Planned Parenthood touts over aborting over 333,000 babies in 2011

Planned Parenthood Federation of America's latest annual report for 2011-2012 says that its affiliated clinics performed 333,964 abortions in fiscal 2011.

That works out to an average of one abortion every 94 seconds.

The 333,964 abortion Planned Parenthood did in fiscal 2011 is an increase of 4,519 from the 329,445 abortions it did in 2010, according to a fact sheet that Planned Parenthood published last year.

Over two years, Planned Parenthood says, it has aborted 663,409.

The 2011-2012 report states that Planned Parenthood received $542.4 million in “government health services grants and reimbursements,” which it states includes “payments from Medicaid managed care plans.”

The report also shows that Planned Parenthood’s total assets top $1 billion dollars, specifically $1,244.7 billion.

“We are so proud of the year’s many successes, and deeply grateful for all the partners, sponsors, volunteers, staff and friends who helped make them possible,” states the report's introductory letter, signed by PPFA president Cecile Richards and Cecelia Boone, chairwoman of the organization.

Is God too big to fit into one religion?

Using "Is there a God" and "Religion: What is it"?, I tried to come to a conclusion that there is a God or a Supreme Being, and humans use religion to reach out to God. But there are so many religions in this world, and most of them are in existence to help human beings to guide the way - to point them to God. Monotheistic religions such as Judaism follows a God who is high up there  - simply uttering His name in vain could be considered as blasphemy. The glory and grandeur of this Jewish God is so frightening that you might get the sense of a highly impersonal god.

Point the Way

The Church celebrates Epiphany - the visit of three magi to the Christ child - this Sunday. The Scripture says that they came from the East following the star of Bethlehem. The wise men saw the star and they left the comforts of their home to embark on a difficult and dangerous journey in search of God. The star went before them, guiding them, and pointing them in the right direction, thus drawing them closer to God. Several years later we get to see another star in the Bible, he is John the Baptist. As the man responsible to "Make straight the way of the Lord", John pointed the crowds that came to listen to him to Christ Jesus. 

The Evangelist

During early and mid 1990s, as a full time college student in New York city and living on my own, I was in desperate need of a nighttime job. My search ended at the regional hub of United Parcel Services located on 43rd Street and 11th Ave, when I was hired to load and unload tractor trailers during the midnight shift. Everybody I knew was against me taking that job because it involved walking through Times Square at 11 o'clock at night. I was only a year or so removed from getting off the boat into the United States, and many feared that I don't have the street smarts to survive walking through the red light district to get to work. Times Square was the center of everything that is considered "dirty" by family oriented people, the place was humming with prostitutes, adult movie theaters, drug dealers, drug addicts and those who seek carnal pleasures. Never a man who listened to  unsolicited advises, I took the job. After making my way through the "sinners" for the first several week, one thing I learned quickly, though the place could be used as the cover picture for mayhem, there exists an underlying order and everybody notices everything. In the beginning, I was approached by everybody from transvestites to pimps in fur coats; a week later, I walked through there as if I am invisible, not even a runaway teenager who just got off the bus from the Midwest solicited my business. I too began to recognize familiar faces in the crowd, it was mostly the same people standing at the same spot every night wearing the same dress.

Religion: What is it?

While discussing about the existence of God (Is there a God?), I briefly discussed what set humans apart from animals. Saint Thomas Aquinas, as part of his fourth proof 'gradation', used human being's ability to reason to place them on a higher level than animals. Rationality provides us with the tools to think logically and choose intellectually. This unique ability of humans to reason also make it not only amazing but also strange that majority of the human beings believe in the supernatural. Even with all the logical thinking and free will available to our disposal, we choose to believe that there is something or someone else out there that is invisible to us, but somehow plays a vital role in our very existence. 

Is there a God?

"How do you know God exists?" It is a simple question with both a simple and complicated answer. It is simple for a faithful believer because faith is believing in something or someone you cannot see, or accepting something that cannot be proven as true. Faith doesn't require proof, or you don't need faith to believe in something already proven. Majority of the religious believers regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jew or Hindu accept the existence of God not due to revelations, but because of their faith. 

Lost in Knowledge; Lacking in Wisdom

Yet another year is upon us. Even with my optimistic glasses on, I am afraid that I don't anticipate a sudden and significant change in issues plaguing our society. Pain and misery still exists in the midst of all the scientific and technological advancements that we have experienced in the recent history. One might even argue that sufferings and influence of evil have a tighter grip on us than ever before. Wealth, convenience and abundance have failed to bring us true happiness and satisfaction. We live in a society that is overloaded with knowledge - almost everybody is a 'how-to guru'. Unfortunately as individuals we lack the wisdom to sort through the clutter of knowledge to identify what matters to us. I have this humble opinion that, more than ever, we need guidance to navigate through the overbearing load of information and knowledge. I believe that we live in a time where we need to re-examine our notion of the validity of a Church that looks old and the significance of the Word of God that seems ancient and out of touch with reality. Everyday more and more people are distancing themselves from the God, His word and His Church. People find it hard to link our everyday problems with a book that was written thousands of years ago. But can the word of God through the Church provide us with the wisdom to sort through our daily mess and find peace and happiness in a sinful world?