Reformation
We Must Not Give Up the Fight for Life
It’s easy to be discouraged over the fight against abortion in America. Since our nation made it legal on January 22, 1973, some fifty million Americans have died on the altar of sexual liberation.
That’s a horrific number–and after a decade of a declining abortion rate, the most recent statistics show that the trend is ticking up. We are cruelly killing, in the name of choice, 1.2 million of the most vulnerable among us.
Many of you–like our family–have prayed, participated in marches for life, or gotten involved in crisis counseling and adoption ministries. Yet, after almost forty years, we have very little to show for it. I feel like those who fought against the evil of slavery for many decades, and didn’t see a change.
But then something happened in the 1860s, and the slaves were set free.
In 2011, is there hope on the horizon for ending the abortion holocaust?
When I was in our nation’s capital a week ago, I met with some leaders that are on the forefront of the abortion fight. One of them participated in 24/7 prayer near the Supreme Court for months leading up to the 2008 election. They, like me, were believing that a John McCain election could possibly tip the balance of our highest court in the direction of reversing Roe. vs. Wade.
They were agonizingly disappointed when Barack Obama was elected president. He brought into office the most blatantly pro-abortion Administration that the United States has ever seen.
The prayer warriors were dejected.
Had God not heard their prayers?
It’s easy for all of us to be dejected–especially if you live on the Left Coast (west coast). California is the number one abortion-friendly state in the nation and Washington is number two. Oregon clocks in at number six and Hawaii is number four. It’s very sobering to look at the chart of where states rank in their support of abortion. I encourage you to open this page, find your state, and use it in your prayers. On the chart, “A” is bad (pro-abortion) and “F” is good (pro-life).
But on to the good news.
Then a year went by and an interesting poll came out. At the end of 2009, the national consensus on abortion had changed seven percentage points–across all demographic lines. For the first time in history, more than fifty percent of Americans believed that abortion was morally wrong.
Their prayers had not been in vain. They hadn’t influenced the election, but God had used them to change the hearts of millions of Americans.
My pro-life friends now tell me that victory in the abortion holocaust could be on the horizon. More people are praying than ever before. The tide has changed on the issue. Most Americans now see that we must go back to a culture of life in this nation.
That’s why I marched in Olympia, Washington this morning in our state’s pro-life event. There were nearly 10,000 people. It’s also why hundreds of thousands will march this week in Washington, D.C. as well–as I did with my family back in the 1980s. Just like the anti-slavery movements of the 19th century, we must have the determination and faith to never quit fighting for truth and the unborn.
I don’t know if it will take another Civil War to get this issue right (as it did slavery), but if it does, it will be worth it. On the other hand, because American opinions are changing, it might only take one more election and then one more appointment of a Supreme Court justice.
That’s how close we are to victory.
My dedicated friends believe that by 2013, that victory could be achieved.
We must not give up the fight for life.
This year a new book on the evil of abortion called Unplanned will hit the book shelves of America. It’s written by former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson and explains her conversion from pro-choice activist to pro-life advocate as she watched an abortion being performed live on an ultrasound.
Here’s the chilling scene in the book that changed Abby’s life. It’s one of the most powerful statements for life that I have ever read:
“At first, the baby didn’t seem aware of the cannula (the suction tube that will eventually rip the bay to pieces). It gently probed the baby’s side, and for a quick second I felt relief. Of course, I thought. The fetus doesn’t feel pain. I had reassured countless women of this as I’d been taught by Planned Parenthood. The fetal tissue feels nothing as it is removed. Get a grip, Abby. This is a simple, quick medical procedure. My head was working hard to control my responses, but I couldn’t shake an inner disquiet that was quickly mounting to horror as I watched the screen.”
“The next movement was the sudden jerk of a tiny foot as the baby started kicking, as if it were trying to move away from the probing invader. As the cannula pressed its side, the baby began struggling to turn and twist away. It seemed clear to me that it could feel the cannula, and it did not like what it was feeling. And then the doctor’s voice broke through, startling me.”
“’Beam me up, Scotty,’ he said lightheartedly to the nurse. He was telling her to turn on the suction — in an abortion the suction isn’t turned on until the doctor feels he has the cannula in exactly the right place.”
“I had a sudden urge to yell, “Stop!” To shake the woman and say, ‘Look at what is happening to your baby! Wake up! Hurry! Stop them!'”
“But even as I thought those words, I looked at my own hand holding the probe. I was one of “them” performing this act. My eyes shot back to the screen again. The cannula was already being rotated by the doctor, and now I could see the tiny body violently twisting with it. For the briefest moment the baby looked as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then it crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then it was gone. And the uterus was empty. Totally empty.”
One book reviewer made these observations about the liiterary power of Unplanned:
“If you are able, I encourage you to read the whole thing. I have to confess to you that I almost was not. The horror that Johnson describes is almost unfathomable, accentuated by the cruelty and insensitivity of the conscienceless monsters cracking jokes as they watched the death of a tiny human unfold live before them.”
“Perversely, the most shocking aspect of this particular story is its mundanity. It occurs every single day in the United States, over three thousand times a day, and has for almost four decades. The only thing that sets this particular abortion apart is that a person possessed of a conscience and some measure of writing skill happened to be present and witness it on ultrasound. Every day, including today, probably several dozen times during the course of the time it takes you to read this article, this horror is repeated in America and no one is present who cares to chronicle it in a book about the way it changed their life. Tens of millions of times since 1973 this has occurred in this country under the color and protection of law.”
“The only way to ensure justice in a society is for the law to recognize that all humans are humans, and therefore entitled to equal protection under the law. Whenever the law takes the position that certain humans (be it slaves or those physically located within a womb) are not in fact humans at all, it is certain that moral outrages will follow, and that other moral outrages will be perpetrated to protect the unjust status quo, and that sooner or later, the conscience of America, however long dormant, will collide with those moral outrages.”
“It is at these times we remember why it is that we participate in this fight even though it wears on us from day to day; why it is that we continue to watch news shows that infuriate us, donate money to candidates that would otherwise be put towards our own retirements, and take time away from our families to pound the pavements, man the phone banks, and get out the word. This is why we ”fight,” if it is still permissible to use such terms to describe battles fought with the ballot box. And it is also why we reject the empty calls for “truce” and silence from those who have hardened their heart to the ugliness, for we know that there can be no truce with unrepentant evil – there can only be victory or defeat. And for the sake of the country we love, we refuse to accept defeat.”
To these words of courage and outrage, I heartily say AMEN.
Please pray that Abby Johnson’s Unplanned will convince more Americans to alter their view on abortion. Pray that mothers and fathers who killed their own children will become broken and repentant; Pray that the churches of America will not become complacent or silent about the number one moral issue of the 20th and 21st centuries.
I believe that victory is at hand in the abortion battle.
We must not give up the fight for life.
Sudan Votes for Freedom: Will There Be a Domino Effect?
I’m flying back from Washington, D.C. after a sobering few days in the nation’s capital. We are all still grieving the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona and those who died in the gruesome attack. In the capital city this past weekend, all flags were at half mask and there were hushed conversations everywhere.
This morning I was walking with two friends to a meeting near the US Capitol Building when police cars with glaring lights blocked all entrances to Capitol Hill. We were told that a suspicious package had been found and they were taking no chances. We bided some time at a nearby Starbucks packed with government workers who couldn’t get to their jobs. Sobriety and concern was in the air.
But then, out of this ominous backdrop, I heard the news: Sudan, the largest and one of the poorest nations in Africa, was voting for freedom—and it appeared that liberty might prevail.
Isn’t that just like God—when everything appears to be black–to pierce the darkness with his light?
And is some new found freedom in Sudan a sign of things to come in other nations as well?
You might want to Google a map of Sudan to get a good visual. As you can see, it’s situated in the Muslim band of nations that occupy much of the Saharan tip of Africa. Sudan is a large nation. It’s a dry nation. It’s an extremely impoverished nation.
But today, in all likelihood it voted for freedom. The votes aren’t fully counted, but the result does not appear in doubt. The suffering people of southern Sudan, many of them believers in Christ, are being given a chance to decide their future—and they are overwhelmingly voting for freedom.
This could be a new day for Africa, other nations, and even some territories and states. But before we look at the future implications, let’s think for a moment about this Sudanese miracle.
Do you remember the name Darfur? Yes, it’s a southern portion of Sudan where hundreds of thousands of primarily Christians have been mercilessly slaughtered for nothing else but their faith over the past ten years. The very name Darfur reeks of carnage, injustice, suffering, and genocide.
Darfur is a part of southern Sudan where nearly two million people have been killed in a gruesome civil war. Most have died since 2005, so this is recent stuff. Four million people have also been displaced and forced to live in primitive encampments.
Why? Because the southern portion of Sudan is that area of the African continent where Muslim control of nations and cultures ended—and Christianity has been exploding for the past three decades.
It is also the region where much of Sudan’s lucrative oil industry lies. For decades, the Muslim north has been raiding and pillaging the defenseless south—taking the oil revenues to Khartoum in the Muslim north and leaving the southern fourth of the country destitute and under-developed (there is less than thirty miles of paved road in southern Sudan).
They’ve also tried to force Muslim society and sharia law on some areas of the south, and when that failed and faith in Christ began to spread north, the militants decided to simply kill all the Christians. Two million died. Four million fled their homes.
That’s the meaning of Darfur and southern Sudan: Darkness, tyranny, violence, bloodshed. I think you know where those tactics originate—in the world of Satanic evil– and in this case, evil that is wrapped in the cloak of religion.
But through much prayer, international pressure, and some miraculous changes of heart, even Sudan’s Muslim leader, Omar Hassan al-Bashir was forced to change his mind and agree to allow the south to vote for independence.
Starting on January 10, an estimated seven million Sudanese began going to the polls. It is an election that will probably last a week. Polling places have limited hours because there is no electricity after dark. Since 85% of the southern Sudanese people are illiterate, ballots simply showed pictorial choices that stood for YES for independence (freedom) and NO for the status quo.
And the Sudanese are voting for freedom. It’s a God-given cry of the human heart. If they prevail, the southern quarter of Sudan will become a new and free nation with a new capital—Juba– where families and children can be safer, and a desperately poor and persecuted people can build a future filled with new-found dreams of hope.
Many thousands of displaced Sudanese who now live in other nations are voting as well and look forward to returning to their homeland. Lee Everisto, a 48-year from Juba who now lives in Cairo, Egypt, said over the sounds of drumming and singing: “It is a historic day, a day that is going to put an end to our tragedy. I’m ready to go back as soon as possible.”
Freedom is a precious thing.
It is the birth-right of all people—made in the image of God.
Some individuals with whom I do not usually agree–former president Jimmy Carter, Senator John Kerry, and actor George Clooney—were all in Sudan for the historic vote and hailed the process. I applaud their efforts and stand with them in this historic milestone.
Maybe there is hope for bipartisan ship when the choice is between liberty and tyranny.
As I was meditating on the expected results of the elections in Sudan—and probable creation of a new and independent nation—my thoughts went back to a “prophetic vision” that is told in the first chapter of my 1989 book Leadership for the 21st Century: Changing Nations Through the Power of Serving. In a futuristic passage covering 1986 to 2025, Lee Grady and I accurately predicted the fall of the Iron Curtain (three years before it happened), and some of the social developments of the 1990s.
We also made this prediction for the 21st century: “By 2015 there was no longer a Third World. The globe was only divided into two areas: The Free World and the Dark World. And freedom was growing in the nations of the earth.”
Lee gets most of the credit for that perspective. He’s was right. Free Nations and Dark Nations.
That is the meaning of today’s events in Sudan. There are really only two forms of government in the world. One form tends to tyranny, and this includes most of the Islamic nations on earth. The other form produces liberty based on the creation of man, human rights, and societies based on biblical principles.
One of these principles is de-centralization of many aspects of life including economics, technology, and civil government. Where the ways of the Living God are practiced, people tend to be freer to communicate, invent, build, create, grow wealth, and govern themselves. The Christian worldview diffuses tyranny and central control and multiplies freedom and autonomy.
Freedom includes the right to vote for your leaders.
Another metaphor is light and darkness. A light-filled society creates the freedom for self-determination and an explosion of blessing—like sunshine to a summer day. A controlled, tyrannical society brings a creeping darkness of domination, lack of democracy, and loss of fundamental human rights. This would be the ultimate result of a one world system.
Yet, God appears to be expanding the longing for liberty in the nations of the world. Communism is dark by nature. The Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans, and others are longing to be free. Socialism has many shades of gray. It is hurting nations in Europe and growing in influence in America. Muslim nations that enforce harsh forms of sharia law may be the darkest of all.
But darkness does not do well when the light is turned on.
It flees.
It ceases to exist.
I believe we stand at the beginning of a new day when many nations—even states in some nations of the world—will take votes for liberty and cast off their chains. I believe we will see a liberated and re-united Korean peninsula; I believe many African nations may rise to fight the fight for freedom in their societies. Freedom marches and votes will also take place in many parts of Asia.
In my U.S. state of Washington, I know some folk who would love to “vote for independence” from King County—the liberal bastion of the Northwest. If they want big government, high taxes, and decreased liberties, let them have it. The rest of Washington can become another state where the biblical principles of freedom are allowed to thrive. Many Californians feel the same way about the north and south of their fair state. And Texas hints that if the federal government forces Obamacare on them as a people, they just may vote for liberty and succeed from the Union.
These are radical steps to take—but we live in radical times. Peoples should not change their governing structures lightly or no compelling reason. However, “When in the course of human events…”
Ah yes. That is the heritage of the American Revolution.
I encourage you to pray for a great expansion of personal, social, and civil liberty in the nations of the world in the 21st century. If I am reading the heart of God right, we just might have a rendezvous with destiny that is drenched in the blood, sweat and tears of an explosion of freedom.
And when we are dead and gone, and the history of the 21st century is written, Remember Sudan in 2011. It may be pointing the way to a light-filled future through the power of prayer and the principles of liberty found in Jesus Christ.
The Worst Congress in History–Should We Look in the Mirror?
I think we just lived through the worst United States Congress in history. Since the American Republic has been around for 234 years now, that is saying something.
Of course, I wasn’t there to observe 177 of those years, but I’ve kept a pretty close view on the past thirty or forty–and nothing compares to the deception, ineptness, radical nature, and horrific policies of the 111th United States Congress.
The 80th Congress (1948) was called the “Do-Nothing Congress.” The 109th Congress (2006) has been labeled the “Vacation Congress” because they only met for 100 days. Various congresses in the 18th and 19th centuries were either extremely raucous or bitterly divided (such as over slavery).
But nothing trumps the just completed 111th Congress.
They should be named the “Destroy Everything” Congress.
I believe we need to open our eyes–and also look in the mirror.
We elected these people.
What does that say about us?
It wasn’t that long ago that you didn’t hear much about the US Senate and House of Representatives in the daily news. They weren’t much of a factor or presence. Yes, every twenty to thirty years they made a controversial decision or passed a bad bill. But that was the exception, not a daily occurrence.
Of course, 24/7 cable news and the Internet have greatly increased the spotlight on national governance. But technology does not determine the character of those who lead.
During my lifetime, most senators and congressmen were decent people regardless of party. I generally vote Republican because of the GOP’s general commitment to Judeo-Christian principles which bring liberty. But I’ve liked and supported many Democrats as well including Senators Scoop Jackson and Henry Magnuson, and President John F. Kennedy. Sam Rayburn was a heck of a House Speaker and Tip O’Neill was a decent guy who shared a congenial, after-hours relationship with President Reagan.
So the issue is not partisan. It relates to the people in office.
The elected representatives of the 111th Congress were the worst national legislators we’ve ever had. Don’t believe the spin of the past couple of week. It’s just a desperate attempt to resurrect the discredited progressive agenda. The majority of Americans aren’t buying it.
Take a look at the most recent Gallup Poll on the 111th Congress. The graph is quite enlightening:
“PRINCETON, NJ — Americans’ assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job. The 83% disapproval rating is also the worst Gallup has measured in more than 30 years of tracking congressional job performance.”
“The prior low approval rating for Congress was 14% in July 2008 when the United States was dealing with record-high gas prices and the economy was in recession.”
“For the year, Congress averaged 19% approval among all Americans, tied with the averages for 1979 and 2008, and one percentage point above the 18% average for 1992. Those years were all marked by difficult economic times for the United States.”
Gallup asked another question in a July 22, 2010 poll. It had to do with which institutions give people the greatest confidence. The poll found Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year. Eleven percent of Americans said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress, down from 17% in 2009 and a percentage point lower than the previous low for Congress, recorded in 2008.
So according to Gallup, the 111th Congress approval rating is 13% and confidence rating is 11%.
That’s pretty bad.
Why?
Let’s first look at the people and then at the policies they’ve enacted.
THE PEOPLE OF THE 111TH CONGRESS (just to name a few)
Nancy Pelosi – She will probably go down in history as the worst Speaker of all-time. From ultra-liberal San Francisco, she ruled as if everybody in America wanted to move to her progressive haven. A blank slate on America’s heritage and principles, she drove her own Congress into the electoral ditch with the greatest turnover of seats in sixty years. Her most famous quote (among many) referring to Obamacare: “We need to pass the bill so that we can find out what is in it.”
Harry Reid – The Senate majority leader from Nevada. He strong-armed Obamacare through the Senate by altering the rules and making back-room deals against the express will of the American people (Louisianna Purchase, Cornhusker kick-back etc.). Reid’s Senate didn’t pass one budget item during the past year while giving full vent to vast liberal wish lists of spending. His most famous gaffe among many: “The War is lost!” (When our fighting men and women were in harm’s way and the surge in Iraq was working.)
Barney Frank – His lack of regulation over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which continues to this day) was one of the major factors in the collapse of the real estate market and the financial difficulties we’ve experienced since 2008. Frank is a foul-mouthed, militant homosexual whose “partner” once ran a gay prostitution ring out of his D.C. apartment.
Responding recently to President Jimmy Carter’s assertion that America is ready for a homosexual president, Franks bellowed: “It’s one thing to have a gay person in the abstract. It’s another to see that person as part of a living, breathing couple. How would a gay presidential candidate have a celebratory kiss with his partner after winning the New Hampshire primary? The sight of two women kissing has not been as distressful to people as the sight of two men kissing. And because of the Defense of Marriage Act, it’s not clear that a gay president could use federal funds to buy his husband dinner. Would his partner have to pay rent in the White House? There would be no Secret Service protection for the paramour.”
Yuck.
And this man was one of the powerful men in Washington, D.C. during the 111th Congress?
The list could go on and on–but I think you get the point.
POLICIES OF THE 111TH CONGRESS
First, they wastefully threw an 800 billion dollar stimulus program at the nation that did nothing to create jobs. The unemployment rate continued to climb because government spending does not stimulate capital creation and entrepreneurship. This was the biggest pork barrel bill in the history of the nation. Much of it went to prop up liberal causes, state governments, and unions. It was an utter waste of nearly one trillion dollars.
Then they spent an entire year going against the will of the American people and finally jamming through Obamacare last Christmas–the first step toward socialized medicine in the United States. This nearly three thousand page monstrosity is probably the worst single piece of legislation ever enacted on American soil. As a result, doctors are vowing to retire; Companies are raising rates; Over 250 groups have been exempted from the program because they’re favorites of the Administration; And this is a giant take-over of one-sixth of the American economy.
Because of the radicalness of this and other income re-distribution programs, the Tea Party Movement was born and swept many state houses, legislatures, and Congressional members out of DC in the November 2 elections.
After the election, the chastened 111th Congress should have humbly returned to their D.C. offices, voted to keep the tax rates in place, funded the government, and gone home. They had been soundly defeated and told they were taking the nation in a wrong direction.
But in a brazen, in-your-face manner, they did just the opposite. First they pushed to raise taxes on the wealth creators in America, lost, and finally capitulated. Then they pandered to their homosexual base and sent shock waves through the US armed forces by callously rescinding the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy–again against the wishes of the people and especially those on the front lines.
They also tried to slip in a controversial immigration bill, and pushed for a major nuclear arms treaty with Russia that is hurtful to the United States. They have no business even treading in these waters.
But this Congress doesn’t care. They have an agenda–and they stuck it to the American people.
Rush Limbaugh described the 111th Congress this way in his radio commentary on December 16, 2010:”The damage being done by this Congress is disastrous. They are hi-jacking our country right before our eyes. We are in the middle of being raped and they know it. We said “No” in November but they are still destroying and hijacking our country right in front of our eyes. They don’t care about the country.”
That’s why I call them the “Destroy Everything” Congress.
Fortunately, in a few days, they will be gone and the 112th will take their place.
But their destructive rampage should lead us to some necessary introspection.
Many of these people, including Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank were re-elected in 2010. They will be diminished, but are still in office.
What does that say about us–that we could elect people such as this to guide the affairs of our nation?
In olden times, God used prophets to explain to people why they were given good kings–when they followed God and lived right–and why they were sent bad kings as judgment for their sins.
We don’t have unelected kings in our day. We don’t need an explanation. We live in democratic times where our leaders are a reflection of us.
We the people–elected the 111th Congress. They were the worst in history.
But that consequently means that we, too, just might be the worst generation in American history who elected the worst leaders.
We need to change, live good lives, and elect good leaders.
Start with yourself. Look in the mirror.
Humble yourself. Ask God to forgive you, and live a changed life.
If enough Americans do it, we just might turn our worst time into one of our best .
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will from heaven , forgive their sins and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).