One fact drawn out by the recent Saddleback Civil Forum, albeit ironically, is that abortion numbers and rates in the United States have been in decline since 1989. (See the presentation here and the US News & World Report story here.) While it is frustrating that Roe vs. Wade continues to stand, it is encouraging that rates have gone down and continue to slowly decline.

One could speculate as to why this is: Perhaps it is a consequence of Presidential Executive Orders that have attempted to keep the federal government from paying for abortions. Perhaps it is the promotion of abstinence among teens. Perhaps it is the ongoing national debate that is having some effect on our culture's perspective on abortion. Rates of unintended pregnancy (nearly half of all pregnancies!) have "stagnated over the last decade" (source), though variations among subgroups could show increasing rates among people less likely to pursue abortion and decreasing rates among others. Nonetheless, 1.6 million human lives—20 percent of pregancies—are extinguished each year in this country by means of abortion.

Rick Warren asked the two major candidates for President, "When does a baby get human rights?" as shown in the following video:

(You can stop the video at 3:40 as at that point the video has already presented the two candidates' responses in full. See also the full text transcripts. Or watch other video from the event.)

Their answers:
Barack Obama: "Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."
John McCain: "At the moment of conception."

I've been listening to a series of lectures by Bryan Chapell on Christ-centered preaching (the last four lectures here or here). These lectures come in the homiletics series at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis and exhort the students to preach redemptive messages from any text of Scripture. While the concepts are intended to be applied to preaching, I think the goal of connecting the text to God's redemptive plan applies just as equally to every believer whenever we read and interpret Scripture. Here are some of the questions that we need to ask as we read Scripture, and especially as we teach it:

1. What does this teach me about God?
2. What does this teach me about myself and mankind?
3. What is the problem underlying or being addressed in the text?
4. Where does the text stand in relation to Christ and redemptive history? (Prefiguring, preparing, explaining/revealing, or reflecting/working out implications)
5. What grace principles are evident?
6. How does this motivate me to love God?
7. How does this empower me to live as God intends?

Last night I started what I hope will be an ongoing practice of working through these questions as I read my Bible in the evening. I want to develop the habit of seeing texts in their context in redemptive history, finding their connection to Jesus, and discerning the grace principles that move me to a greater love for God, which in turn motivates greater obedience.

For additional reference, Dr. Chapell has written a book called Christ-Centered Preaching in which I think he explains this method in more detail. Graeme Goldsworthy also has a book on the topic of redemptive preaching called Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.

Two good friends of mine were married yesterday morning. As I said to everyone at the reception, it has been a real privilege to see them grow individually and as a couple, and I look forward to seeing their continued growth as they continue to fix their eyes on Jesus. Cassie's step-dad said that the world is a better place now that they're married, and I agree.

There are some, such as James Kunstler, who argue that we are reaching "peak oil" (i.e. the maximum world oil production) and that we are going to see broad economic contraction as oil and other fossil fuels become more scarce and expensive and drive up the cost of pretty much everything. If he's right—or even close to being right—then we ought to be thinking of how to orient our lives around local economies. This means not just being close to public transport but being close to where food and other resources are actually available. Here are some quotes from his article Making Other Arrangements.

In general, the circumstances we face with energy and climate change will require us to live much more locally, probably profoundly and intensely so. We have to grow more of our food locally, on a smaller scale than we do now, with fewer artificial "inputs," and probably with more human and animal labor. Farming may come closer to the center of our national economic life than it has been within the memory of anyone alive now. These changes are also likely to revive a menu of social and class conflicts that we also thought we had left behind.

We’ll have to reorganize retail trade by rebuilding networks of local economic interdependence. The rise of national chain retail business was an emergent, self-organizing response to the conditions of the late twentieth century. Those conditions are now coming to an end.... We will have to resume making some things for ourselves again, and moving them through smaller-scale trade networks. We may have fewer things to buy overall. The retail frenzy of recent decades will subside as we struggle to produce things of value and necessarily consume less.

...

We have to inhabit the terrain of North America differently, meaning a return to traditional cities, towns, neighborhoods, and a productive rural landscape that is more than just strictly scenic or recreational. We will probably see a reversal of the two-hundred-year-long trend of people moving from the country and small towns to the big cities. In fact, our big cities will probably contract substantially, even while they re-densify at their centers and along their waterfronts.

UPDATE: Right after posting this, this article "Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization" from the NY Times hit my Google home page. Hmmm....

The expectation that everyone is entitled to "the good life" will go by the wayside, sooner or later. As a Christian, this shouldn't bother me because I know that this life isn't meant to be "the good life" anyway.

Incidentally, despite seeing evidence of the housing downturn around Denver, we are actually doing pretty well compared to many other markets. See the following graph from CalculatedRISK blog. (Get raw data here.)

Holly's trip to Central Asia helping out with an outdoor camp is turning out to be much more difficult than it seemed when they first got there. She and the friends she's with have had difficulties communicating well with nationals and have ended up in several arguments to the point that she feels growing hostility. I'm not really clear on where the hostility is coming from, if it's problems with intercultural communication, differences in religious beliefs, personality issues, or what. It seems religion is at least a significant part of it. Holly and a couple of her friends are sick now, and overall they just feel discouraged with the situation. Pray that they get to feeling better, that the few friendships that they've been able to build would continue to develop, and that God would work through whatever hostility they are facing.