Unplanned Irony

Unplanned will begin its run at the Liberty Theater in Wenatchee on March 29. Hope to see you there.

Irony: noun. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.

Irony is very often funny. Most of our favorite jokes depend upon the witty incongruities displayed by this literary device. But sometimes the disparity between what we expect and what actually occurs is just plain sickening. Allow me to illustrate:

On March 29, the Liberty Theater here in Wenatchee will begin showing the movie Unplanned. This film is based on the autobiography of pro-life activist Abby Johnson who was once the highly-regarded director of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Bryan, Texas. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) assigned an R rating to the movie because it contains “some disturbing/bloody images.” Evidently (and contrary to what the pro-aborts would have us believe) even a very brief and discreet portrayal of an abortion procedure is “disturbing.” Well, of course. But an R rating? Really?

Now here’s the irony: In Washington State, a pregnant fifteen-year-old girl does not need her parent’s permission to end the life of the baby she is carrying in her womb. But she does require adult supervision to watch a movie that deals straightforwardly with the grim topic of abortion. As humorist Dave Barry likes to say, “I am not making this up.”

Parody: noun. An imitation of the style of a particular writer with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

As a pastor-friend of mine likes to quip, “These are hard times for satirists.” In other words, we are quickly becoming the parody; our society’s support of abortion is swiftly devolving into a painfully unfunny joke. Here’s a thought experiment: How could the writers of Saturday Night Live, famous for their cultural satire, parody a situation where a girl could get an actual abortion without her parent’s permission, but would not be allowed to see a movie like Unplanned unaccompanied by an adult? Hard times indeed.

But I suppose there is another way to look at the movie ratings. The MPAA gives a PG-13 to scores of movies that graphically depict the brutal demise of countless bad-guys. But it gives an R rating to a movie that tactfully deals with the slaughter of innocent babies in the womb. Given God’s extraordinary concern for the weak and helpless and the inherent violence of abortion, the good folk at the MPAA might be on to something.

GH

Choose Life! Rally, January 19th

Over time, we tend to elect the leaders that we deserve. And those leaders tend to govern according to our collective will. So Congress' failure to defund Planned Parenthood, etc. while certainly disappointing, ought not to surprise us. For unlike our energetic and vocal adversaries in the fight for Life, we have been tragically apathetic and largely silent.

And that is why public rallies (see above) are useful. Our primary weapons remain (and will always remain) the faithful preaching of God's Word, prayer and what the hymn-writer aptly called, "deeds of love and mercy." But if we are to faithfully perform our duties as citizens of our state and nation, then we must occasionally make and take opportunity to communicate to the watching world our regard for life and our insistence that our civic leaders protect all those in their charge, especially the weak and defenseless.

So, please join us on the Chelan County Courthouse steps on Saturday, January 19th, from noon-1pm, to register your eagerness to lean hard against the rising culture of death and barrenness, and to lift high the name of Jesus who is, as he said, "the Way, the Truth and the LIFE."

GH

Our Own Worst Enemy

“So the final conclusion would surely be whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he kneeled over – the weary, battered old brontosaurus – and became extinct.” (Malcolm Muggeridge, circa 1970)

Same Data, Different Conclusion

(Proverbs 31:8–9) Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are headed for destruction. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Is the glass half-empty or half-full? We all know that two people can look at the same proverbial glass and draw two entirely different conclusions. One person sees the water level as a harbinger of scarcity, the other as a prelude of plenty. In other words, all of us interpret the data we receive through the lens of our prior assumption. No one processes facts without prejudices. No one.

The diversity of the conclusions drawn from the recent movie, “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” is a prime example of how our presuppositions shape our conclusions. NBC News quickly pronounced that the movie was a compelling argument for the legitimacy of “trained abortion provider[s].” But pro-life advocates saw the movie as a powerful argument for the sanctity of preborn life, and the illegitimacy of abortion no matter how lawful or pristine. Same data, different conclusions.

During a courtroom scene in the movie, a very professional looking woman doctor takes the witness stand and freely admits to performing over 30,000 abortions. As Gosnell’s attorney questions the doctor, he argues that killing a recently-born baby is really no different than killing a baby in the womb. But pro-lifers see the similarities of killing preborn babies and newly-born babies as proof of the wrongfulness of abortion. Same data, different conclusions.

So, what are the different presuppositions that lead pro-choicers and pro-lifers to entirely different conclusions as they consider the same abortion-related data? Both agree that the preborn child in the mother’s womb is immature human life; a being that if allowed to mature will grow into a fully-formed human being. Same data.

Pro-choicers believe that women, by virtue of their superior size, strength and cognitive abilities have the right to end the life of the smaller, weaker, less-aware human life in their wombs. Pro-lifers deny that “might makes right” and that God (and any sane civil society) requires those who possess superior size, strength and cognitive abilities to exercise those gifts to provide for, and protect, those who lack them. Different conclusions.

God’s laws, and indeed the laws of every just society, are designed to protect the interests of those who cannot protect themselves. And that is why those who truly love justice are ever-eager to speak out for, and to defend, “the mute…who are headed for destruction.”

Gene Helsel, pastor 

King’s Cross Church
Pro-Life Pastors NCW

Deception is What Deception Does

To paraphrase Forrest Gump: “Deception is what deception does.”

A little over three years ago a small group of families concerned about the agenda of Planned Parenthood launched the, “No Thank You Planned Parenthood” billboard campaign. You’ve no doubt seen our billboards around town featuring a woman with dark hair, wearing dark clothing and holding out her hand in a “stop” gesture.

A few months ago, some friends of Planned Parenthood put up their own billboard featuring a woman (who looks like she could be the twin of our model) with dark hair, wearing dark clothing and holding out her hand with a “thumbs up” gesture. Did the women represented by our billboard change their minds? Nope.

For the record, we heartily embrace the hurly-burly of public discourse. And we welcome opportunities to respectfully discuss and debate the issues surrounding abortion. But families in the crisis of an unplanned pregnancy deserve access to all the facts concerning all the options available to them without the spin and deception of misleading advertisements – from any quarter.

So, our concern is for the distraught woman driving up Miller Street who, through tears, sees the knock-off of our billboard and wonders, perhaps unconsciously, if the pro-life women of Wenatchee (represented by the woman featured in our ads) have had a change of heart; a change of mind regarding the plans and procedures of America’s number one abortion provider. Contrary to what copycat-ad implies, the pro-life women of our valley remain steadfastly against the taking of innocent human life, and decidedly for the sacred beauty of life “from the womb to the tomb.”

Tactics reveal character. And this sneaky billboard suggests not merely a lack of creativity, but a calculated willingness to deceive women when they are most vulnerable. Sadly, their copycat advert is just another reason that we of Citizens for Strong Families continue to believe, and will continue to say, “No Thank You Planned Parenthood. We Can’t Trust You.”

Gene Helsel, pastor of King’s Cross Church
Member of Citizens for Strong Families and Pro-Life Pastors NCW

When Abortion Suddenly Stopped Making Sense

"For that was another disturbing thought: Abortion means killing not strangers but our own children, our own flesh and blood. No matter who the father, every child aborted is that woman’s own son or daughter, just as much as any child she will ever bear.

We had somehow bought the idea that abortion was necessary if women were going to rise in their professions and compete in the marketplace with men. But how had we come to agree that we will sacrifice our children, as the price of getting ahead? When does a man ever have to choose between his career and the life of his child?"

- Frederica Mathews-Green

You can read the whole National Review article here.

Asleep in the Light

Years ago Keith Green sang in his song "Asleep in the Light":

Oh, can't you see it’s such sin?!
The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church just can't fight,
'cause it's asleep in the light!
How can you be so dead?!
When you've been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave,
And you! You can't even get out of bed!
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead!
Come on, get out of your bed!

Regarding the issue of abortion, the church has largely been apathetic, careless, or as Green put it, "asleep in the light." And the world has made good use of our somnolent state and has, in a very short span of time, taken abortion from, "safe, legal and rare" to a rite to be embraced, admired and celebrated. Celebrated? Surely not celebrated. If you don't believe it, then watch this video and weep.

GH

My Life for Yours

Many of today’s headlines share a common theme: A wrong has been committed and a sacrifice is required to put things right. Sometimes the “sacrifice” is death or imprisonment; sometimes it is the loss of money, status or public office. But in virtually every case some sort of sacrifice is demanded to right the wrong.

But interestingly, our books and movies abound with storylines where the hero interposes his or her self as a willing sacrifice to put things right. The bestselling book, The Nightingale, contains one such story-arc, and I (like many others) wept as I read how one of the characters willingly spent his life to save the life of a loved one, and put past wrongs to right. We Christians see these sorts of heroic substitutions as echoes of the “Gospel” or “Good News” of the Bible wherein Jesus Christ offered himself as a willing sacrifice to put right what was horribly wrong with the human race. In truth, the Christian Gospel is neatly contained in these four words, “My life for yours.”

And this is why many of us Christians cannot, and never will, “trust” Planned Parenthood. Not because Planned Parenthood does not convey a message consistent with the Christian Gospel, but because we believe that it encourages and facilitates what we consider to be an anti-Gospel message and worldview. For when the unfavorable condition of an unplanned pregnancy is discovered, Planned Parenthood (in effect) acknowledges that a sacrifice has to be made in order to put things right, and then (in effect) encourages the woman to say to her unborn child, “Your life for mine.”

Abortion, indisputably, stops a beating heart. What is hotly debated is whether or not the woman, by virtue of her size and development, has the right to end the life of a smaller, less developed being. In a world where “Might makes right” is increasingly invoked to justify self-serving agendas and goals, I invite everyone to answer Jesus’ call to believe, embrace and live out the good news of his glorious, “My life for yours.” This is our only hope.

GH

A Board Certified OBGyn Doctor Weighs In...

Until very recently, science, and even Planned Parenthood, agreed and taught that life begins at conception, i.e. the moment when sperm and egg become a single-celled living entity. The changes to this understanding have been driven by philosophy and ideology, and not by science. The science, if anything continues to affirm the miraculous beginning of life as the sperm penetrates the egg.

But don't my word for it, read what a board certified OBGyn doctor has to say about it here.

GH

Abortion, Straight Up

Pastor Toby Sumpter with some straight talk on abortion with some very helpful action items. You can read it here.

Wenatchee Right to Life Rally

Since the Roe vs. Wade decision in January of 1973, here in America nearly 60 million babies have been killed in the wombs of their mothers. Our annual "Right to Life" rally will be happening on January 20th, and we invite you to come to celebrate the sanctity of human life with prayer, encouraging words and singing.

Mandy Bush will again be our MC and leading in the singing. Prayers will be offered up by Pastor Adam James of Grace City Church and Pastor John Smith of Evergreen Baptist Cashmere. Dr. Lisa Petersen will be speaking on her medical experiences. The rally will end at 1pm with a short march to the library and back.

Where: The Chelan County Courthouse steps (facing Memorial Park)

When: Saturday, January 20th, 12 noon to 1pm

Come join us as together we lean hard against the culture of death by celebrating life and him (Jesus) who is the life.

If the Foundations Be Destroyed

Gathering of Pro-Life Pastors NCW
October 18, 2017

(Genesis 2:21–25) So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

If you were charged with the task of toppling a tall office building, would you attempt to do so by shooting out the topmost windows with a BB gun, or by blowing up the foundation upon which the building rested?

This is what we call “a rhetorical question.” Of course, you would topple the building by demolishing its foundation.

The first ten chapters (especially the first three) of the Bible are foundational for everything that follows, including, and especially God’s triune nature and the meaning and import of salvation. Our enemy knows this to be true. And so, it is no coincidence that he has devoted much energy to attacking the Biblical principles concerning gender, marriage and the taking of human life.

A plain reading of Genesis indicates that God created his image bearers “male and female” accompanied by a charge to multiply their numbers within the protective covenant of a monogamous and heterosexual marriage. In the beginning of chapter four, Cain takes the life of his brother, Abel. And before the close of the chapter Lamech is boasting that he has outdone Cain’s bloodshed by a factor of eleven! These murders were, no doubt, a part of the “continual evil” that provoked God to flood the world in judgment. And the reason why God specifically prohibited murder when he renewed His covenant with Noah in chapter nine.

Recently, a large number of faithful, Bible-believing, Christian theologians, leaders and pastors signed their names to a document entitled, “The Nashville Statement” upholding what the Scriptures clearly teach about gender and marriage.

This document, along with the Christians who authored and signed it, were almost immediately denounced, deplored and abhorred by people without, and sadly within the Church. And all in the name of love, tolerance and exegetical superiority (i.e. the assertion that their newly-minted interpretations of Scripture overrule what the vast majority of God’s people have believed and taught for millennia.)

But make no mistake here. The issues of gender and marriage, coupled together with the issue of abortion; specifically, who gets to define gender and marriage, and who gets to determine who lives and who dies, are foundational issues. And they are foundational because everyone involved in the debate understands, at least at some level, that whoever decides and determines these issues is God.