MILES & MAR DEVOTIONAL - VOLUME XVII
Having finished going through the Beatitudes, Mar and I were debating what to write about next. Then the Planned Parenthood undercover videos came out. We both felt that we had to do whatever we could to actively stand against this organization and the practice of abortion.
Some may consider this a political subject, but this is a moral subject and morality does not get its power from legislation, but from the Lawgiver. In this case, it is even more connected because the Lawgiver is also the Lifegiver. God has called human life precious, sacred, and gave commandments that reveal His mind on these issues all through Scripture. Just one for instance, if you hit a woman who was pregnant and the baby died, then you were guilty of murder (Exodus 21:22-25).
My generation came after the abortion question was ‘answered,' so I’ve never known a society without it and was somewhat used to the concept. It's wrong, but people are going to do it, so what do you do? I say this to my shame. Now to hear people say it’s "kinda cool” as they poke at the beating heart of a defenseless human baby -- it sickens me and makes me see the horror of abortion that I had not seen or felt before.
Indignation is cheap. Anyone can get bent out of shape. There is no great moral capital in human anger. It comes easy. But the absence of anger (and sorrow) in some cases is a sign of a disordered heart.
~ John Piper
We are called in Proverbs 24:11–12 to:
Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?
Here is a video that really stirred me about this issue. If you watch one linked video in this email, this would be the one.
Our government is funding Planned Parenthood to the tune of 500 million dollars a year. The media has done a really bad job of covering this story, but there have thus far been six undercover videos about Planned Parenthood selling fetus parts for profit, not fully informing the mothers, and changing procedures to harvest parts intact for sale. Here’s a quick breakdown...
1. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s director of medical services, discussing the potential of selling aborted babies’ body parts for profit, while enjoying a salad, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not going to crush that part, I’m going to basically crush below, I’m going to crush above, and I’m going to see if I can get it all intact.”
2. An abortionist discussing prices for the organ harvesting while joking about wanting a Lamborghini. (Planned Parenthood is not supposed to get any compensation beyond reimbursement for cost from research companies.)
3. An interview with an ex-procurement technician Holly O’Donnell from the company StemExpress detailing retrieving specimens and harvesting organ parts for a percentage.
4. Inside a Planned Parenthood Clinic, this video shows Colorado medical director Dr. Savita Ginde identifying fetal parts in a dish - heart, stomach, arms. At one point, she says, “Another boy!”
5. Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast discusses altering abortion procedures to meet specific needs and the cost of “intact” fetuses.
6. An interview with former StemExpress technician from video 3, Holly O’Donnell, discussing harvesting the brain from an aborted fetus with its heart still beating.
More videos have been released just this morning and probably more coming.
Now, if you are still reading by this point, then please don’t stop now because I want this in context.
In four decades we in America have made legal the deaths of 55 million babies. To help put that into perspective, most of us have been to an event that boasted 1,000 people…now multiply that number of people by another 55,000. Now imagine a nuclear bomb destroying the population of New York City, Dallas, and Houston…you would not even reach half. Think of it as over nine Holocausts or 18,333 9/11s. How is a sacrifice of an unborn baby to the god of "It's my right", or the god of "It's my body" any different from baby sacrifices to pagan gods of old? How can the fact that the baby is still in the womb make it ethical?
If you were standing on the side of the street and could save someone from being hit by a drunk driver, but you didn’t because you just don’t want to get involved, were on the way to an appointment, or knew it would mean you’d have to make a statement to the cops, then that would mean you are not a very good person. There ya go. May as well say it.
Here we are at this crossroads in our history where the skeletons are out of the closet and to do nothing would be to indirectly take part in it. Romans says, “though they know the judgment of God that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but give approval to those who do them.” If you desire every human life, and yes, even your life to have value, then do not give approval to this by your lack of action at this time when it is possible to change the laws and reclaim this loss of national conscience.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in a Nazi German camp until he was martyred by them and he said,
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
Here is a link that will lead you to your representatives so you can contact them. Maybe by the time you finish reading this ten minutes have passed…maybe you’ll watch one of the videos I linked and that will take a few minutes. Maybe by the time you contact your representatives you may have spent a total of an hour of your day. In this microwave society, anything that takes more than five minutes tends to lose our attention, myself included, and that is a shame.
I could go into a long tirade about where this logic will ultimately lead us in regard to post-birth abortions, euthanasia, and how in America those who were considered mentally inadequate in the early 1900s were quarantined and castrated, but I won’t. This is about what IS happening and Martha and I were both strongly convicted about believing what we believe, but yet having said nothing about it publicly until now. May this spur you on as well to stand for truth and make a difference and be salt and light. (Matthew 5)
In conclusion, as someone who knows people who have had abortions, I am familiar with the pain, shame, and trauma that comes with it which can last for years afterwards. But as a Christian, I also know that God is faithful to forgive us of any sin when we ask with a repentant heart. I have been forgiven more than my share of things that I still regret. There is no hate in me for those who go to abortion clinics or those who callously perform them day by day. There is only pity and an urgency to call them to Christ to meet the giver of life.
Let’s be the church and pull the helpless ones out from in front of oncoming destruction and call those who are drunk at the wheel to repentance.
Miles & Mar