This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Daily Devotional Bible Reading Episode #75. Where I read three chapters of the Holy Bible in the King James Version a day with my family as a part of our family devotions, to encourage you to read the Holy Bible in a year’s time. We are using a modified version of the Five Day Bible Reading Plan. It is modified because we read the Bible everyday and not just five days a week. The benefit of using the Five Day Bible Reading Plan is: you can read the entire Bible in a chronological reading plan that helps the Bible make sense. Today we are reading Leviticus 17, Psalm 120 and Acts 2.

Soren Kierkegaard said, “When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, “It is talking to me, and about me.”

Oswald Chambers said, “Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His Word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples.”

Leviticus 17
1 And the Lord spake unto Mo’-ses, saying,

2 Speak unto Aa’-ron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Is’-ra-el, and say unto them; This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying,

3 What man soever there be of the house of Is’-ra-el, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp,

4 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:

5 To the end that the children of Is’-ra-el may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the Lord.

6 And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the Lord.

7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.

8 And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Is’-ra-el, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,

9 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.

10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Is’-ra-el, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

12 Therefore I said unto the children of Is’-ra-el, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.

13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Is’-ra-el, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.

14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Is’-ra-el, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.

16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh; then he shall bear his iniquity.

Psalm 120
A Song of degrees.
1 In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me.

2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.

3 What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?

4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Me’-sech, that I dwell in the tents of Ke’-dar!

6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

Acts 2
1 And when the day of Pen’-te-cost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 And there were dwelling at Je-ru’-sa-lem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Gal-i-lae-ans?

8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

9 Par’-thi-ans, and Medes, and E’-lam-ites, and the dwellers in Mes-o-po-ta’-mi-a, and in Ju’-dae-a, and Cap-pa-do’-ci-a, in Pon’-tus, and A’-sia,

10 Phryg’-i-a, and Pam-phyl’-i-a, in E’-gypt, and in the parts of LIb’-y-a about Cy-re’-ne, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

11 Cretes and A-ra’-bi-ans, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

14 But Pe’-ter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Ju’-dae-a, and all ye that dwell at Je-ru’-sa-lem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Jo’-el;

17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:

21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

22 Ye men of Is’-ra-el, hear these words; Je’-sus of Naz’-a-reth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

25 For Da’-vid speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:

26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:

27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch Da’-vid, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

32 This Je’-sus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

34 For Da’-vid is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

36 Therefore let all the house of Is’-ra-el know assuredly, that God hath made the same Je’-sus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Pe’-ter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

38 Then Pe’-ter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Je’-sus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

________

PRAY
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When I was a teenager I wanted to get wisdom and knowledge, so I set out the read the big family Bible that many families had in those days. But I couldn’t get past Genesis 2 before I got bored with reading the Bible. I found out later in life that you have to believe on Christ and get saved before you can understand the Bible. So here is how I became a Christian and how you can too:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:8: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now that is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and today I choose to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and I choose to follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, please email me at [email protected] and let us know. There is some free material that we want to send you. If you have a prayer request, please e-mail that to us as well, and we will pray for you until you tell us to stop.

God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.

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Happiness (GLMX #422)

This is the “chief of sinners,” Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, with the Gospel Light Minute X Podcast #422 titled, “Happiness” I’m here to remind you of what the Bible says, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like you and me.

Happiness . . . we long for it; we work for it. But every time we think we have it, it’s gone—like a soap bubble in a child’s eager grasp.

Happiness is more than a great vacation, a new job, a healthy family, or even our “dream come true.” Ultimate joy is a quality of life that comes from God alone.

Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can promise: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” and “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

It’s hard to understand how great that invitation from Jesus truly is without first understanding how dire our situation is without Him. The Bible tells us that in the beginning God created a perfect world, and humans were in a perfect relationship with Him. But the first humans, Adam and Eve, did not follow God’s rule and sin entered the world. Because God is holy and without sin, the relationship that once existed between God and people was broken. And this broken relationship had far-reaching effects—death, sickness, hardship, and sadness to name a few. But God would not leave things this way.

Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, became a man and lived the perfect life that we could not, and died on a cross to pay the penalty our sins had earned. But He did not stay in the grave. Three days later, God brought Jesus back from the dead, and He is now seated at the right hand of God in Heaven. What’s more, God has sent the Holy Spirit to live within His people, filling them with unshakable joy and a deep sense of contentment as they live not for themselves, but for the God who has redeemed them.

The curse of sin that we feel so deeply in our own broken relationships and sickness and sorrow does not have to be the defining factor of our lives any longer. The Bible says in Romans 10:9–10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. Forgiveness is freely offered to restore our relationship with God—our ultimate source of peace and hope and joy.

Christ’s offer is no false hope of a life of ease. Instead, He offers us something better—His power to remove your burden of sin and His presence to share the joys and trials of each day. By His resurrection He provides a new way of living with God now and throughout eternity.

You can have this new life today. Trust and receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord. He will not fail you.

The Bible states in 1 John 5:11–12, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

If you want to be saved from the wrath to come and from an eternity in Hell, and if you believe that Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead and you are willing to trust Jesus Christ with all of your heart so you can go to Heaven, please pray with me what is called the sinner’s prayer: Holy Father God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I admit that I have sinned against You and that I have broken Your Ten Commandments. I have lied before. I have stolen things before. I have lusted after people and things before. I have dishonored and disobeyed my parents. I have taken Your holy Name in vain. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please have mercy and grace upon my soul and forgive me of all of my sins, my failures, and my faults. As I now believe in Your Holy Son the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered, bled, and died on the cross for my sins, was buried and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to repent of my sins past. Help me to turn from my old, evil life and follow You in the new life. For it is in Your Name I pray. Amen.

——-

Thank you for listening to this Gospel presentation. If you have decided to trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour after listening to this podcast, please email us at [email protected] and let us know. To find out more about what you need to do after trusting Christ as Savior, visit GospelLightSociety.com and read “What to Do After You Enter Through the Door”.

The tract this podcast is based on is published by Crossway, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to spread God’s Word to the world through the printed page and other media. You can order copies of this tract online at Crossway.org.

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When an on-stage interviewer recently asked Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Who are your mentors? Who do you call for advice?” he replied, “It’s different people for different things.” But then he immediately said, “I’ve become more religious.”

“Really,” said interviewer Cliff Betts, who sounded a bit surprised.

Zuckerberg tried to explain, saying, “I mean, that’s not really a mentorship thing, … but I do think that there’s a scale.

“I don’t know, the last few years have been really humbling for me. I thought I like knew a lot about how to build something and I don’t know. I think that there’s just a comfort in knowing and having confidence that there are things that are bigger than you.”

Zuckerberg was interviewed Jan. 31 at the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit in Salt Lake City.

Zuckerberg and his flagship social media platform have recently faced complaints of anti-conservative bias and election influencing. After government investigations, the enterprise has attempted to mend its reputation.

The challenges of running a social media empire that also includes Instagram might be driving 35-year-old Zuckerberg’s feelings of humility. But also during the past few years, other experiences might have been clues to his move to a “more religious” life, which involves his family. He said they would always be more important to him than his work.

Source: Christian Headlines

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A USPS worker is giving God the credit for being at the right place at the right time when he found a toddler who had been missing all night.

According to Christian Today, two-year-old Ethan Adeyemi disappeared from his home in Howard County, Maryland, around 10:20 pm last Wednesday night. He wandered barefoot along a Maryland highway the whole evening in only a sweatshirt and sweatpants.

Neighbors, K9 units, helicopters, drones, firefighters and police officers had been scouring the area for hours after the family reported him missing. But it was until Keith Rollins, the U.S. Postal worker who saw him at 8 AM, picked him up that he was safe.

Rollins was driving to work only a half-mile away from the child’s home when he saw him on the side of the road, according to WJZ in Baltimore.

“He had only a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, no shoes or socks,” said Rollins. “So I walked up to him. I said, ‘Hey, buddy. How you doing? What’s your name? Are you OK?’ He looked at me, but I didn’t get a response from him.”

The child was shivering, “wet to the bone and had no socks, no shoes.”

Source: Christian Headlines

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According to the Pew Research Center, almost all of the United States presidents have called themselves Christians. And half of them were Episcopalian or Presbyterian, including current President Donald Trump.

Though presidents are not required to adhere to any religion in order to be elected to the highest office in the land, a large majority of them have clung to religion and the Bible as they rose to the top, according to Fox News.

The largest group represented is Episcopalian with 11 presidents including H.W. Bush, Ford, F. Roosevelt, Arthur, Pierce, Taylor, Tyler, W. Harrison, Monroe, Madison, and Washington.

Following the Episcopalians are Presbyterians. Trump claims to adhere to this denomination, calling it a “wonderful religion.” He’s joined with Reagan, Eisenhower, Wilson, B. Harrison, Cleveland, Buchanan, Polk, and Jackson.

Baptists, Unitarians, Methodists, non-denominational Christians, and Disciples of Christ have smaller amounts.

Clinton, Carter, Truman, and Hardin were all Baptists and tied in number with the Unitarians, which included Taft, Fillmore, Q. Adams, and Adams.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Perry Noble has announced plans to expand his Second Chance Church to a larger location.

The Anderson pastor announced plans to move to the former Bi-Lo store location near Anderson Mall, a short distance from the church’s current location in a strip mall near Target.

The 28,000-square-foot location will include a 700-person auditorium, twice the size of the current place, Noble told his congregation.

It will take around $2 million, he said. Banks have not wanted to give loans because the church isn’t old and because of how he was fired from his last church, Noble said.

“This is our opportunity,” he said.

“I’ve seen the Christian celebrity side,” he said, “the book deals, the conference circuit, the magazine articles, churches being written up and bragged about. I don’t care if I ever see that again. The thing to me that is the most important is individual people meeting Jesus and finding hope again.”

The move comes about a year after the doors opened at Second Chance Church, which had existed for several months prior as an online church.

SOURCE: Independent Mail

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Jim Denison is the founder and CEO of the Denison Forum, a nonprofit Christian media organization that comments on current issues through a biblical lens. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of BCNN1.

Brad Pitt won an Academy Award last night for Best Supporting Actor. (He won an Oscar in 2014 as a producer.) In his acceptance speech, he said, “They told me I only had forty-five seconds up here, which is forty-five seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.” Thus began a night of awards juxtaposed with politics and surprises.

Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Lead Actor award for Joker and spoke out against artificially inseminating cows. Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win the Best Picture award. Presenter Natalie Portman wore a cape on which were written the names of women who weren’t nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director.

The Oscars felt to me like an evening of cultural commentary interspersed with occasional awards. The popularity of many of the actors and presenters can delude us into thinking Hollywood speaks for us.

The opposite is actually more the case.

Of the nine movies nominated for Best Picture, Joker made the most money, ranking ninth in box office sales for 2019. Avengers: Endgame grossed more than twice that much.

Women make up 50.8 percent of the American population, but they have received .01 percent of Best Director nominations in Oscars history (five out of 447 official nominations in ninety-two years). People of color comprised nearly 37 percent of the American population in the 2010 census, but only one person of color was nominated in the four major acting categories (actress Cynthia Erivo for her lead performance in Harriet).

Of the nine movies nominated for best picture, seven are set in the past. Eight are about white people; six of the eight are about white men.

In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first black actor to win an Academy Award. That year, the Oscars were held in a “no blacks” hotel. After accepting her award, she was made to sit at a segregated table away from the rest of the Gone With the Wind cast.

We would like to think that the Academy Awards have become more representative of our society since then, but of the 276 acting Oscars given since 1940, only sixteen went to black actors (5.8 percent). Seven went to Latin American and Asian American actors (2.54 percent).

Some demographics are woefully underrepresented by Hollywood, while others are hugely overrepresented.

The LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD noted that in 2018, 18.2 percent of films from the major movie studios contained LGBTQ characters. 20^th Century Fox led the way at 40 percent, followed by Universal Pictures with 30 percent. GLAAD also reported that 10.2 percent of regular characters appearing on broadcast scripted primetime television programming in 2019 were LGBTQ; they want that number to grow to 20 percent by 2025.

These efforts to ensure that movies and television overrepresent the number of LGBTQ Americans are effective. According to Gallup, US adults estimate that 23.6 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian, when the number is actually 4.5 percent.

Source: Christian Headlines

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The Rev. John J. Paris is a professor emeritus and research professor at Boston College. The Rev. Kevin Wildes is university professor at St. Joseph’s University. Both are Jesuit priests. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1.

In a recent RNS column, Charles C. Camosy, in writing about new research about people who are in a “persistent vegetative state,” cited Dr. Joseph Fins’ studies of what Fins calls “deep brain stimulation.” Fins reports that his research reveals that many patients diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state in fact have some level of consciousness.

That leads Fins, and with him Camosy, to favor “a new civil rights” movement to be sure all brain-injured patients get “up-to-date” diagnoses, good pain management and the latest therapies to help them improve. That aspirational goal sounds as if it ought to be readily adopted.

But Camosy goes further by invoking the case of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state whose case drew international attention in the mid-2000s when her husband moved to end her life support. “We were there for Terri Schiavo and her family,” Camosy notes, before saying, “There are new and influential allies to be had in the fight to protect people who have serious brain injuries.” He concludes, “The time to move is now.”

It is important not to confuse Schiavo’s case with the patients with whom Fins is concerned. In his autopsy report, Florida’s Pinellas County chief medical examiner, Jon R. Thogmartin, confirmed that her condition was consistent with that of someone in a persistent vegetative state, that her brain had “atrophied” to about half that of normal, that she was blind and that no treatment could have remotely improved her condition.

Throughout his piece, Camosy’s analysis, unlike Fins’, does not differentiate among the categories of those who suffer serious brain injuries: “brain death,” “persistent vegetative state,” “locked in syndrome,” a “minimally conscious state” and “coma.” For Camosy, all of these are lumped into “persistent vegetative states” and classified as “vegetables.”

In this Camosy is not unique. John Paul II in a 2004 address to the Pontifical Academy for Life argued that patients in a persistent vegetative state are not vegetables, but human beings with all of the dignity of others created as humans. In the same address John Paul maintained that “artificial” nutrition and fluids are “natural” means, not medical treatments. As such they are “ordinary care” that must be provided to every unconscious patient.

Every medical association that has addressed the issue and every court of final jurisdiction that has ruled on it, including the U.S. Supreme Court, has rejected that analysis. Each declared that artificial nutrition and fluids, unlike food and water, are medical treatments to be assessed as any other medical intervention, i.e., on the subjective assessment of the patient (or proxy), as to the proportionate benefit and burden of the intervention.

Here the medical societies and the various appellate courts follow the consistent analysis of Catholic moral theology from Pope Basil the Great in the 4^th century through the Vatican’s 1980 “Declaration on Euthanasia” and John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, all of which hold that medical interventions have limited efficacy. They are to be utilized on the basis of the patient’s (or proxy’s) judgment on the benefit and burden that accrue to the patient from their use.

Camosy’s view that medically assisted feeding and hydration are “ordinary” treatments means they would be morally required. But traditionally, a medical treatment is considered “ordinary” only if it offers hope of improved health. If there is no hope of improvement, there is no moral reason to pursue the treatment.

Even if there is a hope of benefit, the benefit alone does not always make a treatment morally obligatory. If a treatment is either physically or morally burdensome for the patient or others, then one can morally withhold or withdraw the treatment. The assessment of the burdensomeness of a treatment is a quality-of-life judgment, made by the patient or her surrogates, relative to the patient’s perception of his or her own life.

Source: Religion News Service

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