We are not that far into the Planned Parenthood calamity, but I think we are far enough into it to ask the secularists how they like being on the wrong side of history. And as Dylan once put it in Like a Rolling Stone, “you got no secrets to conceal. How does it feel?”
It has been a few days since I have been able to post on this, and there have been many developments, so it is time for a brief tactical round-up. Remember how crucial pursuit is as a principle of war. We don’t want to win “this round,” we want to win the fight. And that means pursuit.
1. There will be a national protest at PP clinics all over the country. The web site for that protest is here. Check it out and see if there is a protest near you, or if there should be.
2. At these protests, or in conversations with friends and coworkers, the question may come up: “What are you trying to accomplish? What do you want?” Divide the answer in two. “First, ultimately, we want to end human abortion.”
But what are the intermediate goals? Suppose someone from the media asks you that. What do you say? My friend John Stoos offers these three suggestions. “We want, first, someone from the White House to watch the videos. Second, we want a congressional investigation into the apparent illegal activities of Planned Parenthood. And third, we want the U.S. Senate to vote to defund Planned Parenthood.”
3. Speaking of someone from the White House watching the videos, you can help make that happen. Go to this web site and sign the petition. Not only sign the petition, but try to get the link into places of high visibility. If all the pro-lifers who are currently active in the fight saw this link, we could have our 100,000 signatures in ten minutes.
4. Don’t forget the corporate sponsors. The corporation to concentrate on this week is Nike. Check out this resource.
5. This is all market action and politics, and working with them in this circumstance is necessary and good. But it also true that doctors hate being reviewed by medical boards. This is a place where pro-lifers with particular expertise in this area can help out — do the research, and then get the info to organizations and bloggers who can distribute the info. I certainly would help out with the distribution.
Depending on the state, look up the Medical Practice Act, and look at the definitions of ethics and expectations. Depending on the physician, search for any previous complaints. Obtain copies of the consent forms that the women have to sign. Are they clear or vague? Was counseling/education an option? Depending on what shakes out, file a complaint against the abortionists. Would the women involved have had any reasonable expectation of what these videos have revealed? Is that was they were agreeing to?
Remember Alinsky’s Rule #4. Make the adversary conform to their own rules. Make them play by their book.
6. The gruesome practices of Planned Parenthood are indefensible. Our goal is to make people defend them. And so it is that we should welcome the abortion defenders who are dismayed at what is happening to their cause, and who are trying to get their troops to hold the line. We want them to try to hold this line. We want them to try to defend the indefensible.
Rolling Stone — the magazine, but see Dylan above — recently took a break from the rape hoax business, and tried to rally the troops on the abortion business. This is all to the good. We want pro-choicers to do one of two things — we want them to run away from their swamp, but even better, we want them to try to defend it. Either one works, but the latter is far better. Doubling down on grotesque is not going to help them at all.
7. And last, we want Planned Parenthood, and every organization like them, to be filled to the brim with anticipation. By this, I do not just mean anticipation of the remaining videos dropping. I am talking about all the future videos that could be made. I am talking about all the possible pro-life operatives that are inside Planned Parenthood doing business now. Every form, every lunch order of salad and wine, every business transaction, every consultant should be suspect. We want them to think that absolutely everything they do might wind up on the web, and we want the thought to paralyze them.
Postscript: Keep the memes coming.
Thanks for putting this together. Did you see the article posted over at Salon recently? “I had an abortion and I’m not ashamed.” http://iroots.org/2015/08/11/she-had-an-abortion-isnt-ashamed-well-that-settles-it/
New and improved Planned Parenthood now “less crunchy.”
In regard to the traffic of baby parts, Planned Parenthood is making a killing.
Pastor Doug, here is a link to one pro-choicer trying to defend the indefensible. Clearly they no longer care to argue that it’s a baby. They want to defend the voluntary right to be a mother.
Here’s a quote: We need to say that women have sex, have abortions, are at peace with the decision and move on with their lives. We need to say that is their right, and, moreover, it’s good for everyone that they have this right: The whole society benefits when motherhood is voluntary.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/opinion/how-to-really-defend-planned-parenthood.html?_r=1&referrer=
This is exactly what Wilson means by insisting that they defend their ways. They only have two real options. To repent, or to double-down in pride. If they choose to adorn their heads with the bloodguilt, then the narrative will be crystal clear when judgment from God falls. I think this is what Scripture means when it says filling up their cup with iniquity. We either cling to our sin anchor (and go down with it forever), or let go of it and rise with Christ.
Well said. I love the anchor analogy. And yes, it seems that some involved in this industry are not the type that “know not what they do.”
Thank you, Douglas. Praying for total paralysis.
I’m still agnostic on the long-term results of these videos, but here’s one possibility: What happens if two years from now, nothing has changed, Planned Parenthood is still in business and still funded, abortions are still happening at the same rate they are now, the federal courts are still striking down anti-abortion laws, and the videos are mostly forgotten? At that point, pro-lifers will have thrown everything they’ve got at the abortion industry, to no avail. In fact, you’ll be in a much worse position than you were before the videos, because the lesson will be that yes, people do… Read more »
I’m sure there was someone in Germany (pre-blog of course) asking the same question about what would happen if the furnaces of the concentration camps were still churning out smoke two years hence. I believe the answer from the righteous would be the same. As long as we have no legitimate subordinate leadership authority willing to represent us in outright active civil disobedience to declare and make war against the abortuaries and forcibly shut them down, then, as citizens under authority, we will use whatever occasion or peaceful means we can muster to end the slaughter of the unborn. These… Read more »
I think if there’s no change America is on its way out. And not just change on the issue of abortion, but a sort of nationwide repentance from other such iniquity and to Jesus. I just dont know how long God will tarry on a nation so wicked. Iran calls us the great satan. Well, we butcher babies like Pharaoh and Herod, so…
Actually, it may interest you to know that in Muslim theology, Satan is more of a buffoon than a prince of evil – a fumbling, bumbling idiot who keeps trying to thwart the purposes of God but only succeeds in making a fool out of himself over and over. Some Muslim theologians even believe that because God is merciful, even Satan will find redemption on the day of judgment. So when Iran calls America the Great Satan, what they’re really saying is that we’re stupid and can’t help ourselves.
I don’t know if that changes anything for you or not.
It doesnt. I dont disbelieve you, but thats not how any of the muslims I know think.
“In Christianity, Satan is a figure of overpowering evil, but in Islam he is a much more manageable figure. . . . Those Iranians who called America ‘the Great Satan’ were not saying that the United States is diabolically wicked, but something more precise. In popular Shiism, the Shaitan, the Tempter, is a rather ludicrous creature, chronically incapable of appreciating the spiritual values of the unseen world. In one story, he is said to have complained to God about the privileges given to humans, but was easily fobbed off with inferior gifts. Instead of prophets, the Shaitan was quite happy… Read more »
“I dont disbelieve you, but thats not how any of the muslims I know think.” – Me. I personally think most Christians give Satan too much respect. In popular Christianity, Satan is the ruler of the underworld – a carry-over from anciet mythologies? But even among practicing, thinking evangelicals he is a person who we often pray to bind at our church services and seem to think he has the upper hand in almost every battle, even those unto salvation. The strongman is already bound. Still you hear things like “The way I see it, God gets a vote, Satan… Read more »
I agree with n8tdo66. Krychek_2 offers us a nice plausible spoon-feeding of nonsense (authoritatively cited), but some of us note that Ayatollah Khomeini, the one who first called America “the Great Satan”, also called Israel “the Little Satan”, and it wasn’t because of their “superficial secularism”, or because Israel is seen as “incurably trivial” by Iran. Krychek_2 quotes Armstrong as writing: Those Iranians who called America ‘the Great Satan’ were not saying that the United States is diabolically wicked, but something more precise. … America, the Great Shaitan, was the Great Trivializer. Oh? Khomeini said: “Americans are the great Satan,… Read more »
Losing is a real possibility. But losing without a fight would be a real shame.
And as someone who is pro-choice, let me be the first to congratulate you on the hand-to-hand trench warfare your side has successfully engaged in for the past forty years. In much of the country, you’ve already succeeded in making abortion very difficult to obtain, and there are plenty of poor women who weren’t able to get abortions who therefore carried to term. If not for the fight your side has waged, the number of abortions over the past 40 years would probably be 10 million higher. Your side has done a fantastic job of making the best of it… Read more »
If in fact your 2 year scenario proves out. I propose there will be a much more dire conflict occupying our collective thought processes.
Think Habakkuk. That is to say, things might get a lot worse before they get better.
Exactly. As in a lot, lot worse, for a long, long time, before they get better. And when they do, hundreds or thousands of years from now, the U S of A will have long since ceased to exist.
We’re in Proverbs 1:20-29 territory. The next few hundred years aren’t going to be much fun for Christians, but they’re sure going to be interesting.
I am struggling with how to add my voice to the conversation for the sake of the congregation I serve when it comes to social media. Adding a few cheap-shock memes (which I confess I enjoy reading) just doesn’t seem like a good idea. What I think I need are some seriously serious and thought provoking statements or questions that affirm a biblical world view and expose the folly of PP and its advocates. I want to avoid taking pot shots that just shut down the conversation or alienate people before they even begin to think this thing through. Any… Read more »
Shouldn’t pro-aborts in the congregation _be_ alienated?
James, I am referring to the wider audience on social media where typically the congregation is looking on and the world listening in.
Ridicule, in the tradition of Elijah on Mt Carmel, is what the memes accomplish. Exposing the hideous logic that leads a nation to hack up babies in the womb is a task we should tackle head on. Let the world listen–and heed.
Here’s an encouraging article from the daily beast: “I Don’t Know If I’m Pro-Choice Anymore” http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/10/i-don-t-know-if-i-m-pro-choice-anymore.html Let’s keep up the pressure out there! Say not the struggle naught availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been they remain. If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d, Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers, And, but for you, possess the field. For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes… Read more »
I liked that when I saw it on another post of yours. Like it again.
The only reason a person would change their mind about PP after the videos came out would be because they either didn’t know beforehand that PP did abortions at all, or they didn’t care, but DO care about the selling of baby body parts. This is irrational. As I said before, it’s tricky trying to sway idiots, as they are easily distracted and forgetful.
Pray that the Lord would soon bring about the Great Default and the ensuing collapse of the American political and monetary order. This is the only way anything changes.
The only reason David changed his mind about justifying his own actions with Bathsheba and Uriah was because Nathan tricked him by reframing the issue to make it into something he would acknowledge as intolerable. Yes, it was an appeal to the irrational. It also prompted a genuine remorse. And it was the tactic God Himself used through His prophet. He didn’t need to bring down the whole kingdom to do it, either. That people believe evil things for bad reasons is a given. It does not follow that (when God is at work) they cannot be shaken out of… Read more »
I agree with all that, but that was one particular instance; Doug is hoping that this will work collectively, and with a segment of society that consists almost entirely of unconverted people. As I have stated several times on previous posts, this almost certainly will not happen, as there are too many powerful and nefarious forces at play, not least of which is the media, which will constantly fight to preserve the PTB (which include themselves) and their friends in the “private” sector like PP. It doesn’t take much to distract Boobus Americanus. A war or terror attack would work… Read more »
that’s a new one to me, that Nathan tricked David…more like a parallel object lesson or analogy one would hear in a sermon or in Christ’s parables, etc…a most rational thought-provoking approach. “but the start of football season is probably good enough” or some new fashion statement of Jenner’s or the next “funniest” selfie or Megyn Kelly/Kelly Megyn’s next bit of “good journalism” or how Obergefell and human-robot marriages… http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/08/humans_should_be_able_to_marry_robots.2.html ‘Most people (including judges) presumably think robot-human relationships are absurd and twisted. But that was once also the case for interracial marriage and same-sex marriage. Of course those advances involved… Read more »
Tricked seems a fair word since he got David to express outrage and then turned the tables and showed him that it was his own sin, that he’d been trying to suppress, that he was actually outraged by. Contrasting it with a parable doesn’t really establish that it wasn’t a trick — parables can be tricks, too.
Consider the possibility that God brought these videos to prepare us for what He expects us to do.
Edit: “Possibility” isn’t quite the right word…option, facet, ….erg…to tired…
True enough. Maybe both, to some degree.
Perspective?
Perfect, thank you.
This isn’t about convincing, it’s about prophetically confronting. The important facts haven’t changed, but an opportunity for change in perception has arrived. God changes hearts, or hardens them. Not our department; we just have to proclaim the truth, and this is a good time for it.
Well said.
You have been immensely helpful in this. Thanks for the info on the protests. Do you plan on joining one of the protests?
The cohesiveness of the pro choice stance summed up perfectly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkfsSUBlqUY You can kill them, as long as it is inside the body.
Speaking of memes…. regarding men who favor abortions (or simply say “it’s up to you”) in order to evade their sexual responsibility: http://memegenerator.net/instance/63983020
Sorry, no one cares. Adultery and fornication trump chopped-up babies, every day, all day, hands down. Get your priorities straight, O good Christian.
What do you mean, “trump”? How so?
Sorry, no one cares…
Change the phrase “no one” to “a remarkable number do not” and I agree with you. God came to divide and He meant it. I ask myself “Could the division be anymore stark?” and I tremble a bit because, as sorrowful as I am at this, it will grow worse for them.
Do you approve of the public’s caring more about sensation?
Abortion is, of course, downstream of fornication. There have been some successes with limiting abortion but I’m not sure that there can be victory if fornication remains unrestrained.
It is all about the sex. No one here disagrees with that.
Cynicism isn’t wisdom. It’s the opposite of faith.
Recognizing the depth of depravity we’re dealing with is wise; using it as an excuse for defeatist snark is something else.
“Cynicism isn’t wisdom. It’s the opposite of faith.
Recognizing the depth of depravity we’re dealing with is wise; using it as an excuse for defeatist snark is something else.”
This. Hopefully McDivitt heard that?
Pastor Doug, or anyone else who knows, beyond keeping the memes coming, what are some things we could do up in Canada to join the pursuit? Most of these petitions etc… are exclusive to USA.
Out of curiosity – what is Planned Parenthood’s presence in Canada like? Is there a visible pro-life movement?
Ian, PP is here, coast to coast, but not in the same numbers. I suspect that’s because they aren’t the only game in town; there are plenty of other places that will do it, and because we have state-subsidized healthcare, they’re all on the government books. Level of government support varies from one province to the next. We have a visible pro-life movement, just not with the same critical mass as ya’ll. Check out the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform: http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/ Lifesite News also has a Canadian wing: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ And we have the Campaign Life Coalition: http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/index.php?p=Defund, though their organizational… Read more »
Ryan, check out weneedalaw.ca – lots of good suggestions and information for pro-life Canadians.
Re. memes, see: https://newine.wordpress.com/2015/08/06/subversive-memes/
Here is another petition on the whitehouse site that is going around.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/order-attorney-general-investigate-planned-parenthoods-sale-aborted-baby-parts-1
For a blog run by a pastor who quotes Dylan, this site has an awfully high percentage of commenters who need a weatherman to tell them which way the wind is blowing.
And like any good forum we have trolls. And sadly, like any good forum, we respond to them sometimes.
Stop responding to them, Susan. We’ve got ’em on the run. Don’t give up now!
And I mean no slight to Rev. Wilson – I’m not comparing him to a weatherman. If he were doing local TV news, he’d be a weekend anchor, minimum.
Have you heard about the site abortionworker.com? It is the website of an organization I just recently heard about, “And Then There Were None”. The purpose is to reach out to abortion workers and abortion doctors and help them get out of the industry. They may help with transition pay while they are out of work, retreats and they partner with Christian churches to help those who have been part of the abortion industry but have left it behind. I hope you will check it out and, if you see no red flags, will promote it.
If you haven’t see this Ray Comfort video, it is amazing. Use these techniques. Yelling won’t work! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y2KsU_dhwI
The Illinois Family Institute is promoting the use of this meme on Facebook:
think about this – This is where our christian leaders are leading us after 48 years of abortion where over 58 million human beings are being killed in the most bestial manner : I am not going to buy any more tennis shoes from Nike if they don’t supporting the holocaust , please Mr. Leader would please watch videos that shows what I know you already agree with ; let’s show up at the abortion factory saying we don’t agree with you even though what you do is legal. Look up a law to see if the killers are perhaps… Read more »
I don’t think the killers are following the law. 296g-1 prohibits altering the timing, means, method, or procedure solely to obtain “tissue” for research. Especially video #2 calls compliance with that into severe question.