Not to us, Lord, not to us
but to your name give glory
because of your mercy and faithfulness. Psalm 115: 1 (NABRE)~
Regarding the number of coronavirus cases declining in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that.”
Wow.
Michael W. Chapman reports that “Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a Catholic who supports abortion on demand, even up to the moment of birth.'”
To that and the governor I would say, “I know Catholics. I have family and friends who are Catholics. And you, sir, are no Catholic.”
No Catholic. No Christian of any sort.
So it came to be that, on January 22, 2019, this “Catholic” governor celebrated his signing of New York’s new abortion law–set in place just in case the US Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade–which effectively established abortion through all nine months of pregnancy–for any reason.
The National Review says, “In New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law that makes abortion legal, even after the unborn child is viable, so long as the abortionist makes a ‘reasonable and good-faith judgment’ that abortion will protect the pregnant woman’s health.”
Further, New York’s legislation would also allow medical “caregivers” to deny care to infants after birth. To let them die.
You might ask how killing a child through neglect after she or he is already born protects a mother’s health.
In Virginia, which passed similar legislation, Governor Ralph Northam explained that withholding medical care from born children who have deformities should be up to the mother.
Which still doesn’t get us to improved health of the mother. We find the foundation for this fallacious argument only when we look back at Roe.
More from the National Review: “Roe v. Wade held that states could prohibit abortion late in pregnancy only if they made an exception for abortions meant to protect the pregnant woman’s health. Justice Harry Blackmun’s majority opinion in that case mentioned several health harms that unwanted parenthood could cause. Roe’s companion case, Doe v. Bolton — written by the same justice and handed down the same day — also suggested that health should be read broadly. As Blackmun put it, ‘the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age — relevant to the well-being of the patient.’”
The patient, of course, is the mother, never the child–whose relative health, good or poor, is irrelevant.
So we have arrived at today.
New York’s coronavirus numbers are down. And, according to the governor, God had nothing to do with it.
Robert Barron responds to Cuomo’s unGod viewpoint by acknowledging that it’s appropriate to thank those in the medical community for the sacrifices they’ve made. It’s also valuable to ask, “Why ultimately were they willing to do what they did?”
The answer may be the same as the one we come up with when we ask why anyone ever makes a sacrifice for someone else. It may also be the same when we ask where such desire and heroism begins.
It’s sad that Governor Cuomo, his counterpart in Virginia, a handful of other governors, and hundreds sitting in legislatures that have passed horrific death bills don’t understand the nature of sacrificial love and aren’t willing to call us to it.
The love that put Jesus Christ on his cross is the same love that cherishes a less than perfect child–as they all are–as we all are.
It’s the same love that stays up late or gets up early to care for someone who can’t care for himself or herself, no matter how old, how young, how much in need.
It’s the same love that gives to someone who can’t give back.
For their love, we say thanks to the workers.
For the one who plants the possibility of that love in us, we say, “Non nobis, Domine.” Not to us be the glory.
Only to God.
So very sad. I pray for God to reveal Himself to the governor and change his heart.
Amen, Yvonne. That’s a great prayer. Thanks and God bless!
Powerful, Nancy.
You and I are on the same wavelength – I wrote a blog post last night that published today, making many similar points.
To God alone be the glory!
Amen, Ava. That may not be the first time we did that. Thanks and God bless!
When I heard the governor of NY say that statement about God, my heart hurt. What a shame!
God bless you, Melissa, for your tender heart. Thank you!
This is tragic, and in this tragedy, the governor’s state’s death rate has now actually climbed to the highest in the nation, news articles today informed us. Now around 2.7 million residents of New York are infected with COVID19, and the death rate stands at 13.9% of those infected. The total number sick in the rest of the nation combined is still less than one million and the death rate is 5.6%. In New York, not only are there more deaths of innocent children killed through abortion and through deliberately ending the life of a delivered child meant to be killed by the procedure, but the death rate for the populace at large has grown under Cuomo’s leadership and policies. This is startling, giving one pause for serious contemplation and questions about why this shocking season of death might be occurring there on both fronts.
Horrific numbers. Thank you for reminding us, Melinda. God bless!
Nancy, I wish every person in the whole world could read this post. It brings tears to my eyes to read all of the horrific contrasts you have laid out here. Blinded to the murder of innocent children. Blinded and denying God’s hand in healing of the living. It takes my breath way. Lord have mercy on us all.
I had to try not to cry when I read it to my husband before publishing. Amen, Lord have mercy, please.
Thank you, Melissa. God bless!
Amen. Not to us, but to God be the glory.
Amen. Thank you, Candice. God bless!
When Democrats talk about the mother’s health, they don’t always just mean her physical health. Many Democrats support abortion if having a baby would have a negative impact on a mother’s mental health.
Andrew Cuomo doesn’t understand that God primarily works through people to accomplish His will. If God is working through people in response to Covid-19, then we can thank God for any positive outcomes.
Sadly, Christopher, it’s not always just Democrats. Many Republicans, even conservatives, many independents just don’t get that every life matters. Thanks and God bless!
People can be so blind! God makes all things happen. God is the beginning and the end. I started living the day I pushed self aside and realized that only in God is there a possibility of any glory. He is all!
He is, indeed, Jessica! A great paradox among many in Christianity–that we live once we’ve died to self. Thanks and God bless!
This is sad in every way, Nancy. I saw where Virginia’s governer made that statement. While I now live in Tennessee, I’m from Virginia and I shudder at such troubling and ungodly and unbiblical statements. Yet, I know Virginia as a whole has been very liberal for a long time. It’s definitely time for the church to rise up, fight for life, remember the basics of our Christian faith, and give God glory for the great things He has done!
I had an interesting conversation in January from some young Virginians who were hoping their part of Virginia would annex itself to West Virginia. That would make for some interesting shifts in the US. Thanks, Karen, and God bless!