(NOTE: read an important update at the end of this post!)

The Bible, the holy word of God, and prayerful concern for victims of breast cancer – they fit together so very well! That is until you add the Susan G Komen Foundation into the mix! We, at Catholic Sistas, spent much of October helping to shed light on the unholy alliance between Komen and Planned Parenthood (PP). The fact that Komen donates millions of dollars to PP – the largest provider of abortion in our land – should, therefore, not come as a surprise. What may not be common knowledge, however, is their latest attempt to ‘pink’…

the Holy Bible!

That’s right! Komen has stepped up its attempts to commercialize breast cancer by partnering with B&H Publishing Group (a division of LifeWay Christian stores) and Walmart as reseller. Their brainchild is the Here’s Hope Bible – Breast Cancer Awareness Edition, which benefits the Susan G Komen Foundation. Hopefully the publisher and retailer are unwitting accomplices to Komen in their insidious efforts to usurp dollars intended to help with ‘awareness’.

So here is their spiel from the Walmart online store:

“The Here’s Hope Breast Cancer Bible is a reminder that God has not forgotten you, a friend, or loved one who has been impacted by breast cancer. Not only will you find encouragement and inspiration through testimonies from breast cancer survivors but more importantly you’ll encounter God’s life-sustaining words for you.”

Prayerful concern, inspiration, and comforting scripture are certainly a solace for those of us who have experienced breast cancer. I firmly believe that I am alive today as the result of many prayers lifted up for me during surgery, chemo, and recovery! As a 6-year survivor, I also feel qualified to opine that breast cancer donations would be better spent on prevention and research or perhaps helping actual victims such 30 year old, Erika Vandiver, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 20 weeks pregnant.

Furthermore, much of Komen’s rhetoric is aimed at ‘awareness’. Aren’t we all ‘aware’ of breast cancer by now? You can ask almost anyone, male or female, and they will likely be able to recite, by rote, the ways to prevent breast cancer: regular mammograms, healthy eating, avoidance of the Pill, and of course not having abortions. We know about self exams and exercising and even genetic testing. So this ‘awareness’ is not as urgent as it once was. Komen seems simply to have found a titillating way to stir up sentiment – and reap the cash rewards – and now they have stooped to the shameless exploitation of scripture!

However, what concerns me most about this latest endeavor to raise money…ahem…I mean awareness, is that Komen is crossing the line of propriety. How dare an organization with a loathsome alliance with abortion giant, PP, associate themselves with ‘scripture for profit’? Especially since a part of their share of the purchase price will, most likely, find its way to a cause of breast cancer – abortion! After all, $1 of every purchase of the Here’s Hope Bible goes to Komen. Additionally disgraceful is that Komen’s support of PP does nothing to prevent breast cancer – PP does not provide even one mammogram in any of its facilities, nationwide!

Now, before you object to the conclusion that Komen dollars help to fund PP abortions, let’s connect the dots. Money donated to PP is fungible. This means that, although the money may not be donated specifically for abortions, it does free up funds that WILL be used for abortions. By helping PP pay their light bill, for example, you are freeing up other funds to kill babies! That is simply not acceptable, helpful or moral!

God help our nation in its complicity in the killing of millions of unborn babies!

These babies deserve our prayerful consideration! We must not become unwitting accomplices ourselves! Let us seek justice for the sake of the voiceless! So what can we do? For starters, think before you pink! Then we must share this post with as many people as possible to raise our own kind of ‘awareness’. We should also contact B & H publishing, LifeWay, and Wal-Mart and let them know (if they don’t already) that Komen is not a suitable partner. This will take little of our time and if enough pro-life faithful are willing to make the effort, we may just be able to stem this pink tide…especially with Him as our ally!

“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.” ~Matthew 5:6

——————————————————————————————-

UPDATE:

From a story posted by LifeNews.com entitled LifeWay Christian Bookstores Takes Komen Bible Off Shelves:

“In a victory for pro-life advocates, Lifeway Christian Bookstores has taken a Bible sold to fund the Komen breast cancer foundation (which funds Planned Parenthood) off of its bookshelves.

Read the entire text of the December 14, 2011 letter from Thom S. Rainer, President and CEO – LifeWay Christian Resources, here. He explains the decision of removing the offending Bibles from their shelves in keeping with their commitment to Christian values. It would be wonderful to flood LifeWay and their publisher, B & H publishing will notes of thanks. I’m sending mine now!

God bless, Birgit J

————————————————————————————————————–

UPDATE 2:

I wanted to share the great response I received today (December 28, 2011) from the publishing company responsible for the ‘pink’ Bible:

Good Afternoon Ms Jones,

I am sorry to be so late responding to your concern sent a few days ago regarding the Cancer Awareness Bible produced by B&H Publishing, a division of Lifeway Christian Resources.

I hope you’ve read by now that LifeWay is withdrawing the Bibles from the retail stores where they were being sold, and is discontinuing our relationship with the Komen Foundation. Our president, Dr. Thom Rainer, said the project was a mistake because of the perceived indirect relationship with Planned Parenthood.

We are developing a plan to re-use the special pink Bibles to support breast cancer research and treatment.
Thank you for sharing your concern.

Martin King
–
Martin King
Director LifeWay Communications
LifeWay Christian Resources
One LifeWay Plaza
Nashville, TN 37234-0192
615-251-2307 (o)
615-585-0033 (c)

October is LOUDLY and vividly proclaimed as breast cancer awareness month. Pink ribbons adorn almost every known object – some that really puzzle me (dog food???) — as various organizations vie for funding to promote “awareness” of breast cancer. Much less awareness is raised for the “Catholic” Respect Life month. However, both should and CAN be jointly celebrated and proclaimed. You ask, “Why am I so sure of that?” and “How can that be?”

Because my daughter (almost 2) and I (30 years old) are LIVING PROOF!! I was diagnosed at age 28 while I was 20 weeks pregnant with her.

It is DEFINITELY possible to respect life and support breast cancer awareness/research without sacrificing one ideal over the other. Some breast cancer organizations do sacrifice to the altar of destroying life (abortion) to ‘save’ life (Susan G. Komen is one — read the Komen statement by Archdiocese of Baltimore; American Cancer Society is another). Sadly, even now, some of the big names in breast cancer awareness still proffer abortion as a necessary step in seeking treatment for breast cancer. Others have (since my frantic searching) updated their sites, but few offer real world support or even more than a vague “it’s possible to have chemotherapy/treatment when pregnant, but…”. This saddens and disappoints me. Especially since MD Anderson has published article(s) in peer reviewed journals as well as press release(s) indicating that women who get treatment while maintaining their pregnancy do BETTER than their non-pregnant (or abortive) counter-parts. The ambiguous wording on these “cancer awareness” sites is un-acceptable.

I have appointed myself as the Pro-Life Breast Cancer Awareness bull-horn. I try to spread my story with humor and truth to everyone. I’m not opposed to showing someone a photo of my daughter & then launching into our struggle for survival. Some organizations promote life both for women who are victims of breast cancer as well as potential victims of abortion (see list below). I submit these organizations to you as ideas for your donations. I also suggest supporting your local cancer patients by participating in their fund-raisers and benefits. Helping people is what these big-name organizations are supposed to be doing, but the funds do not trickle down to the victims in a realistic or helpful way.

Breast Cancer Prevention Institute
PolyCarp Research Institute
National Breast Cancer Foundation
MD Anderson Cancer Center **

Its also important to note a little known scientific fact: Abortion has been linked to Breast Cancer… Not just by the so-called Christian-Right-Wing, but by a PRO-CHOICE researcher (you can also check out the references in the Arch diocese of Baltimore letter)! As the earlier article by MD Anderson implies, aborting prior to treatment does NOT increase survival — in fact, the reverse is true! Oral contraceptive use has also been found to INCREASE risk of certain types of breast cancer in some groups of women according to another article. Yet, few of the well-known breast cancer organizations proclaim this scientific fact!

So when you are tempted to “Run for the Cure”, “Race for the Cure”, or any breast cancer awareness event remember this: many/most of these organizations are actually supporting the causation of breast cancer, by actually hiding information from women. Contrary to their public service announcements, ad campaigns, etc, they are not making women aware of their true options, nor are they truly interested in a very effective way to prevent breast cancer. I have, since I began writing this article, found that as early as 1956 it was postulated that abortion does NOT increase survival of pregnant women with breast cancer. That’s over half a century BEFORE I was diagnosed. How many children have been “theraputically” aborted due to cover-up of the facts?

If this month is truly about Breast Cancer Awareness, why not supply women with ALL the facts? Please, support breast cancer awareness with respect for life — ALL life born & unborn.

In addition to their favoring of aborting children, many of these “research” organizations routinely use embryonic stem cells — another violation of human babies’ rights. Many are also not nearly as effective at using your donations as you assume. A HUGE portion of donations go to furthering more advertizing and paying the salary of the organization’s managers. Some of these organizations are also in the process of suing smaller organizations for using “for the cure” or even the pink ribbon that is universal for breast cancer awareness. Again, your donations may be paying the litigous lawyers pursuing this suit. Before you buy a pink be-ribboned item thinking you’re helping erradicate this terrible disease, ask yourself some questions… Foremost of those, “Does this organization really stand for *my* ideals?” as well as, “Does this organization really use my donation to do research and help women or is my money lining someone’s pocket?”

Please use your computer, smart phone, fingers (dial the phone), etc to ensure your donation is really going where you intend it to go. Don’t necessarily take only my word for it, find out for yourself. It is the wave of the future for everyone to have almost everything accessable to their fingertips. This is a luxury that we should not squander! Think, pray, research, etc before you buy pink!

* Since my diagnosis, these organizations have added a small blurb about treatment being possible during pregnancy, but the information is underwelming to someone actually dealing with such a diagnosis. Calling local offices is actually worse than visiting their online sites — every ACS or SGK representative I have spoken with had no idea that chemotherapy while pregnant was possible, much less well-documented.

**I have since been notified that MDA uses embryonic stem cells (ESCs) for research purposes. While I definitely do not condone their use of ESCs, I will continue to use MDA for my cancer center. However, I WILL be drafting a letter to the head of research (or some such) objecting to their use of ESCs. In 2005, when my mother sought treatment with them the laws limiting ESCs use were still in effect and there was a statement made by MDA that said they did not and/or would not use ESCs. I guess they changed their minds. It is up to people like you & me to change their minds once again!

**ETA {edited to add}: Courtesy of friends and family who love Erika, there is a fan page set up on Facebook to help defray costs for an upcoming FIFTH surgery that Erika will soon be facing – details can be found on the fan page. If you would like to join, thank you! If you would like to donate pray for Erika, thank you! If you would like to donate a small contribution, thank you! If you kindly share the link to friends and family, thank you!