“Save the Jews: Don’t have an abortion”
Likewise, Efrat, which works ‘to save Israel’s babies’ has said that “Israel has lost more than 1.5 million Jewish children to abortion since 1948. In a country of about 5.5 million Jews, this number has great demographic significance. Imagine how much stronger Israel would have been today with one million more Jews. Imagine if we could create an ‘Inner Aliyah’ [immigration to Israel] of 10 to 15,000 Jews a year.”
According to Efrat, “Israel is currently fighting a war for her very survival as a Jewish State…. The Arab birth rate is about double the Jewish birth rate of 2.3. It is forecast that the Arabs will be the majority in Israel by the year 2020.”…
Even if making Jewish babies and outnumbering the Arabs are not the primary reasons that Efrat volunteers give women for ‘keeping a baby’, they do work against that backdrop.
This politicisation of women’s wombs, this turning of what is essentially a private matter into a public duty, is a good reason to hope that the Israeli anti-abortion lobby doesn’t get a stronger hearing.
~ Abortion proponent Nathalie Rothschild on the pro-life movement in Israel, Spiked, July 22
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
From the same article: “For instance, one critic has likened Efrat’s method of relying on a network of volunteers across the country – to spread their message and offer women support – to the proselytising of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
They have volunteers! The horror!
The pro-abortion movement sure is desperate to make this about religion, isn’t it?
There IS a societal element to reproduction. Unless people undertake the responsibility, society will die out. That’s why the state has traditionally privileged the family. Of course it’s a personal issue too, but the sum total of everyone’s personal decisions can ruin a society. What’s wrong with appealing to this sense of responsibility in people?
To say nothing of the fact that you need to have children at a pace HIGHER than the replacement rate to have a HOPE of properly funding entitlement programs. I know, details, details. It’s all me me me until oops, it’s not.
Ummm, Israel was created as a Jewish State under very messy talks and deals. Breeding for the sake of outnumbering another ethnic group is about as creepy and absurd as it gets. This is legitimately bizarre, Jill. Wow.
Reproducing for the strength of the society you love to protect what it stands for is not bizarre. People are a nation’s greatest treasure and source of strength for the future.
If reproducing for the strength of the society you love is a good thing that is inherently superior to not reproducing as much, then you’re making a very good argument for why the other Arabs (Jews are Arabs, too) deserve this land more than the Jews do. After all, their higher reproduction rates would represent an obedience to God that the article is claiming that Jews do not practice.
If all life is equally valuable, there’s no reason to prefer Jewish babies over non-Jewish babies.
I recommend reading the whole article the quote is from. Then:
First, it’s good to be skeptical of how Palestinians have been portrayed in the media. Second, the Israelis are afraid of democracy, especially in a one-state vision because they do have a lower population. Instead, they build walls and conduct an Apartheid-like state. They economically repress the indiginous population and cut them off from gainful employment and access to the better hospitals.
Third, this shows how poisonous abortion is. Not only does it decimate populations who willingly submit themselves to decimation in the name of “personal freedom,” it also shows that no pro-life argument satisfies the pro-abortion people anywhere around the world. Humans show a willingness to destroy themselves no matter how detrimental it is to their own community. It is illogical and deadly to be pro-abortion. And its poison is tenacious and very hard to irradicate. We’ve got our work cut out for us all over, don’t we?
Afterthought: Maybe if Israelis would value the lives of their own children, just maybe their hearts would soften toward the children of other people living among them.
I agree, Ashtar. And in some cases this kind of mentality smells of racism. Sometimes when I’m in a masochistic mood, I look at white supremacist websites. They are terrified that white people will be outnumbered (which will probably happen in 2050) by non-whites, and are encouraging “Aryan” women to have more children.
Well anyway, on the flip side of this, here’s an article about in-vitro fertilization in Israel, which is paid for by the government: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2015675781_israelinvitro21.html
“Sometimes when I’m in a masochistic mood, I look at white supremacist websites. They are terrified that white people will be outnumbered (which will probably happen in 2050) by non-whites, and are encouraging “Aryan” women to have more children.”
Ha! One famous racist website was talking about making anti-miscegenation laws a reality again to “preserve the white race”, because you know us mixed races are diluting it.
Ninek, that was a very good post. I agree.
Hmm. Guess Ahmadinejad won’t have to do a whole lot to wipe Israel off the map, since they’re doing it all by themselves.
“If reproducing for the strength of the society you love is a good thing that is inherently superior to not reproducing as much, then you’re making a very good argument for why the other Arabs (Jews are Arabs, too) deserve this land more than the Jews do.”
I didn’t say whoever reproduces more wins land rights (or should). In fact, though Ninek pointed out that the whole article delves into the politics of the region, I was commenting on the quote alone. The truth is that if you do no reproduce, societies and cultures die out. If pointing out the ramifications of millions of personal decisions deters someone from making the decision to kill her child, I don’t see the problem with that. Is that not the argument being made all the time regarding the disproportionately high number of abortions in the black community? Are we not appealing to a sense of the societal effects of those personal choices?\
If all life is equally valuable, there’s no reason to prefer Jewish babies over non-Jewish babies.
There’s no preference. No babies should be killed.
I agree, CT. It is not that underproducing populations are less or more deserving of anything, but there are consequences to our actions. In a microcosm: if I don’t have children and my siblings don’t have children, then who passes down Granny’s meatloaf recipe? No one. It will be lost. That may seem like a silly example, but in a macrocosm that is what is happening around the world. For a while, the large numbers of aging baby boomers will be able to fool people that our population problem isn’t that bad, but watch and see how we shrink as time goes by. Our population is becoming an inverted pyramid.
The overpopulation nonsense that has overtaken the world in the last 40 years has given us not only a dearth of baby girls in most of Southeast Asia, but is also bringing the western world to the brink of extinction. This anti-natalist worldview is an EVIL which must stop. I know it is too late to reverse the trend completely, but maybe a return to pro-life, pro-family policies will help ebb the tide a bit. A society that has no children, has no future.
Ha! One famous racist website was talking about making anti-miscegenation laws a reality again to “preserve the white race”, because you know us mixed races are diluting it.
Whatever.
Let’s see…57 (give or take) muslim nations, one Jewish nation.
Do the math.
CT, I didn’t even mention you, so what are you talking about? Did you miss that first rule for this site? “Criticize ideas, not people.”
This article asserts that Jews need to out-reproduce the non-Jews in order for the state of Israel to become stronger. This is simply an unproven assertion. If reproduction is what a nation-state relies on to become stronger, then it doesn’t matter what ethnic or religious affiliation the person giving birth or being born. However, if the issue isn’t reproduction at all, then it’s not exactly surprising that those who make this argument prefer CERTAIN babies over others. In other words, they are prioritizing certain babies over others. Is that a pro-life position? I think not!
If I don’t reproduce, it doesn’t cause any society or culture to die out. Plenty of people choose not to reproduce and it has yet to end any society or culture. Societies may CHANGE based on who reproduces the most, but there are absolutely no recorded instances of a society dying out because some people chose not to have kids. Not even one.
And why isn’t the non-Jewish commitment to reproducing being celebrated here? Shouldn’t we be praising the other Arabs for doing what some Jews won’t? If being pro-life is being obedient to God and supporting the Jewish position (that abortion is a-okay) is wrong, then it’s easy to see who is truly pleasing God. Why wouldn’t God rather the country be in the hands of those who are having the most babies? Or is it that people don’t REALLY care about the unborn as much as they care about keeping certain cultures just the way they are now, even if that means maintaining a nation-state that makes abortion legal and gives an elevated status to a religion that teaches that abortion is acceptable?
The reality is that we don’t need genetically related individuals to pass down cultural markers. My daughter is not the biological descendant of my husband. However, she has inherited the photos and tea sets and values and recipes that his family has passed down for the past hundred and fifty years. Likewise, when someone opens up their home and adopts a child, that child becomes a part of the culture(s) that their family take part in. To claim otherwise is to assert that adopted children and step-children are not REALLY legitimate members of the families they are being raised in. That notion creates a hierarchy where some lives are worth more or are inherently more valuable than others.
So, we don’t need Jews to have children in order for there to be folks to pass things down to. All we need is babies. Their race, religion, and ethnic affiliations don’t matter.
Furthermore, the Western world isn’t on the brink of extinction. People are still being born every single year–thousands of people, more than enough to prevent extinction. What IS happening is that one particular race (Take a guess which one that is!) isn’t reproducing exclusively within their race as much as they’d need to in order to outnumber the people of color who are also a part of the West.
Now, if you value all life equally, then you don’t particularly care whether any racial group disappears. All that matter is that we get more folks to have babies. If none of those babies call themselves white, black, yellow or red, why should we care?
Hi Bint, I must disagree with part of your assertions. If you study history, you will see that some empires and cultures DO die out for lack of heirs. For example, the Byzantine Empire had enough problems besetting it when one of it’s emperors decided he didn’t need to marry and reproduce. He also never adopted nor named an heir, and it was the undoing of the empire. The instability that followed his death was the last straw in an already deteriorating situation.
It is true that adopted children take on much of the culture of their new family (that’s how Moses got such a good education in art and architecture), but: if a community of people does not reproduce by birth or adoption, few outsiders will be MOTIVATED to preserve their culture. Never underestimate the power of human motivation. For example, we all love ancient Egyptian art (lots of people can probably correctly identify King Tut’s gold mask). But how many of us speak Egyptian? How many of us know an Egyptian recipe? Not many.
But I do agree that the human race needs more babies. No matter whose culture is preserved, I love the human race and I want us all to prosper and thrive.
“Now, if you value all life equally, then you don’t particularly care whether any racial group disappears. All that matter is that we get more folks to have babies. If none of those babies call themselves white, black, yellow or red, why should we care?”
Exactly.
Furthermore, the Western world isn’t on the brink of extinction. People are still being born every single year–thousands of people, more than enough to prevent extinction
Actually, western civilization is dying out. Abortion and birth control have decimated the native born populations of North America and Europe. Without a sufficient younger population to support the older generation countries have been forced to allow mass immigration which is eroding each country’s national identity. It is not about race, it is about CULTURE. Western values are Judeo-Christian values. These are the values that are part of my heritage and which I hold dear to me. For the sake of humanity I want Judeo-Christian values to live on.
Immigrants are bad, and all Muslims are terrorists. That’s really what your arguments sound like to me.
Whose? Denise’s?
Hers is where I gleaned “immigrants are bad”. The post that disappeared was the Muslim one.
Ahh. Never mind, it’s back. Yeah.
And why isn’t the non-Jewish commitment to reproducing being celebrated here?
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s this:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” ~1988 Hamas Charter
I didn’t glean that.
I can assure you the Hamas Charter wasn’t written by Lutherans.
Given the choice between Judeo-Christian values and sharia law, well, that’s self-explanatory.
“Abortion and birth control have decimated the native born populations of North America and Europe. Without a sufficient younger population to support the older generation countries have been forced to allow mass immigration which is eroding each country’s national identity. ”
That doesn’t sound anti-immigration to you? The Muslim thing was more me being irritated, sorry. Hamas and extremist Muslims are awful, yeah.
Here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/09/how_immigrants.html
And here: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
Don’t think that the US has to worry a whole lot about immigrants wiping out Judeo-Christian values. Europe might, but not here. The majority of our immigrants are Catholic.
I am not anti-Immigrant, Jack. I believe Judeo-Christian values are worth perserving . What is wrong with having replacement level fertility so our culture does not disappear?
Nothing wrong with replacement level fertility or Judeo-Christian values. I just think that fearing that immigration in the US will destroy culture is unfounded and I tire of hearing it. The vast majority of our immigrants are Christians.
Ninek, the Byzantine empire gives the lie to the claim that choosing not to reproduce has caused the end of a society or culture. In fact, what happened in the Byzantine empire is what happens all around the world. If choosing not to reproduce caused the destruction of the Byzantine empire, then there would be no descendants of those people in existence today. In reality, those descendants DO exist. So, there is still no basis for this unproven assertion that this has ever occurred.
Adopted children don’t take on “much of the culture of their new family”. They become A PART OF THE CULTURE. They are not second-class citizens. It’s very sad (and not pro-life) to see people de-legitimizing the identity of those who are not genetically-related to the family they have become a part of. These are not “outsiders” and it is anti-family to claim this.
The Egyptians are a very poor example to use to make the assertion that outsiders aren’t much motivated to preserve the culture. All around the world people study Egyptian culture. Furthermore, the Egyptian language still exists. It has simply branched out as all languages do. Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic are all in this linguistic family that ancient Egyptian belongs to. With regards to how many people can speak these languages, the answer is MILLIONS. As a matter of fact, I can speak one fluently and can understand lots of words in a few of the others. The fact that many Americans don’t bother to learn these languages doesn’t mean they’ve died out, just as the fact that many Americans don’t understand how cultures change but don’t go extinct doesn’t change the facts.
It’s downright silly to conflate Hammas with all Arabs, especially since ISRAELI JEWS ARE ARABS, TOO. Either you find all life equally worthy of celebrating or you aren’t really pro-life. You’re saying that some lives are worth more and isn’t that what makes abortion possible?
In order to be pro-life, you have to see the bringing of life into the world as an inherently good thing, regardless of who is doing the reproducing. If you’re not happy about the realized fecundity of non-Jews and you can’t celebrate the birth of non-Jewish babies, then you’re not pro-life.
There is absolutely no evidence that Western civilization is dying out. Not even one single scientific statistic backs up this claim. Abortion and birth control did not decimate the native born populations of North America or Europe. Genocide decimated the native populations of North America. This genocide was carried out folks who claimed that their race was superior to all others. Sadly, it is their descendants who are now making the fallacious claim that they are the only race capable of keeping these countries civilized. This is an inherently racist claim.
If you accept that people of color are equal in value with whites, then it’s easy to see why it’s silly to claim that Western civilization is dying out. The only thing that’s dying out is the number of people who identify as “white”. The Latinos, Black, Arab, Asian, and Indians who live here are just as much a part of this civilization as the Whites who live here. If you are more concerned about the racial identity of the population than you are with whether WHOEVER it is that lives here is reproducing, then you aren’t pro-life. You’re pro-racism.
“National identity” is just a pretty way of saying “racial dominance”. The reality is that Judaism and Christianity are not Western at all. Think about those places that are mentioned in the Torah and the New Testament. Were those places a part of the West? Nope! They were and are a part of the East. If someone truly cared about Judeo-Christian values, then they’d abandon the racist claim that we need people of a particular race in order to maintain it. After all, if the Whites (who do not belong to the culture that produced these Judeo-Christian values) are capable of keeping Judaism and Christianity popular, then it’s downright ridiculous to claim that Easterners (the people who actually created these values) can’t also do this.
If you’re just trying to preserve the look of a particular culture and minimize the ability of others to become a part of it, then you are not pro-life. You’re pro-racism. Even if there were no people in Europe who identified as white, it wouldn’t mean that Western civilization had gone away. God doesn’t give a single care about what “national identity” someone wants to cling to. If you cling to and seek to preserve your “national identity” then you are not seeking first the kingdom. You are seeking first YOUR OWN COMFORT ZONE.
JackBorsch, it seems that those of us with multi-ethnic/multi-racial identities represent a real threat to the idea that Whites should make sure that future generations look just like them. If you are truly pro-life, then “national identity” doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we bring more life into the world, regardless of whether that life looks like us or cares about our granny’s recipes.
Bint, I agree with a lot of what you said. However, I sincerely doubt that most of the people who post here are racist. I have certainly felt comfortable, as a mixed-race person. I don’t think I have seen anything that I would qualify as racist until this thread. And I think the comments were more ethnocentric than racist.
I do think this “quote of the day” was ill-advised.
I’ve never claimed that most of the people here are racist. I’ve posted here off and on for a very long time. Sadly, it takes threads like this for many people to finally reveal their racist thinking. This isn’t really about ethnicity, because even those who are a part of their ethnic group (via adoption or marriage) are still being rejected. Jewish Israelis and Muslim Israelis both belong to the same ethnic group, yet many people here are quite adamant that this isn’t enough for them to be willing to praise the sub-group that is reproducing more than the other. So what makes the difference? It’s that Jews are perceived as being a different RACE from non-Jews from the same area.
This isn’t just an ill-advised quote of the day. It is supporting an openly-racist bigoted organization. Does Efrat help non-Jewish Israelis? Nope! If you’re a Christian or a Muslim, you will receive absolutely nothing from them, regardless of your ethnicity. To support Efrat is to support their claims that Jewish life is worth more than non-Jewish lives. That is NOT pro-life.
If a society does adopt this principle that national identity should be preserved, what it’s saying is that people like you should be prevented from ever having the chance to be born. “National identity” is a racist concept. The idea that white nationalists aren’t racist is just absurd. It’s the same claim that all white supremacists use when they want to make their racism sound more palatable to those who don’t want to be called racists.
Let’s get real here and call a spade a spade. You may not want to make anyone feel like you’re calling them a racist. However, if something they say is an assertion of superiority over other races, you’re just tickling their ears if you make excuses for why we shouldn’t expose this as racism. If a person is committed to radical truth-telling, then they let the cards fall where they may.
GOD IS NOT A RESPECTER OF PERSONS.
This includes folks who want to cling to their “national identity” instead of their SUPPOSED pro-life ideals.
This site has excellent commentary on why working to preserve national identity is a rejection of Christian values:
http://bible.cc/acts/10-34.htm
For the record, I’m not anglo-saxon white.
All anti-Israel rants notwithstanding, here’s a great video presentation of the work Efrat does:
http://www.friendsofefrat.org/index.php?m=2
Scroll down and click on either EFRAT: The Presentation or EFRAT: The Movie
I wonder what the press will have to say when they hit the 6 million mark.
“Now, if you value all life equally, then you don’t particularly care whether any racial group disappears. All that matter is that we get more folks to have babies. If none of those babies call themselves white, black, yellow or red, why should we care?”
Uh, I think that is mighty creepy.
It is like saying if all the blacks, or yellows, or whites, or browns all die, down to the very last one, then we are okay with that.
I’m not okay with the extinction of any group.
“I just think that fearing that immigration in the US will destroy culture is unfounded”
Really?
The culture that was here before this one was destroyed by immigrants.
“Really?
The culture that was here before this one was destroyed by immigrants.”
Unless Latino/as are planning to wipe out 95% of the population, I think we will be fine.
People assimilate just fine, and their kids even better. Really don’t think this fear about immigration is founded.
bint: If someone wants to wipe your your family so that your children’s lineage is cut off, in order that their ideology can enjoy hegemony, that alone is good reason to preserve, defend and extend your family identity.
Israel’s doom so long as it’s identified with Isaac’s line and/or Israelite religion seems the goal of the most strident Islamic states and movements.
I don’t think it’s fair to make a priori arguments about whether Isaac’s kids are warranted in preserving the identity of their threatened culture. In fact, your posts seem rationally distilled and inflexible.
I don’t necessarily disagree with most of what you say, but it’s not wise to be so sweeping in your judgments.
Look, Bint, it is not racist to not want your culture to die out and there is nothing wrong with wanting your country united in common beliefs. I am not Jewish, but I so understand the concern that Israel has with too few children being born. It has nothing to do with how many children Palestinians have. If a certain people does not have replacement level fertility then it will die out in a couple of generations. It is just math. Why if you believe that your culture has something good to offer the world would you not want it to live on?
Most population programs target non-whites and I think this is so EVIL! Overpopulation nuts want less of everyone. They create economic conditions that make it undesirable to have large families in the West and they literally force many third worlders into lowering their fertility. Whenever you have certain populations of people not adequately reproducing themselves it is a bad thing and most likely a symptom of something more sinister.
This isn’t just an ill-advised quote of the day. It is supporting an openly-racist bigoted organization.
Calm down, Bint. Have a seat and allow me to explain Quote of the Day. And all you folks out there who are outrageously outraged that such a quote would DARE make it to Jill’s blog, have a listen:
The quotes that are posted are not necesarily endorsements of the viewpoint of the quote. For example, Dr. GeorgeTiller may be quoted, but that does not mean that Jill Stanek endorses Dr. Tiller.
The primary purpose is to jumpstart the conversation of whatever opinion the quote expresses, many of them ironic.
So today’s quote is about a pro-abortion Israeli’s opinion of the pro-life organization Efrat and the effect abortion has had on the Jewish population of Israel.
Nowhere do you see “I’m Jill Stanek and I approve this message.”
So we discuss. Debate. Have threads over 300 comments long.
Another day’s quote could be about gay adoption, or a politician, or a pro-choice celebrity head-over-heels in love with his baby. Call it “full-spectrum”.
So no, Jill Stanek is not “supporting an openly-racist bigoted organization”. That may be your perception, but that’s not the reality.
“National identity” is just a pretty way of saying “racial dominance”.
Interesting.
My neighbor from the Phillipines refers to himself as filipino, his national identity.
My other neighbor from Brazil is proud to say she’s Brazilian, her national identity.
And my other neighbor from Jamaica loves to say she’s Jamaican, mon.
All these racially dominant neighbors. And to make themselves super-duper racist, they have the nerve to say they’re also Americans.
I’ll have to ask them if they’re okay with the filipino/Brazilian/Jamaican culture disappearing just so long as “we get more folks to have babies.”
bint alshamsa says:
July 22, 2011 at 9:16 pm
CT, I didn’t even mention you, so what are you talking about? Did you miss that first rule for this site? “Criticize ideas, not people.”
I believe I quoted and criticized your ideas. Since you directly quoted my phrasing in your comment, I assumed you were responding to it. Either way, I don’t need to be directly addressed to respond to your ideas.
JackBorsch, it seems that those of us with multi-ethnic/multi-racial identities represent a real threat to the idea that Whites should make sure that future generations look just like them. If you are truly pro-life, then “national identity” doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we bring more life into the world, regardless of whether that life looks like us or cares about our granny’s recipes.
First of all, you make a big leap in assuming who is and is not multi-ethnic/racial. Being pro-life means that you don’t believe children should be killed in the womb. Any children. If someone believes in abortion for one racial group and not another, they are not pro-life (and they’re racist). I disagree that “national identity” doesn’t matter. Nations have drastically different cultures and values. If you want to preserve those, you need to reproduce as a nation/society. You aren’t going to be able to adopt at higher than replacement rates. It’s not about race or “looking like you”, it’s about culture and values. The US is a unique country b/c we do have so many integrated cultures, but we also have a national culture with some shared values. When people immigrate to your county b/c they want to share in that, that is an asset to the country. Immigration reform is needed so that people have a way to come to this country legally and be part of the story of immigration that made this country what it is. If as a result of this, the country become some grand amalgamation of races w/ a shared culture, well welcome to my world. I’m a complete mutt and it’s great
To say that Jewish people should consider the loss of their culture and race is not covert racism. I have no preference for Jewish people. I don’t want Palestinians to die out (or abort). But I see nothing wrong with a group encouraging people to reproduce so that their culture lives on.
Suspected members of the Taliban on Friday hung the 8-year-old son of a local police commander in southern Afghanistan after ordering his father to surrender, according to a news report on Saturday.
Heaven forbid we try to be “racially dominant” over those medieval reprobates.
Radical truth-telling.
The Taliban and Hamas don’t represent all Muslims or Arabs. About 20% of the world’s population is Muslim, they can’t all be terrorists.
And why isn’t the non-Jewish commitment to reproducing being celebrated here? Shouldn’t we be praising the other Arabs for doing what some Jews won’t?
If Arabs are not aborting, then that’s great.
If being pro-life is being obedient to God and supporting the Jewish position (that abortion is a-okay) is wrong, then it’s easy to see who is truly pleasing God. Why wouldn’t God rather the country be in the hands of those who are having the most babies?
I’d be hesitant to judge which nations are pleasing God. Certainly abortion is a grave sin. All governments that allow it and people who tolerate it will have to answer for it. But it is not the only sin or grounds for judgement – certainly not enough for God to say “He who has the most babies is the best in my eyes.” That’s ludicrous. There’s not a nation on earth that is without it’s collective sin.
Or is it that people don’t REALLY care about the unborn as much as they care about keeping certain cultures just the way they are now, even if that means maintaining a nation-state that makes abortion legal and gives an elevated status to a religion that teaches that abortion is acceptable?
They are separate questions – caring about the unborn, and caring about which cultures are preserved. Abortion is wrong – I would not want to see it even in cultures that promote many other wrongs and that I thus, would not care to see gain power. This group is clearly trying to eradicate this wrong from the Jewish culture. A group can wish to preserve it’s culture even if it’s not free of all error, especially if the effort at preservation is being made through appeals to eradicate a major cultural wrong.
I never said all muslims were terrorists, Jack.
We cannot deny that some cultures are more compatible with humanity than others. Just ask the 8-yr. old boy.
I wish people who knew little about history would refrain from making sweeping and incorrect assumptions.
Don’t presume to tell me what I must believe in order to be pro-life. It’s about respecting the children who’ve been conceived, not a rush to increase any particular population. If you are into increasing birth rates, then you want to work with pro-lifers because you have something in common, but its illogical to confuse the two goals as being identical. It’s not all about “having more babies.” It is all about not killing human beings. Ever.
Ninek – Exactly.
Thank you, ninek.
The Taliban and Hamas don’t represent all Muslims or Arabs. About 20% of the world’s population is Muslim, they can’t all be terrorists.
Jack, indeed, The problem, as I see it, is that radical Islamists have influence far beyond their percentile ranking, due to power, willingness to use force, weapons, etc., and the subjugation of the more-peaceful.
Other religions are not immune, and Christians had the Crusades, as an example, but currently it seems to me that it’s radical Islam that wants to take over other places and have their way be the deal, on a worldwide basis, far more than any other religion.
I really against the abortion! Thanks for this site that help,encourage and open up our mind how important life is. We don’t have the right to kill the unborn child. Let’s give her/his a chance to see this beautiful world. We are living in a different country, different belief, different culture and living with different manner but for those who protest anti-abortion, well think thrice before u did abortion.
Children had freedom to live
Children need caring and love
godbless
Ok so you get one million more babies or the contributions those Israeli women made to science, politics and culture. In a free society, unlike pro-natalist Nazi Germany or Soviet Europe, women often have to make the trade-off between family and career. I wish that women didn’t have to choose one over the other and I think that situation is changing, but that’s the way things have been over the past half century.
I think it’s laughable how scared you all are of brown people taking over the West. Newsflash, “white” people are still having babies albeit at a decreased RATE. The only way the “white” west would die out is if everybody had interracial couplings–oh no, the horror! Also most European countries are former colonial powers, so are you suggesting that the formerly colonized shouldn’t have the right to share some of the pie with their former oppressors? Homegrown Norwegian terrorist Anders Brevik shares the same line of thinking with a lot of you. I could have lifted this quote from his manifesto straight off the comments section from JillStanek.com.
“Well, after two generations of Second Wave feminism, Ms. Willis and Ms. Beauvoir have had their way: the West has skyrotketing divorce rates and plummeting birth rates, leading to a cultural and demographic vacuum that makes us vulnerable to a take-over by Islam. And feminists still aren’t satifsied.”
Congratulations, you’re creating an environment where nationalist, racist terrorists can thrive!
Wow, I guess he missed all the other comments by other people. Personally, while I think that all conceived children have a right to their own natural lifespans, I also value some things about my own culture. For example, I could live without some pop culture material, but the Sistine Chapel ceiling? I might fight tooth and nail to save that because I think it’s a cultural treasure.
Meanwhile if anyone is still checking this thread, there are some great organizations that assist the indigenous people in the Holy Land. I can recommend this one here, but please do look into the subject and support a charity or organization.
I recommend: The Middle East Children’s Alliance, aka meca, website is mecaforpeace dot org. One of their projects, which I support, is the Maia Project which brings water purification and desalinization units to schools, kindergartens, and pre-schools in Gaza.