More of my thoughts on Ebola

Yesterday, a friend who is an epidemiologist for the CDCs said that the biggest difference between ebola and cancer is that ebola is viciously contagious. Basically, ebola, if left unchecked, will kill at least 6 out of every ten people in the world. While ebola is thought to be transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person showing symptoms, it’s clear that while wearing approved clothing it is being transmitted. We’re told ebola isn’t airborne, which is a good thing, but what we don’t know is how easily it can be transmitted one person touching a surface previously touched by a person showing ebola symptoms. This is why, in Dallas, TX, the ambulance that transported the first U.S. ebola patient, as well as his apartment, was sanitized. Now that two nurses are confirmed with ebola, one of whom flew on a plane while exhibiting minor symptoms (a low-grade fever), health officials are contacting each person on the plane. These people won’t be quarantined, but they will be asked to curtail direct contact with others, and monitor themselves for possible symptoms. But being contagious may not be the worst of the ways ebola is killing us.

The pastor in Liberia who shared with me that all commerce has been shut down, also said he’s running out of food. How long can you stay in your house without going out to get food? I’ve talked about this before, when talking about my pantry. In the last few years, during winter months, we’ve been shut down for nearly a week three separate times. I know folks that would be hard pressed to find more than a box of cereal in their homes, let alone enough to go a week. I don’t really know how they made it during those winter-weather shut downs. Here in the States, as in Europe and many large cities throughout the world, food is available stored in jars, cans, or dried. But in more rural towns in most places in the world, food is brought fresh to the market. Sure, rice and beans are available dry, and easily stored, but not so available are vegetables or meat. Shut down commerce and people starve. So sure, we can stop the spread of ebola by isolation, but that success doesn’t ensure that anyone will be alive after the epidemic. What’s left to do?

Well, stock something up while you can, if you can. A bag of rice, a bag of beans. Some water. Prepare to hunker down for awhile.

Pray. Pray, too, for the people of Africa that are in the middle of this nightmare.

Lord Bless, Keep, and Shine. . .

Ebola -v- Cancer

The Ebola epidemic is horrifying. It has people throughout the world at near panic. So, this all needs to be put into some sort of perspective. Basically, ebola is currently an epidemic ongoing in parts of West Africa, with cases now appeared in the United States as well as Spain. The outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013 then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. It spread later to both Senegal and Nigeria, but is now contained in those two countries and is no longer a threat. So, in ten months, around 4,000 known deaths have occurred with double that number of cases. Those are the official number; it is thought to be at least double that number. In contrast, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), various “cancers figure among the leading causes of death worldwide, accounting for 8.2 million deaths in 2012.”

Looking at Liberia alone with its population of 4.294 million, there have been 2,316 officially recorded deaths. If we double that number, we have 112 deaths per 100,000 people. About the same as the worldwide death toll from cancer. If the same number of deaths per 100,00 population in Liberia from Ebola deaths per 100,000 in the United States, 336,000 people in America would die. If we look at a world-wide pandemic of Ebola, about 7.8 million people would die. Almost the number that WHO reports die from cancer each year.

So why is ebola scary? We don’t think cancer is contagious. Cancer also doesn’t kill a person in a week, but lingers on. We’ve had cancer around for a pretty long time, and perhaps have gotten use to it. Ebola is relatively new on the scene. And we know we can catch ebola. We are as likely to develop cancer as we are to catch ebola, but ebola is a strange new disease to us (yet has been around since its discovery in 1976). Governments think it can be contained by easily applied procedures, where all that we’ve tried, we continue to have cancer.

Lord Bless, Keep, and Shine. . .

Are these the Last Days? Does it really matter?

There is compelling evidence that the Last Days are upon. Throughout the world, we find it more and more difficult to sing of the lazy, hazy days of summer. Even people who normally don’t outwardly mention such things are wondering what’s really happening. People are becoming scarred. Now, certainly, the world has faced its disasters. Since the early Twentieth Century, there have been two world wars with great loss of life, an epidemic that took the lives fifty million people, devastating floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and many prolonged, deadly wars and civil conflicts. Crime is endemic. Here in the United States we have armed our local police departments as if preparing for war. And throughout the last 70 years we’ve had the threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over us. But this year is different.

“Nearly on a daily basis, we witness our very earth in what seems like birth pangs— be it nuclear threat, terrorism, hurricanes, earthquakes, or tornadoes—or violence, wars and rumors of war—while most people seem almost oblivious to what is happening (or may see something is amiss but do not turn to Scripture and Bible prophecy to understand the implications). Again, God is sounding out a warning to make ready.

“Even now, while the reality of the Antichrist and a one-world religion is looming closer and closer all the time, preachers and teachers are sitting at their desks inking out sermons that discredit Bible prophecy.” Lighthouse Blog

“The world is moving so fast, and so many devastating things are happening on a daily basis that even serious issues are constantly placed on the back burner to make way for a more serious or a more current piece of bad news.

“Just to name a few, the list includes: ISIS, Ebola, drought, famine, drug cartels, unabated illegal crossings at our Southern border, a house of cards economy, kidnappings, a gridlocked Congress that is more concerned with inflicting damage on the opposing party than serving the people, unaddressed massive government scandals and potential terrorist attacks on the homeland.” Worrisome Things, Charlie Daniels

See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Matthew 24:4-8

What’s a Christian to do? First, we are told by our Lord Y’shuaJesus to not be alarmed, all these things are to take place. Despite this, I long for the conflicts to end, for peace in this world to prevail. I feel the hurt of the millions of suffering people, and wish for resolve. I feel powerless to stop the agony. And then there are time in which I sit back and say to myself, “Fine. If there is war and disease and famine, let it be.” For these things are to happen. They happen because we made them happen. G-d didn’t start the wars, didn’t make us suffer disease, didn’t make us starve. G-d didn’t inspire a jihad that destroys rather than builds up. G-d, when He stood as a man looking over Jerusalem said that He’d wanted so much to gather up His people like a hen would gather her chicks. G-d wants us to have peace; we choose conflict. We are guilty. We hate. We sin. We have cried out for justice, and we have gotten it.

The second thing that we must do is summed up on that post from Lighthouse Blog: “If you love Jesus Christ and His Word and if you really want to serve Him, now is the time to be fully surrendered to the Lord without reservation. Whatever the cost. We are invited to the wedding feast, ready to meet our Savior, with wicks trimmed and lamps burning. Now is the time to make ready.” Lighthouse Blog

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon you. . .

Pray for Liberia and all of West Africa

Today the following email arrived from Renewal Ministry Fellowship, having been sent to its prayer line.

From: Pastor Charles S.W Smith (sonponcwsmith76@yahoo.com ) in LIBERIA:

How are you and family, we are still praying … for aid in this Ebola crisis in our nation.

On behave of all affiliates of Liberia and Sierra Leone that is afflicted with the Ebola and Economic crisis. Please pray for our nation the outbreak of the deadly disease Ebola in west Africa. Many people are dying and medical centers are refusing victims of this deadly disease. Our president just declare the closure of all offices both private and government. Investors and foreigners are leaving our nation due to this outbreak.

This has cause breakdown in the economy of our nation, many people are out of food/medical supply and the scarcity of commodities…

Remain blessed
Pastor Charles S.W Smith

Sukkoth

Catherine Martin, on her blog Everyone has a Story posted: Jesus was a homeless guy. And so He was.

A scribe approached Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!” Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. Matthew 8:19,20

It is an appropriate blog post this week. For this evening begins Sukkoth, also called the Feast of Tabernacles (or booths). The celebration of Sukkoth isn’t at all the same here in America as it is in Israel. The closest an American might come to visualizing the scene in Jerusalem would be if he or she is old enough to remember Christmases when many front lawns and parks had small tent-like structures within which were displayed nativity scenes. The celebration of Sukkoth is the celebration of remembering that once the Jewish people wandered in the desert. While not all celebrate the Feast by sleeping the entire night in the small tents that line the streets of Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel, most will at least eat a meal in the tent during the evening. This Feast is one in which giving extra to charity is emphasized, and often a stranger is entertained in a tent.

There is a local church here in north Georgia that holds a festival of sorts that has the youth group sleeping outdoors. Each year the youth group is tasked with going out into the community to beg for food, as food drive. The young people then return, hopefully with bags of groceries, or at least pledges. Toward evening, they build cardboard huts in which they will spend the night. There are adult chaperones, and a meager meal is served to those who’ve brought back food that will be shared with actual homeless individuals.

In her post, Ms. Martin tells of her anguish at reading a comment by a “Christian pastor explaining his opinion that people who are poor are reaping the seeds of irresponsibility and poor decisions, and the Church is not expected to physically care for them.” This pastor suffers from an excessive dose of Calvinism, in which those who are truly saved display that fact by being very prosperous. I suppose that love isn’t enough to display that we are Christians. So does that mean the song, “They will know we are Christians by our love. . .” ought to be changed to “They will know we are Christians by our riches. . . ” Huh! Yeah, I agree with Ms. Martin. And I agree with the church that is doing something to build some sort of empathy within its youth group for the plight of the homeless. And plight it is.

Being homeless is like ending up in a hole, whether or not it is one fallen into or one that a person digs for him or her self. Once in deep enough, it cannot be escaped without help. In the mid eighties I worked with a wonderful man who was homeless. He, along with his wife and two children, were living in a small settlement of homeless. The pastor had built a community out of old military barracks removed from a nearby military post when it was closing down some of its training areas. That pastor taught some of the men to fish, buying three fishing boats. He tried to work with those that were able to get them back into the mainstream. Some were not able. Some too burned out, too empty of self-esteem. To emotionally broken. But those that could, were able to get out, on their feet, and make it. My friend eventually became a music professor at a well-known university, and his wife a teacher and artist.

Think about this: If you are applying for a job, you need an address. If your driver license is expiring, you need an address. No address, no job, no identification. How do you get a job? Oh, sure, just rent a place to live, then you will have an address and you can apply for a job. But without a job, how do you pay for a place to live? Okay, some ingenuity and you use the address of a shelter until you get a job, save some money, and move into a place of your own. But getting a job takes money, too. Clothing, for instance, that isn’t rags, is a basic necessity. It’s just hard. The homeless need help. And, as Ms. Martin points out, it’s not helping them if a Christian just passes them a tract to read. What churches can do is look around the community within which it resides, and say, “What needs are there here?” Then supply them.

While working psych ambulance in California’s Silicon Valley, I went into a lot of board and care facilities for mental health patients. I also transported a lot of elderly people to and from residential facilities. Most of these places were really bad. But there was one, just one in all of the Santa Clara Valley, that was incredibly nice. It was in the back parking lot of a Mennonite Church. Being also a journalist in my though process, I asked about the senior care facility and was told that church members discovered there was a real need in the community for senior citizens, old people, to have a place to live, to be cared for. The parking lot was huge, and the city allowed the church to build a facility.

Like the pastor that built a community for the homeless, like the Mennonite Church, churches can spend more time looking to their own communities’ needs than to building fancy buildings and additional classrooms, or funding mission trips to other countries. While those things may seem important, the guy on the corner carrying a sign that says “Vet needs help,” might, with a little love and help, get on his own feet. In the meantime, that homeless man provides a witness against the church for its lack of commitment to Messiah Y’shua, who tasted life on the streets.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

First Step in Prepping for Whatever may Come

There is a simplicity to being “saved.”

The author of Hebrews addresses a Believing Jewish audience; an audience that believes in Y’shuaJesus as Lord, Messiah. In the first five chapters he writes at length presenting the arguments of Y’shuaJesus as the awaited Messiah. In chapter six the author writes:

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. . . Hebrews 6:1

He wants to move on to other things, but first he recaps the basics of Messianic Judaism: 1) repentance from dead works; 2) faith in G-d; 3) the teaching of ritual washings; 4) laying on of hands; 5) resurrection of the dead; and 6) eternal judgement. (Heb 6:1-3) It is my belief that a Jew does not “convert” to Christianity. Rather, a Jew simply becomes “completed.” I learned of this from Pastor Jeff Sheldon, of southern Oregon.

So then, the non-Jew, the “Gentile,” who doesn’t have a relationship with G-d, finds salvation in Y’shuaJesus in another way if the Gospel’s presentation. In the Billy Graham Training Center Bible, the normal condition of mankind means that there is a need to be “delivered from sin and it consequences to find true peace and fulfillment. An understanding is required of G-d’s purpose, which is salvation, John 3:16 There is a problem here though, as there is a separation from G-d, Rom 3:24. G-d has a remedy, which is the Cross, 1 Tim 2:5,6. We must respond through trusting Messiah Y’shuaJesus, John 1:12. We finally accept G-d’s assurance through His Word, Rom 10:13.

Henry David Thoreau wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” This then is the man or woman who is separated from G-d. There is a struggle within the unsaved that often means pushing the Gospel away, defiantly. It is rebellion.

It is critical, I think, that we understand the differing perspectives of a person with whom we come into contact. We must be able to respond the that person in a way that he or she becomes willing to shed defiance and rebellion. Thus, that person can be lead to submit to Y’shuaJesus.

These precarious times in which we live, these times of crisis, are also great times of opportunity. We may be called upon to assist people who recognized that the world seems to be unraveling and don’t know how to do anything about it.

We must be prayed up to respond. We must be alert, and sober.

Lord Bless, Keep, and Shine. . .

Rosh Hashanah

Shanah Tovah (שנה טובה)

As the sun dropped below the horizon last night, New Years began. These days are now days to look inward, repenting of thoughts that are impure, and deeds that we did wrongly. As the these Holy Days proceed, we really are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We are called to righteousness in Messiah Y’shua. And we are saved, and need not work for our salvation. But we are responsible to allow our Lord to cleanse our feet from our dusty journey of this past year.

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility. . . Zeph 2:3

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Thinking more about being sober

Being sober isn’t only the opposite of being drunk; it is used in a few other ways (from Wiktionary), such as: moderate; realistic; serious; not playful; not passionate; cool; self-controlled. A couple of examples: “No sober man would put himself into danger for the applause of escaping without breaking his neck.” Or: Which is the finest and soberest state possible.

While the King James Version uses “sober” in 1 Peter 5:8, the Holman Christian Standard Bible uses “serious.”

Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 1 Peter 5:8 HCSB

Paul expresses the need for this sober, seriously watchful attitude because we are not meant for wrath. (1 Thes 5:9). My wife has been watching a documentary on Bronisław Huberman, a Jewish Polish violinist who “founded the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then known as the Palestine Philharmonic) and thus providing refuge from the Third Reich for nearly 1,000 European Jews.” (Wikipedia)

In the early 1930s, Jewish Germans were already being ostracized from German communities. Musicians were fired from their jobs in German orchestras. While there was a Jewish-only orchestra formed that accommodated some musicians, it did not last long. Mr. Huberman was able to gain support to build the Philharmonic, and filled its seats with Jews from not only Germany, but from Poland and other Eastern European countries. Some Jews did not want to leave Germany, however, even when the opportunity was provided. One of the chief factors was the attitude that “this is all going to blow over.” So many of the Jews could not accept leaving all they’d worked to build, believing if they simply played along, accepted some sacrifice, it would be alright. Once the musicians finally made it to Israel, then called Palistine, they found it quite different than they’d been accustom. One woman left the Philharmonic, returning to German. Another musician asked to be allowed to return to German to finish his PhD. The PhD. candidate stayed too long, and could not get out of German, as the border were closed. Both the musicians were sent to camps, and are presumed to have been murdered. All the musicians that accepted positions with Jewish-only orchestras were eventually sent to camps, were they, too, died. As we know, the sanctions against the Jewish community became an all-out war of terror against it. What began slowly rapidly turned evil, indeed.

So, fast forward from the years of Hitler’s reign of terror to the Twenty-First Century. What does this lesson teach us today? If we see persecution toward Christians increasing throughout the world, if we understand that it isn’t just going to go away, how do we proceed? One might say that there is really no place we may run, no place to hide. World War III may be the ongoing war against terrorism that has engulfed the world. Even if we perceive the threat to a Christian way of life, there really isn’t any place we may go for asylum. We are told by Y’shuaJesus directly that a time will come that we are unable to buy, sell, or trade. (Matthew 24) We are not appointed for wrath, but if we are not prepared, we certainly will be caught up in it. And we must not yield our souls to gain only a temporary life. Therefore we must be prepared. We must, like Joseph who helped Egypt, prepare for famine and plague and violence. We must become strong both physically as well as spiritually if we are to survive “underground.” Prepare Now!

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

The Movie: GoodBye World!

In programming classes, during the dawning of the computer age, I recall the phrase, “Hello World.” It was used as the first statement a newbee programmer would have his first program write to a screen. This movie, “Goodbye World!” used a spin-off of that phrase as the last thing to be displayed on all cell phones as the computer age crashed into night. The movie, set in Northern California, centered on a group of old college friends, now middle-aged, that managed to get together as the world plummeted into chaos. It is explained that after college, after these friends went their own ways, two of the them, James and Lilly, were awakened to the fragility of the world, especially food production, electricity, and transportation. They not only saw that the modern world was headed toward an abrupt halt, they acted upon that vision. They left the city, heading to Northern California to build a self-sustaining home high on a mountain.

. . .let us keep awake and be sober. (1 Thes 5:6)

It is in this home that the old college friends gather. It’s not a movie with “we all lived happily ever after.” Right from the start the group finds it must deal with diverse personalities and perspectives. Ever the pragmatist, James has collected a sizable cache of food and medicine, and developed a large truck garden. He has a filtered well and solar panels providing power not only for the well, but also for the house. Lilly, on the other hand, would rather not think about tomorrow, and simply eat, drink, smoke dope, and be happy for the moment. James and another, more pragmatic friend, head into town to the small grocery store to pick up some supplies. They find that a motorcycle gang has taken over the store, and raise the prices a thousand percent. They pay with cash and a gold watch. Once outside the store, the witness three men taking groceries away from another man, and they leave without helping him. On the way home, they stop at a neighbor who often has sold them meat and things they don’t raise. They buy it at the same cost, added to their “tab,” that they’d always paid. They are neighbors, after all.

Internal tensions rise in the house as they learn of the extent of civil breakdown in the United States, and that two members of this old-college group, have contributed to the meltdown of society through their computer-hacking and virus-creating activities. Then the neighbor who’d sold them some meat comes by the house to ask for spare medicine. Someone from town has an infection and the motorcycle gang took all the drugs from the store when it left town. James says he doesn’t have anything to offer.

Next major event is that many of the neighbors from lower down the mountain have gathered at the home below James’s. Along come two armed National Guardsmen. They are told they can’t stay at James’s home, that the Constitution forbids it. They don’t leave the area, but settle in with the now larger group living in the home farther down the mountain. Trouble brews when that group is stirred up by these “soldiers,” when they learn of the large food cache and medicines that James and his friends have in their home. These soldiers come to James’s home, and at gun point, declare that James will not only share the food cache, but give all medicine to them. James sees no recourse, and agrees. The next day, James takes food down the hill, but not the medicine. He says that he will share the medicine, but the ill must come to him. It is his preparations, after all. One of the soldiers, a man named Damien, decides to kill James to make a point that to all not to defy Damien and his authority. That group does nothing. Just as Damien is about to kill James, he is shot by one of the old college friends, a woman, who’d come down behind James. She then makes a speech that begins with one spoken by General George Washington:

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.” (Address to the Continental Army before the battle of Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776.)[Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/w/washington_george_ii.html#x4CP8VkwaPuVvH70.99]

Someone yells, “Who’s our enemy?” To which the woman says, “We are are own enemies.” She then goes on to say that we need to work together, for if we are are going to live free, we must work together.

What strikes me from this movie is that the character James is a hippie sort, yet wants to maintain control of that which he has stored, without sharing beyond his own household. Additionally, while wanting to maintain his home as his, to maintain his freedom and liberty, he is unwilling and unable to fight for it. It is the woman who ends up shooting the soldier Damien, that is willing to not only share, but to band together to form a cooperative, to work together for all their common good. And obviously she is willing to fight for that freedom, that liberty.

This soldier, Damien, represents the reign of tyranny an individual can inflict upon a community. These tyrants are not leaders, not rulers, not raised by G-d to serve people. They only wish to dominate, to control, to live at ease at the expense of humans for which they have no respect, no love. They gather others around them who’d rather join them than be against them. They suck the lives out of those they attempt to control. They are bullies. They deserve nothing more than to die. This is my opinion. As Christians we have a moral obligation to work toward righteousness, keeping always an eternal perspective. What does that mean? I think the meaning includes that the righteous have nothing to do with the schemes of the devil. I think the schemes of the devil include using willing humans to bring chaos and slavery to the lives of the righteous. If we fail to be on guard, fail to watch, we are going to sleep and darkness will fall upon us and we will be enslaved, economically, socially, morally. We will lose the rewards that we’ve gained, we will lose our crowns. If, as so many believe, the time is short, we must be doubly sure that we fall not into the devils way.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine . . .

Ice Bucket Challenge

It’s the rage, lately, to do the “Ice Bucket Challenge.” Here’s a perspective that I brings truth into what seems like a simple, harmless, activity.

Why I can’t participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge
By Nathanael King

Recently, I’ve received a few “ALS ice bucket challenges,” which I cannot accept. I don’t fault any of my friends for giving me this challenge. Thanks for thinking of me and trying to include me! Really. You guys are awesome, and it was really fun watching you shiver!

Amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a horrible neurodegenerative disease affecting everything from speech and swallowing to basic mobility. I personally have friends whose parents have languished and died from this disease, and experts estimate that 30,000 Americans suffer from this disease. It’s as good a place as any to focus medical-research efforts.

But I cannot accept the challenge, and I hope you’ll understand why. It’s not because I’m afraid of cold water. (Although that’s true). My concern is where the publicity and money might go. Specifically, I’m concerned with the kind of research that might be financed by my hypothetical promotional activity. (For those who don’t know what this is, you’re supposed to dump a bucket of ice water on your head, and video it, and then challenge others to do it. If you don’t do it, you’re supposed to give $100 to the ALS Association, and if you do do it, you either don’t have to give any money to the ALSA or you’re supposed to give $10 to the ALSA, depending on the version).

The ALS Association funds a number of different types of research, and among these is embryonic stem-cell research. For those who don’t know what this is, it is when scientists take a female egg and a male sperm and fertilize the egg in a lab, and then after the new life begins to form, they remove the building blocks of life—embryonic stem cells. This is the same process that occurs when people struggle with infertility and then get in-vitro fertilization. The important difference is that instead of implanting the fertilized embryo into a mother so that it can grow into a baby, these embryos are experimented on, and then discarded. They are created for the express purpose of destroying them for medical research.

The ALS Association website says this: “Adult stem cell research is important and should be done alongside embryonic stem cell research as both will provide valuable insights. Only through exploration of all types of stem cell research will scientists find the most efficient and effective ways to treat diseases.”

Sometimes, stem cells are harvested as part of in-vitro fertilization as described above, and other times they are harvested as part of an abortion procedure. For example, one clinical trial, which was supported by the ALS Association with a $500,000 grant involved “stem cells … from the spinal cord of a single fetus electively aborted after eight weeks of gestation.”

At eight weeks, a baby has its own unique DNA, is 2 centimeters long, has tiny fingers and toes, and a heart beat of about 160 beats per minute.

Some might argue that life does not begin at conception. But the other options seem entirely subjective scientifically and unsupported biblically. Some say life begins not at conception, but implantation or even birth—as if the location of the embryo should determine when it is alive. Some say that it’s when the embryo is viable, but this point is completely subjective and would mean that now life begins far sooner than it did a few years ago when we didn’t have the technology to save early preterm infants.

At conception, a baby has a unique genetic code, and all of the necessary building blocks for life, and the Bible attributes the properties of personhood to us from conception (see Ps. 139:13-16, Job 10:8-12, Jer. 1:5, Ps. 51:5, Luke 1:39-44, Ex. 21:22-24).

The reason this is important is because as a Christian, I believe that no human life is intrinsically worth more than another human life. All humans are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27, 9:6), and therefore are uniquely valuable and have distinctive worth.

We’re not all born “equal” in the sense that we’re all able to run equally fast or complete math problems equally well, but we are all equally created in the image of God, and this is where we derive our worth and value.

The problem with embryonic stem-cell research is two-fold: First, it is morally reprehensible to anyone who believes that life begins at conception. Imagine the outrage that would happen if scientists proposed we grew infants and children for the express purpose of performing lethal experiments on them, no matter how scientifically helpful the results would be.

Secondly, if there is a breakthrough involving embryonic stem-cell research, then the resulting treatment would involve mass harvesting of embryonic stem cells, and therefore mass abortions. In short, embryonic stem-cell research involves the destruction of innocent human life. And therefore, I cannot promote donations to this particular organization when it thinks that infanticide is a legitimate way to save other human beings.

Now, I don’t think our response as Christians should be to just throw up our hands, check out, and not do anything. Instead, we should lead the way in helping those who are suffering with ALS and work toward finding medical treatments that are ethically researched. So, I would ask anyone who is making a donation to consider donating to an ethically focused organization, such as the John Paul II Medical Research Institute.

Finally, as one blogger on this issue said: “This is a good time to consider the effect that social-media activism is having on our culture—and ourselves as actors in it. … I very much believe in this medium’s capacity for acting as a vehicle for good, yet I also recognize how instant connectivity is a double-edged sword, making it much easier for a ‘herd mentality’ to develop. Which is all fine and good when the herd is headed in the correct direction, right?

“But peer pressure blows perspective out of the water, as we race to belong without first stepping back and considering each and every dimension before clicking ‘Like’ or share. How many of you stopped and investigated HOW your money would be spent before emptying the ice-cube trays? Exactly. You shouldn’t feel bad about it! That’s not my point. You should feel a little weird and more than a little prone toward caution in the future.

“So don’t look at this as a call for inaction. I’m asking you to be as active as ever and creative, too; what we’re looking for is a higher level of self-awareness the next time a Facebook buddy tags you with the best of intentions.”

Nathanael King is an associate pastor at Temecula Hills Christian Fellowship in Temecula, California. This article originally appeared on the author’s blog, which is at nathanaelk.com.