Free images for worship.
Click on underlined names/pages for
special collections. Immediate access. ___________
Always return to the
HOME page for the
most recent additions.
Gallery
Autumn
Thanksgiving
Advent Wreath New
World Aids Day
________________
Click on pages below for Worship images.
_______________
NOVEMBER 15TH
Pentecost 24
Proper 26
Ordinary Time 33
Page 1
Pg. 2 Think About It
_______________
NOVEMBER 22nd
Christ the King
Page 1
Page 2 Think About It
___________________
NOVEMBER 29nd
Advent 1
Page 1
Pg. 2 Think About It
_______________
DECEMBER 6th
Advent 2
Page 1
Pg.2 Think About It
_______________
DECEMBER 13TH
Advent 3
Page 1
Pg.2 Think About It
________________
DECEMBER 20TH
Advent 4
Page 1
_______________
Check out the
Worship and Mission pages.....
Gallery for more images.
Always return to the HOME Page for the latest images.
Can you imagine the plight of a young, pregnant, unwed mother in your town, claiming she's a virgin and is carrying God's child? Let’s face it, who would believe her? I’m sure she’d become the victim of ridicule. "Trying to put the blame on God, the nerve!" Then and now, society generally perceives unwed mothers as promiscuous and wild. To make matters even worst, at the birth of their children, society marginalizes, castigates and unabashedly calls and treats them as bastards. Why did God choose such an entrance into humanity? Let's think about it.
Doesn’t the acceptance of Mary's pregnancy as an unwed mother uphold the principle that no child, no matter what his or her station in life might be, should be left behind. Aren't those relegated to the fringes of society, including the bastards -- the very ones that Jesus' birth symbolizes and stands for?
Wish that attitude would trickle down to us, don't you? Although no one suggests stoning an unwed pregnant woman today, the stigma remains in almost all societies to some extent. For example, a new law, believe it or not, in Florida reminds one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, branding the letter “A” on the Puritan New England woman who had a child out of wedlock so all would know of her ‘sin.’.
If a woman wishes to give her baby up for adoption and doesn‘t know or does not wish to name the father, she must:
Run an ad in the local newspaper once a week for four weeks naming or describing all of the men or boys with whom she had sex during the year before her pregnancy.
And she is required to list her own name and address.
This new Florida law in Florida puts the same stigma as Haawthorne’s heroine, on many unwed women or teenage girls who are pregnant and want to give their babies up for adoption. It is a ridiculous attempt to allow a father equal rights,
This is utter nonsense. If the woman carries the child for nine months and the man has vanished, don’t you think it's because he doesn't give a darn about the mother or child. Florida's legislators should wipe this ludicrous law off the books. It does nothing, but encourage the alternative, abortion.
I frankly feel if the attitude toward unwed pregnant women changed, the abortion rate would decline tremendously.
Several years ago, Dan Quayle attacked the fictitious Murphy Brown for becoming an unwed mother. He condemned the program and lectured on the subject of sex outside of marriage. But once Murphy Brown was pregnant, what was her alternative? Was Mr. Quayle hinting that she should have had an abortion?
Were you aware that at least one-third of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. That is, 2 million of the 6.4 million pregnancies in 2001 were unplanned and unwanted (most recent data available). Approximately one half of those women either keep the babies or give them up for adoption. The other half are aborted.
In this Advent season, the whole church celebrates the courage of Mary in accepting the scorn and ridicule, hostility and danger that were sure to come her way. I think in the same way, we should be celebrating the courage of all unwed mothers who choose life, because we certainly don't make it easy for them. I wonder what would have happened to Mary if she had not had Elizabeth to run to or Joseph to marry her.
Perhaps if we taught our congregations, not to condemn, but to support the pregnant unmarried girls with kindness and concern, with financial help if necessary, and made adoption a much more desirable and easy alternative for those who cannot raise the child, then we just might experience a tremendous decline in the rate of abortions. We should be their Elizabeth, their Joseph.
We need to change our attitude. Were you aware that the rate of abortions in countries where it is illegal is the same as places that allow them to occur?
“A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it. Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely.”
The data suggests that the best way to reduce abortion rates was not to make abortion illegal but to make contraception more widely available, said Sharon Camp, chief executive of the Guttmacher Institute. In Eastern Europe, where contraceptive choices have broadened since the fall of Communism, the study found that abortion rates have decreased by 50 percent.
The wealth of information that comes out of the study provides some striking lessons, the researchers said. In Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education programs focus only on abstinence, the estimated abortion rate was 54 per 1,000 women in 2003, more than twice the rate in the United States, 21 per 1,000 in that year. The George W. Bush plan that would not provide contraception, only education promoting abstinence, did not work. The lowest rate, 12 per 1,000, was in Western Europe, with legal abortion and widely available contraception.
The study also indicated that about 20 million abortions that would be considered unsafe are performed each year and that 67,000 women die as a result of complications from those abortions, most in countries where abortion is illegal. Changing the law to make abortion a criminal offense seems to be totally ineffective and would condemn all those women to great risk, and possibly, prison.
Let us take today’s text about this young unmarried, pregnant girl and offer solutions, rather than condemnation and laws. Let us help all the young girls and women in similar situations throughout the world who need our love and support.
...........…all those Marys need our help!
Think About It!
