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Archive for the ‘commentary’ Category

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Unwise and unnecessary

Posted in commentary on December 4, 2012| 3 Comments »

Update: Thankfully, the United States Senate DID NOT ratify the Convention on a vote of 61 – 38.  It required 67 votes for passage.  Here is a news story from CBS on the vote.

On Tuesday the United States Senate will once again be considering the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  As with any treaty, 2/3rds of the Senate are required for passage.

I am hoping they will vote against the Convention.

As I wrote in July, there are articles within this Convention that are noble and worthwhile, like article 10:

States Parties reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

Unfortunately, the United Nations as a body cannot be trusted to enforce language like that, especially for unborn human beings with disabilities.

As recently as this past September, the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization committed to expanding abortion around the world, submitted a scathing letter to the United Nations Human Rights Committee against the Philippines position on restricting abortion, using the Human Rights Committee’s own rulings. In fact, they documented that the Human Rights Committee found that one instance of a girl being ‘forced’ to bear her child with a fetal anomaly constituted “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.” The Human Rights Committee also found that Peru violated a “right to privacy” when abortion was not easily accessible for reasons of fetal anomaly.  There is no evidence to show the United Nations would proactively support the rights of unborn children with disabilities in any instance.

The list of nations who have signed the Convention is also troubling. Chen Guangcheng, who fled China after years of house arrest for seeking to protect women from forced abortions, recently released this devastating video on human rights violations in China.  Yet China is one of the proud signatories of the Convention, along with Mali and Iran among others.

The United Nations simply does not have the moral standing to justify the trust of the United States people on this Convention.

Further, the arguments in favor of the Convention make no sense:

  1. For the sake of US global leadership on this issue.  The United States is already a global leader on issues of disability with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Signing the Convention does not impact the United States’ standing on this issue at all, and may even weaken it as it brings the United States under another sovereign body.
  2. For the sake of Americans living and traveling in other nations. As stated above, the United Nations has accepted the ratification from nations that routinely violate human rights.  The United States is in a better position to protect the rights and safety of American citizens than is the United Nations.
  3. For sake of a level playing field for US business/investment interests.  Is there even one example where the United Nations has played such a role?

Some even argue that it doesn’t actually obligate the United States to do anything.  The United Nations’ own website on the Convention clearly states that it does create obligations for states that ratify this treaty.

To be sure, the United States does not have a great record with regards to disability.  The abortion rate is sickeningly high and our culture routinely denigrates people with disabilities.  However, the Convention would address neither as the United Nations cares nothing about the former and can do nothing about the latter.

Pray it doesn’t pass the United States Senate.  And contact your senators to express your view.  You can do so through the United States Senate website.

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We must warn the strong; someone stronger is coming. And he will repay every wrong completely.

Posted in commentary, Scripture on December 3, 2012| 2 Comments »

God has specifically warned against abusing those who live with disability, even reminding us who we should fear:

You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:14 ESV)

Those who kill smaller human beings who are disabled or sick, those unborn or newly born, through active means like surgical instruments or passive means like starving them to death, all share one characteristic: they are stronger than the human beings they are killing.

We need to warn them.  God sees everything:

The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
(Psalm 33:13-15 ESV)

In this Advent season, we can be lulled into thinking of Jesus in limited ways. Pastor Jason pointed out yesterday that the picture of a cute, helpless little baby in a manger is grossly inadequate.  He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords, and there is more to him than just mercy:

I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
(Numbers 24:17 ESV)

In fact, he is so fearsome that the strong and powerful will hope to be crushed by mountains rather than face him:

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”  (Revelation 6:15-17 ESV)

He is coming. Every evil done to every child with a disability will end.  We must warn them, and ask God to give us a heart to do so.

Or at least I need to ask God to do so in my heart, because warning isn’t usually my thought for people who kill and abuse our children.

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The evil is already here and not just over there

Posted in commentary, News on December 2, 2012| 8 Comments »

The news story from the United Kingdom-based Daily Mail Online was horrifying.  The headline says it all: Now sick babies go on death pathway: Doctor’s haunting testimony reveals how children are put on end-of-life plan. (I’m sorry I don’t feel I can link to the story given the other ‘content’ on the site).

I tried to find the article from the British Medical Journal that prompted the Daily Mail article, but it isn’t available online. The comments are, however, including one from Dr. Laura de Rooy, consulting neonatologist at St. George’s hospital who was also quoted in the Mail Online article.

First, her quote from the Mail Online article:

In a response to the article, Dr Laura de Rooy, a consultant neonatologist at St George’s Hospital NHS Trust in London writing on the BMJ website, said: ‘It is a huge supposition to think they do not feel hunger or thirst.’

This is her actual response to the original British Medical Journal article.  Emphases in bold are mine:

I read with interest the recent BMJ article entitled: ‘How it feels to withdraw feeding from a newborn baby.’ Although I appreciate that this is an interesting and poignant reflection, I do not believe that the piece represents current practice in the UK, or aligns the case to current UK guidance.

The article references the American and Canadian guidance on the subject, which indeed suggests that it may be ethically appropriate to withdraw feed and fluids under certain carefully delineated conditions. It is interesting to note that the research underpinning this guidance mostly relates to adults, and refers to a lack of hunger and thirst in those who are approaching death. It would be extremely difficult to assume that babies who are facing death because of congenital abnormalities are similar to cachectic adults dying from cancer. It is a huge supposition to think that such infants do not feel hunger, or thirst.

If Dr. de Rooy is correct, then it is not standard practice in the UK.  We have no way to corroborate the assertion by the anonymous doctor that he has overseen the death of 10 children.  I also have no doubt that some doctors in the UK are practicing illegal euthanasia on disabled and sick children in the UK.  And even if it is ‘only’ one child, it must be exposed.

But it was the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics that had this statement in 2009 about American hospitals (emphasis in bold is mine):

Decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment from critically or terminally ill children are commonly made in US and Canadian hospitals.

Diekema DS, Botkin JR. Committee on Bioethics. Clinical report- foregoing medically provided nutrition and hydration in children. Pediatrics 2009;124:813-22.

To be fair, the article from Pediatrics is focusing on fairly narrow categories of disability and not all critically or terminally ill children.  But that decisions ‘are commonly made’ is still troubling.

Many of the comments I’ve read on the Daily Mail Online article are predicting this is what will happen to healthcare in the United States under what is known as Obamacare.

Unfortunately, I think it is just as likely that we’re emulating what happened after World War II.  As a country we condemned the horrible eugenic policies of Nazi Germany that resulted in the Holocaust, and neglected to note that the Nazis were taking their ideology and practices from the United States.  This time, let us link arms with our brothers and sisters in the pro-life movement in the UK to condemn such practices here and there.

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All I Have Is Christ! Great encouragement and a free download

Posted in commentary on November 30, 2012| 1 Comment »

I love Jordon Kauflin’s modern hymn, All I Have Is Christ.  I’ve been surrounded by it lately, including during our staff devotions on Thursday.

I’m encouraged every time I hear it or sing it – he looked upon my helpless state! He suffered in my place!

And that makes this declaration hopeful rather than terrifying: oh Father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose.

We know that God chooses the path of suffering; we’ve lived it.  Yet, having Christ, who suffered and died for us, puts it in its proper perspective:

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. . . (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV) 

It is available as a free download through Desiring God:  All I Have Is Christ – Free Download.

Sovereign Grace, who provided this free download, also produced this short video of men singing at Together for the Gospel.  I love the sight and sound of these thousands of men joining together in praise!  May we dads of children with disabilities do the same, with joy and expectation that God is who he tells us he is in his word.

 

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Grateful God knows everything, including the thoughts of a boy who can’t tell us where it hurts.

Posted in commentary on November 29, 2012| 4 Comments »

For most of the Knight clan, a trip to the dentist means walking two blocks up the street.

For one of us, it means a pre-op physical, a 40 minute drive to a specialty health surgical facility, and general anesthesia.

It didn’t go as well as it has in the past – more pain than usual for Paul, more confusion on his part, more discouragement on ours.

God knows his pain, his confusion, and my discouragement. And I know it is all for his glory and for my good.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar. . .
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
(Psalm 139:2, 12 ESV)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. . .And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:18, 28 ESV)

And right now, that is enough.  God is good.

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“When she woke. . . it was no great change for her.” R.C. Sproul, Jr. on the death of his daughter

Posted in commentary on November 22, 2012| 2 Comments »

A beautiful word from R.C. Sproul, Jr., who lost his wife to disease and his daughter with disabilities less than a year apart:

But the thing is, Shannon (his daughter with disabilities) never felt the weight of her weaknesses. And Shannon had a faith that saw through the veil. She lived on earth as if it were heaven. She was so full of love, joyful, peaceful, so filled with patience and kindness, so good, so faithful, so gentle and so self-controlled that she bloomed, bore fruit in God’s own garden. When she woke up able to walk and speak, when she woke to feel our Lord’s hand on her head, it was no great change for her.

He offered these thoughts at his daughter’s memorial service.  It is well worth the 24 minutes to watch.

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Thankful and peaceful, even about disability and suffering

Posted in commentary, Quotes, Scripture on November 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:15-16 ESV)

This is a universal call to peace and thankfulness – not just in and during circumstances that are pleasant.  Dr. Mark Talbot explains why even suffering is something for which we can praise God:

We must come to see through the illusion that life’s ordinary pleasures are enough for us.

And this is another part of what significant and chronic suffering can do: when our lives begin to be significantly and perhaps rather consistently unpleasant, our quest for life’s ordinary pleasures tends to lose its appeal and our Lord’s declaration that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” may begin to strike home (Luke 12:15; see, e.g., Ps. 107:17-20).

Moreover, the new taste of the new creature in Christ – the taste, that is, for God himself and thus for the “hidden treasure of the holy joy” that alone can satisfy our deepest desires – tends to grow as we lose taste for merely mundane satisfactions.

Pain often affords us our first real taste for the things of God.

Mark Talbot, “When All Hope Has Died: Meditations on Profound Christian Suffering,” in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper, edited by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor, p. 84.

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“He weaves all the grief and sadness into all the joys, and makes them something beautiful. . .”

Posted in commentary on November 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

The Desiring God media guys told me that more than 1000 unique devices watched our disability conference live on the web last week.

One of those devices was at a North Carolina church, where about 40 people gathered!

Their pastor is leading that church, Alliance Bible Fellowship, through a series on thanksgiving.  This video is an interview of one of their members.  Though made before our conference, you will hear one of Pastor John’s main points from his conference message in the video below (which, Lord willing, will be available next week):

Thank you, Pastor Burns, for encouraging your people to watch our conference and for blessing me with this video from your church!

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Because God has ordained those days, we can be thankful even for the hard ones.

Posted in commentary, Scripture on November 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
(Psalm 139:16 ESV)

What a comfort it is that God knows every one of our days so intimately and rules over them so thoroughly that he wrote them down!

Greg Lucas, in his book Wrestling with an Angel, points out that he’s getting weaker just as his son with disabilities, and associated really difficult behaviors, is getting much stronger.  What’s a man to do in that circumstance?  You’ll need to read his book to find his answer, which is a very good one.

Greg’s observation that things with his son are getting more difficult, not less, was one that resonated with me as well.  And God knows those days!  There is hope in future grace!

Then on Friday I was introduced to a new song, for me, called Every Day by Joel Sczebel and Todd Twining.  Here’s the chorus:

Thank You for the trials
For the fire, for the pain
Thank You for the strength
Knowing You have ordained
Every day

Because God is who he is, we can be thankful even for those days of deepest sorrow.  God is amazing.

Here’s the entire song.  I hope you find comfort in it as I did:

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Life as a vapor – Alice Anderson

Posted in commentary on October 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Dianne is in South Dakota today for the funeral of her grandmother, Alice Anderson.

At 97, she had seen more than most people.  A lot of life – she is survived by 54 great-grandchildren!  And a lot of death – parents, siblings, children, sons-in-law, grandchildren.

A few days ago she told her family she was ready to go see Jesus.

And now she does!  I wonder if living in the light and presence of Jesus, even at the beginning of her eternity, makes 97 years seem short to her right now?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. James 4:13-14 NASB

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