Book Review by Rev. Austin Miles
To have an authoritive effective voice, you must master two things in life. The thing you love and the thing you hate. Rev. Austin Miles.
History is a fascinating subject. It is only by consulting history that one would learn that in 1915, the host city for the International Purity Conference was, fasten your seat belts... San Francisco. So there!
This is only one of the many intriguing tidbits found in Allan Carlson's latest book, Godly Seed, released by Transaction Publishers.
The timing could not be better for the publication of this work. The information given has never been more urgently needed than at this point in time even though the debate has raged for over 1800 years.
It has now risen to the most divisive issue in present day America as it has taken new shapes and forms. That issue is, methods of preventing births, and then abortion if the preventative method fails.
In the midst of it all, the Obama Administration is forcing church organizations, including Catholic hospitals, to provide free contraception devices and abortifacient medication which has caused a national uproar.
Godly Seed
is more than the history of abortion, spotlighting those who opposed it and others who defended it. It is also a book of the history of the church, both catholic and protestant. Readers learn where the term 'fundamentalists' orginated (pg.113) which is surprising.It is time to become better acquainted with Anthony Comstock, described as, "The greatest of Puritans," and his role as a Christian in affecting America and government lawmakers, winning passages of sweeping Federal measures regarding contraceptive devices. Yes,one man with no political title or credentials able to affect an entire nation for decades.
Comstack would tangle with Margaret Sanger who was determined to see all women be afforded birth control and abortion along with sexual freedom, all of which she titled, 'The New Moriality." Sanger was clearly a socialist even though she tried to have people believe that she was a Christian. Sound familiar?
Sanger was adept at employing 'words to scare,' such as "The terrifying-tragic problem of overpopulation," which was embelished even more by declaring that there is not enough food for this ballooning population and we will all starve. All resources will collapse.
She read Friedrich Nietzsche who had been influenced by Plato, and who in turn influenced Adolf Hitler who wanted, by careful breeding, to create the ubermensch, the superman.or more specific, super race, which would be possible through forced sterilization of those considered inferior which crossed racial lines.
Sanger's socialist upbringing had taught her the value of a clearly identified foe when launching a social political movement. She also echoed that "the good things in life are to be reasonably and justly distributed," direct from the Communist Manifesto.
Taking a page from Marx, she set out to get inside her detractors organization, in this case the church, and work to divide it from within. The Catholic Church, she opined, who only wanted many babies to be born to fill their churches, would be the defined enemy of the people. She managed to re-write the history of the church. Again...sound familiar?
Her pretense of being a Christian along with her attacks on the Catholic Church were smoothly shoe-horned in to imply that she was a member of the protestant church. It was the perfect deception. Marx would have been proud.
The divide instigated by her between the church bodies proved effective. As the two church bodies hurled grenades at each other, Sanger quietly went about her work of defeating the Comstock Laws (which stood for morality), while weakening the argument against abortion. Playing a semantic chess game, she empoyed words to define her goals ingeniously, such as, 'women's right to choose.' Karl Marx's blueprint again worked to change society as it was meant to do.
Even though Anthony Comstock and Margaret Sanger were totally at opposite ends of the pole and got in each other's way, there seemed to be a healthy resepct if not downright admiration each had for the other. Even evil genius is respected if it is a truly genius way of using words and creating tension between leaders to reach a goal.
Readers will be startled to learn of the heavy-weight Christian leaders who were pulled into supporting abortion including the magazine, Christianity Today and Billy Graham himself who unexpectedly stated: "I believe in planned parenthood,." page 133.
Godly Seed should be in the library of all, no matter what side of the debate you stand. It is remarkably non partisan, offering all views respectfully, even showing the negative conduct of Christian leaders along with abortion proponents who misuse Scripture verses to make their point. Indeed, this reviewer suspects that readers on both sides will find ammunition to use in their next debate on this issue.
Allan Carlson, founder and president of the Howard Center for Family,Religion,and Society, is a solid writer and historian as this writer found while reviewing his book, Conjugal America.
He lists a HUGE bibliography, with each chapter listing more referrel books than most people read in a lifetime. In chapter 3, 100 books are listed for that chapter alone. Every pastor, chaplain, priest and rabbi owe it to themselves to have his informative book in their personal library.
Transaction Publishers, at Rutgers State University of New Jersey at Piscataway, constantly provides exceptional books that will enrich anyone who reads them.
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