A British woman says she is overjoyed that her baby survived an abortion attempt. Concerned that the baby may have inherited a life-threatening kidney condition that afflicted two previous children, Jodie Percival and her fiancé decided to abort the baby at eight weeks. Shortly after the abortion, however, Percival felt a flutter. She went to the doctor and discovered she was actually 19 weeks pregnant–and that the baby was still alive.

Another scan a week later confirmed the baby also had kidney problems, but doctors told the couple the baby was likely to survive, so they decided he deserved another chance at life.

In November, Finley was born three weeks premature. He had minor kidney damage but is expected to lead a normal life. 

“I just couldn’t believe that this child had got through it all and looked so perfect,” Ms Percival, a hairdresser, told the Daily Mail.

Now Percival says she struggles “to believe just what he has fought through. Now he’s here I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

HT: Victoria

Welcome to a new week!

Today’s quote is from a Greek slave: “Every truth has two sides. It is well to look at both sides before we commit ourselves to either side.”

Before a loud and cheering crowd at the National Building Museum in Washington, not far from the White House, Hillary Clinton finally announced:

“The way to continue our fight now to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States.

“Today as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him and I ask of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.”

By suspending her campaign, Clinton keeps her pledged delegates, can still raise money, and has the option to start things up again if, as the Associated Press put it, “circumstances change before the Denver convention.” As soon as her speech ended, though, some of her pledged superdelegates moved over into the Obama camp, including Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Maine Gov. John Baldacci.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs in track and field has cast a shadow over the sport, and American sprinter Allyson Felix would like to help clean up that image. As Mark Bergin reports in the latest edition of WORLD, this 22-year-old daughter of a seminary professor and a contender to win multiple gold medals in Beijing this summer is “participating in Project Believe, a voluntary blood and urine testing program meant to establish baseline body chemistry figures against which the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency can compare other athletes.” Felix is also featured in an Athletes in Action DVD of Olympic competitors who share how they draw strength from their Christian faith.

Sure, summer is the season of huge Hollywood box-office blockbusters, but it’s also a good time to gather the family at home, pop some popcorn, and watch an old favorite or a flick you might have missed in the theaters. In the latest WORLD, Megan Basham suggests a handful of movies for home viewing that will please both children and adults, from the two National Treasure films to Steven Spielberg’s 23-year-old The Goonies. As for the latter, Megan writes, “It’s like being able to share the fun of Indiana Jones with your kids without all the monkey brains and eyeball soup.”

I’m blessed to be from Mississippi, an ironic state, at least in literary terms. We have the worst schools in the nation and one of the worst literacy rates, quite arguably, but have managed to produce the best writers. It’s the kind of irony that Eudora Welty wrote about with lyricism, and Walker Percy wrote about with his dour Catholic wit. But when you come to Mississippi, be careful about mentioning our writers. My kinsmen have passionate opinions about them, and they aren’t always nice. Ask a grandmother, or even a mother, or even your cousin, and you might hear effusive praise for Welty or Percy or Tennessee Williams or Shelby Foote or John Grisham or Alice Walker or Barry Hannah or William Faulkner. But you might not. I’ve never met a Mississippian who liked Faulkner, at least not one that was from here or born here. And most of my kin don’t like Tennessee Williams, either. Not because these fellows are turncoats, which they sometimes are. It’s just because they’re from here, and it’s hard to like them as much as other people like them.

I live in Savannah, Georgia, now: home to the best short story writer in the whole world, Flannery O’Connor. People here don’t speak ill of her, but neither do they laud her with praise. Weird.

Why is that, and do you have similar experiences with writers from where you are?

In most circles, religion–for good or for evil–is considered a powerful force. But Wheaton professor Alan Jacobs says he’s skeptical and wonders whether that’s really the case.

Was Alan Wolfe right to emphasize, in a recent article in The Atlantic, the “unique fervor that religion inspires”? I have my doubts, and they begin with personal experience. I am by most measures a pretty deeply committed Christian. I am quite active in my church; I teach at a Christian college; I have written extensively in support of Christian ideas and belief. Yet when I ask myself how much of what I do and think is driven by my religious beliefs, the honest answer is “not so much.” The books I read, the food I eat, the music I listen to, my hobbies and interests, the thoughts that occupy my mind throughout the greater part of every day — these are, if truth be told, far less indebted to my Christianity than to my status as a middle-aged, middle-class American man.

Continue reading his conclusions here, and then weigh in with your own thoughts.

On Saturdays, we consider a passage of Scripture: 

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

Happy Saturday!

Today’s quote is from a British prime minister: “Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.”

Mary Katharine Ham posted her final HamNation video this morning over at Townhall.com (she’s moving on to the Washington Examiner as the online editor of the new dcexaminer.com site), and if you watch closely around the 30-second mark, you’ll see WORLD Magazine make a cameo appearance. Thanks, MKH. Now if I could just get that song out of my head! “Obama on your shoulder …”