Quick Takes: Gay "marriage" plus some good stuff, too!

Let's get right to it, even publishing before midnight (is that allowed??)…

1) I asked a pro-"choice" lady on facebook when she thought that human life begins, and she responded uber-emotionally and repeatedly that she would not allow herself be "intimidated" by me. Well, thank goodness she did not cave to my mob-like tactics.


2) With the "big news" of the week, the wonderful Dr. Gerard Nadal said what a lot of us were thinking:

Thank God, Obama finally endorsed same-sex "marriage"

Truly, it's about time he 'fessed up! My gosh, as if we didn't know to where this man was "evolving" on the subject? Seriously, was anyone confused about where his thoughtful analysis would land him? It makes me laugh, the pretense has been just so ludicrous!

Anyhoo, Dr. Nadal analyzes the sad road we are on, and here's a powerful excerpt:

Part of the pathology of gay/lesbian marriages (and most divorces in heterosexuals) is the belief that a child can do just fine without a mother or a father. At least in divorce the reality of one-parental involvement is a tragic consequence. In gay and lesbian unions it is a principled and celebrated world-view. 

Worse still is the implicit validation of what some in the homosexual community call heterosexuals aloud: breeders. Gay men who donate sperm for IVF and surrogate motherhood merely use women as barnyard livestock. (So do the heterosexuals who pioneered and grew this beastly industry.) 

Breeders. 

Lesbian couples seeking sperm donations for either insemination or IVF do as much with men: Stud animals. 

The entire affair signals the collapse of Western/Christian Civilization. We have lost sight of who we are, what our children require, and have subordinated their needs to our narcissistic and hedonistic obsessions. 

There is nothing sweet and benign about two men determining that they are just as good as a mother. Such belief betrays their hostility toward women at the biological and metaphysical core of womanhood. The same for lesbians with men.

Read the rest, here.


3) What is particularly bizarre about Obama's "evolved" position is that he dared to use Jesus Christ as the basis for his decision. You see, there have been 20 centuries (try to imagine, slowly, 2,000 years of human history) of unbroken Christian moral teaching about the grave sinfulness of homosexual acts. In the last two minutes, historically speaking, a small percentage of Protestant Christianity has, following the trajectory of the sexual revolution, decided to remove Christian teaching and replace it with the heretofore unheard of idea that gay sex is good and holy. (By the way, these are largely the same Christian sects that have also endorsed human abortion.)

I say to Barack Obama: Your wife and children may have informed your brand new beliefs about gay "marriage", but in no way was Christianity your influence -- unless Christian sexual morality has been kidnapped, bound, chloroformed, dumped in a roadside ditch and then replaced by its very opposite.

See, we Christians don't just get to make up Christian doctrine as we go along. Sorry. Revealed religion doesn't work that way.


4) Speaking of "evolving" on the issue of gay "marriage", I know quite a few folks who have "evolved" the other way, including our own Stacy Trasancos, who describes her change of heart:

My evolution against "gay marriage"

Praise God, the Church Christ founded still stands to give us back our dignity when we cannot even find it in ourselves. 

I love Peter Kreeft's words on the subject:

‎"The Church is the best friend of homosexuals, both because she tells them they are made in God's image and have intrinsic dignity and rights and are called to be saints, and because she is the only social force left that insists on moral absolutes. So when they sin against themselves she says NO, just as she does to heterosexuals who sin against themselves sexually, but when others sin against them she says NO also. No one else dares to say NO. She speaks up for everyone, including homosexuals."

If you liked that, you need to read what Dr. Kreeft said just prior! Right here.


5)
Do you want to cleanse yourself from all the bad news out there and refresh your psyche with an easy but profound read, which is also a darned good story? Read Michael Oher's book about his life from abandoned child of a crack addict to hardworking, honorable millionaire.

Michael Oher, if you recall, is the main character in The Blind Side (loved that movie!), and hearing him tell his life story was balm for my soul. It's called I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond, and I've been meaning to tell you about it for months. What a hopeful book, with no annoying blame-shifting or class- and race-war rhetoric.

(Sorry for the bad formatting and the weird comma that won't go in place! What the heck, Amazon Associates? Why can't you go back to the way you used to be? Sigh.)

6) For the best online feel-good story of the week, go here:

I am a survivor: Born into poverty and addiction, but grateful to be alive

The best part was the unexpected reveal near the end! I was so shocked, and completely blown away! You will love this beautiful young girl's story. Especially if you have been following all the stuff I do on my other blog, which leads us to...


7) Attention! You have about 24 hours (or, until midnight Friday) to enter the iPad giveaway to help the Smiths bring Malcolm home! Even my adult kids have entered, donating as a tithe but secretly hoping to walk away with a brand new iPad!! Their odds are good, but I'm asking you to make their odds a little worse. (Sorry, kids.) Go here for details.

And, if you live in the Phoenix area and are somehow NOT planning to attend the "Baking Malcolm Home" event in just one short day (on Saturday!), then you are nuts, and you will regret it for the rest of your life. You cannot believe the lineup of guests! And the baked goods, egads! I cannot wait to see you. Go here for details.

Also, there is a chance for you wonderful people to make a real difference in the life of an orphan with Down Syndrome named Sheridan, by busting him out of the mental institution to which he's been transferred. A loving family wants to commit to him now, but they cannot yet do so. Please, to find out why, click this photo link to my other blog to read the story:

Sheridan, waiting for years now for a family.

I get emails from readers telling me that they love the Bubble. If you love the Bubble, could I ask you to throw that love to a child in need? It would mean the world to me, and today it also could mean Sheridan's very life.

(And there has to be at least one multi-millionaire who reads the Bubble, right? If not, can we find one?!)

Finally, congratulations to one of our own blogger sisters, Meg from True, Good, and Beautiful, who is the process of adopting one of the Reece's Rainbow cuties, Justin! Check out her new adoption blog which will chronicle the journey!




Prayers for Jen this week as she works through something terrible. God bless you, Jen. We love you lots.





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Bloggers unite! Saving one life at a time. *NEW UPDATE!

(All pictures and video removed for privacy.)


You remember Malcolm, right? The orphan we (meaning YOU) brought to the "sizeable grants" page on Reece's Rainbow in a matter of hours when appeals were made last month?

Well, hold onto your hats, because today, the one and only Jen at Conversion Diary (my bff, if you recall) has become an advocate for Malcolm, too! You think that exposure might help the little guy? Rhetorical question.

Carla started this ball rolling (and has a special story to tell about picking today for "Malcolm Monday"), and we are going to get this little man a family before it's too late for him.

Don't faint: It will take around $45,000 to get him all the way home, but I feel certain we can do it!

Especially because you cannot resist this video, now can you?




And to make it more fun…

Since we are changing lives here today, I will be giving away a copy of the book that changed my life (read about that here and here) to someone who helps Malcolm. To be eligible for the giveaway, just donate in any amount to Malcolm's fund (it's tax deductible) or post this appeal on your facebook, blog, twitter, etc. Leave a comment or shoot me an email telling me that you've done one or more of those things, and you'll be eligible for the random drawing!

If you choose to donate, you don't have to tell me the amount, and no one but Reece's Rainbow and PayPal will ever know. No amount is too small, trust me.

Let's watch the numbers in Malcolm's fund swell today -- I'll be spending the day refreshing this page, checking and rechecking the totals like a Jerry Lewis telethon!*

Hang in there, Malcolm. You don't even know you are already a rock star in America! May God keep you safe until you come home.




*Beginning this morning at $7159.22

Brianna has posted for "Malcolm Monday", as have Kara, and JoAnna, Returning to Rome and more! Thank you, all!

UPDATE: Malcolm has hit $10,000+!! You all rock!!! And, still a chance to enter the giveaway! I will keep it open all week.

Second UPDATE: Malcolm is at $13,675.76 and has a firm commitment from a wonderful family (who still need to raise a small fortune)! Praise God, and more information to come….

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An urgent Lenten appeal for Malcolm *UPDATED with new numbers a video link

This precious little boy has very little time and hope left to find a home.

(picture removed for privacy)

I first read about Malcolm on Carla's blog, Bringing Henry Home. Now, it's time to bring Malcolm home. Carla has the story on her blog, but in a nutshell, Malcolm is about to turn five. Unless he is placed with a family by April, he will be transferred to an institution with older boys and adults, where he will surely be lost. Here's the paragraph that breaks my heart:

Malcolm needs family badly. He is very emotional, sensitive and not a leader by nature and is being hurt by older and physically healthy children in the orphanage. He can hardly walk but retains sensitivity in the feet. There is a chance only in the presence of caring and loving parents Malcolm can walk independently in a future but in the orphanage environment the child is afraid of everything even walking. Malcolm has a favorite little toy: stuffed tiger, he carries it everywhere, he kisses it, puts to sleep, worries about it. Malcolm is interested in all new, he knows the names and colors, understands commands, has attachments to friends in a group, he goes on contact easily and is pleased to dialogue.

Keep in mind, the bullying happening now is in the baby orphanage (ages 0-5)! There are families who are considering adopting Malcolm and bringing him home to the US. But raising the huge sum needed to get him from Russia to his new home is an unfortunate obstacle, as we can all imagine.

Lent is a time of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. It's the almsgiving part that can really trip us up. I know it does me. But today, I donated to Malcolm's fund, sacrificially. Nothing is truly ours; it all comes from God -- including our money. I'm telling you that I donated (and yes, I'll tell my husband the amount later, gulp) in order to challenge you to do the same. Any amount really, even five dollars, would be so important to this one precious child. Please Bubble readers, let's do this for one lonely little boy and for the love of God. We are Christ's hands and feet.

And I would love to watch his total donations go up and up and up to at least $2500 today!

Please consider little Malcolm's desperate plight as you consider your almsgiving on this first Friday of Lent.

Thank you, thank you, and blessings!

Mother Teresa -- Just one person at a time

"I never look at the masses as my responsibility.

I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time.

Just one, one, one.

You get closer to Christ by coming closer to each other. As Jesus said, "Whatever you do to the least of my brethern, you do to me."

So you begin...I begin.

I picked up one person --

maybe if I didn't pick up that one person I wouldn't have picked up 42,000.

The whole work is only a drop in the ocean. But if I didn't put the drop in, the ocean would be one drop less.

Same thing for you

same thing for your family

same thing in the church where you go

just begin...one, one, one."

Words to Love By, p. 79

**Update: As of this writing on Friday evening, Malcolm's fund has reached $3,686.72! Thank you all so much, and let's keep the momentum going. Now, we need to find parents for this sweet little boy. If you haven't seen him walking and talking, please click here for a video. He is absolutely precious! I can't bear the thought of him going to a mental institution for older kids and adult men, simply because he's turning five years old. God bless you for all your help and God bless Malcolm with a family, soon!

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