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September 2004
Dear friend of KHCS,
I don’t know about you, but I get irritated when I see blatant untruths in
letters to the newspaper, in news magazines, or on TV.
For instance, you may have heard “right-wing
fundamentalist Christians oppose stem-cell research.” Not true. Research
using adult and placental stem cells is perfectly legitimate and is
already is providing cures for many diseases and injuries. What I and many
others oppose is in using stem cells from aborted babies. And even worse,
cloning babies for the express purpose of killing them and “harvesting”
their stem cells. This is wrong!
Then what about the “ban on stem cell research”?
Sorry, there is no “ban.” The current administration simply refuses to use
federal tax dollars (that’s yours and mine) to fund experiments using
newly-acquired embryonic stem cells. Research using existing quantities of
embryonic stem cells still qualifies for tax dollars. Any and all research
using adult stem cells (bone marrow, etc) also may receive federal
subsidies. That’s the truth.
How about this slice of baloney that I saw
recently: “Pushing the ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ at this time is an
obvious political ploy by a desperate president to placate the religious
right wing of his party.” Wow! First of all, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
was approved by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President
Clinton on September 21, 1996.
This confused person must be thinking of the Federal Marriage Amendment.
When DOMA was passed in 1996, some farsighted individuals believed that
activist judges might eventually overturn this law. Therefore they
suggested a constitutional amendment, which was introduced in the House
over two years ago. Many well-known Christians and others felt that such
an amendment would not not be appropriate or necessary.
But, when the mayor of San Francisco started issuing marriage licenses to
same-sex couples (without legal authority to do so), and the state of
Massachusetts decided to legalize “gay” marriages, it became obvious that
DOMA’s days were numbered. Subsequently, President Bush announced his
support for the Federal Marriage Amendment this past February 24.
Then there’s “The President lied when he said
Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy uranium from Niger.” Actually, that’s
not exactly what he said. Nonetheless, detractors may have missed the news
item, “Senate study buttresses claims on uranium deal” (The Desert Sun,
July 10, 2004, p. 2) which says that Iraq may indeed have been pursuing
such a purchase. Not that it matters much, as Iraq already had 500 tons of
“yellowcake” uranium, according to the same article.
And now for the really big whopper: “Bush wasn’t elected, he was selected
by the Supreme Court.” No, what happened was the recount in a couple of
Florida counties was being repeated again and again. Every ballot was
counted, several times over. Title 3 of the United States Code requires
that the results of the election be certified by December 12. The Florida
Supreme Court said that the recount should continue in spite of what the
law says. The U.S. Supreme Court simply chose to support the law as
written.
But the point is, truthfulness is an important part
of our Christian heritage. If we can’t trust other people to tell the
truth, our whole society falls apart.
At the non-commercial ministry of KHCS, we make
every effort to bring you programming that tells the truth. I hope you
appreciate the effort we put into bringing you teaching and information
you can trust.
The tax-deductible contributions of listeners just
like you make it possible for us to bring the sounds of Joy 92-FM to you
whenever you turn on your radio. I hope you have made the commitment to be
a Ministry Partner by sharing with us regularly. If you have, I thank you.
If not, please pray about starting now. We still have many expenses
from our recent move that need to be paid off as soon as possible. Every
contribution to KHCS will benefit us, and you.
In His
joy!
Glen Kippel
General Manager
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