Thank you for the supportive comments on “The Editor’s Agenda” from last month’s Viewpoint. One thing mentioned in that editorial is that we don’t seek out every current-events issue imaginable to feature in the Witness. We will cover some of them, especially when doing so clearly fits a greater purpose of the magazine. This is one such month.

The stem-cell debate touches so many other cutting-edge issues of our day as science and medicine push the envelope hard. God’s statutes about the sanctity of life and the importance of creation in His image are considered outside the bounds of pure science. But discovery for its own sake, or for the more mundane purposes of fame or fortune, may never be divorced from ethics without serious consequences. All actions have consequences, and godless persons who take up the mantle of medicine or science are not outside that sphere.

On such issues Reformed Presbyterians not only have something to say but people uniquely suited to say it. There probably aren’t many cellular biologists in the world who are also Reformed pastors, but Rich Holdeman is one of them. He offers facts and perspective that take us behind the rhetoric of expedient politicians or even of armchair Christians. If you have never fully understood the stem-cell debate, or are daunted by the bluster without substance in the news bytes, this is one article you must read.

We have another followup story to something that previously appeared in the Witness. In evidence that boycotts do sometimes make an impression, a manager of a Price Chopper Supermarket in Fulton, N.Y., had written to us concerned that a customer was boycotting his store in error. His research showed that the boycott was covering a different Price Chopper corporation.

As promised, we followed up to be sure the information that had been reported to us through EP News was accurate. Life Decisions International, which initiated the boycott, checked its records and wrote to us: “We have reviewed our records and can confirm that the corporation based in New York was correctly identified as a supporter of Planned Parenthood.”

They supplied a letter written to the Golub Corporation/Price Chopper Supermarkets that refuted Golub’s claim that Planned Parenthood contributes to the general welfare of communities and that to remove their support from Planned Parenthood would be to act as a censor.

Both of the above issues show the importance of having conscientious Christians in the world who seek to reform their culture amidst the lure of popular rhetoric. We all want to see medical science advanced to the good of the sick and diseased, and we applaud corporations who contribute to their communities. But there are ways to do that that achieve those goals, and there are ways that do more damage than good.