When does life begin…for living babies?

Words are powerful.  They can be used to illuminate, and they can be used to conceal.  Consider this excerpt from MSNBC's Meet the Press:

Pastor Rick Warren clearly asked, "At what point does a baby get human rights?" but for some reason Tom Brokaw seemed to be hearing another question, "When does life begin?"

Slavery and Abortion: The Same Conversation

I am reading through Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and tonight I was struck by how closely the cultural debate concerning slavery, preserved in this novel, mirrors the modern abortion debate in America.  Consider the following exchange from Chapter 12.  Several white passengers are traveling on a riverboat which happens to also be transporting slaves in chains:

Passenger 1:  "What a shame to our country that such sights are to be seen!"
Passenger 2:  "O, there's a great deal to be said on both sides of the subject.  I've been south, and I must say I think the Negroes are better off than they would be to be free."
Passenger 1:  "In some respects, some of them are well off, I grant.  The most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages on the feelings and affections, - the separation of families, for example."
Passenger 2:  "That is a bad thing, certainly.  But then, I fancy, it don't occur often."

Texas Veterinarian Twists Heads off Puppies and Pulls Kittens Apart

A Texas veterinarian named Douglas Karpen is accused of allegedly torturing hundreds of abandoned puppies and kittens at his Houston clinic.  The investigation centers on the testimony of three clinic employees who recently came forward with shocking stories and photographs.

Deborah Edge, who worked at the clinic for about 15 years, testified that she saw Dr. Karpen kill "several" puppies "every morning."  According to Edge, Dr. Karpen killed some of the puppies by stabbing them in the head and some by cutting their spinal cords.  Still others were killed by "twisting the head off the neck with his own bare hands."  Another employee, Krystal Rodriguez, stated that he would sometimes stab the puppy though the stomach and "twist it."  Rodriguez also witnessed Dr. Karpen pick up a live puppy that had been left in the hallway and toss it in a trash bag.

Biola University is Pro-Life

Many pro-life websites have recently published articles about an incident that happened on Biola's campus in which a student was prohibited from displaying graphic abortion images.  Here is just a small sampling of the online comments that these articles have generated:

• "The university has become no longer Christian except in the sense the Richard Dawkins claims to be so."
• "What a JOKE of a 'Christian' university. You know what Biola? God says He will SPEW you from His mouth....The blood is on YOUR hands Biola."
• "Biola needs to stop calling itself a Christian university. What a joke."
• "No longer will I consider this a 'Christian' University!...They are so 'un-Christlike' that there is no way I can believe they are genuine followers of Christ.  In my opinion they are 'Counterfeit' Christians and nothing more."
• "By spoken words this may be a 'Christian' University, but by action it is a secular leftist member of the Pro Choice 'Borg.'"