almohler.com
Kermit Gosnell’s America — What His Trial Really Reveals
dennyburk.com
God help us if we don't learn from Gosnell's crimes
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Abortion: The Irony of the Gosnell Murder Trial
April 11, 2013
"Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations?" It's not your fault. Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page.-- So says USA TODAY Column--Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column
READ THE GRAND JURY REPORT here: http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/grandjurywomensmedical.pdf
In the Grand Jury report, the opening paragraph states: "This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors."
In February of 2010 government officials raided the abortion clinic operated by Dr. Gosnell. You have to read the whole report for yourself to see how unbelievably horrific this story really is. The report says, "The search team discovered fetal remains haphazardly stored throughout the clinic– in bags, milk jugs, orange juice cartons, and even in cat-food containers. Some fetal remains were in a refrigerator, others were frozen. Gosnell admitted to Detective Wood that at least 10 to 20 percent of the fetuses were probably older than 24 weeks in gestation – even though Pennsylvania law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks. In some instances, surgical incisions had been made at the base of the fetal skulls" (p.21).
When Latosha Lewis began work at the clinic in 2000, the practice would perform approximately 20 first-trimester and 5 or 6 second-trimester abortions every procedure night.
On page 4 of the report it states:
When you perform late-term “abortions” by inducing labor, you get babies. Live, breathing, squirming babies. By 24 weeks, most babies born prematurely will survive if they receive appropriate medical care. But that was not what the Women’s Medical Society was about. Gosnell had a simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered: he killed them. He didn’t call it that. He called it “ensuring fetal demise.” The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that “snipping.”
Dr. Gosnell performed hundreds of late term abortions. The problem is that he destroyed most of the files. Gosnell wasn't the only one doing the killing. According to the report:
"Ashley Baldwin remembered Gosnell severing the neck of a baby that cried after being born. The baby had “precipitated” when the doctor was not in the clinic. Lynda Williams placed the baby in a basin on the counter where the instruments were washed and called the doctor to come.
Ashley heard the infant cry. She saw the baby move while it was on the counter. She estimated the infant was at least 12 inches long. When Gosnell arrived at the clinic, she recalled, “he snipped the neck, and said there is nothing to worry about, and he suctioned it.”
If Gosnell was absent, his employees would kill viable babies. Ashley Baldwin saw Steve Massof slit the necks of babies that moved or breathed “five or ten” times" (p.103).
Further it states (p.104): Kareema Cross testified that, between 2005 and 2008, she saw Steve Massof sever the spinal cords of at least ten babies who were breathing and about five that were moving.
When Massof left the clinic in 2008, Lynda Williams took over the job of cutting baby’s necks when Gosnell was not there. Cross saw Williams slit the neck of a baby (“Baby C”) who had been moving and breathing for approximately twenty minutes. Gosnell had delivered the baby and put it on a counter while he suctioned the placenta from the mother. Williams called Cross over to look at the baby because it was breathing and moving its arms when Williams pulled on them. After playing with the baby, Williams slit its neck.
Adrienne Moton also killed at least one baby by cutting its spinal cord. Cross testified that a woman had delivered a large baby into the toilet before Gosnell arrived at work for the night. Cross said that the baby was moving and looked like it was swimming. Moton reached into the toilet, got the baby out and cut its neck.
Here a few other cases that were documented.
"Baby A" : His 17-year-old mother was almost 30 weeks pregnant – seven and a half months– when labor was induced. An employee estimated his birth weight as approaching six pounds. He was breathing and moving when Dr. Gosnell severed his spine and put the body in a plastic shoebox for disposal. The doctor joked that this baby was so big he could “walk me to the bus stop” (p.5, 101-102). The workers were so shocked that they took a picture of the child.
"Baby Boy B, whose body was found at the clinic frozen in a one-gallon spring-water bottle, was at least 28 weeks of gestational age when he was killed."
You can see how his neck was slit (see p. 115).
"Baby C was moving and breathing for 20 minutes before an assistant came in and cut the spinal cord, just the way she had seen Gosnell do it so many times."
In 2007 Gosnell did an abortion on a 14 year old girl that ended up going to a local hospital where she delivered a 30 week old baby pictured below (see p. 84-85). When a baby was past the 24 week stage the abortion process could be a two or three day procedure. According the the report, "The neonatologist told us that the survival rate for babies born at 29 weeks is 95percent; at 30 weeks, the survival rate is nearly 100 percent."
Gosnell began an abortion on a 29-week pregnant woman and then refused
to take dilators out when the woman changed her mind (see p. 86).
"We learned of another illegal, third-trimester abortion only because the mother changed her mind. In 2004, a 27-year-old woman went to Gosnell, pregnant with her first child. She testified that she was surprised when Gosnell told her she was 21 weeks pregnant. On the first day of what was to be a two-day procedure, Gosnell inserted dilators in the woman’s cervix. After Gosnell had finished inserting the laminaria, the woman asked him what happened to the babies after they were aborted. She testified that Gosnell told her they were burned.
At home, thinking over how Gosnell disposed of the fetuses, the woman had a change of heart. She called her cousin and the cousin called Gosnell to tell him that they wanted him to take the laminaria out. Gosnell said that he could not do that once the procedure was started. And he did not want to return the $1,300 that the patient had already paid. The pregnant woman ended up going to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania to have the laminaria removed. It was determined at the hospital that she was 29 weeks pregnant. A few days later, the 27-year-old delivered a premature baby girl. She was treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is today a healthy
kindergartener."
Do a Google search of premature babies and you will find many stories of babies surviving 24, 25, 26, 27 weeks early and are doing well TODAY.
Grand Jury Report, p. 79 states, "The Philadelphia medical examiner analyzed the remains of 45 fetuses seized from the clinic. Of these, 16 were first-trimester; 25 were second-trimester, ranging from 12 to 21 weeks; 2 were 22 weeks; 1 was 26 weeks; and 1 was 28 weeks."
Gosnell, according to the report, "Gosnell left dozens of damaged women in his wake. His reckless treatment left them infected, sterilized, permanently maimed, close to death, and, in at least two cases, dead. Their injuries and deaths resulted directly from Gosnell’s utter disregard for their health and safety. However, if their fate was entirely foreseeable, it was not necessarily the product of specific intent to kill. The same cannot be said of untold numbers of babies – not fetuses in the womb, but live babies, born outside their mothers – whose brief lives ended in Gosnell’s filthy facility. The doctor, or his employees acting at his direction, deliberately killed them as part of the normal course of business" (p.99).
Here are a few articles concerning the present trial (April 2013 articles): *maybe other major news organizations will get on board....
Thankfully even the liberal Huffington Post had an article on it back in 2011.
So many see this abortion clinic as a house of horrors and it really is. However, just because other doctors are better at making sure the child is killed in the womb, the horror continues in clinics across our nation as children are killed in the womb.
Is it unusual for a baby to be born alive? Absolutely! You have a small baby that can be killed easily by chemicals and instruments... but they have been known to survive their attempted murder.
Have you heard of the stories of the babies who survived being killed? The scenario is that you have a child in the womb that survives an abortion attempt by a person who attempts to kill the child by chemicals or instruments. The odds are astounding that a tiny infant could survive the attempt by full grown adults skilled at taking a human life. BUT there are those that have survived abortion attempts and their stories are amazing.
Melissa Ohden articles:
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/15/i-survived-a-failed-abortion-now-my-second-baby-is-coming/ http://www.melissaohden.com/ The Des Moines Register did an excellent article and video on Melissa Ohden's story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110306/NEWS/103060333/Munson-Iowan-survived-abortion-attempt-infant-now-crusades-against-it
Claire Culwell, abortion survivor, pro-life advocate, national speaker
*
Click this link for other abortion articles on this blog
http://alwaysreformingtoscripture.blogspot.com/search?q=abortion
"Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations?" It's not your fault. Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page.-- So says USA TODAY Column--Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column
READ THE GRAND JURY REPORT here: http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/grandjurywomensmedical.pdf
In the Grand Jury report, the opening paragraph states: "This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors."
In February of 2010 government officials raided the abortion clinic operated by Dr. Gosnell. You have to read the whole report for yourself to see how unbelievably horrific this story really is. The report says, "The search team discovered fetal remains haphazardly stored throughout the clinic– in bags, milk jugs, orange juice cartons, and even in cat-food containers. Some fetal remains were in a refrigerator, others were frozen. Gosnell admitted to Detective Wood that at least 10 to 20 percent of the fetuses were probably older than 24 weeks in gestation – even though Pennsylvania law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks. In some instances, surgical incisions had been made at the base of the fetal skulls" (p.21).
When Latosha Lewis began work at the clinic in 2000, the practice would perform approximately 20 first-trimester and 5 or 6 second-trimester abortions every procedure night.
On page 4 of the report it states:
When you perform late-term “abortions” by inducing labor, you get babies. Live, breathing, squirming babies. By 24 weeks, most babies born prematurely will survive if they receive appropriate medical care. But that was not what the Women’s Medical Society was about. Gosnell had a simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered: he killed them. He didn’t call it that. He called it “ensuring fetal demise.” The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that “snipping.”
Dr. Gosnell performed hundreds of late term abortions. The problem is that he destroyed most of the files. Gosnell wasn't the only one doing the killing. According to the report:
"Ashley Baldwin remembered Gosnell severing the neck of a baby that cried after being born. The baby had “precipitated” when the doctor was not in the clinic. Lynda Williams placed the baby in a basin on the counter where the instruments were washed and called the doctor to come.
Ashley heard the infant cry. She saw the baby move while it was on the counter. She estimated the infant was at least 12 inches long. When Gosnell arrived at the clinic, she recalled, “he snipped the neck, and said there is nothing to worry about, and he suctioned it.”
If Gosnell was absent, his employees would kill viable babies. Ashley Baldwin saw Steve Massof slit the necks of babies that moved or breathed “five or ten” times" (p.103).
Further it states (p.104): Kareema Cross testified that, between 2005 and 2008, she saw Steve Massof sever the spinal cords of at least ten babies who were breathing and about five that were moving.
When Massof left the clinic in 2008, Lynda Williams took over the job of cutting baby’s necks when Gosnell was not there. Cross saw Williams slit the neck of a baby (“Baby C”) who had been moving and breathing for approximately twenty minutes. Gosnell had delivered the baby and put it on a counter while he suctioned the placenta from the mother. Williams called Cross over to look at the baby because it was breathing and moving its arms when Williams pulled on them. After playing with the baby, Williams slit its neck.
Adrienne Moton also killed at least one baby by cutting its spinal cord. Cross testified that a woman had delivered a large baby into the toilet before Gosnell arrived at work for the night. Cross said that the baby was moving and looked like it was swimming. Moton reached into the toilet, got the baby out and cut its neck.
Here a few other cases that were documented.
"Baby A" : His 17-year-old mother was almost 30 weeks pregnant – seven and a half months– when labor was induced. An employee estimated his birth weight as approaching six pounds. He was breathing and moving when Dr. Gosnell severed his spine and put the body in a plastic shoebox for disposal. The doctor joked that this baby was so big he could “walk me to the bus stop” (p.5, 101-102). The workers were so shocked that they took a picture of the child.
"Baby Boy B, whose body was found at the clinic frozen in a one-gallon spring-water bottle, was at least 28 weeks of gestational age when he was killed."
You can see how his neck was slit (see p. 115).
"Baby C was moving and breathing for 20 minutes before an assistant came in and cut the spinal cord, just the way she had seen Gosnell do it so many times."
In 2007 Gosnell did an abortion on a 14 year old girl that ended up going to a local hospital where she delivered a 30 week old baby pictured below (see p. 84-85). When a baby was past the 24 week stage the abortion process could be a two or three day procedure. According the the report, "The neonatologist told us that the survival rate for babies born at 29 weeks is 95percent; at 30 weeks, the survival rate is nearly 100 percent."
Gosnell began an abortion on a 29-week pregnant woman and then refused
to take dilators out when the woman changed her mind (see p. 86).
"We learned of another illegal, third-trimester abortion only because the mother changed her mind. In 2004, a 27-year-old woman went to Gosnell, pregnant with her first child. She testified that she was surprised when Gosnell told her she was 21 weeks pregnant. On the first day of what was to be a two-day procedure, Gosnell inserted dilators in the woman’s cervix. After Gosnell had finished inserting the laminaria, the woman asked him what happened to the babies after they were aborted. She testified that Gosnell told her they were burned.
At home, thinking over how Gosnell disposed of the fetuses, the woman had a change of heart. She called her cousin and the cousin called Gosnell to tell him that they wanted him to take the laminaria out. Gosnell said that he could not do that once the procedure was started. And he did not want to return the $1,300 that the patient had already paid. The pregnant woman ended up going to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania to have the laminaria removed. It was determined at the hospital that she was 29 weeks pregnant. A few days later, the 27-year-old delivered a premature baby girl. She was treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is today a healthy
kindergartener."
Do a Google search of premature babies and you will find many stories of babies surviving 24, 25, 26, 27 weeks early and are doing well TODAY.
Grand Jury Report, p. 79 states, "The Philadelphia medical examiner analyzed the remains of 45 fetuses seized from the clinic. Of these, 16 were first-trimester; 25 were second-trimester, ranging from 12 to 21 weeks; 2 were 22 weeks; 1 was 26 weeks; and 1 was 28 weeks."
Gosnell, according to the report, "Gosnell left dozens of damaged women in his wake. His reckless treatment left them infected, sterilized, permanently maimed, close to death, and, in at least two cases, dead. Their injuries and deaths resulted directly from Gosnell’s utter disregard for their health and safety. However, if their fate was entirely foreseeable, it was not necessarily the product of specific intent to kill. The same cannot be said of untold numbers of babies – not fetuses in the womb, but live babies, born outside their mothers – whose brief lives ended in Gosnell’s filthy facility. The doctor, or his employees acting at his direction, deliberately killed them as part of the normal course of business" (p.99).
Here are a few articles concerning the present trial (April 2013 articles): *maybe other major news organizations will get on board....
Gosnell Trial: 15-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Helped Kill Live Babies at Hellish Pa. Abortion Clinic
Former Gosnell employee testifies that problem abortion "really freaked me out"
Thankfully even the liberal Huffington Post had an article on it back in 2011.
Pennsylvania Abortion Doctor Charged With 8 Counts Of Murder
MARYCLAIRE DALE and PATRICK WALTERS 01/19/11 06:57 PM
ABORTION SURVIVORS: The Ones Who Got Away
Planned Parenthood recently claimed that the possibility of infants surviving late-term abortions was "highly unusual."
The irony is that in the Gosnell trial you have a doctor that saw more
babies born alive because he failed to kill the child while it was still
in the womb. They were born alive and then he and others would kill
the child. On p. 111 of the Grand Jury report it states, "He tried to inject a drug called
digoxin into the fetus’s heart while it was in the womb. This was
supposed to cause fetal demise in utero. But because Gosnell was not
skillful enough to successfully administer digoxin, late-term babies
continued to be born alive, and he continued to kill them by slitting
their necks."So many see this abortion clinic as a house of horrors and it really is. However, just because other doctors are better at making sure the child is killed in the womb, the horror continues in clinics across our nation as children are killed in the womb.
Is it unusual for a baby to be born alive? Absolutely! You have a small baby that can be killed easily by chemicals and instruments... but they have been known to survive their attempted murder.
Have you heard of the stories of the babies who survived being killed? The scenario is that you have a child in the womb that survives an abortion attempt by a person who attempts to kill the child by chemicals or instruments. The odds are astounding that a tiny infant could survive the attempt by full grown adults skilled at taking a human life. BUT there are those that have survived abortion attempts and their stories are amazing.
Melissa Ohden articles:
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/15/i-survived-a-failed-abortion-now-my-second-baby-is-coming/ http://www.melissaohden.com/ The Des Moines Register did an excellent article and video on Melissa Ohden's story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110306/NEWS/103060333/Munson-Iowan-survived-abortion-attempt-infant-now-crusades-against-it
Claire Culwell, abortion survivor, pro-life advocate, national speaker
*
Click this link for other abortion articles on this blog
http://alwaysreformingtoscripture.blogspot.com/search?q=abortion
Monday, December 24, 2012
Christmas Truth Found in the Book of Philippians
Philippians 2:1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12-23-2012 sermon at Burlington Baptist Church on this text is found HERE.
12-24-2012 Christmas Eve sermon click HERE
Merry Christmas
Below are two books that i highly recommend for defending the DEITY of JESUS...
2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12-23-2012 sermon at Burlington Baptist Church on this text is found HERE.
12-24-2012 Christmas Eve sermon click HERE
Merry Christmas
Below are two books that i highly recommend for defending the DEITY of JESUS...
For you younger viewers, you may enjoy the video.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Have I Sinned?
My daughter wrapped some gifts for Christmas and everyone
knows that when you use the wrapping paper up, what is left is a cardboard tube
that works great for a fighting sword; so there lay two cardboard swords. I grabbed one and my son grabbed the
other—and the fight was on!—until with one swipe, the porcelain manger scene
went crashing to the floor. Yikes! We set the shepherds up, Mary and Joseph, and
the manger with baby Jesus, all back in place.
But lying on the floor was a little 3/8 inch piece of porcelain; it must
be the end of the shepherd’s staff… but no—it was the arm of baby Jesus! Baby
Jesus got his arm broken as collateral damage in our sword fight. “Oh man, what
is Mom going to think,” was being asked between the two of us as we started
laughing really hard.
I apologized to my wife and promised to fix the porcelain
baby arm of Jesus. But the question is,
have I sinned? Some may say I was being
disrespectful to what the manger scene represents. They may even say I sinned because I was not
remorseful and repentant over the fact, but rather couldn’t help but
laugh. Should we feel bad for
laughing? Do we ask for
forgiveness? I go back and forth between
“we” and “I” because “I” was the one who struck the nativity scene, but “we”
couldn’t help but laugh when we thought about the whole scene.
Sure, I did apologize to my wife because she has had the
manger scene for many years, but that is the only thing I feel bad about doing. One may say it is all about respect and since
the manger scene represents that holy night, well then breaking the arm of baby
Jesus and not feeling remorseful and repentant is downright wrong! If someone was to say this, I would just
reply, “Well, if that is how you feel and if you were to break the porcelain
arm of Jesus and you want to cry, mourn, repent, and seek forgiveness for doing
so, then that is between you and the Lord.”
But how many of you would have a problem with that attitude as
well? How many of you reading this have
a problem with nativity scenes in the first place?
Some people really like nativity scenes and may even find it
as an occasion to think about the miracle of Christmas.
This brings up another issue, and that is, are you less
spiritual if you don’t have manger scenes?
A few years ago a Christian gentleman in our town couldn’t believe I
didn’t have an outdoor manger scene. He
said, “You’re a Christian and you don’t believe in having a manger scene as a
witness at Christmas?” “No, that is not how
I celebrate Christmas,” I added. I
believe that, as a Christian, I get to think about, worship, and adore the Lord
Jesus Christ all year round by being connected to a local body of believers and
by verbally witnessing to others. I
told him that I didn’t think it was wrong for him to have one, but I told him
he needs to be careful in judging other persons’ Christianity based on whether
or not they have an indoor or outdoor manger scene.
In close, could this whole discussion come under the application
points made in Romans 14? Take time to
read Romans 14 and if you want to let me know what you think about this issue,
please send me an email at burlingtonbaptistchurch@gmail.com.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Why aren’t we calling it the “royal fetus”?
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Thanksgiving Thoughts
Ps 107:1-8 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men! Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things, and consider the lovingkindnesses of the LORD.
Col 3:15-17 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 richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
1621 Thanksgiving quote:
Edward Winslow, who later became the third governor of Plymouth Colony, wrote one of the two surviving eyewitness accounts of the Harvest Festival of 1621, "And God be praised, we have a good increase . . . . Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling (ie, bird hunting) that so we might after a special manner rejoice together."
A Few Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations (there are many more than these):
George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation:
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war...
James Madison's 1815 Thanksgiving Proclamation:
The senate and House of Representatives of the United States have by a joint resolution signified their desire that a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace. No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their early days. Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of
independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign interposition. . .
Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation:
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
My 2012 Thanksgiving sermon: A Life of Thanksgiving
Col 3:15-17 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 richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
1621 Thanksgiving quote:
Edward Winslow, who later became the third governor of Plymouth Colony, wrote one of the two surviving eyewitness accounts of the Harvest Festival of 1621, "And God be praised, we have a good increase . . . . Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling (ie, bird hunting) that so we might after a special manner rejoice together."
A Few Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations (there are many more than these):
George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation:
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war...
James Madison's 1815 Thanksgiving Proclamation:
The senate and House of Representatives of the United States have by a joint resolution signified their desire that a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace. No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their early days. Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of
independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign interposition. . .
Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation:
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
My 2012 Thanksgiving sermon: A Life of Thanksgiving
Monday, November 19, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)