choice if I ever did see one), I’m pro-choice; however, I view the number of abortions which take place in our society as abominable.

The genesis of this particular weird column was last week’s issue of the Chenango Valley News. Page five contained two letters to the editor under the headlines, “Ethical treatment of frogs at issue in Hamilton” and “Rogers Conservation says stop frog jumping.” If you turn the page to page seven of the same issue their was a long article on the recent pro-choice rally in Washington. The proximity of the two blew my mind. What does this say about us? I wondered how many might be both pro-choice and pro-frog. I can believe that the life of a born person has more intrinsic value than the life of a human fetus. But which is of greater value, a human fetus or a frog? What would a Martian think of our morality if he read this issue of the Chenango Valley News? What would Another Visitor from Beyond think? I don’t really have an answer, but it is a question worth asking, don’t you think?

I believe the direction to an answer lies in the position taken this past summer by the Lutheran Church of America. It declared that neither the right to life nor the right to choose is absolute. It also declared that it is the responsibility of society to delineate both those rights? Like it or not we are in the process of doing so. May God give us all wisdom.

©C. David Hess

Time Capsule   

12/1/1995

 
As a part of Hamilton’s Bicentennial Celebration the pastors of the Hamilton churches have been asked to provide church newsletters and a personal message to be placed in a time capsule to be opened 100 years from now. I have decided to combine the two. Here is my message to those who will open the capsule in 2095:

I have had a hard time deciding what to write to you. Your world is probably as unimaginable to me as my world is to those who lived in 1895. I am sure they could hardly imagine our world of computers, televisions, jet planes, moon walks, satellite explorations, and atom bombs. What must your world be like? Some of our computer scientists working on Artificial Intelligence are predicting that within as little as a decade there will be computers which will have progressed to the point that they will be considered to be persons. This opens up all kinds of theological questions for us not to mention logistical ones---how will we Baptists ever baptize a computer by immersion without shorting it out? (this is a joke). What will your world be like? Will life still exist on our planet? Or will it be wiped out by nuclear war or some ecological disaster? Will our Lord have returned "to judge the living and the dead" by then? I don't know, but some things I do know. If you read this message, you will be pretty much like us (and like those of a century before us). You will laugh, love, weep, and die as we do (probably of different diseases). You will be sinners in need of grace and forgiveness as we are, and like us you will worship the God who is from "everlasting to everlasting" and the Christ who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." Whatever good things we will have passed on to you (we know we have passed along a lot of bad), my hope is that chief among them will be faith in God who is with us always.

It is my faith in God who raised Christ from the dead that leads me to say, "I am looking forward to meeting you."

©C. David Hess

    Parsonally Speaking

    Categories

    All
    Current Events/Hot Issues
    Other Articles
    Personal Confessions
    The Bible & Christianity
    The Church
    The Darker Side
    The Lighter Side
    The Movies

    Archives

    September 2014
    October 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    April 2011
    December 2010
    June 2010
    April 2010
    December 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    September 2008
    June 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    May 2007
    March 2007
    January 2007
    December 2006
    September 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    September 2005
    April 2005
    March 2005
    November 2004
    June 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    December 2003
    October 2003
    September 2003
    May 2003
    March 2003
    January 2003
    September 2002
    August 2002
    April 2002
    October 2001
    September 2001
    July 2001
    March 2001
    December 2000
    November 2000
    September 2000
    August 2000
    May 2000
    March 2000
    January 2000
    November 1999
    April 1999
    March 1999
    December 1998
    September 1998
    August 1998
    May 1998
    April 1998
    March 1998
    February 1998
    January 1998
    December 1997
    August 1997
    June 1997
    May 1997
    April 1997
    January 1997
    December 1996
    November 1996
    October 1996
    September 1996
    August 1996
    July 1996
    June 1996
    May 1996
    April 1996
    March 1996
    February 1996
    January 1996
    December 1995
    November 1995
    August 1995
    April 1995
    January 1994
    February 1993
    January 1993


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.