February 7 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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"Can Christians celebrate a
pagan Christmas? What about
'you shall not bear false
witness'? Isn't telling kids
that Santa is coming a lie?"

I COMMEND YOU for your excellent report on the selective reduction of fetuses ["No Room in the Womb?" Dec. 6] now recommended by many doctors. Denyse O'Leary has taken a complicated subject and made it simple and readable without losing its moral impact. Nicole and Robert Klan, who chose to bring to birth a baby with spina bifida (Jordan, now two years old), are to be commended. At one point my wife and I waited for 24 hours, for a possible diagnosis of spina bifida on our first-born. We would never have thought of eliminating a newborn child and, mercifully, she was healthy. Reading O'Leary makes me wonder: Is a newborn all that different from an unborn child just a few months from delivery? Chillingly, noted ethicists like Princeton's Peter Singer are now giving a resounding "no."

AS A PERSONAL FRIEND and colleague of Reinhard Bonnke, I can assure you there were inaccuracies in the recent report about his evangelistic campaigns in Nigeria ["Violence Mars Bonnke's Revival," Dec. 6]. Nowhere does Bonnke hold to a "list" of spiritual gifts including "being slain in the Spirit, laughing uncontrollably, and dancing in the Spirit."

Rather, he looks for genuine signs of conversion, evidenced by deep repentance, definite faith in Jesus Christ, and subsequent moral transformation. He preaches emphatically that Jesus still heals the sick and sets the captives free, filling believers with His Spirit.

However, Bonnke's goal is not to see people slain in the Spirit or dancing, and I am not aware of any meeting of his that has been characterized ...