Friday, August 14, 2009

’We are so blessed’

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died Tuesday at 88, was known around the world for championing life and encouraging and supporting the mentally disabled by founding the Special Olympics. Mrs. Shriver’s pro-life efforts included supporting such groups as Democrats for Life of America, Feminists for Life and the Susan B. Anthony List Advisory Committee.

Mrs. Shriver was one of the influential pro-life leaders who signed a pledge called the New American Compact, which appeared as a full-page ad in the New York Times on July 14, 1992. The pledge protested the Democratic Party’s support of the abortion-rights agenda.

“No one more than Eunice Kennedy Shriver understood better the power held by the most vulnerable in our society,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said on Tuesday. “She fought for those hidden in the shadows of life, while acknowledging that they teach us far more than we could ever offer them. She was consistent in her championing of every vulnerable human life.”

The organization’s general chairman, Jane Abraham, said: “Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s heart for the most vulnerable among us will be deeply missed. She fought for the dignity inherent in every human life, born and unborn. Her legacy will serve as a life-affirming example to young women everywhere, and for that we are so blessed.”

Does God Tweet?

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, asks the question “Does God Tweet?” on his Beliefnet blog.

In Tuesday’s entry titled “Finding God on Facebook and Praying on Twitter,” Mr. Hirschfield writes:

“Thanks to new digital technologies, we can ’tweet’ prayers via Twitter to the Western Wall or prayer requests to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We can participate in worship services and discuss holy texts via Facebook. We can create and join faith communities on Second Life. Is this, as Martha Stewart (Don’t ask where that came from) would say, a good thing? Should we use digital technology to commune with the divine? Does God tweet?

“To the extent that there is a personal God who receives our prayers, and I believe that there is (mostly), then tweeting those prayers to Jerusalem, Rome, Mecca or any other holy place is entirely reasonable and appropriate. In fact, it’s pretty strange to imagine a God big enough to pray to who is not big enough to understand our prayers in whatever language or mode they are offered. But of course, this question isn’t really about God, it’s about us.”

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