As I have shared in previous posts, I am thrilled to be pregnant and granted the blessing of creating new life, but this journey has also presented me with unexpected challenges. Although I’ve had a relatively easy pregnancy physically, I did not expect the bodily changes to impact my self-image the way that they have. This aspect of pregnancy has …
Who Owns Your Body?
This week I had the privilege of hearing from the Executive Director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity. She provided an introduction to the Center, as well as a brief look at the major issues confronting bioethics today. Many of the bioethical questions of our time do not have clear-cut answers, so she offered some guiding …
Reflections on an Unplanned Pregnancy
This week I received an e-mail from a friend that, upon reading, I immediately knew I needed to share. Her testimony is a powerful one–she was raised in a Christian home but found herself pregnant and unmarried in her early twenties. Fortunately, her parents were supportive so she chose to proceed with the pregnancy, and her son is now an …
A Good and Perfect Gift (Part 2)
Last week I shared Part 1 of an excerpt from Amy Julia Becker’s new memoir A Good and Perfect Gift. Below is the compelling conclusion to that excerpt. I hope it will stir you as much as it did me. Two quick items before I leave you with her story. Amy Julia will be guest blogging on the New York …
A Good and Perfect Gift
Ladies, I have a special treat for you today! One of the greatest blessings of this past year has been connecting with other female Christian writers. Since becoming a regular contributor to Her.meneutics, I have grown to love and admire the other regular contributors (among whom I am the LEAST impressive!). Each one has a special message that God has …
Loving My Future Family
For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that my husband and I have practiced Natural Family Planning (NFP) ever since we got married. I’ve written a number of posts about the system and why we chose it, but in case you missed them here is a brief description: Rather than avoid pregnancy through …
A Careful Reflection on IVF, Part 2
In my last post I examined two of what I consider to be the “clear” practices of in-vitro fertilization that conflict with the Christian belief in the sanctity of life. In particular, I addressed the practices of discarding embryos and freezing embryos. In this post, I want to take a step back and look at the more subtle issues in …
A Careful Reflection on IVF, Part One
For the last several months I debated whether to write a post about the increasingly common practice of in-vitro fertilization. Even within the church, this is an extremely sensitive topic due to the number of Christian families who have chosen the route of IVF and now have beautiful children as a result. There is not a lot of space to …
Mourning the Loss of a Child
This week has been a dark one in the life of our church. Our college pastor and his wife lost their precious baby boy after he was born prematurely at 27 weeks, and he lived just 24 hours. Everyone who knew the family has been absolutely devastated. A funeral was held on Friday at which the church community came together …
Mike Wallace Interview with Margaret Sanger
I have written about Margaret Sanger before (click here for a more in depth blog on her life), but in short she coined the term “birth control” and was the founder of Planned Parenthood. A controversial figure in history, she is commended by some as an activist for women’s rights, and vilified by others for her racist ideology. Of particular note was …