David MacDonald

Merry Christmas

What a year of ups and downs. I stood at the birthplace of Jesus, where the wise men offered their gifts that first Christmas. The only thing I could offer him was my obedience. I returned to India, and saw my sponsored child, then to Australia to see the Pope and participate in World Youth Day, returning through France. I stood on Normandy beaches where evil was overthrown … what a difference a day makes.

I damaged my voice during concerts in those places and for 5 months I’ve had no singing voice. But in the stillness of the night I sense God saying, “I still love you and I have a plan for you.”

After 9 years of development, a committee I sit on  released a web standard for people with disabilities (WCAG). So work has become busy. A door closes, another opens. I will never understand God’s ways, but with friends like you, the road will be one of hope.  «GreetingLine» may God bless you this Christ-Mass and into the new year.

David MacDonald                                                www.DavidMacD.com

 The University of Calgary kicked Prolife students off campus this week, charged tuition paying students with “tresspassing”. Sure, the GAP is an “in your face” campaign, but so was the Falun Gong exhibit. But prolifers are fair game. Here is my open letter to the president.

Dear Sir

My girlfriend and I aborted our baby. We both feel that it was the worst mistake that we ever made in our lives. Never during school had we ever heard or seen anybody warning us about the philosophical and emotional problems with abortion. We only heard that it is quick painless and easy to get over. There were no pro life groups on campus giving the other side.

Now that a group wants share a prolife position on your campus you are forcibly silencing them. There are people who need to make an informed choice  and you are forcefully forbidding there to be “unsanitized” contrary opinion expressed on your campus.

In 10 years perhaps there will be many U of Calgary alumni who will feel like I do, that we were robbed of choice because of pro life silence on the issue. Except this time they won’t blame the apathy of pro lifers for not forming a group they will blame you, and rightfully so.

This is unacceptable. This is not free speech.

 David MacDonald

I was in the doctor’s office today, and started reading the Bible on my palm pilot. I flipped randomly to 1 Titus 4:3:

 …For everything [food] created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected provided it is received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

When I was in Israel I stayed with a wonderful Kosher Jewish family. They followed many rules and laws around food. It was impressive to see their dedication.

This passage above shows me that Christian freedom from those laws is contingent upon Paul’s simple condition… prayer and thanksgiving. I often forget to pray over my food. I had this dumb idea that as a Christian that I don’t have to follow any rules around food. But I was wrong, there is a rule. I need to say Grace before each and every meal.

There have been gay riots in San Francisco, and Los Angeles, after the democratic process of voting that rejected Same Sex Marriage. They are much like the riots and storming of the Psychiatric association convention in 1973 which resulted in the association’s removal of same sex attraction from the DSM psychiatric manual. So riots work, starting with Stonewall. In Canada, gay marriage is now legal.  

After 4 years of legal gay marriage in Canada, the statistics are dismally low and getting lower. The national Gay Paper in Canada, Xtra, recently ran an article called:

“Why most Canadian gays and lesbians are choosing not to marry - MARRIAGE / Too many risks, few incentives”

The article lists some of the reasons gays and lesbians in Canada are not geting married, which are similar to findings in Massachusetts and in the Netherlands where gay marriage is legal. These are quotes from the gay newspaper Xtra, the paper that rallied the gay community to battle against Christians for marriage:

“… For some [in the gay community] same-sex marriage is a radical act … for others it’s an assimilationist strategy…represents a reform movement that seeks to prove that queers are ‘just like everyone else.’ But many of us are not like everyone else - and unapologetically so.

“… Many queers worry that the cultural adoption of same-sex marriage will lead to a domestication of queer culture … But does our vibrant queer culture depend on marginality? Hopefully not. And, as Dan Savage has pointed out, marriage rarely meant monogamy for hets, so why would it make us sexually exclusive?”

“… queers have a distance from which to critique it [marriage], as well as freedom to create the relationships we want … owning property or having a pet is more of a commitment than a marriage … we have built cultures and communities independent of the straight world, developing and adopting our own creative alternatives: chosen families, open relationships, multi-parent families and domestic partnerships, just to name a few ...”

“… Because we have all the same rights and responsibilities as common-law partners that we would have if we married, there is no need to marry …”

“… Gay lawyer Ken Smith points to another disincentive to legalize vows. With marriage rights come obligations; you can’t opt in or out at will …”

“… And besides,” smiles Boo, “I love to wear the prettiest dress in the room.”

“… Many queers regard marriage as an oppressive patriarchal institution and have no interest in participating in it,” findlay notes. “My partner and I, for example, decided that we would not marry unless there was an important political reason to do so. As my partner says, ‘We’ve been living in sin for too long to change now!’”

“… I believe that the more progressive political approach is for the individual to be the basis of social organization instead of the couple … A culture that values the individual instead of the couple as the base unit would offer more support for singlehood and single parenting, for starters … single, polyamorous, coupled, friendship, chosen family or whatever our queer hearts can dream up.”

From: Why most Canadian gays and lesbians are choosing not to marry MARRIAGE / Too many risks, few incentives Xtra Jillian Deri /Vancouver / Thursday, September 25, 2008   (my emphasis)

So there it is, the Gay Marriage issue, which was the result of 20 years of lobbying, riots, court orders, and slander against Canadian Christians for their protectiveness of marriage. Marriage is not attractive to those who battled for it. The queer community says it was more of a political tool than a true passion. Straight Canada negotiated away it’s most precious gift.

Forgive the analogy, but it seems like when a kid  who wants a swimming pool, makes his parents life unbearable until the parent gives in, they spend all their savings to buy the backyard pool to make the child happy. Then the kid never swims in it, but instead stands on the deck and pees in it.

The article in Xtra outlines the fundamental difference between gay and straight relationships. Marriage is at it’s heart, a call to selfless giving of oneself, first to spouse and then to the resulting children. Lifelong loyalty is it’s defining and core value. Capital Xtra is saying Gay relationships are built around the individual, where long term loyalty is not a core value. 

Perhaps the US should take a cue from the gay community here in Canada, who have finally gotten honest about the issue, now that the Supreme Court and Parliament have put the issue to bed.

David MacDonald

Yesterday I wrote this song to remember Frank Mountain, one of the great Canadian prolifers, who has gone on to help us from the other side of life. Frank ran off the road on his way to a pro life demonstration 20 years ago. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but it never slowed him down and never dulled his resolve. Frank, we love you, pray for us.

Even More Alive

By David MacDonald ©2008

As we mourn
Heaven cries “Holy”
As you enter the Light
Heaven cries “Holy”

Twenty years ago evil tried to break you
But nothing could shake you
You rose above the pain
On the wings of faith

Refrain

Every Mountain
Raise your voice on high
For the faithful never die
You are even more alive
You have won the crown
You ran the race
You’re the one who set the pace
You are even more alive

Your wife was a rock
There for you
Your children believed
And helped you through

Pray for the families
Broken by this age
Will return to Grace and Faith
And follow in your ways

Bridge

Help us realize your dream
That every child of God will see
The light of day
And the gift of a lifetime
Mother Theresa will help us pray
Just the way she did that day
When you were given strength
To find your way
Help us see the day
When every child is safe

As I arrived in front of the clinic I noticed a man with a professional video camera and an announcer using us as a backdrop for their video. They didn’t look like news media, so I drifted over and asked them if they minded me asking them what they were shooting. The cameraman said, “I’m a student and this gentleman is a professor of science who is passionate about the environment, and we are shooting a documentary about how old the earth is and we wanted to show that others have a different opinion.”

He seemed a bit old to be a student but I didn’t question that. I simply asked him, “what makes you think that everybody in the prolife movement is a ‘young earth’ proponent,  isn’t that kind of presumptuous?”

He shrugged. Then I asked the scientist “You are a man who has strong opinions about the value of science, do you mind me asking ‘when does life begin?’”

He looked at me and said, “I don’t know.”

I said  “really?”

He replied “do you know?”

I said “yes, and there is not one biologist on the planet who will disagree, it’s fertilization. Could it be the reason you don’t want to answer is because you, like Obama, don’t want to face the moral implications of that answer?”

He said “I don’t want to get into this now and waste 10 minutes talking about it”

I said “But you are willing to spend hours working on a video that portrays prolifers as a bunch of science denying fundamentalists, and you can’t even answer a simple science question found in any grade 7 biology book? Who is the one denying science?”

With that they sheepishly packed up their camera gear and walked away.

Oh Lord, save us from those who are trying to use science as a political weapon against you. Show them that you created all science, and that your mysteries are completely consistent with honest science.

David MacDonald

As I was walking slowly back and forth a woman approached me and said.

I work in the office building here and have been watching your group for several weeks. I want to let you know that I’ve been hoping and praying something like this would happen here. I was in that clinic 2.5 years ago. I was 44 years old, already had 3 children, and my husband and I work. This pregnancy was inconvenient and unexpected. My husband and my mother wanted me to have an abortion. It was a cold Thursday in February. Inside the clinic, it was dirty and dreary and the chairs were all stained. There were several other couples there. I was alone because my husband was working. We were all given forms.

As I began to fill in the form, I heard a woman, who had just had an abortion and was crying. I looked at the other women writing quickly, as reviewed the questions about my health, I got a sense the something was terribly wrong. I called my husband and said “I can’t do this, I’m not going to.” And then I walked out. I never looked back.

My daughter is 2 years old today. She is healthy and beautiful, and I can’t believe I was considering taking her life. She is a precious gift from God. I often stand out here on my work breaks and think about that day and pray for the women inside. There were sometimes protesters on Friday mornings, but there were abortions happening on Thursdays, Fridays, and now Wednesday. I’ve been praying that more people would come and pray in front of this clinic. You guys are an answer to my prayers. Thank you.

I was very moved. I said “what you did was very courageous. I wish I had the same courage when I was in a similar situation in 1984. Abortion was the worst mistake I’ve ever made.” We prayed together and I thanked God for the life he saved, and I pray that in some small way I’ll be able to help others make a decision for life.

David MacDonald

www.DavidMacD.com  

Obama won at a great cost, with the blood of the unborn. America’s thirst for blood is insatiable, on the right wing there is the war, which fueled the last election, which the Pope condemned. And when they get sick of that kind of death they swing over to the left, where there is a feeding frenzy around the trough of blood that  will write death into the constitution for generations to come.

A very wise man once said “What does it prohet a man if he gains the world but loses his soul?”  

If Obama had concern for human life, and a respect for marriage, I’d get behind him in a heartbeat. I’m not a fiscal conservative, I’m simply a prayerful man. Prayer will always lead to “life”. Oh Lord, have mercy on all the helpless souls whose blood will be shed in the next 4 years and into the next generation because of America’s decisions.

My prayer is that one day there will be a great man on the left, who will turn American politics on its ear, in a courageous way, who finds the courage to stand up for life and stand up against war, and be willing to take a cut in his “pay grade” and popularity to take an honest stand on the most pressing issue of our era.

Unfortunately here in Canada, there is also a thirst for the blood of the innocent. The devil demands blood sacrifice, and our country is his servant.

David MacDonald

http://www.davidmacd.com/

 I went to the 40 days for life with my large “I regret lost fatherhood” sign. It was quite different  than when I was carrying the “Pray to End Abortion” sign. I began to get these looks of pain from dozens of men. Men looked at me as if they wanted to say something but then looked down and kept walking. One young man stopped. He said

“I’ve been living on the streets, I have a bunch of kids, from different girls, I’ve been in trouble with drugs, bank robberies, and my girlfriend and I broke up when she was 4 months pregnant. She went and got an abortion. She killed our kid just because we broke up. I’ve since stopped all drugs and I’m going to a church now. I’m cleaning up my life. I want to be a good father.”

Another man came up and said “what you are doing is incredibly courageous.” I said “It doesn’t feel that way.” I wish I had been courageous when I was 24. I wish I’d kept my children. He said “I’ll pray for you guys, it’s amazing what you are doing.” On the other end of the spectrum a man came up behind me without seeing my sign. He said “why are you here?” in an angry tone.  I turned around and looked him in the eye holding my sign. “I’m here because I was involved with abortion and it was the worst mistake I ever made in my life.” He started to argue. I said “I don’t really want to argue here but I’d be glad to meet with you any time to talk.” He said “why aren’t you open minded about abortion.” I said “I was open minded, I paid for it, now I have perspective and I’m here.” He turned around and walked away in a huff. I could understand his pain, and his angry cover up.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and I still had my sign over my back as I walked around the grocery store. A woman in a wheel chair said “good for you!”. Another woman came up to me and told me she had had an abortion many years ago and just got clean and sober in 2006. She said “No smoking, no toking, no drinking or poking.”  I said “Congratulations, I’ve been sober for many years and it was a great decision. At some point in your recovery you may find yourself experiencing some pain over the abortion.” She stepped back and looked indignant saying “don’t you assume you know me, I’ll never regret my abortion and it had NOTHING TO DO WITH MY ADDICTION!” Denial is deep. Lord have mercy.

All in all what I found is that each one of us can make a difference, one person at a time. “Oh Lord help me find favour with those who I talk to about abortion. And help us together build a Civilization of Love. Amen.”

David MacDonald

http://www.davidmacd.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDQR4j6scs