July/August, 1997 Volume XII Number 7 - DEPARTMENTS The Editor's Eye Before I get into my usual cant, I have to confess error in our last issue. I must admit right up front that John Funk, alleged prisoner of Christ, was a fraud. I offer no excuses. I simply did not check primary sources and I got scammed big-time by a professional with a lot of time to think up such things. From what I and several others who were taken in have been able to find out, Funk is in jail for aggravated assault on his wife or girlfriend -- not an abortionist. I have included an apology box in the news section so that those who do not favor reading Editor's Eye will also get the news. I sincerely apologize to any of you who wrote or sent money to this man. I will not be gulled so easily in the future. That said, there is an exciting issue ahead. A few years ago, who would have thought that cloning would be a moral issue of serious import. Well, the manufacture of a sheep named Dolly in Scotland has kicked the question wide open. As usual, the Church is caught flat-footed. But here, in our pages, Cathy Ramey will take on some of the central questions that cloning raises. One can only hope that articles like this will engender a real examination of the issues elsewhere. One fears, that, like the issue of organ transplantation, the magnitude of the scientific achievement will overwhelm any debate as to whether such things should be done. Anyway, Ramey has fired the opening shot. Any takers? We hope and pray so. Much has been happening here on our home ground. Young people are rocking the pro-life world with a growing activist movement. Bryan Kemper, a dedicated and motivated young man, has fired up his three-year-old organization, Rock for Life here in PDX. While continuing to grow the group as a national activist group, he has been keeping things hopping here in Portland with three and four events a week. He is attracting more and more young folks to assist him and they range from the most radical pierced-nose, colored hair types, to old-style hippies, to very straight looking young men and women. When they appear outside the clinics, the escorts keep thinking these young people are on the wrong side. A lot of laughs are had watching the jaws drop. One of Bryan's passions is -- guess what? -- birth control! He and his minions have been coworkers with AFLM in leafleting Christian events like National Day of Prayer, March for Jesus, and Promise Keepers (It is one way to get the left boot of fellowship from fellow believers). See the story on that, too. Both of our groups plan to join others in Washington, D.C. in October to do the same at the million-man march under the Promise Keepers banner. Also, the largest abortuary in the state of Oregon, Lovejoy Surgicenter, located here in River City, suffered a fire in late May. Well, maybe not suffered since the fire didn't do any real structural damage. On the same day, a huge warehouse burned to the ground. After learning the outcome at Lovejoy, I could only wish that the two had swapped fires. But one must be grateful for small favors, mustn't one. Ramey also has some pithy remarks on the conflagration which are worth a read. The additional piece on abortifacient birth control may be definitive. Dr. Kahlenborn presents us with hard data on how birth control really works. Suitable for giving to your most skeptical pastors, doctors, and pharmacists. It truly is not worth covering the "partial-birth abortion ban" stories. The push for that law is so worthless and the outcome so predictable that none dare call it news -- at least not in this office. For God and for Life, Paul deParrie Editor-in-Chief Copyright © 1997 AFLM