Danny Gokey - Hope In Front of Me - Official Music Video

Cancer & Grad School

October 1st was the best day of my life. On that day I found out I was accepted into grad school! The next day October 2nd was the worst day of my life. On that day I found out that my sister Candice has breast cancer. She started chemo today and will continue the treatments for five months. I'm learning that my life must go on, and in three months I will be starting grad school at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. My major is marriage and family therapy. My goal is to become a play therapist. So as I am preparing to move and attend grad school, my sister is fighting cancer. My focus the next three years will be grad school, while her focus will be healing her body. That's my reality. It's a stark difference to be celebrating the news of being accepted into grad school, while doing my best in supporting my sister during her fight. One day I am on cloud nine, as I give my exciting news to family and friends, and the next I feel as though my life has been shattered and all I can think about is not wanting to lose my sister. On that day my priorities changed. Things that seemed to matter to me weren't so important anymore. Things that bothered me then are now no big deal. I'm even grateful for the small annoyances in my life. I grieve along side my sister from the loss of her hair to not being able to spend as much time with her sweet children. The hardest part of this journey is not being able to be with her, as I am living in Idaho and she is in Arizona. I can't watch movies with her, or comfort her while she cries or sit with her during her chemo treatments. But I know that maybe loving and supporting her is enough. When I found about about her cancer, this seemed like a nightmare to me. However now with more time, I can see the blessings and miracles that are surrounding our family.

More abortion policies

UFI Alert: Where Do You Stand?

Aug 1, 2012

 From the Desk of Carol Soelberg:

It's a good thing I'm an optimist! Each week as I review the worldwide threats to the family I am amazed that the anti-family agenda just keeps chipping away at the only sure source of societal prosperity and peace - The Traditional Family!

What is their motive? Why destroy and replace the family? And even more important: Why are we so determined to protect and preserve it? Tom Christensen helps us see the WHOLE picture in his article this week. He lays out in 13 concise statements the principles behind the cultural war we are all fighting. Or are we? Where do YOU stand?

British writer G. K. Chesterton reminds us that, "Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil, he will not even become its slave but rather its champion."If we aren't individually doing SOMETHING to battle the cultural war, we are indeed contributing to it! I invite you to read Mr. Christensen's article and then take a stand. Listed at the end are some specific things you can do today to champion the family cause. I believe you WILL get involved and that what you do will make all the difference!

Sincerely,

Carol Soelberg

President, United Families International 

 

Where Do You Stand? Linking the Pro-Family and Anti-Family Agendas

Tom Christensen

After attending my first UN conference and studying the opposing side's literature, I was astounded by the breadth of the opposition among UN delegates, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and UN staff against policies seeking to preserve the basic family unit.

The traditional family is opposed by progressives, feminists, environmentalists, humanists, etc. who view the individual and the state rather than the family as the centerpiece of their illusive utopian dream. It does not matter to them that the traditional family is documented over history to be the "bedrock" or "fundamental unit" of civil society.

Any attempt today to promote the traditional family as the fundamental unit of society is met with intense opposition. The statist approach is to de-emphasize the traditional family and to marginalize it by costly cradle-to-grave government entitlements.

In order to fight and prevail in this policy and culture war, each point in defense of or opposition to the family must be clearly understood. The numerous supporting or opposing issues constitute a complex paradigm that must be considered as a whole. If issues are defended piecemeal, the opposition can outflank the enemy in its most vulnerable positions. For this reason, it is not enough to concentrate on a single issue such as protecting traditional marriage and to ignore, for example, the damage to the family and the nation caused by an expanding welfare state.

Likewise, because abortion is a divisive issue or as a colleague stated, "does not affect me personally," it is a mistake to avoid taking a stand on it. Some of the fiercest defenders of the family are "right to lifers." Moreover, protecting unborn life is critical to the family when one considers how millions of needless abortions threaten public health/morality and population/economic growth worldwide.

Some are uncomfortable defending virtue and religious freedom. However, religion is an indispensable support of the traditional family. In countries where religion is weak or under constant attack, the family struggles. At the UN, the Vatican, a permanent non-voting observer, is the leading proponent of the family. NGOs are needed to join the Vatican in protecting religious freedom, speech, and the family.

Recognizing the number of controversial issues at stake, I attempted a few years ago to write concise policy articles. In the process, I came to realize that for each pro-family policy article there is an equal, countervailing article. Linked together, these articles comprise the pro-family or anti-family agenda. Following are thirteen representative policy statements.

My hope is that you will read the individual articles, picture the larger paradigm, then decide for yourself where you stand. If you support the basic premises behind the pro-family agenda; I urge you to get with the program. Time is growing short. There are so many battles to be fought and elections to be won that you cannot afford to sit with your family on the sidelines waiting to see what happens. Join with United Families or other reputable organizations fighting together on the front lines. 

 Pro-Family paradigm v.s. Anti-Family paradigm:

1. The natural family, composed of a married husband and wife with biological or adopted children and extended family, is essential and sacred and must be encouraged by law. 
A. The rights of the individual prevail over the family. Traditional family roles, definitions and relations grounded in religion--must not be affirmed by law.

2. Marriage, a voluntary covenant between a man and a woman, deserves special legal status and protection. 
B. Marriage rights should be extended to unmarried and same sex couples.

3. The natural family is the seedbed of refined, resourceful, responsible, respectful adults. 
C. State programs provide the motivation, attributes and skills for individuals to succeed and pursue meaningful lives.

4. The natural family must be encouraged at the headwaters of civilization, promoting freedom, virtue, honor, industry, and order. 
D. The inherently dysfunctional family must be cut off at the source to prevent downstream pollution.

5. A unified father and mother are best equipped to satisfy a child's emotional physical, educational, and spiritual needs. 
E. Working mothers, sustained by state programs, are equal to a married father and mother.

6. Human beings are children of God, brothers and sisters in a large global family who must learn to love each other and work together. 
F. Humans, highest in the evolutionary food chain, threaten other forms of life unless selectively bred or terminated.

7. Birth is a blessing; an innocent human life is worth protecting. 
G. A child is often a liability; a mother's decision to destroy it a human right.

8. Expanding human populations are beneficial; the earth's resources are abundant.
H. The earth contains limited natural resources; expanding human populations ruin and deplete them.

9. Parents should be allowed educational options to train a child's mind and spirit. 
I. Public, secular education is the only option for the general population.

10. Parents have the duty and prior right to regulate their children's activities, speech, religious life, sexuality, health care, media access, social contacts and discipline. 
J. Children should be afforded rights the same as adults in matters of speech, association, and religion. The state decides what is in a child's best interest.

11. The state encourages family self-reliance by facilitating private property ownership, personal savings and retirement, family production and industry, continuing education, and home-care of the infirm. 
K. The state improves the human condition by redistributing wealth and funding entitlements: guaranteed income or employment, public housing, and subsidized child and health care.

12. National sovereignty and local home rule permits citizens and families to control their own laws, resources, and destinies. 
L. National government must give way to global government with power to tax, prosecute, and regulate.

13. Limited, representative, constitutional, balanced government of the people is best. 
M. Centralized, autocratic government in the hands of experts works best.

   Here's how you can "Stand up & Step Up":

1. Today, Wednesday August 1, is support Chick-Fil-A day. Here's your chance to stand up for free speech, religious freedom and traditional marriage. It is important politicians, media, and gay advocates not be allowed to bully and discriminate against individuals because of their viewpoint. Go to the business and purchase something big or small, but at the very least, stop in and say "Thank you."

2. Efforts to define marriage as between one man and one woman will be on the ballot in four U.S. states this November. The opposition is donating enormous amounts of money to defeat initiatives that support traditional marriage. Just last week, the CEO of Amazon donated $2.5 million in support of same-sex marriage. Even if you don't live in Washington, Maine, Minnesota, or Maryland, you can donate time or money to efforts to protect marriage. Go here: Washington, Minnesota,Maryland, and Maine.

3. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a huge threat to national sovereignty and negatively impacts parental rights. The CPRD is possibly going to a U.S. Senate vote this week. You can read more about it here. Let your Senator hear your voice.

4. Those of you who are citizens of Spain, your new leadership have vowed to undo some of the liberal abortion laws that were put in place by Zapatero in 2009. Please contact the People's Party leaders and encourage them to put in place laws that once again protect unborn children. There has been a lot of media attention given to these proposals and you need to add your voice.

United Families International  http://unitedfamilies.org/default.asp?contentID=553

Tom Christensen, former CEO of United Families, is a successful father, attorney, and politician. He has written extensively on the natural family and has addressed UN delegations in behalf of UFI in Istanbul, New York, Nairobi, the Hague, Lisbon and Geneva.

UFI article on abortion policies

UFI Supports Human Life in the Face of Wealthy, Powerful
Opposition

August 28 , 2007

In our support of human life, we often feel as if we are David going up against not one Goliath, but many powerful anti-life giants. Huge well-funded organizations with close ties to the United Nations are flexing their might in attempting to spread abortion rights to every region of the world. In comparison, our pro-life coalition is the tiny mouse that roared.We can fight them and we have gained some victories, but our opponents are growing in power and they never relent. Among the organizations opposing life are the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Amnesty International, the committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), international abortion providers and others.

The UNFPA is an organization dedicated to worldwide legalization of abortion. To make it sound more palatable to people, the organization refers to abortion as "reproductive health services." Under the guises of “sustainable development,” “human rights” and “gender equality,” UNFPA aims “to make universal access to reproductive health by 2015 a reality.”

UNFPA has issued a proposal for a four-year, $224 million advocacy strategy aimed at raising awareness of reproductive rights. The proposal calls for a media saturation play to promote “the right to reproductive health applies to all people at all times” and to increase the “demand for sexual and reproductive health services and reproductive rights” around the world by permeating all areas of society.

UNFPA proposes to spend:

• $90 for a global program,
• $47 million in Africa,
• $33 million in Asia and the Pacific,
• $26 million in Latin America and the Caribbean and
• $14 million each for regional programs in Arab nations, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  The UNFPA uses money to entice poverty-stricken nations to violate their own values.

Furthermore, the UNFPA is targeting high fertility rates in African nations with a call for condom use among children.

Efforts to legalize abortion in Latin American nations are particularly troublesome, if not downright disrespectful to the nations with pro-life language written into their national constitutions. Steve Mosher, of the Population Research Institute, said pro-life Latin Americans face a coalition of foreign-funded radical feminists, family planning groups, radical population controllers and others dedicated to forcing abortion, sterilization and contraception upon their countries. Among the pro-life nations under assault are Peru and the Dominican Republic. The City Council of Mexico City earlier this year legalized abortion in that city.

Among the many organizations pouring money into efforts to legalize abortion in Latin America are the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNFPA, Planned Parenthood International's Latin-American branch, Flora Tristan, the Latin American Center for Sexuality and Human Rights and others.

This summer, the committee governing CEDAW chastised Honduras for its pro-life laws, labeling it as “crime.” In addition, the CEDAW committee pressured Kenya, Belize, Liechtenstein and Brazil to liberalize their abortion laws. CEDAW language does not include abortion, but the committee repeatedly tries to force it upon the nations that ratified the treaty. The committee plans to move its 2008 meetings to Geneva, Switzerland in a move seen by some as an attempt to make it more difficult for our coalition to monitor proceedings.

Recently, Amnesty International made known its intentions to promote worldwide access to abortion. Its policy, adopted in April, aims to decriminalize “abortion to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion and to defend women's access to abortion -- within reasonable gestational limits -- when their health or life are in danger.”

At its International Council Meeting held in Mexico two weeks ago, Amnesty International “committed the organization to strengthening its work on the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and other factors contributing to women's recourse to abortion and overwhelmingly affirmed the organization's policy on selected aspects of abortion.” More than 400 Amnesty International representatives from more than 75 countries attended the meeting and affirmed Amnesty International's goals.

Defending the sanctity of life is one of our greatest passions. As you can see, we are up against wealthy and powerful forces.

We are thankful for each of our supporters; we need your continued help as we work to counter those organizations bent on destroying human life. Will you please take a moment today to introduce UFI to someone who supports life, but who doesn't yet know about our work in defending life?

United Families International Website
http://unitedfamilies.org/default.asp?contentID=164

Mother Teresa

 I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another...  Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want." (Mother Teresa, National Prayer Breakfast 1994)

Family Advocacy

Family Advocacy Class

I am in my second to last semester at Brigham Young University Idaho, and this blog was originally created for my family relations class last spring semesters. I am continuing this blog for my family advocacy class I am taking during this fall semester. Part of the requirements for this class have been to write a set of papers on a certain topic. I chose abortion and have enjoyed learning more about the controversial subject. Here on this blog, I will continue posting articles, updates, videos regarding the family and the sacredness of life. Thx so much for your feedback and support!

-Camette

Here is an article about an abortion being prevented because of a pastor taking action and finding an adopted family for the baby.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865583124/Virginia-pastors-Facebook-post-prevents-abortion-for-unborn-baby-with-Down-syndrome.html

United Families International

United Families International is a great non profit organization that is heavily involved with advocating for families. Below is an article written by their past president Carol Soelberg, quoting Jenny Cooper.
http://unitedfamilies.org/default.asp?contentID=623

Following is another article written by Carol Soelberg, quoting Melissa Anderson about promoting pro-life.
http://unitedfamilies.org/default.asp?contentID=558

This article describes how abortion affects women's health-  United Families International's Latest Publication Casts Doubt on Abortion Industry. 
http://unitedfamilies.org/default.asp?contentID=104

Take Action:
What can we do to advocate for families? I personally began by educating myself on the subject through my classes at BYUI, and by reading different articles that pertain to this topic. United Families International is a great resource, and they have many more articles with a wide range of different topics to choose from. I have found that talking with friends and family about this is also a great way to start in making a difference and in educating others. Social media is a helpful tool in spreading the word and keeping updated on information and changes that are happening. Thank you for reading this blog, keeping yourself well informed, for educating yourself and others, and for wanting to make a difference.

-Camette Carpenter