3 September 2008 – Rockstanding

There are many times you can end up in a place and wonder how you got there. I think that kind of experience has happened for many who have grown up as Democrats but call themselves pro-life. In an essay at First Things, Suann Therese Maier lays out her journey that has led to her decision to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin this November. Of note:

I remember my father, a successful young Chicago attorney, telling me why the Democratic party was the party of “our people,” and why so many Catholics were Democrats, and why the party stood for the little guy, the poor and the defenseless. I remember listening as a young girl in our kitchen as Saul Alinsky organized my parents’ Catholic friends on racial and economic issues in our Chicago living room. And I remember the night in 1992 when Pennsylvania’s governor, Robert Casey, was denied a chance to talk against abortion at the Democratic national convention.

I will vote for Sarah Palin because Roe v. Wade is bad law, and it needs to fall. I don’t doubt the intelligence and character of men like Doug Kmiec, the younger Bob Casey, and others who sympathize with the Obama campaign. But I do doubt their judgment. At the end of the day, the Democratic party in 2008 has conceded nothing to pro-life Democrats. The fact that Sen. Obama listens respectfully to pro-lifers without calling them reactionary dunces does not constitute progress. Results and behavior are what matter. On both those counts, the party has again failed to show any real sensitivity to pro-life concerns. In that light, high profile Catholics who support Obama are simply rationalizing their surrender on Roe.

Finally, I will vote for Sarah Palin, not because I’ve left the Democratic party of my youth and young adulthood, but because that party has left me. In fact, it no longer exists. And no amount of elegant speaking, exciting choreography, and moral alibis will bring it back.

"Stand: A Call For the Endurance of the Saints" is a collection of messages from the 2007 Desiring God National Conference.

As they have done in past years, the folks at Desiring God have collected the talks given at the national conference and put them in book form. The 2007 conference, Stand: A Call For the Endurance of the Faith, is now being offered as a book.

Here is what it says about the book from the DG site:

Many people seek to better their lives by leaving, changing, swapping, or modifying their commitments. But God’s Word holds up a beautiful value that, while difficult, leads to deep satisfaction and great reward: endurance. Such long, steady, hold-the-course perseverance is especially needed within our vacillating generation.

This thoughtful series, taken from the Desiring God 2007 National Conference, not only elevates the virtue of godly endurance but bears witness to its power in the Christian life through the exhortations of John Piper, John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges, Randy Alcorn and Helen Roseveare. Each contributor represents a different kind of endurance: from MacArthur’s longtime, faithful shepherding of a church to Alcorn’s radical obedience in the culture wars, from Bridges’ unswerving patience through suffering to Roseveare’s courageous constancy on the war-torn mission field.

Stand will awaken and solidify rugged, Christ-exalting endurance in people who are weary in their faith journey or who simply long to remain firm to the end. And for everyone who dreams of a Christian culture-shift from brief trial runs to lifelong commitments, this latest offering is a watershed that will serve to seal that vision in people’s minds and hearts.

You can order the book here or, if you want, you can go here to listen, view or download the messages. The topics include: