Ballplayers for life (pro life baseball players-Falwell)

As a lifelong baseball fan, I was pleased to learn of a new organization that has recruited current and former Major League Baseball players, managers and executives to champion the pro-life cause.

This organization, known as Battin' 1000, seeks to promote a culture of life through the participation of these big-league personalities. You can imagine the impact this type of outreach can have with young boys and girls who revere the game of baseball.

I am specifically pleased that some baseball players with links to Liberty University are on the ground floor of this pro-life effort.

Former Pirates and Braves first baseman Sid Bream – a one-time Liberty slugger – and former Yankees and Mariners pitcher Lee Guetterman – a one-time Liberty ace – have joined in the Battin' 1000 endeavor. Nothing pleases me more than seeing men and women leaving the Liberty campus and impacting the culture for Christ.

In addition, former Yankees great Bobby Richardson, who once served as head coach of the Liberty University baseball team, is a proud member of this pro-life organization. Bobby was here in Lynchburg last week to speak at a Liberty University convocation and to talk about Battin' 1000.

The organization also features some Hall of Fame members (Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, Sen. Jim Bunning, Robin Yount and Gary Carter) and well-known baseball executives (Jerry Colangelo, chairman and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks, former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former Detroit Tigers owner Tom Monaghan).

Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell, the longtime voice of the Tigers and one of baseball's most beloved figures, is also part of this impressive pro-life assembly.

Many other ballplayers, from the obscure to the frequent all stars, have provided their support to the cause of life. Sal Bando, former Oakland A's All-Star and one-time general manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, is serving as chairman of the organization.

Most importantly, Battin' 1000 is a campaign that aims to raise funds to support American Life League's Campus for Life. ALL has been on the cutting edge of the pro-life cause for many years. The Stafford, Va.-based organization was founded in 1979, and is today the nation's largest grass roots pro-life educational organization in America.

Pro-life baseball fans can get involved with this effort by lending financial support through their favorite team (beginning March 31, at the start of the 2003 season). Battin' 1000 hopes to establish a team of pro-life sympathizers in each of the 30 major league markets. If each team raises $33,333, they can raise $1 million for Campus for Life this year. Those funds will be used to promote pro-life causes among the nation's youth, specifically by building a campus for Campus for Life in the nation's capitol. The organization has turned its fundraising effort into a fun baseball-style game wherein standings based on contributions will be posted on the Battin' 1000 website.

The left has already begun to predictably denounce this effort. The abortion-rights community is presently witnessing America's views on abortion taking a noticeable turn toward life. This high-profile effort by Battin' 1000 will further irritate the pro-abortion community because there is every reason to expect it to be effective in reaching a new (and young) audience.

Battin' 1000 is a wonderful way to promote the culture of life among America's young people and baseball fans.

We now have a president in the White House who is steadfastly pro-life. His leadership at this critical time is so appreciated as we in the pro-life community work to enlist more and more supporters until one day every unborn child is protected and afforded the right to life. I pray that Battin' 1000 is a major cog in achieving that goal.

Now, more than ever, I anxiously await that opening day exclamation, "Play ball!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rev. Jerry Falwell, a nationally recognized Christian minister and television show host, is the founder of Jerry Falwell Ministries and is chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

...part of the problem with the pro-life movement is that it seems to be exclusively religious.

Yeah.
That's really troublesome, just like saying "All men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights....."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

PUKE ALERT!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134648467_satrdr08.1.html

Saturday, March 08, 2003, 12:00 a.m. Pacific

Day of the women
By Amber Howard
Special to The Times

• Today, no celebrating the rollback on hard-earned rights
Today the world will continue a decades-long tradition of observing International Women's Day. In the past, this day has been a celebration of global progress in women's rights. This year, however, there is not much to celebrate.
Since taking office in 2001, President Bush and his administration have made one policy decision after another that jeopardizes the current state of women, both in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Over the past two years, President Bush and his administration have:
• Reinstated the global gag rule, cutting off U.S. aid to international family-planning organizations whose services included — but did not use U.S. funds for — informing women of legal abortion options, providing safe and legal abortion options, or lobbying for abortion law reform with their own funds;
• Closed the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach;
• Removed scientific information from federal Web sites regarding findings that abortions do not increase the risk of breast cancer and about condoms' ability to protect against HIV;
• Appointed ardent "abstinence-only" education supporters to head key health-policy divisions in his administration. Many of these appointees oppose condom use and believe sex outside of marriage is dangerous and that the government should control what local schools can and cannot teach;
• De-funded the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) by withholding $34 million in family-planning aid that is used to better the lives of women around the world;
• Promoted abstinence-only sex education, which fails to teach students about how to protect against sexually transmitted disease;
• Packed the judiciary with anti-choice judges, and;
• Withdrew support for Senate ratification of the International Women's Treaty that requires nations to remove barriers of discrimination against women in areas like legal rights and health care.
And, unfortunately, the list goes on. It is astonishing that this administration has so quickly and easily turned back the clock on women's rights — especially the right to control their family size and protect their health and well-being.
Giving women the power to control when or if they have children is essential to slowing rapid population growth, maintaining healthy children and slowing environmental destruction.
We must ensure that women have access to the information and resources they need to make healthy choices for themselves and their families, which will lead to a better world for us all.
Amber Howard writes from Seattle.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.