What does silence mean on social media?

The recent and continued conversation about what is going on with Planned Parenthood poses an interesting question: what does silence from typically vocal supporters mean on social media? Yes, #StandwithPP is out there, but interestingly enough the initial tweet from PP that read, "Friends who #StandwithPP: stay strong. The anti-abortion minions want to bully us into silence. That's not happening." With an attached gif of a Universal's Minion dropping a mic has been deleted, possibly because of the responses it received.

For Planned Parenthood it should be a terribly awkward thing, and it seems they are trying their best to get past that initial shock, which is happening again with this video released this morning. And yes, Nish Weiseth is right that, “Everyone will internalize information differently on any given day because of their lived experience.”

But when the outcry for justice outweighs the voices of your supporters over time, an institution should take heed of the cries. It should really begin a line of questioning wherein the decisions to be part of such an organization (whether as an employee or as a supporter) are brought to center-stage. It is possible that the effort to save face does not, and should not keep one from admitting one’s mistakes and therefore repent of those mistakes.

Social media provides something that the mainstream media isn’t doing, namely it’s providing the news on how we can work to see Planned Parenthood defunded, and Lord willing, disbanded. As I said in an earlier post, “We can choose to ignore this gore, or look it full in the face and demand that this holocaust of prodigious numbers come to a swift and final end.”

My prayer is that we, as Christians believing that every life is valuable, speak out clearly on social media to #DefundPP. Our collective voice cannot be drowned out, and we are offered video upon video upon video of proof that shows the horrific carnage that is Planned Parenthood. 

If history remembers anything of this online conversation let it not be that Christians were silent. Speak up. Be heard.

The Gospel for Abortion Providers

We heard about King David at church this weekend. No matter how many times I hear it I’m still shocked that we look up to this guy (or that we even name kids - like my coming son - David). He commits adultery, tries to cover it up, and then murders - in the best mobster fashion - the husband of the woman he impregnated. I mean, this guys is a terrible guy by today’s standards. Our jails are full of folks like him. 

But the reason we look up to this guy and name our kids David is not because he was great guy, but because his God was a great God. David writes, “Do not forsake me from you presence…” (Ps 51:11) and God does not forsake him. But David killed a man! He committed adultery! He lied! Three of the big ten commandments David doesn’t just break a little, he shatters them and keeps on running. 

And then two faces swam into my mind. Those of Dr. Deborah Nucatola and Mary Gatter. The two women in the Center for Medical Progress’ videos exposing some very dirty secrets of Planned Parenthood (and from what we're hearing there are only more videos to come).

Dr. Nucatola talked about having just done a, “17-weeker,” early in the day of her recorded lunch meeting. Mary Gatter talked about doing things, “less crunchy.” To interpret this means that Dr. Nucatola just finished killing a 17-week-old baby, and now sits sipping her wine and enjoying her salad, and Mary Gatter is discussing how to crush a baby in order to preserve its organs. 

These women are murderers of children. Justice demands a response. Whether it is the law of the land's justice or not doesn’t matter, eternal justice must be served.

Which brings me back to David. 

He was not forsaken because another was forsaken in his place. “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46)

An abortion provider is not beyond the reach of this grace.

Never will there come a time when one is too bad to be redeemed and welcomed as a child of God. Never will an abortion provider hear, “Your sin is too great to be forgiven,” from God’s almighty lips. Never will any employee of Planned Parenthood be out of reach of the arms of mercy.

This means that if an abortion provider comes to Christ, Christ died for their sins and they will worship God as part of the Church for all eternity. What then of justice?

Take the thirst you have for justice and look at Jesus’ blood and pus soaked cross. If a murderer of infants can find redemption in the arms of Jesus then imagine how horrific the cross must have been, and then realize that your thirst for justice is infinitely dwarfed by God’s demand for justice. If one who crushes children to preserve organs can be made new by the sacrificed Lamb, imagine what kind of unparalleled crushing Christ bore. 

Now if those last few paragraphs made you uncomfortable as a Christian, your god is too small and looks strangely like you. 

There is a love stronger than death. There is a great I AM who sits enthroned. And there is a great Redeemer welcoming home murderous rebels every day. 

Christian, remember your redemption: you were saved from your sins by the same grace that can save an abortion provider. Abortion provider, see the hope that is in Christ Jesus to be finally forgiven and finally accepted by the mercy of a good God.

How do we respond to the Planned Parenthood videos?

The rumble of thunder was rolling as I read these words this morning: “For 30 months, as part of their ‘Human Capital’ investigation, they followed the trail that led to aborted babies whose parts are earmarked for sale, even while their little hearts are still beating.” This Center for Medical Progress, this David Daleiden, of whom I know so little.

For 30 months, 2 and a half years of Planned Parenthood infiltration has the fruit of 12 disheartening, sickening, and invigorating videos.

They are disheartening because the unborn children are considered more profitable dead than alive. No matter what progress these unborn dead could have possibly offered in the field of medicine, medicine has slaughtered them to have progress now rather than wait for these young ones to make grand discoveries.

Photo is a screenshot from the second CMP video.

They are sickening because terms like “less crunchy" are used to describe methods of child murder, or “I’ll crush above and I’ll crush below….” These are people! Crushed, crunched, as if they were leaves under your feet! Imagine that every-time you step on a leaf this fall: children are crushed in order to obtain their organs.

These videos are invigorating because we have been offered something, multiple somethings, “They have parted the veil of antiseptic tidiness…." For 10 more weeks we will be subjected to the gore of these casual conversations over wine and salad discussing what to do with the proceeds these dead people will provide for their murderers. And we can choose to ignore this gore, or look it full in the face and demand that this holocaust of prodigious numbers come to a swift and final end. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak,” Bonhoeffer said. 

Shall we then not be like those poor German people who went on about their days while the fires of Auschwitz burned the suffocated corpses of the Jewish people? Shall we then not be like those in the parable who walk on the other side of the road when those in need have fallen directly in our path? 

Shall we then serve those women who find themselves in dark places forced to choose between murder and being themselves abandoned? Shall we then seek to adopt those little ones who are unwanted rather than see them “crushed?” Shall we?

Oh, Christian stand up and speak. Stand up and serve. Stand up and save those little ones who will be murdered in a fashion more gruesome than I want to, but must indeed imagine.