CHANTILLY, Va. – A new drug store at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control. Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that are refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any kind, even if a person has a prescription.
States across the country have been wrestling with the issue of pharmacists who refuse on religious grounds to dispense birth control or morning-after pills, and some have enacted laws requiring drug stores to fill the prescriptions.
In Virginia, though, pharmacists can turn away any prescription for any reason.
As a crusading evangelist and author, Francis Schaeffer urged conservative Christians to politically battle abortion and engage the secular culture. But he would have recoiled from the “snide” comments and jeering at this summer’s Republican National Convention, his son Frank says.
“My father would have been embarrassed to be in that room, absolutely horrified,” said Schaeffer, who once rallied conservative Christians in public arenas alongside his father. “All of a sudden, this movement that he helped unleash is yelling `Drill, baby, drill!”‘
Considered by many a forerunner of the religious right, Francis Schaeffer’s Christian morality has been perverted into a purely political movement that is “essentially the heart and soul of the Republican party,” said Frank Schaeffer, author of the 2007 memoir, “Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of it Back.”
During our summer vacation in 2003, my wife and I amused ourselves by taking leisurely drives in Ohio and photographing every diamond-shaped highway sign that we saw along the roadsides. (Well, not every sign; only the distinct ones.) For provenance, I also stood at the base of each sign and measured its GPS coordinates.
This turned out to be even more fun than a scavenger hunt, so we filled in some gaps when we returned to California. And we intend to keep adding to this collection as we drive further, although we realize that we may have to venture to New England in order to see `FROST HEAVES’.
All photos on these pages were taken by Jill C. Knuth, unless noted otherwise.
This site has all sorts of categories for diamond signs, but this posted reminded me of a diamond sign somewhat near the school that WifeGeeding teaches at.
WALKING HOUSE is a modular dwelling system that enables persons to live a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape with minimal impact on the environment. It collects energy from its surroundings using solar cells and small windmills. There is a system for collecting rain water and a system for solar heated hot water.
John McCain’s campaign slogan is Country First. Can an evangelical vote for someone who does’t put God first?Â
I remember thinking the end of smoking was near when I was in my protective conservative Christian college bubble in Abilene . . . then I discovered that many stressed adults in the DFW workforce keep the tobacco companies in business.
Monday workouts at my gym are a beating for one reason. That’s the day the two biggest hulks use the lat machine and on their heaviest sets drop the weights which makes for a very unpleasant sound. I wish management would ask them to be a bit more courteous, I would, but don’t want the hulks to place me under those weights.
“Academic” Salaries – But they are worth every penny because of the revenue and the exposure they bring to the university.
The other day I decided to see how far I could go back and name the presidential ticket for both parties. The 1976 election was as far back as I could go, I couldn’t remember who ran on the ticket with Gerald Ford. You can try it for yourself using Wikipedia, just click on the previous election year next to the American flag to go back in time. Link
As you go back in time, it’s also quite interesting to examine the Electoral College map and see how the states voted over the years. The last time Texas was a blue state was when it went to Jimmy Carter in 1976, but all of western America was entirely red. Link
Reagan only lost a total of 7 states in two elections. Impressive. Minnesota showed him no love, twice.
The last time someone other than a Democrat or Republican received Electoral College votes was in the 1968 election.
The last person to win their party’s nomination with facial hair was Thomas Dewey. Before Dewey, it was Charles Hughes in 1916. However, the 1912 election had three major candidates, two of whom had facial hair. But it was the 1904 election, which happens to be the last election where all major presidential candidates had facial hair.
When was the last U.S. presidential election the Republican Party won without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket? 1928
Speaking of the Electoral College, you all know how much I loath is, but did you know that in the last 200 years there have been over 700 proposals introduced to Congress to change or abolish it? Link