1. When does “ensoulment” occur? A. At the moment of fertilization? B. When the blood is formed in the pre-born child? C. With the first notice of movement of the child within the mother (quickening)? D. The child’s first breath?

2. Transgenics alters plant or animal DNA so that it contains a gene from another organism. In the UK a human nucleus is routinely implanted in the egg of a cow. Dr. David Prentice of Family Research Council claims that it results in a being that is 98.5% human and 1.5% cow. Does a human-animal hybrid have a soul and can it be saved?

3. According to the Bible, is it good “stewardship” for financially challenged, poor, or impoverished married couples to take measures to prevent the birth of children?

4. Embryonic adoption is the act of finding a surrogate to carry to term an embryo previously frozen. Would it ever be appropriate for a young virgin to “rescue” a frozen embryo by acting as a host mother, and carry the child to term, perhaps with goal of giving the baby up to her own parents for adoption?

5. Under what circumstance, if any, is it biblical to abort a child? A. In the case of rape and incest? B. To save the life of the mother? C. A and B? D. Never?

6. Are feminists correct when they argue that Catholics and those Protestants who take a 100% pro-life, no exceptions position on abortion, are actually a threat to the welfare of women?

7. Is it ever proper to self-consciously withhold food and water from the sick or elderly?

8. Does “the pill” have the potential to act as an abortifacient?

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 30, 2010 | Permalink

Scott and Deb Brown Invite You To The Baby Conference from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 29, 2010 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 29, 2010 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 28, 2010 | Permalink

The Glory of the Fruitful Womb: Real Families Discuss the Joys and Challenges of Raising a Large Family for the Glory of God

Psalm 107: 40-43 says: “He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”

Join Beall and me, Bob & Karen Allen, Geoff & Victoria Botkin, Ken & Devon Carpenter, Matt & Jennie Chancey and Jay & Kay Valenti as we discuss the blessings, joys, challenges, and humor of living in a big family for the glory of God.

When Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, the average family in America had seven living children. That number has declined by more than 60%. Modern Americans are being trained to care more about the threat that a baby will leave a carbon footprint on the environment, than the glory of bringing an eternal soul into the universe. With the notable exception of television shows like 19 Kids and Counting, and exposure to families from America’s home school movement, modern Christians rarely see large families, and when they do, their first response typically includes notions like this: “Don’t you know how to stop that?”; “Enough is enough!”; “I could never afford that many children.”; “I can barely handle two children!”; “It would not be responsible for us to have more children”; “How are you going to pay for all of those college educations?”

In this free-flowing conversation we hope to explode some of the anti-family sentiments and myths of our secularized and evolution-influenced culture when it comes to perceptions about large families. We will explain how it can be easier, more efficient and more affordable to manage a large family than a smaller one. We will swap stories and insights from individual families raising seven children and more. Most importantly we will explain that when we embrace the heart and soul of God’s ongoing biblical requirement that man is “fruitful and multiply” that there is great blessing for the family, the children, the Church, and the Nation.

The world glories in designer bodies, luxury lifestyles, and the “freedom” of the barren womb. But the Bible pictures such sentiments, not as “glory” but as judgment. Instead, Children are presented in the Scripture as a glory, and those mothers who lay down their lives to bring them into the world as uniquely blessed. Yes, children are a blessing and the fruit of the womb is the reward of God. Children are not a curse or a drain, but a source of great prosperity to the Christian family, and those parents who actively seek this blessing are doing far more than simply defying the anti-child philosophy of selfishness that dominates our culture—they are demonstrating to the world that we serve a God who is the author of life, and who delights in children; they are building for themselves a rich heritage; and they are blessing their children, their family, their community, and their local church.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 28, 2010 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 28, 2010 | Permalink

From the CNN Report:

Byrd was married to his childhood sweetheart, the former Erma James, for nearly 69 years before her death in 2006. They had two daughters. “I have met queens and the wives of shahs and great women from all over the world, (but) to me now, this was the greatest woman I ever met in this world,” he said.

When Byrd entered Congress in 1953, a postage stamp cost 3 cents and American kids were clamoring for a new toy called Mr. Potato Head. Dwight Eisenhower was president, Winston Churchill was Britain’s prime minister and Josef Stalin was still the Soviet Union’s leader.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 28, 2010 | Permalink

Today is the Lord’s Day and I hope to give you some very special encouragement with this wonderful look at the joyful conclusion of the History of Christianity and Western Civilization tour. Gather your family around the computer to listen to Bill Potter, Colin Gunn, Dr. Joe Morecraft and myself wrap up the key message of 2000 years of antithesis in the epic battle for Christ and His Church. Watch the while video. You won’t be dissappointed.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 27, 2010 | Permalink

Please remember to pray for Scott Brown and Peter Bradrick on their great cross-country NCFIC road trip tour of America.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 27, 2010 | Permalink

In a powerful, more-expanded version of a previous column, my friend Geoff Botkin explains how the Pill has altered America’s moral intelligence. I would encourage you to read this article in full, published exclusively on Vision Forum Ministries’ website.

Geoff and his wife Victoria will be speaking on the Wonders of Embryology at our upcoming Baby Conference.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 26, 2010 | Permalink

Doug Phillips On Air at 3 p.m. (CST)

The Baby Conference: An Historic Family Summit on the Triumph of Life Over the Culture of Death is possibly the most inspiring and ambitious conferences in the history of any Vision Forum. On Adam’s show, Doug will touch on some of the key topics of the events: from The Pill to adoption to a raising a large family.

R.C. Sproul Jr. On Air at 4 p.m. (CST)

On Adam’s show, R.C. Sproul will be sharing the gripping story of his special needs child Shannon, emphasizing that the local church is not a gathering place for perfect people. It is a place for the infirm, the sick, the brokenhearted, and the disabled to worship the Lord in community alongside their fellow saints.

Jenny Chancey On Air at 5 p.m. (CST)

In the great battle for the biblical family, the spirit of feminism in all of its shapes, sizes, and various incarnations has always been one of the destroyers of noble womanhood. Mrs. Jennie Chancey of Ladies Against Feminism will share how the Pill has been used in this effort to undermine the family.

Hear the ad voiced by KSLR’s Adam McManus promoting The Baby Conference.

Learn more about the Baby Conference and sign up today.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 25, 2010 | Permalink

My good friend Dr. George Grant had this tidbit which I pulled from his book The Christian Almanac.

On this day in 1939, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, announced the organization’s new “Negro Project” in response to requests from Southern state public health officials — men not generally known at that time for their racial equanimity. “The mass of Negroes,” her project proposal asserted, “particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among Whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit.” The proposal went on to say that “Public Health statistics merely hint at the primitive state of civilization in which most Negroes in the South live.” In order to remedy this “dysgenic horror story,” her project aimed to hire three or four “Colored Ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities” to travel to various black enclaves and propagandize for birth control. “The most successful educational approach to the Negro,” Margaret wrote sometime later, “is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Of course, those black ministers were to be carefully controlled — mere figureheads. “There is a great danger that we will fail,” one of the project directors wrote, “because the Negroes think it a plan for extermination. Hence, let’s appear to let the colored run it.” Another project director lamented, “I wonder if Southern Darkies can ever be entrusted with . . . a clinic. Our experience causes us to doubt their ability to work except under White supervision.” The entire operation then was a ruse — a manipulative attempt to get African Americans to cooperate in their own elimination. The program’s genocidal intentions were carefully camouflaged beneath several layers of condescending social service rhetoric and organizational expertise. Like the citizens of Hamelin, lured into captivity by the sweet serenades of the Pied Piper, all too many African Americans all across the country happily fell into step behind Margaret and the Eugenic racists she had placed on her Negro Advisory Council. Soon taxpayer-supported clinics throughout the South were distributing contraceptives to African Americans, and Sanger’s science fiction dream of discouraging “the defective and diseased elements of humanity” from their “reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning” appeared at last to be on the road to fulfillment. Planned Parenthood had its first real success in social engineering.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 25, 2010 | Permalink

Anything to justify. Anything to ease the conscience.

Enter the latest “scientific” report on unborn babies. Today, the BBC ran a story in which it reported on a recent study of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK, in which they claim there is no evidence to show that babies in the womb before 24 weeks’ gestation can feel any pain because they are “undeveloped and sedated.” They claim that the nerve connections in the cortex which send messages to the brain do not form properly before 24 weeks, and therefore the baby cannot feel any pain. The study goes on to say that given this “fact” that the babies cannot feel any pain there is no reason for those who oppose abortion to challenge the 1967 Abortion Act which limited when a child could be killed. This study, which was conducted at the request of the last parliament, seeks to give “evidence” that a child in the womb before 24 weeks doesn’t have the same quality of life as one after 24 weeks and therefore can be killed because they will not experience any pain.

Proponants of baby killing are rejoicing. Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, hailed the report by stating: “Women and doctors need to be able to make informed decisions based on what science says, not what advocates, whether pro-choice or anti-choice, wish it said.” And Anne Quesney, who is an international policy and parliamentary adviser at Marie Stopes, which provides abortions, said: “The RCOG’s findings should give comfort and reassurance to any woman who finds herself in the extremely distressing position of having to make the decision to terminate a pregnancy at a later gestation.”

Once again—a world in which ethically bankrupt politicians and professionals attempt to advance their agenda under the ruse of scientific objectivity—anything to help doctors and parents who are about to murder their children to forget that they will be burning the child to death, cutting it to pieces, or perhaps sucking it out with a vacuum cleaner.

Proverbs 8:36 remains true: “All they that hate me love death.”

To read the full article click here.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 25, 2010 | Permalink

Virginia’s Garden from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 25, 2010 | Permalink

“I think women will be helped, rather than harmed, by the development of a technology that makes it possible for them to have children without being pregnant,” Peter Singer, ethicist.

Our children are inheriting a biomedical ethical nightmare. And the unbiblical compromises of their parents on fundamental issues related to conception, life, and death, are creating a discipleship vacuum that may render the next generation unwitting accomplices in one of the greatest crises of ethics in the history of the professing church.

When it comes to questions like birth control, surrogacy, invitro-fertilization, self-sterilization, withholding of food and life support from the sick and infirm, and other biomedical ethical issues of a more basic nature, most professing Christians derive their view of right and wrong from their emotions, feelings, claims of private revelation, Hollywood, pop-culture, or even the recommendation of self-interested physicians involved in disciplines like reproductive medicine who have developed their own ethics from secular universities.

So how will our children respond to the next wave of “options”?

Will they encourage virgins to conceive and carry children to term as surrogates for infertile couples? The technology is certainly available today. If this has not yet happened, it is simply a matter of time.

Will they embrace ectogenesis—the science of extra-uterine fetal incubation. Or to put it another way, will they support the rights of women to skip the process of carrying a child to term by having little babies gestated in artificial wombs? If not, why not?

As one author wrote “...the result [of these medical possibilities] will be a new era in human procreation: a world in which children are created in the laboratory, gestated in some artificial womb-like environment, and brought “to term” without ever really being “born.’”

And if artificial mechanical wombs can help would-be parents (or perhaps the state) breed their children without the experience of pregnancy and birth, what about artificial animal wombs?

“Speculation about using such interspecies techniques in humans is already a regular feature of much scientific commentary, at least among the most vigorous enthusiasts and critics of our new reproductive powers. “Rather than expending all scientific talent and resources developing artificial wombs,” Reason science correspondent Ronald Bailey wrote recently, “I suspect that it will be much easier and cheaper to establish pregnancies with human embryos in other mammals, like cows and horses, than it will be to achieve the same thing using artificial uteruses.”“

Which of this is wrong, and can you explain why? Can you make the case from the Scriptures?

Come to The Baby Conference for answers.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 24, 2010 | Permalink

Earlier this year, my good friend Geoff Botkin, who will be speaking at the Baby Conference, wrote this important piece on the 50th Anniversary of the Pill which was published by Worldnetdaily.com.

By Geoffrey Botkin © 2010

This year, as the birth-control pill turns 50, America is discovering a lethal side effect. It’s called moral stupefaction. The pill has made an entire generation of adult Americans progressively more stupidly infantile. One half-century of a fatal, anti-baby culture is killing us. There is a culture-wide inability to think intelligently about what we have done to ourselves.

When the saga of oral contraception began in 1960, my surviving peers and I were in kindergarten. I say “surviving” because the pill emerged the year my classmates were conceived. This was the year some of my other peers were not conceived. The fanatical eugenics crusader Margaret Sanger had been demanding a “miracle pill” since 1923. In 1953 she persuaded a rich, frustrated, anti-child feminist to bankroll hormone experiments on women. Eight-hundred ninety-seven test subjects, who did not want to have babies, simply popped the new experimental drug. Eureka. No babies.

My surviving peers grew up being taught this was success in the name of science, in the name of the future and in the name of the state. The FDA approved commercial sales in 1960, and the Sanger generation, seated in the kindergartens of a government school system, would now give life to a culture of death.

I have since wondered which of my potential classmates missed their birth days. And I wonder how many of my kindergarten friends lost little brothers and sisters when the pill went on the market that first year of school - the year my school chums were celebrating each others’ 6th birthdays. We were the culminating fruit of the eugenics movement. We were at ground zero of the final chapter in the eugenics experiment. We were told the new culture was a culture of freedom, self-fulfillment, fun and life. The Sanger generation was lied to.

Soon my hot-blooded classmates were matriculated into junior high. This was another historic year for the Sanger generation. They came of age in a promiscuous culture they were taught to own, celebrate and perpetuate. This new culture embraced them when they were infants and succeeded in making them more infantile with each passing year. Puberty only accelerated this process. They were now old enough to taste social freedom themselves, and they all knew exactly what this culture of freedom was. It was an endorsement by science and government to be immature and irresponsible. They knew exactly where babies came from. And they knew this drugs-and-personal-self-indulgence culture was anti-baby. Eureka. Perpetual fun, no consequences, and no babies.

For the Sanger generation, mature family life with children was no longer a part of growing up. Approved drugs could be obtained - free - by the healthy adolescent for a new cultural purpose: to bypass the responsibilities of family. These drugs cured no medical ailment, but promoted a long-term social purpose endorsed by the government. The FDA, the Post Office, the courts and the school curriculum all approved of the new “pill” culture. Take a pill and engineer the population of an entire nation. Take a pill and be yourself. Take a pill and gratify your desires immediately. Take a pill and protect yourself from the consequences of infantile stupidity.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 24, 2010 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 24, 2010 | Permalink

In the great battle for the biblical family, the spirit of feminism in all of its shapes, sizes, and various incarnations has always been one of the destroyers of noble womanhood. Jennie Chancey will deliver a ninety-minute message at The Baby Conference called “Why We Must Be Ladies Against Feminism.” It will include an opportunity for Q and A.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 23, 2010 | Permalink

Battle Swords in Action from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 21, 2010 | Permalink

On July 8-10, The Baby Conference: An Historic Family Summit on the Triumph of Life Over the Culture of Death will answer hundreds of critical questions, such as, “Is it good stewardship for the poor to use birth control?” This conference has one of the most inspiring and ambitious lineups in the history of any Vision Forum event, so make sure you sign up today and prepare for one of the most encouraging, equipping, and foundational events you have ever attended.

This is the definitive event in defense of life, children as a blessing, the hope of adoption, and a distinctively biblical and pro-life response to the biomedical, ethical issues the Christian family must face. But it is more than that. It is a time for families to fellowship and get tremendous encouragement. It is also an event where our speakers model a love for life.

We just reviewed our speaker list and noted that while we have speakers with one child, three children, and of course nineteen children in their respective households, our speakers have, on average, about 6.5 children per speaker’s family! That is about three times the national average. Praise the Lord. Is this a record for a conference of this size? I don’t know, but I would not be surprised if it was.

Click here to view the full schedule and be sure to join us at the family event of the year.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 21, 2010 | Permalink

This is one of the most inspiring and ambitious line-ups in the history of any Vision Forum event. Make sure to sign up today and prepare for one of the most encouraging, equipping, and foundational events you have ever attended. The Baby Conference: A Historic Family Summit on the Triumph of Life over the Culture of Death.

We just reviewed the list and noted that while we have speakers with one child, three children, and of course, nineteen children in their households respectively, our average number of children per speaker family size is about seven. Seven!!! Praise the Lord. Is this a record for a conference of this size? I don’t know, but I would not be surprised if it were. Take a look at our speaker and guest panelist line-up made up of 24 different families:

Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar are the parents of 19 children and the focus of the television show 19 Kids and Counting. Michelle will receive an award for Mother of the Year, be the guest of honor at our ladies’ tea, and Jim Bob will contribute to our discussions of large family logistics and the blessing of family life.

Bob & Karen Allen are part of a third-generation family business in Fayetteville, NC, and they are the parents of nine children who are the fourth generation in the family business. They will be included in our panel discussions on raising a large family.

Geoff & Victoria Botkin. Geoff is founder of The Western Conservatory of the Arts and Sciences, an elder in his local church in Centerville, TN, and the father of seven grown children. He will be speaking on the wonders of embryology.

Scott & Deborah Brown are the proud parents of four adopted children. Scott is board member of Vision Forum Ministries, the director of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, and the pastor of Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, NC.

Adam & Amy McManus are newly adoptive parents of Honor Calvin. Adam is one of the most important radio talk show voices for Christ and freedom in America today. They will address issues for newly adoptive parents.

Doug & Beall Phillips. Doug is the founder of Vision Forum Ministries and the father of eight children. He will speak on a variety of subjects ranging from adoption to biomedical ethics to the core values of The Baby Conference. Beall will be addressing the ladies on issues of motherhood.

Dr. R.C. & Denise Sproul Jr. R.C. is a teaching fellow at Ligonier Ministries and the founder, chairman, and teacher at Highlands Ministries. He and Denise are the parents of eight blessings, including one who is profoundly disabled, and two adopted children.

Jay & Kay Valenti are the parents of seven children including three children internationally adopted. They will serve as part of our panel discussions on practical issues facing adoptive parents.

Dr. Mo Gill is a colonel in the United States Air Force and staff physician of orthopedic medicine. Dr. Gill is the father of nine children and will be addressing bio medical ethical issues such as brain death and organ transplants.

Dan Becker is president of Georgia Right to Life and an uncompromised champion on behalf of the unborn. Dan is the father to five married children and recently lost his wife of 31 years due to a battle with cancer.

Flip Benhem is the Director of Operation Save America. He is the father of five children. He will address the future of the pro-life movement.

David Birdy was one of the leaders of the rescue effort for Haiti. He and wife Laura are the adoptive parents of three Haitian children. He will address the cause of Haitian orphan relief.

Ken Carpenter is the founder of Franklin Springs Media and the father of nine children. He will be part of the panel discussions on raising a large family for the glory of God.

Jennie Chancey is the founder of Ladies Against Feminism and the mother of nine children. She will be one of the hosts at the Michelle Duggar tea and will address the ladies on several panels concerning the call of motherhood and raising a large family.

Kim Coghlan is the mother of ten children and wife to Perry Coghlan who is the director of fulfillment at Vision Forum. Kim is the blogger of Life in a Shoe Blog where she shares her practical wit and wisdom of raising a large family with homeschool moms on the internet.

Carmon Friedrich is the founder of Buried Treasure Books and the mother of ten children. She will address the blessings, challenges, and practicalities of raising a large family, as part of the ladies’ panels.

Don Hart is the father of six children, a Vision Forum Board member, an attorney, and the founder of Heritage Defense. He will address practical legal issues facing the family.

James Lansberry is Vice President of Samaritan Ministries — a creative alternative to Healthcare, and a Needs-based Sharing Ministry. He is a frequent radio guest speaker, and a speaker at churches, colleges and conferences. He and his wife, Theresa, have been married fourteen years and are the parents of seven children.

Dr. John Leininger is a retired optometrist and the founder of Harvest International, and he has had one foot in Haiti for 33 years. He is the father of four children and will discuss the Haiti orphan crisis.

Jesse Paine is an attorney and the owner with wife Crystal of the very successful moneysavingmom.com. He is the father to three children. He will be part of the legal panel addressing legal issues facing Christian parents.

Dr. Edward Payne, the founder of the Journal of Biblical Medical Ethics will address the biblical foundations of health, of medicine, and the future of health care reform.

Paul Pennington is the Executive Director of “Hope for Orphans.” Paul has been married to his wife Robin for 32 years and they have six children, five of whom the Lord brought to them through adoption, and nine grandchildren. Paul will address the issue of international adoption.

Kevin Swanson is the host of the Generations Radio show, pastor in his local church and executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado. He is the father of five children.

Jim Zes is a church elder, an entrepreneur, a member of the board of Vision Forum Ministries, and the father of three children. He will chair our discussion on the pro-life movement.

Learn More About The Baby Conference

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 17, 2010 | Permalink

Next year is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the war that set brother against brother and ravaged America. But if you got your view of our history in government school or on PBS, then you probably don’t understand the most critical element of the debate that split America right down the middle and resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands. This downloadable video will help you recapture ground lost from the wasteland of government education by presenting you with two distinct perspectives on the true causes of the Civil War.

In The Great Civil War Debate, join two respected historians and pastors — Peter Marshall and Steve Wilkins — as they revisit the “War Between the States” and attempt to find the heart of God concerning this national tragedy.

This historic debate was recorded before a packed audience in Atlanta, Georgia. The exchange was so interesting — and at times intense — that C-SPAN aired the debate a dozen times on national television.

This special presentation includes historical film footage, photos and portraits. You can come to your own conclusions as to which side was right after watching this fascinating debate.

Preview & Download ‘The Great Civil War Debate’ >>

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 17, 2010 | Permalink

“[A]ll great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both met and overcome with answerable courage.” William Bradford, p. 22, Of Plymouth Plantation

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 17, 2010 | Permalink

“Our greatest wealth is not measured in terms of riches but relationships. Likewise, our greatest debts are incurred because of wastrel companions.”—Oliver Cromwell

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 17, 2010 | Permalink

“Those who care about history, who study history, do so because they care about the future.”—R.J. Rushdoony, Christian Survey of World History, Lecture 2

“I do not regard the past as dead. On the contrary, I regard the past and the present and even the future as part of an eternal reality. Ours are the same tests and crises that our fathers and forefathers encountered: all I do is remind my contemporaries that Eternity watches us forever.”—Otto Scott

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 17, 2010 | Permalink

I am writing this today because I need your help.

At The Baby Conference on July 9, Vision Forum Ministries hopes to communicate a message of gratitude to the world for the powerful testimony of Michelle Duggar. No other woman of the modern era has done more to communicate the joy of life than Michelle. In fact, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that there are thousands of children in the world who might not otherwise be here but for the God-glorifying example of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. For this reason we will be giving Michelle Vision Forum Ministries’ “Mother of the Year” award.

But not only do we want to honor Michelle, we also want to take this opportunity to multiply our efforts for the kingdom of God by using film, recorded media, print, and every vehicle available to us, to send the message of life to a world that is obsessed with the culture of death.

Here is how you can help me accomplish this goal.

If you agree that the evangelical community needs ministries like Vision Forum to mount a clear and encouraging defense of the gift of life, including the blessing of the fruitful womb and the joy of children as God’s reward, then please consider partnering with Vision Forum and The Baby Conference by making a generous donation to our efforts. Click here to make an online donation.

Additionally, if the life ministry of Michelle Duggar has been a blessing to you, would you consider sending us a 15-20 second video clip* that expresses your appreciation for her? It is my goal to present Michelle with a compelling video montage from many men and women around the country that expresses the profound gratitude we have for her in her stand for Christ. I feel this is all the more important when one considers the media barrage of hatred directed at Michelle, Jim Bob, and their precious family from those who despise large families and God’s precious gift of life.

Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and practical help as we defend the Biblical family and the Christian doctrine of life.

* All video clips should be submitted to Vision Forum on DVD, but can be in any format as long as they are at least 24 frames per second, and at least 720 x 480 resolution. When filming, please position yourself at least three feet, but no more than five feet, in front of the camera.

Please send your video clips to:

Vision Forum Ministries
Attn. Michelle Duggar Thank You
4719 Blanco Road
San Antonio, Texas 78212

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 16, 2010 | Permalink

Today is the final day to use the coupon code EUROSTUDY20 and receive $20 off the 2010 European Virtual History Tour & MP3 Collection.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 16, 2010 | Permalink

To view this video, you must have Adobe Flash Player installed. If your computer is having difficulty viewing the videos smoothly in HD, click the “HD” button in the upper-right corner of the video frame to turn HD quality off.

Register for the Baby Conference at Vision Forum Ministries.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 16, 2010 | Permalink

Two years ago, I was in England with my family. While there, one of the highlights for me was the time I spent walking with my children on the ancient fields of Runnymede, located just outside of Windsor near the River Thames. It was on this battlefield 795 years ago today in 1215, that King John was forced by the nobles and barons to affix his Royal Seal on the “Great Charter” of liberty. In 2015 we will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of this great document of freedom. The Magna Carta is the seedbed of our modern concepts of the proper understanding of “Separation of Church and State,” free speech, free association, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, the right of due process according to the law of the land, the right to a public and impartial trial at the hands of our peers, the right to travel freely in the time of peace, and fundamentally of all, the recognition that even the sovereign is subject to the law of the land. The king is under the law! This was the first time in Christendom that this principle was enshrined into law.

While on the fields of Runnymede, I took my family to the Jamestown Magna Carta Tree, a landmark of liberty planted with soil from America’s birthplace. This tree is more than just a little taste of home, it is a link to Biblical principles of liberty articulated on this field and carried to the shores of America four hundred and three years ago. Vision Forum celebrated this event in Jamestown in 2007 with the Jamestown Quadricentennial, a grand celebration which ended on the anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, June 15, 1215. (Three years ago, participants in the Jamestown 400: Our National Treasure Hunt, will remember being directed by super code-maker/breaker Jack Bradford to the Magna Carta Tree in Jamestown, VA.)

So foundational and instrumental is the Magna Carta to our own legal system, that not only is there a tree planted with the soil from Jamestown, Virginia to commemorate this fact, but England has ceded a small section of land on the field of Runnymede to the American Bar Association in honor of the fact that our very Charter, the U.S. Constitution, codifies into our law system many of the ancient principles that were secured on this field. The Constitution of the United States of America refers specifically to the Magna Carta’s principles in several sections of the document: Article One, Section Nine, and in Amendments One, Five, Six, and Eight. The founding fathers did not just draft our Constitution out of thin air. It was birthed over several centuries of legal theory rooted in Biblical law and springing from the fields of Runnymede.

One of the most important legal theorists to uphold the principles of the Magna Carta and whom the founders drew heavily from, was none other than Sir Edward Coke. Coke (pronounced “Cook”) was the attorney general for Elizabeth I, chief justice during the reign of James I, and was one of the fiercest opponents to Charles I. Coke would use the Magna Carta against the tyrannical Stuart kings and even proclaimed to Parliament in 1628, “Magna Carta...will have no sovereign.”

It was from Coke (and later William Blackstone), who was writing at the time of the colonial charters, that the founding fathers learned their common law history. Each charter guaranteed that those coming to the New World and their heirs would have “all the rights and immunities of free and natural subjects.” So foundational was the Magna Carta and the study of our common law history to our founders, that Edmund Burke would say of America, “In no country, perhaps in the world, is law so general a study.” It was by reading Coke, whose four-volume Institutes of the Laws of England was widely read by American law students such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, that they learned of the spirit of the charter and the common law. Thomas Jefferson would write to James Madison of Coke’s influence : “a sounder Whig never wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called English liberties.”

Magna Carta enshrined the concept that the king was under the law. In 1779 John Adams expressed it this way : “A government of laws, and not of men.”

In just five short years the English-speaking world will celebrate the 800th Birthday of Magna Carta’s signing. May we never forget the importance of an event which took place on a small field outside of the city of Windsor on this day.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 15, 2010 | Permalink

Trebuchet: The Son of Ludgar the Warwolf from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History was one of the happiest weeks of my life. Four thousand friends gathered at Fort Pocahontas, not far from Lake Matoaka in Williamsburg, Virginia, to commemorate the providence of God in our history. The great children’s parade at Fort Pocahontas was accompanied by more than a thousand children in costume, some carrying flags from all fifty states and some carrying swords. It was glorious to behold.

This weekend was the third anniversary of the great Jamestown Quadricentennial event, and some of our good friends sponsored a Medieval Day. Many of our reenactors from both Jamestown and the Reformation 500 were in attendance, and in costume, making it a day full of precious memories old and new. I presented a message on the origin and meaning of the code of chivalry with its application in the present day. I also gave a small talk on the history of trebuchets. A highlight of the day was the launching of the great trebuchet built by Dillon Grady. I am affectionately calling it “the Son of Ludgar the Warwolf,” in honor of the massive trebuchet that besieged Stirling Castle in Scotland in 1304. Above is a clip of “the Son of Ludgar the Warwolf” in action.

Here we are in Jamestown with Princess Pocahontas helps to lead the Children’s Parade.

The parade took the marchers all around Ft. Pocahontas.

The parade reaches the big tent.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 14, 2010 | Permalink

What Girls Are Saying about Elsie Dinsmore from Vision Forum on Vimeo.

To read more about the Elsie Dinsmore series, click here.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 14, 2010 | Permalink

The Baby Conference from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 14, 2010 | Permalink

To view this video, you must have Adobe Flash Player installed. If your computer is having difficulty viewing the videos smoothly in HD, click the “HD” button in the upper-right corner of the video frame to turn HD quality off.

Register for the Baby Conference at Vision Forum Ministries.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 11, 2010 | Permalink

Beall, Michelle and Josie Duggar from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 10, 2010 | Permalink

To view this video, you must have Adobe Flash Player installed. If your computer is having difficulty viewing the videos smoothly in HD, click the “HD” button in the upper-right corner of the video frame to turn HD quality off.

Now through June 16, use the coupon code EUROSTUDY20 and receive $20 off the 2010 European Virtual History Tour & MP3 Collection.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 10, 2010 | Permalink

Virginia’s Garden from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Virginia who had her very own garden. She worked hard to keep the blue flowers and the white flowers and the red flowers very happy, but she was not alone in this mission. As Virginia explains: “There are lots of creatures that will help in my garden.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 9, 2010 | Permalink

Message from Michelle Duggar from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 8, 2010 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 8, 2010 | Permalink

I had hoped to stop by the Duggars to visit with Michelle as the children and I drove home from the east coast, because I wanted to catch up a little before we were together at the Baby Conference, but I was so surprised and a little overwhelmed when Jim Bob told me that Josie was coming home the day before we wanted to be there and we would be able to see her in person! The rest of the family was in Nashville, and while we were sad to miss them, we were thrilled with the opportunity to meet their precious miracle baby.

Their rental home is beautiful, just like their family! Michelle welcomed us in from the second floor. She doesn’t leave Josie alone, so that she can constantly monitor her vital signs. The children and I poured in with boxes of gyros, cucumber and tomato salad, Greek chicken soup, and root beer! Michelle greeted us with her usual calm, cheerful, unflappable warmth, as if she had just seen us yesterday. And we picked up where we left off a year and a half ago, talking about babies, schooling, organizing, travel, and of course, Josie. Michelle’s perspective is always encouraging and uplifting. She so willingly receives whatever the Lord offers her, even when it is a hefty challenge. She so deeply values life and she so comprehensively understands the significance of her role as a mother, that she has adapted to the new routine with Josie with resolve and contentment and unquenchable joy.

This is why Doug and I wanted Michelle and Jim Bob to be with us at the Baby Conference in July, and this is why we want to give Michelle the Mother of the Year award. The award is not for number of babies or deftness at changing a diaper or doling out responsibilities to children, for all of which Michelle is an expert. The award is to honor her for embracing the role the Lord has chosen for her as wife and mother and for receiving all that the Lord would give her with that gratitude and zeal! We all know that when a couple trusts the Lord to plan the size of their family, it does not often add up to 19 children. It might be 2, it might be 8 or even 10, but 19 is unusual! And in His perfect providence, that is what the Lord has chosen for Jim Bob and Michelle, and you will not see a better testimony of genuine appreciation to the Lord for His blessings, enthusiasm for the responsibility, and overwhelming love for every single one of those blessings! They know in their hearts and they proclaim to anyone who will hear that each of these precious nineteen children has been entrusted to them for a purpose, and that it is Jim Bob and Michelle’s greatest honor and privilege to be guardian over and trainer of each individual eternal soul. What an investment portfolio!

Before I realized it, we had visited all afternoon. Michelle let a couple of the older children hold baby Josie, who, at 6 months is the size of a full-term newborn, seven-and-a-half pounds. She is so alert and interested, smiling and watching all the goings on. Michelle told me story after story of God’s intervention in Josie’s life, protecting and providing for her. Every word out of Michelle’s mouth gives praise and glory to the Lord, with the the purest humility and gratitude.

As we wrapped up our visit, Michelle told the children how she had enjoyed them, since she was missing her own in Tennessee, and didn’t quite like the quiet very much. (The children were happy to have filled the quiet with plenty of auditory substance!) She said our visit had encouraged her, but we had received the encouragement. The next hour in the car was filled with rehearsals of the conversation. “Mrs. Duggar said this” or “wasn’t it cute the way Mrs. Duggar did that.”

Michelle is special. She has had an opportunity to live out the maxims we teach about loving life and receiving blessings from the Lord as He gives them in a way that no one else that I know of has had the opportunity. In God’s plan, she is living an unusual life with a very very full quiver. And she loves it. And everyone around her sees that and feels it and is affected by it.

Thank you, Michelle, for a very special afternoon with you and Josie.

Beall

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 8, 2010 | Permalink

This past February People Magazine ran a cover story on Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The title of the article was “How Many Children is Too Many?” But the cover story article was sympathetic piece which allowed the Duggars to share their heart for the blessing of each one of their children. Here’s the story:

Jim Bob Duggar drops his wife, Michelle, off at the doors of Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and waves goodbye. A case of the sniffles usually isn’t a big deal, but Jim Bob’s cold could spell disaster for his 19th child, baby Josie Brooklyn, who is in a tiny incubator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. So Michelle is solo as she heads into the hospital’s pumping room to provide more breast milk for her tiny daughter, born on Dec. 10 at a mere 25 weeks’ gestation, weighing just 1 lb. 6 oz. Jim Bob, 44, meanwhile, heads back to their other 17 kids still living at home. “People have shared encouragement of how they made it through with preemies,” says Michelle softly. “That has helped us so much. But we are not out of the woods yet.”

The woods hold other snarls for Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. Having a mega-family turned the devoutly Christian couple into reality sensations: Their TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, which airs on Tuesdays, is in its third season on the network. But for every fan of the show—the TLC special covering Josie’s birth garnered more than 3 million viewers—there have been detractors in online chat rooms, on parenting Web sites and within the medical community, who have been critical each time Michelle has announced a new pregnancy on average every 18 months. “I think that’s too many kids,” says Dr. Douglas Downey, a general surgeon based in Florida. “From a family resource perspective, there is no way you can give the emotional and financial resources you would need to support that many children. I have to believe it’s difficult.” Jim Bob is unfazed. “The negatives don’t bother us,” he insists. Agrees Michelle: “Our hearts haven’t changed.”

Josie’s early birth came after Michelle was diagnosed with preeclampsia, or pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. Preeclampsia could pose a risk to any subsequent pregnancies, and additional health risks loom for Michelle, 43, should she have another child (see sidebar). But the Duggars, who don’t use any contraception, remain committed to their belief that “each child is a gift from God” and are open to having more. Michelle knows how their position is likely to be viewed, particularly following Josie’s arrival. “When I say we would love more children, we open ourselves up for attack,” she admits.

Given Josie’s struggle to survive—she is recovering from a bowel perforation and now weighs more than 2 lbs.—the couple say their focus now is on their preemie. “Josie has been off the ventilator for two weeks now, and they are increasing her feeds little by little,” says Jim Bob. “We pray that she grows strong.”

Michelle acknowledges that she has never before encountered the sort of challenges she will face while parenting a preemie. “It is not as if we’re going for another [baby] immediately. This is going to be a year of different focus for me, getting Josie through her first year of life.” Even without a preemie to care for, the Duggars would not normally conceive for several months. Taking a cue from the Bible, the couple practice 40 days of abstinence after having a boy; 80 days after having a girl. “Not that we feel like we are under the Old Testament law,” explains Jim Bob. “But there are spiritual benefits that come from that.” Agrees Michelle: “It strengthens our relationship.”

Jim Bob says that of the hundreds of e-mails and messages he gets a day, “only a few are negative,” but he understands that “everyone is entitled to an opinion.” And opinions can change, he says—he knows firsthand. “Twenty years ago I met a man with 10 children, and I couldn’t imagine having that many. It was beyond comprehension.”

Critics who believe the Duggar children are a strain on government finances can rest easy: The Duggars live debt free in a 7,000-sq.-ft. home they built themselves, and Josie’s medical costs are covered by insurance. They’ve made their living by being frugal, profitable real-estate investments and earnings from their book The Duggars: 20 and Counting! and their TLC show. “People see debt as a gift and children as a burden,” says Jim Bob. “Not us. Debt is a burden, and children are a blessing.”

As for Michelle, who doesn’t even know if she’ll be able to have more children, negative reaction won’t interfere with the pleasure she gets from her family. “I am enjoying every day I have with them—and especially with Josie right now because things are so uncertain,” she says. “Only one person can live the life that I live, and that is me.”

Read the rest of the article here

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 8, 2010 | Permalink

There are some disabled infants born with conditions so severe that doctors don’t really try to keep them alive. They allow them to die essentially through benign neglect. But that can be a very slow process. In my view, if that decision is justified — and I think it can be — then with the consent and support of the parents, and only then, I think it would be justifiable to help that infant to die; in other words, to take active steps to end that infant’s life more swiftly and more humanely. I don’t believe in the existence of God, so it makes no sense to me to say that a human being is a creature of God. It’s as simple as that. Peter Singer, Princeton Professor of Bio-Ethics

We are in the midst of a season of great antithesis on the battle for life. On the one hand, there is a genuine revival of life with Christian families (many of whom are home educators) who embrace the gift of life through adoption, who seek the Lord to bless the fruit of the womb, and who are reversing bad decisions aimed at cutting off God’s gift of life. On the other hand, there is a concerted and genuinely malicious effort aimed at the culture of life, and these families in particular, by feminists of every stripe, by statists intent on allowing the government to regulate the family, and by the latest breed of ethicists who are gradually moving our society to the point where the devaluation of life is a common approach played out in the womb, in the hospital, in the assisted living facility, and beyond.

In today’s New York Times Opinion Piece Princeton’s professor of bio-ethics Peter Singer asks, “Should This Be the Last Generation?” Singer posits these questions at the end of today’s piece:

Is life worth living? Are the interests of a future child a reason for bringing that child into existence? And is the continuance of our species justifiable in the face of our knowledge that it will certainly bring suffering to innocent future human beings?

He begins his piece by asking:

Have you ever thought about whether to have a child? If so, what factors entered into your decision? Was it whether having children would be good for you, your partner and others close to the possible child, such as children you may already have, or perhaps your parents? For most people contemplating reproduction, those are the dominant questions. Some may also think about the desirability of adding to the strain that the nearly seven billion people already here are putting on our planet’s environment. But very few ask whether coming into existence is a good thing for the child itself.

It is the goal of The Baby Conference to answer the questions of those who think life is not worth living and those who worship the creature more than creator such as Princeton’s Peter Singer. Will you prayerfully consider joining me at this year’s conference?

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 7, 2010 | Permalink

Joshua and I are returning from a God-blessed, encouraging few days of ministry with the Teaching Parents Association of Kansas where about 1800 home educators gathered to purchase curriculum, to fellowship with like-minded families, and to renew and reaffirm their commitment to Christian home education. I shared messages on Biblical worldview for filmmakers, and the great hope of independent Christian film-making, on a Home School Vision of Victory, on Seven Toxins Which Threaten the Home School Movement, and on The Visionary Father’s Role in Home Education. My son Joshua, joined me in bringing a message called Rebuilding a Culture of Virtuous Boyhood.

The leaders of the event were very principled men and women who made the entire conference special for the hundreds of families present. Together, we emphasized themes like: (1) Christ must be the heart and soul of our families and our approach to parent child discipleship; (2) we are not merely advocates for home eduation but for distinctively Christian home education; (3) the mission of home education is not an academic pedigree, but God’s glory as the child is prepared to grow in wisdom and stature, aspiring to have the very mind of Christ in all things, and using his life in the useful service of the Lord as a covenant-keeping, Great-commission advancing, dominion-taking servant of Christ. Other themes I addressed included the sufficiency of Scripture for life and practice, including Christian ethics, culture and discipleship; the responsibility of fathers to led with love and vision, and the necessity that families understand the present war on biblical masculinity and femininity.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 7, 2010 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 6, 2010 | Permalink

Just a few of the topics covered and messages to be brought at The Baby Conference:

The Blessing of Children—-Large Family Logistics—What the Bible Says About Biblical Discipline in the Home—Everything You Need to Know About Adoption—-The First Three Years —-Reversal Surgery—The Wonders of Embryology—Naming Your Children—Children as Pets—Toys, Tools and Children—The Role of Grandparents in the Life of Children—The Hopeful Theology of Miscarriage—How the Local Church Builds a Culture of Life—The Myth of Overpopulation—Caring for Disabled Children—Surviving the First Fifty Years of the Pill—Top Legal issues Facing Parents—The Demographic Bomb—What the Bible Says About Birth Control—The Future of Health Care for Christian Families—Surrogacy—Designer Babies—Artificial Wombs—Brain Death—Care for the Elderly—Birthing Options.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 5, 2010 | Permalink

A Startling and Revelatory Report From Esteemed Scientist Samuel Phillips on Psychological Damage Caused By Exposure to the Little Black Box of Death from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 4, 2010 | Permalink

Scott Brown honors the war dead and the veterans in the big tent.

We relived the American advance in Northern France with our sons in vintage jeeps.

There were Jeep rides for all...

...and cotton candy, North Carolina barbeque, and hushpuppies.

There was a funny little car...

...and a manly big truck.

Philip, Katie, and Beall—-friends reunited.

Evening swimming at Ye Old Memorial Day Pond.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 1, 2010 | Permalink