John-Henry was the keynote speaker at the 2013 PROLIFE Across AMERICA banquet and began by reminding listeners that Canada “led the way on abortion” – permitting legal abortion several years before the United States. So too, “in the area of gay rights, Canada was first to pass legislation allowing gay marriage.”

Since then, vocal opposition to active homosexuality is viewed as “discriminatory” and punishable by law. “As a result, some, including priests and bishops who have spoken out publicly against homosexual behavior and same-sex marriage, have received threats of heavy fines or imprisonment.”

But before going into specifics on legal abortion or gay marriage, he told of his own “conversion” back to Christianity and the Catholic faith after years of living what he freely referred to as an atheistic lifestyle.

John-Henry grew up in a Catholic home but came to see his father as a “religious nut – always praying, etc”. When his mother divorced his father and left the family, he and his siblings began a spiraling life downward and away from the faith. It wasn’t long before John-Henry convinced himself he did not believe in a God. From there began a continual roller-coaster ride of girlfriends, gambling, pornography, heavy drinking, and multiple warrants for his arrest for DWI and speeding. Only after hitting rock bottom did he turn his life around.

Regarding his fall from Christianity he said:
• “Prayer goes out the window once a person begins to embrace a life of loose living, drinking, gambling, and pornography.” Pornography is addicting – gambling is also. “It has control over you – not you over it!”
• There is no room for prayer or living the way God calls us to live, once addictions take hold. “And so, I told myself – ‘God does not exist.’”
• “When we rebel against God’s laws, there is an internal pain inside it’s always there – it’s called our conscience which reminds us of the truth.”
• He firmly believes his re-conversion would not have happened if his father had not prayed for him and told him the truth. It was his father’s deep faith and unconditional love, in spite of his atheism and troubled life. It was this love that became the only beacon of truth and hope when he was at his lowest.
• “My life changed so much some people who knew me before, thought I even looked different.”
Pro-Life Highlights from John-Henry:
• Several years before the United States Supreme Court Decision of January 22, 1973, Canada had legalized abortion – legal to live birth.
• Canada funds contraception, abortion and sterilization as part of its “nationalized health care.”
• Since abortion became legal in Canada – wrongful birth lawsuits skyrocketed (parents suing physicians for a child born with disabilities). “This has cost the Canadian Health system dearly.” For fear of lawsuits, and because of the need for heavy insurance, there are fewer OBGYN specialists in Canada.
• The move toward euthanasia (“mercy killing”) is becoming more acceptable for the elderly or chronically ill – an “economic necessity”, since most health care expenses occur in the last years of a person’s life. “Sixty percent of health care dollars are spent the last three years of life.”
• “Like many European countries, (France, Spain, Italy, Germany etc.), Canada no longer has an openness to life.” The population is at 1.5 – below replacement level – and rapidly declining. “Who will be here to take care of the health care needs of others when there are fewer children being born?”
• “Over population is lie.” The Population elitists, such as Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, have been spouting these lies for decades. The Culture of Death is based on these lies.
• Christians must stand for Truth and witness to the sacredness of marriage and human life beginning with our own openness to God’s gift of life.

John-Henry’s presentation indeed offered words of wisdom and warning and the lesson to all Catholic parents is obvious: the role of the father, as a man of God and deep faith leaves a compelling impression on a child – even when all appears to be lost.

What is your impressions of John-Henry’s warnings and wisdom? Share in the comments below!

The post A Former Atheist offers Words of Warning and Wisdom! appeared first on Prolife Across America.

In the early 1960’s there were doomsayers who predicted food shortages, famine, death and disease if the world’s population was not curbed. Paul Ehrlich’s book, The Population Bomb in 1968 became a best seller and when his dire predictions of gloom and doom did not occur, he revised his work in an updated version and sold more copies.

Sadly, the over-population hype is still doing its’ dirty work. But today there is a new best seller that refutes Ehrlich and the elitists’ misguided efforts to control minds and curb populations.

Jonathan Last’s newly released book What to Expect When No One’s Expecting clearly warns America, “Forget, the debt ceiling. Forget the fiscal cliff, the sequestration cliff and the entitlement cliff. Those are all just symptoms. What America really faces is a demographic cliff: The root cause of most of our problems is our declining fertility rate.”

Today, America’s total fertility rate is 1.93, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; it hasn’t been above the replacement rate in a sustained way since the early 1970s.

Interestingly, China, with its’ forced birth control, abortion and sterilization programs to achieve it’s one-child mandate, has a fertility rate of 1.54.

How serious is our nation’s falling fertility rate?  According to the author, Jonathan Last states, “The nation’s falling fertility rate underlies many of our most difficult problems.  Once a country’s fertility rate falls consistently below replacement, its age profile begins to shift. You get more old people than young.”

Last writes declining fertility rates:

• “Threaten entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare as more retirees come to be supported by fewer workers.”

• “An older America would have a harder time projecting military power without the large numbers of young people that such a commitment requires – or tax base to pay for it.”

• Creativity and innovation could be affected. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker stated in a Wall Street Journal interview: “The vast majority of important new ideas come from inventors and scientists who are younger than age 50, often far younger.”

• “If you want to see what happens to a country once it hurls itself off the demographic cliff, look at Japan with a fertility rate of 1.3,” Jonathan Last writes. “In the 1980’s, everyone assumed the Japanese were on a path to owning the world. But the country’s robust economic facade concealed a crumbling demographic structure.        Last year for the first time, the Japanese bought more adult diapers than diapers for babies, and more than half the country was categorized as ‘depopulated marginal land.’”

So here we are in America, with declining birth rates that could prove to weaken America in the not-to-distant future, and yet we have public office holders aggressively promoting contraception, sterilization and abortion as a “right”  – even going so far as to mandate it be insured and financed with taxpayer support.

When did America lose its reverence for human life and abandon the notion that children are our greatest natural resource?

The post America faces an Under-Population Problem – Not Enough Children appeared first on Prolife Across America.

This case could be a horror film and really should horrify all of America.  Pro-Abortionists fight for “safe & legal”, unfortunately abortion is legal, but this is most definitely not safe. Read about the trial here: Kermit Gosnell Trial

Why aren’t you seeing coverage of this in the media? Because the pro-abortion media isn’t reporting it. They aren’t even attending the trial.  Would it be different if he was snipping the necks of puppies? Cutting down a forest of trees? We think so.  This needs to end. We need to demand coverage of this case.

The post Too horrific to share, Too horrific not to share – The Gosnell Trial appeared first on Prolife Across America.

Okay, so here’s the scoop: Nearly every year of our marriage, my husband John and I have managed to go on vacation. Granted, when the children were small, or I was nursing, pregnant, or our budget was drained because of a new baby, new roof, washer-dryer, furnace, braces for kids or other household luxuries, we went no farther than Hudson, Wisconsin for an overnight. ALONE. That was the “key” and it was that aloneness and annual “Honeymoon” away, that kept us renewed, revitalized and rested.
John used to tell the kids, “This is your vacation – from us!” Some loved it until the live-in “watch dogs” we lined up to babysit, became more difficult and unpredictable than we were!

I will admit that when the children were small I had a tough time keeping my promise that I would go on vacation without the kids.

“I just don’t think this is the right time. There’s too much going on and I get so nervous leaving them,” I would tell John. “Besides I’ll miss them so much.”
“Yah, and you’ll be yelling and wondering why we didn’t stay longer, 30 minutes after we return home,” John would say.
Mr. Prognosticator with his crystal ball!

Now that our young are grown and on their own, our little get-aways have taken a new twist. Not only do we vacation alone, but on occasion we are joined by some of our adult kids who actually think we’re fun to be with. Imagine that! Here’s a notion which neither we nor they would have ever thought possible!

I remember a few times when a couple of our kids (names are withheld to protect the guilty) thought any travel or road trip with us was about the most dreadful experience they could ever have. (We weren’t over-joyed to be with them either, if my memory serves me right). In fact, John used to say, “It’s the kids vacation and our “trip.”
Thankfully, we’ve lived long enough to witness maturity take hold and what a joy it is to see!

Yes, there’s something magical and miraculous that occurs between parents and their children once kids make it through their adolescence and teen years, a time when most parents are viewed as archaic, old-fashioned and totally out-of-touch. It’s called maturation.

As for our recent vacation, four of us left the Minnesota ice and snow for one of our favorite vacation spots – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. John and I were joined by our oldest daughter Chrissy and her husband Andy – thanks to Andy’s parents who graciously block off their calendar, and move in for the week to stay with their six children (ages 18-6).

Jack and Gwen are grandparents “par excellence!” They not only move in and help the kids keep their school, sports, and piano practice schedules, but Gwen bakes their favorite meals and they usually squeeze in a special outing to a local museum or event.
This grandma is a slouch by comparison.

As for our week get-away – it did wonders for us and for our adult kids: Andy from his sometimes demanding job as an electrician, and Chrissy from her busy household, not to mention the work she takes in as a skilled seamstress in her “spare” time.

As for John and I – we r e l a x. Totally! For this “type A” that’s something. No phone, no fax, no computer, no demands. Just r e l a x! All I have to think about is when and where will I enjoy the next wonderful meal that I didn’t have to cook! In one week, we return full of sun and good memories that linger long past the faded tans.

Speaking of our return, this year, like most others, we planned to bring back piñatas for several of our young grandchildrens’ upcoming Birthdays. Chrissy brings sketches of the latest comic characters – such as Tinkerbell, Hello Kitty, Angry Bird, and Mario, and a Mexican lady who runs a little shop from her home eagerly brings each drawing to life with her home-made Pinatas.

This year, the three chosen designs for grandsons Thomas, Patrick and granddaughter Gianna, were a pirate treasure chest, Bowser (Don’t ask me.) and Rapunzel – with the long flowing hair. When we returned to the shop to pick them up there was one problem, the characters were nearly as big as the grandkids – in height and width. The Shop lady beamed with pride. We didn’t dare tell her they were a bit large for air travel.

“Just how do you think you’re going to get these home,” my skeptical son-in-law Andy, asked Chrissy.

Not to be discouraged, Chrissy replied, “We’ve done it before. We’ll each take a character and ask if we can stow them with the strollers (as we previously did).”
At the airport we were met by security agents, who immediately called “supervisors” to check out the rule. As we waited nervously, Chrissy was sure not to catch Andy’s “I-told-you-so” look.

Finally we passed the first checkpoint only to be stopped later at the gate as we prepared to board, by agents who firmly insisted, “Piñatas’ are against regulations because they are flammable.”

Chrissy in her sweetest and most persistent demeanor pleaded, “But our books, our jackets, our clothes, our hair – everything is flammable!”

Persuasion and politeness did not work. The three piñatas were left at the gate as we sadly boarded the plane for home.

And there they would have stayed, had it not been for the kindness of the Delta Pilot and Chief Steward who saw the gate activity and intervened on our behalf: “We can take these on board. We’ll go back and get them after everyone is seated,” the Pilot told us.

And that they did.

And so we returned with the pirate treasure chest, Bowser and Rapunzel with the three foot blond hair streamers – thanks to the Delta flight crew who knew the value of bringing something special home to share with family.

Isn’t life grand? Little acts of kindness and unexpected blessings are in the every day – even on vacation when strict flight regulations are in force.

Mary Ann Kuharski is a mother of 13, 6 of whom were adopted and are of mixed races, some with special needs. She is an author and the Director of PROLIFE Across AMERICA, known as “the billboard people”. Learn more at prolifeacrossamerica.org or become a fan: facebook.com/prolifeacrossamerica.

The post Fun n’ the Sun with Unexpected Kindness appeared first on Prolife Across America.

One of our children’s favorite storybooks, and now a favorite of our grandchildren, is The City that Forgot about Christmas. The story begins with a town full of people who are fighting, squabbling, and bitter. They have no faith, so no one celebrates the birth of Christ or Christmas. Until, that is, an old man named Matthew (perhaps an Angel in disguise) arrives in town and begins to win the trust and hearts of the residents with his kindness and love.

All the while Matthew is helping the people in varied ways, he is teaching them about the coming of Christ and preparing them for Christmas day. Soon the town folk become transformed from one of selfishness, hatred and hostility to gentleness, generosity and love, as they eagerly prepare for Christ and Christmas Day.

It may sound simplistic, but I believe that much like the townspeople in the children’s storybook, America has become a nation that has forgotten about God.

The recent school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut which took the lives of seven adults and twenty young children, is but one tragic example.

The shootings took place just days before Christmas. Imagine. There surely must have been a heightened excitement and light-heartedness in the air as the youngsters, five, six, and seven year-olds, began their school day. Were there drawings on the walls? Was there a Christmas tree in the classroom or songs the children had been practicing for a special Holiday program? We may never know.

What we do know is that a disturbed 20-year old man shot his own mother as she lay in bed, and then broke into the school building at the beginning of their day, and gunned down as many children and adults as he could before turning the gun on himself and ending his own life.

What would prompt such a senseless killing spree? And, what can we do as a civilized society to prevent this – or anything like it – from ever happening again? The secular media and many public officials from the President on down, are calling for gun control and new legislation, as the “solution.”

I’m not a gun advocate. We don’t own one or have one in the house, but when someone intends to commit a violent act, most any weapon, be it guns, knives, rope, box cutters or just plain hands around a throat becomes a “weapon of choice.”

In this mom’s view, it’s not an issue of “gun control” – but “self-control”. More than that, we need to instill a sense of “self-purpose” – something that tells us from within that we were created by a loving God, and that we are of value and so is every other person on the face of the earth – just because they exist. It’s called reverence for life.

We talk of banning guns, but no one says a word about censoring the violent movies, videos, not to mention the hand-held “games” or the graphically brutal music that “entertains” our children from their earliest memories.

Kids today are surrounded by violence, pornography – now called “soft porn” – so routinely portrayed in films and television, it hardly raises an objection. And what of a music industry that routinely raps out songs of rape and carnage – winning not censorship but awards and fame. Sadly, our kids want to dress like them and be like them.

In shopping for my grandchildren this Christmas, I saw department stores with racks of Tee-shirts, blue jeans, stocking caps, hoodies and even school lunch boxes proudly displaying gothic symbols of death and skull and crossbones insignias.

Is it any surprise to learn the Newtown killer was addicted to violent games, was involved in devil worship and had an online page “dedicated to Satan”?

Everyone has a deep desire to believe and to belong to someone or some thing. If not God – then who or what do they worship and believe in? Obviously the young killer, unstable as he was, had the same desire to believe and belong.

Bishop Fulton Sheen once said, “Why is it that the world has confessed its inability to inculcate virtue in the young? Very simply because it has not correlated morality to any love nobler than self-love.”

Governor Mike Huckabee, recently said, “This nation walked away from God decades ago. We told him we don’t need him or his Commandments.”
The Governor is right. For over a century American children began each school day with prayer. The first American books and primers were full of references to God. Our children learned the Ten Commandments and were taught to live by the Golden Rule. Our forefathers believed that Christian principals made for good government and righteous people.

America was founded as a Christian, God-centered nation. We even designated a national holiday to give “thanks” to the Almighty for the blessings bestowed upon our land. We prospered as a country and a people for nearly 200 years because we recognized that all was “gift” from a gracious loving God.
Today’s progressive society, however, forbids God in the classroom, on the field, and even in commencement speeches. The Ten Commandments, once universally honored, are now banned from schools and most public institutions.

When youngsters are raised without a moral compass or principals, they become hedonistic, self-centered and “values free.” We have become a people fixated on self-indulgence and having it “our way.” Truly, America has lost its way.

Death hovers over our entire nation. Killing for convenience is so common place the President and an entire political party recently won election on the notion that “unwanted babies” could and should be terminated. In fact, the government will pay for it, and will go so far as to violate the conscience of even religious institutions to mandate insurance coverage of the barbaric practice of abortion, re-defined as “women’s health issues.”
Over 1.3 million babies are killed by legal abortion every year, since the January 22nd, 1973, Supreme Court Decision, struck down the laws in all 50 states, legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Some babies are so tiny, they can be held between two fingers. Others nearing full-term, could be cradled in your arms. All experience the same fate. They are cut out, scraped out, dismembered, burned out, or smothered post-delivery. Their only crime was being “unwanted.”

Think this attitude of terminating “unwanted” babies is lost on the children growing up in society today? Think it doesn’t create a little edginess, to know that every year millions – just like them – are systematically hacked to pieces at some of the finest state-of-the-art hospitals in the nation just because they are inconvenient or imperfect, or unwanted?

Little wonder that Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “America is the poorest of nations because they do not care for the child in the womb.” Sadly, there is no such thing in America as “reverence for life”. A baby is not a gift from God, but is only meaningful if he or she is “wanted”.

If we want to see an end to the “surprise” massacres, we as a people need to run to our churches, get on our knees and beg God’s forgiveness for “walking away” from Him and His Commandments. We need to let our children see what and Who we reverence, and a good beginning is to “keep Holy the Sabbath.” When they see us on our knees in prayer, it will become a primary focus for them as well.

Let us begin today, each in our own small way, to invite God into our hearts, our homes, and yes, even our workplace. Our quiet witness of Faith can have a ripple effect –replacing self-centeredness with a sense of worship and reverence for God, and for the greatest of His gifts – human life.
America today has become a rootless, rudderless, ruthless society and until we bring God back to our nation, and restore laws that protect all human beings, born and unborn, no one will ever really be safe.

Mary Ann Kuharski is a mother of 13, 6 of whom were adopted and are of mixed races, some with special needs. She is an author and the Director of PROLIFE Across AMERICA, known as “the billboard people”. Learn more at prolifeacrossamerica.org or become a fan: facebook.com/prolifeacrossamerica.

The post appeared first on Prolife Across America.

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