From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

“There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father.When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

Perhaps the moral wrongness of abortion is not that it is murder after all...perhaps it is theft.

You are stealing the right to a full life that the unborn child has been given. You are stealing the lives of all the future children that this child might one day have. You are stealing the father's choice. You are stealing the grandparents right to grandchildren.

Not murder. Theft.

Amir, the protagonist in the story, loves to write. He reads his stories aloud to his friend, Hassan, the only character in the book that is not flawed.

He reads this story to Hassan one day:

“A man found a magic cup and learned that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls. But even though he had always been poor, he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear.So he found ways to make himself sad so that his tears could make him rich. As the pearls piled up, so did his greed grow.

The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into the cup with his beloved wife’s slain body in his arms.”

Hassans reply? "Why did he kill the wife? Why didn't he just cut an onion?"

Both produce tears, but only one changes who the man is. He cannot be the same person after he kills his wife. His very soul is altered.

Sounds like another "choice" I've read about...hmmmmm....

And lastly, from the same book:

"There is a way to be good again"

My favorite quote:
"If you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got."

Rosie,
I LOVE that one!!!!

MK--regarding the quote about theft....that is bloody brilliant. I never thought of it that way, but it's totally true.

I'll have to spend some time thinking about a verse for '08 and my favorite quote. I am a voracious reader who is usually reading 3-4 books simultaneously, so I have a LOT of favorite quotes. My guess is as James is my favorite book, that’s where my verse will be found….

I’ll let you know.

Rosie, I love it!

I have an off topic question. We have touched down on this one before. Has anyone here ever had a friend, or known a woman who has NEVER repented of her abortion? I know plenty. I have been taking a break from the computer, and I have also been taking a break from people in my life. My mind is refreshed. Here is my question. Would you guys remain friends with that woman, or would you walk away if you were no longer able to reason with/help her? I need some answers from my pro life family:] I just may end some relationships in this New Year.

I did reprint this on the New Years Resoluton thread.

JK Rowling's Albus Dumbledore: "It isn't our abilities that define us, but our choices."

Wow Heather,

Well, I think I told you this one, but yes…I had a friend who had 6 abortions and was rendered sterile from them. She herself was adopted into a loving home….and seemed totally clueless about abortion. She seriously considered it a legitimate form of birth control because according to her, the pill would give you a “fat butt”…..she didn’t want a “fat butt” so she had 6 abortions. Now, at the time I was PL in theory….I thought it was a terrible choice that I would never do, but never really thought about it in depth. I did find the fact that she was adopted and still chose 6 abortions appalling, but when I asked her about it her response was something akin to the stereotypical blonde wagging her head from shoulder to shoulder and trying desperately to grind her cognitive skills into gear….it’s not so much that she was defiant (frankly there wasn’t a defiant bone in her body)…she was just that clueless. Our friendship did fade away when I moved out of the area, but she has since married and I heard a couple of years ago that she was trying to conceive. I have no idea how to reach her now, but I would be very curious if her efforts to start a family have wrenched her “reality nodes” into gear.

On the flipside, I think I also told you about my rabidly PC friend of 21 years. She and I are having some serious trouble negotiating the waters now that I’m taking a stand and have gotten involved with sidewalk counseling. She finally stopped bashing me with her knee-jerk PP propaganda, but I realized on her last visit recently that she isn’t hearing a thing I say….it goes in one ear and out the other. Now to be fair, we have diametrically opposed views on EVERYTHING….and frankly, I’m getting tired of not being able to share with her and having to sit on my tongue every time she starts man-bashing or global-warming proselytizing. But the final straw in my tolerance is her hard-line stances, particularly on abortion. I’ve talked to her about sex-selective abortions internationally, because she donates to PP International and yet is a raving feminist….her response: “I don’t like it, but so what? They’d just kill the baby girls anyway.” Fetal models don’t sway her….abortion mill horror stories don’t phase her. This intelligent, educated woman sticks her fingers in her ears and repeats three times: it’s a woman’s right, it’s a woman’s right, it’s a woman’s right. I have given up try to talk to her about it and have resorted to restricting contact….which will eventually be stopped altogether. It breaks my heart, but I’m sick of it. (She’s never had an abortion procedure, but used an IUD for decades.)

All I can say, is it’s a wrenching decision that only you can make. Good luck to you….don’t know if my story helps, but I hope it offered some insight.

Sorry--my itallics went into overdrive!

Hooves, are you Teresa?? Welcome BACK!! Thank you so much!!

Hooves, I know a woman who aborted, and all she will say is "The doctor told me it was the size of a nickel." I am becoming increasingly frustrated with these lame brain responses to child murder.

Guilty....I guess you missed the madness. TexasRed was having a class-A meltdown a week or so ago (which, by the way, was HEH-LAIR-EE-US!) and told me I'd have trouble delivering Christmas goodies with "both hooves shoved in my maw" (!?)....so just to show I’ve got a sense of humor I adopted it as my newly dubbed, pseudo-native American sounding screen name. So much more fun this way!!

Glad you’re back too!! Missed your fencing with Laura something fierce!

Sounds like she's in full blown denial....hope Carla will chime in on this for you.

For 2008?
One quote comes to mind;

"Patriotism, like religion and whiskey, is a good thing taken in moderation." Mark Twain

Jill, I think your verses are actually from 2 Peter, not 1 Peter.

Hooves, please read the top thread. This site IS an ADDICTION!! Don't worry, we've all done it!!

Hey Laura—Mark Twain is my favorite author….so back atcha:

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”

Mark Twain

Or perhaps you would prefer:

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

Mark Twain

But wait--if you act now you can also receive:

"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."

Mark Twain

Tony, whoops, good eye! Will fix.

Ahhhhh, MK, I love The Kite Runner. Have you read A Thousand Splendid Suns? It's by the same guy, and it's just fantastic.

Heather...in answer to your question, Yes...I have broken off friendships with women who have had abortions.

One of them had had 5...the last one was at 7 1/2 months. I had felt that baby kick. She just came in to work one day, "not pregnant" and thought nothing of it. She was just a completely clueeless, self absorbed air-head. Her husband was equally as stupid and materialistic. It sickened me to the core.

The other one had had 3. She too, was just greedy and selfish...everything was about HER. She made the comment once that abortion is just so much easier than having to remember to take pills, buy condoms, etc.

Both of these women worked where I worked at the time. To them it was no big deal. Their cars and their houses and vacations were just way more important to them.

I found out a few years ago that both of them were just SO devastated that they couldn't have kids, now that they had everything they "ever wanted".

Am I glad they're out of my life? Yes! Do I feel sorry for them? Yes and no. I feel sorry that they murdered their own children. I do not feel any sympathy that they squandered their chances because of "convenience". You reap what you sow.

oops...I just realized I posted this in the wrong thread.

Mike, thank you so much!! See my above post about selfishness.

*top thread*

Here's a quote to all the people like MK and Bobby Bambino (and others that I'm forgetting) that say things so much better than I ever could.

"If the truth were self evident, eloquence would be unnecessary."

Mike--sounds like the same attitude as my friend who had 6....just completely clueless....

mine who had 7...clueless.

Mike--sounds like the same attitude as my friend who had 6....just completely clueless....

mine who had 7...clueless.

Posted by: heather at December 31, 2007 1:55 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm Penelope, and I know someone who had 67 abortions and experienced spontaneous human combustion...

I'm Penelope, and I know someone who had 67 abortions and experienced spontaneous human combustion...

Funny, I would have thought she'd just liquify like Senator Kelly on "X-Men"...maybe that only happens if you make it to 68.

*snickers* Have abortions, you'll catch on fire! Dun dun DUN!

MY friend had 77 abortions, one at 8 1/2 months!

Do I win?

Only if she spontaneously combusted, melted, or something of the like. Maybe her head exploded?

yes, you win.

Lulabelle, that has GOT to be a record!

@MK: Yay for the "Kite Runner" quotes! Did you go see "The Kite Runner" movie? Is it any good? I think I may try to go see it tomorrow.

My favorite verse(s) for the year:

1 Thessalonians 5:14-22
14, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be paitent with all.
15, See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
16, Rejoice always,
17, pray without ceasing,
18, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19, Do not quench the Spirit.
20, Do not despise prophecies.
21, Test all things; hold fast what is good.
22, Abstain from every form of evil.

Erin,

HatTip to Rae for turning me on to Kite Runner...haven't read the new one yet. Am working on the "The Lovely Bones"....

Rae,

Yes I saw it and it was GREAT! Not as good as the book, but they did a really fine job of picking the actors. Hassan was EXACTLY as I would have cast him. And they didn't play up the scene with Sohrab and the slingshot (which I was grateful for because I felt like it "cheapened" the story)...
Thanks again for turning me on to the book!

I emailed Lindsey, but haven't heard back...I guess I'll know Sunday what you guys decided to do on Saturday...lol

I like 1 Corinthians 13.

I also like:
'When you're going through hell, keep going.'
Winston Churchill

'Every blade of grass has an angel bending over it whispering grow, grow.'
The Talmud

'Luck is the friend of plenty and the stranger to need.'
Charlie Chan

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.'
Maya Angelou

I won't be limiting myself to just one thought or motto throughout any year.

Sally,
Those are great!

"Over the teeth and past the gums, watch out stomach, here it comes!"