2010 April | Brandon Kraft

April 28, 2010 By Brandon Kraft Leave a Comment

When An Abortion Goes Wrong

I understand that there’s debate on whether or not abortion should be legal. I think it should be restricted as much as possible. There, sometimes, are, however, those stories you hear about where I’m not sure how anyone would think an act is acceptable.

In Rossano, Italy, a story of a baby boy aborted at 22 weeks survived, abandoned for 24 hours until being discovered and taken to a neonatal unit. The boy died the next day. ZENIT (ignore the warning if you’re using a browser trying to protect you from harm) has the full story. In short, the abortion was performed, the child survived and was left on a sheet in a container on Saturday. On Sunday, someone noticed movement in the container and alerted a hospital chaplain.

This is disgusting. I’m ignoring the decision to have an abortion for the moment, but for the doctors to deliver a living child and to just leave it? I don’t care what belief system you have and your thoughts on abortion, that’s murder. I’m completely outraged. I realize the goal was to eliminate the fetus/baby’s life, but to leave it, alone, suffering? The kid lived for a whole day at 22-weeks after conception outside of the womb. The baby completed his first day with almost his entire life (with life being used by the current, least-common-denominator-definition, that is, from birth) alone in a trash container.

In all honesty, I don’t get very emotionally involved with the issue of abortion itself. I suppose I understand the logical fallacy that folks are using to justify it. I completely think it is wrong and think their logic is, literally, fatally flawed, but I don’t get pissed about it.

This is a completely different matter. It’s hard for me to let Olivia cry for more than a minute without going to her. To rip a child from the womb prematurely, never to be held by loving arms, left to die alone… it is sub-human.

Filed Under: Current Events

April 25, 2010 By Brandon Kraft Leave a Comment

Style Updates

Those who read the blog at http://b.kraft.im will see some changes. I didn’t like the “Disciples” style that has been in place for a few weeks now.

If anyone has any good ideas on how to find MT 5-compatible themes/styles, drop me a line!

Filed Under: Site Info

April 19, 2010 By Brandon Kraft Leave a Comment

Even the Pope Runs Out of Time

AMMAN, JORDAN - MAY 10: Pope Benedict XVI cel...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I was reading today’s Zenit news and a story about the Pontiff’s Mass with the Pontifical Biblical Commission jumped out at me.

The Holy Father started his homily with “I didn’t have time to prepare a real homily.” I’m glad that I’m not the only one that feels like he has more to do than time exists to prepare. Fulltext below.

Pope: Let’s Not Be Afraid to Talk of Eternal Life

Says Christianity Is a Fragment Without Its Final Goal

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is suggesting that Christians should go beyond a certain fear of presenting eternal life as the goal of following Christ.

The Pope said this Thursday in an improvised homily that he gave during a Mass for the members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

“I did not find the time to prepare a real homily,” the Holy Father announced at the beginning of his words. “I would just like to invite everyone to personal meditation, proposing and highlighting some lines from today’s liturgy that offer themselves to the prayerful dialogue between us and the Word of God.”

He went on to reflect about three phrases, proposing meditations about authentic freedom and penance as a grace.

The second phrase led the Pontiff to a reflection on eternal life.

He said: “St. Peter says that God raises up Christ to his right hand as head and Savior. ‘Head’ is a translation of the Greek term ‘archegos,’ which implies a much more dynamic vision: ‘Archegos’ is he who points out the road, who precedes, who is moving, a movement toward what is above. God raised him up to his right hand — so speaking of Christ as ‘archegos’ means to say that Christ walks before us, he precedes us, he shows us the road.

“And being in communion with Christ is being on a journey, ascending with Christ, it is the following of Christ, it is this ascent upward, it is this following of the ‘archegos,’ he who is already gone ahead, who precedes us and shows us the road.”

It is important, the Pope affirmed, to “say where Christ goes and where we too must go: ‘hypsosen’ — above — ascent to the right hand of the Father.”

So, the Holy Father explained, the following of Christ “is not only the imitation of his virtues, it is not only living like Christ in this world, as far as possible, according to his word; but it is a journey that has a goal. And the goal is the right hand of the Father.”

Whole meaning

Benedict XVI said that in this sense the “goal of this journey is eternal life at the right hand of the Father in communion with Christ.”

He reflected: “Today we often have a little fear of speaking about eternal life. We talk about the things that are useful to this world, we show that Christianity also helps to improve the world, but we do not dare say that its goal is eternal life and that from such a goal come the criteria for life.

“We must once again understand that Christianity remains a ‘fragment’ if we do not think of this goal, that we want to follow the ‘archegos’ to the heights of God, to the glory of the Son that makes us sons in the Son and we must again recognize that only in the vast perspective of eternal life does Christianity reveal its whole meaning.”

“We must have the courage, the joy, the great hope that there is eternal life,” the Pope exhorted, “that it is the true life and that from this true life comes the light that also enlightens this world.”

He reflected that if it can be said that it is better to live according to Christian criteria even without eternal life, “because living according to the truth and love, even in persecutions, is good in itself and better than all the rest,” still “it is precisely this will to live according to the truth and according to love that must also open to the whole breadth of God’s plan for us, to the courage to have already the joy in expectation of eternal life, of ascending, following our ‘archegos.’”

“The Savior saves us from solitude, from an emptiness that remains in life without eternity; he saves us giving us life in its fullness,” the Pontiff added. “He is the leader. Christ, the ‘archegos,’ giving us light, giving us truth, giving us God’s love.”

Filed Under: Pope Benedict XVI

April 18, 2010 By Brandon Kraft 1 Comment

Homemade Fresh Baked Bread

"Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to...

Image by turtlemom4bacon via Flickr

My wife, Vanessa, is great. Our household attempts to, for lack of better word, go to the basics. Granted, I say that in a blog on a custom-hosted website with a domain name from the Isle of Man, but I digress.

One of the many things that she do to keep our household not taking anything for granted is she started baking bread tonight. From scratch. No bread machine.

Some flour, some yeast, some sugar, some salt, some time, some kneading, maybe some honey, some rising, some baking and presto, a loaf of bread appeared from our oven tonight. It’s not the perfect-shaped loaf of bread that Mrs. Bard’s can make in her sleep, but there’s something about the taste.

Some people believe that if you consume anything processed or commercially-made, you’re allowing the equivalent of demons hellbent on your destruction into your body. I’m nowhere close to this camp. I love fast food probably more than the next guy (although, I’m slowly realizing that I regret eating it whenever I do), so I say this with no disrespect to anyone: It’s truly amazing and a gift from God to be so connected to your food.

For the vast majority of human existence, we had an intimate connection with our food. The meat we ate, we hunted, skinned, prepared and cooked. The jams we used were from berries we picked. The milk came from our cow, or at least came straight from the neighbor’s cow that day. Our eggs were all free-range and our vegetables were all organic. Only recently did those things change.

Of course, fewer people die of hunger because of our abilities. Famines, outside of extremely poor areas, do not happen anymore. But, along with that, our connection to our food was severed. Some of the things I eat, I honestly I have no idea anything about what it is, from it came from, or no idea how it was made. I know more about the food by way of all of the nutritional facts, but that also tells me that whatever I’m eating has had the prepartion process so well standardized that every 14 chips I eat, will equal these exact measurements.

Something to be said to the way things have been done for the ages. With that, time to grab another slice.

Filed Under: Uncategorized