Recently, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has been hailed as a “moderate” for calling for a “big tent” approach that makes room for pro-life democrats. Early in the Primary cycle, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard broke with the current progressive narrative by reintroducing a mantra from the Clinton era: abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. Former Vice President Joe Biden, for much of his career, has described himself as taking a “middle of the road” position on abortion.
Some have regarded these statements and positions as evidence that “abortion moderates” are emerging in the Democratic party. The problem with this view is that it assumes a “moderate” approach to abortion can exist. This simply is not so. There is no such thing as an abortion moderate because there is nothing moderate about abortion. So-called “moderate” positions attempt to find a middle ground between two ideas that cannot co-exist.
Furthermore, Klobuchar’s voting record on abortion is not moderate in any sense of the word. She has voted in favor of abortion every opportunity that she has had, and supports abortion up until birth. She even opposes the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, which would make sure that abortion survivors receive medical care.
Many who claim to be abortion moderates will argue that they are personally opposed to abortion, but do not want to prevent someone else from making that choice, or that they want abortion to be allowed, but only in a small number of cases. But taking the life of another human being cannot be a “private” choice and the choice of a society or an individual to turn a blind eye to the taking of innocent lives is not neutral. If someone is only privately or personally opposed to abortion, they are either unwilling to say that it is evil and that it takes an innocent human life, or by their refusal to publicly oppose abortion they are saying that such evil is acceptable. As Kathryn Jean Lopez asked, “What good is private opposition in the face of the death of innocent life, the pitting of a mother against her child, the trail of misery that is legal abortion, with all the cultural pressures in favor of abortion?”
Tuesday marked the beginning of the legislative session and that morning almost 100 people joined Minnesota Family Council in the Capitol rotunda to pray for our lawmakers and the great state of Minnesota! Pastor Jeff Evans, Director of Minnesota’s Church Ambassador Network (CAN) also announced that CAN would be giving personalized bibles to each legislator. Check out the video here. What a great start to the session! As we kick things off at the capitol, it’s important to remember why the legislative session matters.
As those who have been reconciled to God, we are called to be ambassadors, imploring others to be reconciled as well. We are called to affirm the lordship of Christ and the goodness of God’s design for humanity, to proclaim the truth, and to point others toward grace. This is something we need to do in every area of life, including politics. The session is not the only opportunity to shine the light of Christ in the state of Minnesota, but it is an important one.
It is during the legislative session that our elected leaders make changes to the law, both for good and for bad. Because of this, we commit to being at the Capitol every day of the session fighting for life, family, and religious freedom.
The legislative session also highlights the importance of elections. The people that we elect become the people who shape our laws, so it’s important that we elect leaders who will take a stand for the truth. Faithful pro-life, pro-family leaders make laws that value life and family. Pro-abortion politicians make laws that devalue life. The contrast is clear.
In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released a series of undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s horrifying and illegal practices of harvesting and selling organs from aborted babies. Over four years after the fact, Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation have managed to persuade a jury and much of the public that they are the victims in this case and that David Daleiden and his associates at the Center for Medical Progress owe them restitution for damages caused by the undercover videos.
The videos released by CMP revealed Planned Parenthood medical directors callously discussing pricing of aborted fetal tissue over lunch, making jokes about increasing prices for certain organs in order to afford a Lamborghini and admitting to leaving abortion survivors to die, as well as abortionists admitting to illegally altering late-term abortion procedures so that harvested organs would remain intact and discussing strategies for harvesting body parts without violating bans on partial-birth abortions.
In a ruling against Daleiden in November, the judge and jury refused to take into account Planned Parenthood’s crimes that were exposed by the Center for Medical Progress or their First Amendment rights to call into account the evil being committed by this powerful organization. As the Center for Medical Progress stated in their response to the ruling, “This is a dangerous precedent for citizen journalism and First Amendment civil rights across the country, sending the message that speaking the truth and using facts to criticize the powerful is no longer protected by our institutions.”
Although six charges have been dropped, Daleiden and his associates at CMP are still facing trial on nine felony counts and potentially up to ten years in prison. He and Sandra Merritt will be arraigned on the 21st of this month.
Last week Missouri lawmaker Ben Baker introduced legislation that would give a parental advisory board final say over library events and would penalize libraries that expose children to material that is not age-appropriate. This bill is being proposed in response to Drag Queen Story Hour events, a phenomenon that began in San Francisco in 2015, and within the next few years made its way across the country. The popularityof these events across the country last summer drew widespread attention to their problematic nature.
Here in Minnesota, Hennepin County libraries scheduled fifteen “Stories Together With Drag Performers” events in 2019. At one of these events, the performer wore a miniskirt with his legs spread at eye-level with the children he was reading to. This is not the only time that these events have gotten out of hand. Last summer photos of a drag queen story hour event at a Portland library showed children lying on topof drag queens in a sexual manner. The photos were taken down shortly after they began to draw attention online. And as Libby Emmonspointed out, there would have been no reason to remove the photos had they been innocent. Emmons goes on to write of the event,
…photos of kids laying atop grown men who are wearing sexualized female costumes, and encouraging gender fluidity gives truth to the lie that drag story hour isn’t about sexuality or sexualizing children. Children are drawn to sparkles and glitter, and using those things to make sexuality seem like mere play is nothing more than grooming kids to be sexual objects, not participants.
It is not fear-mongering to say that children are being sexualized at these events. These events really put children’s safety at risk, and there is no acceptable reason for parents or libraries to hold these events.
“Deidra” sobbed uncontrollably as she explained why she had to have an abortion. Deidra is a 19-year-old freshman at North Carolina State University, the first in her family to go to college, and has her sights set on being a Physician Assistant. She loves the Lord, is active in her church and her parents have raised her well, teaching her God’s standards of purity and abstinence until marriage. Despite all that, Deidra and her boyfriend went “too far” and now, here she is at Gateway Women’s Care, scared to death and too afraid to tell her parents she’s pregnant. As this intelligent, capable young woman sits in front of me, the words tumbled out…
I’m so scared to tell my parents I’m pregnant. I have to have an abortion because my parents can never know I’ve been having sex; they would be horrified and I’d rather go through an abortion than have to face them and disappoint them.
Unfortunately, Deidra’s response is extremely common. It is heartbreaking to witness the genuine fear and indecision that many Christian girls experience when faced with an unplanned pregnancy and how it drives girls to NOT seek help from those who love them the most—their parents. These fears are why “good” Christian girls abort and why their parents will most likely never know.
How then should we talk to our children about sex, purity, unplanned pregnancies and abortion? More than ten years of experience at Gateway Women’s Care has shown me that quite often there’s a piece missing from the “talks” parents have with their daughters and sons. Without knowing it, we are leaving no doors open for our children to come back to us should they stray. We are making good, strong cases for purity until marriage and yet neglecting to communicate the message of grace: that we are there for them no matter what, and should they make a mistake—in this case, get pregnant—it is safe for them to come to us for help and support.
Since 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in all 50 states, men and women around the country have marched every year to commemorate the lives lost to abortion. Almost 50 years later, legalized abortion has resulted in the deaths of over 61 million unborn babies.
The numbers are staggering, especially when one stops to consider that every one of those babies was someone’s daughter or son, sister, brother, grandchild, niece or nephew. But far more earth-shattering is the fact that we live in a nation that nonchalantly approves of this evil at the rate of 39 murders per hour.
In the face of the evil of abortion, we cannot be silent—it is an injustice that demands a response. The March for Life is one of the ways that we respond. It is one of the ways that we tell the world and our nation that abortion is not acceptable, that babies should not be stripped of their right to life, and that women deserve better than abortion.
As we march, we should keep in mind that hope in the face of the evil of abortion can only be found at the cross, so we turn to God, praying for his justice and his mercy for both the sinner and the sinned against, knowing that apart from God the abortion industry will not be defeated. God works through his people, but his people can accomplish nothing apart from him.
In the past few years, a growing number of male athletes have taken home awards in women’s sports. Rather than decry this trend as unfair or sexist, many media figures and politicians have celebrated itas a mark of inclusivity and progress because the men placing in these events identify as female. Reducing maleness and femaleness to one’s “gender identity” ignores the reality that men and women are different, and that the differences between the sexes are not based on how a person feels.
Responding to this trend, nine states are currently considering or planning to take up legislation that would protect women’s sports by preventing biological males from competing in young women’s sports teams. Additionally, Congressman Greg Steube (FL-17) recently proposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act which would prevent schools that allow biological males to compete in women’s sports from receiving Title IX funding.
These bills take seriously the fact that men and women are different and that there is good reason for having separate girls’ sports teams. The 2018-19 competition season in Connecticut saw two biological males dominate high school girls track in, beating the teenage girls in the event and costing them potential scholarship opportunities. This isn’t because female athletes do not work as hard or train as well as male athletes, but because of the physical differences between men and women.
The opening of a New Yearis a time for looking back and looking forward. We look back to remind ourselves of God’s blessings, and we look forward to a new year, renewing our commitment to our values and resolving to live in light of God’s truth.
This past year has seen a lot of good. In 2019, 21 states passed pro-life laws finishing a strong decadein the fight for life. And the Trump administration’s new Title X rule has diverted federal funds away from abortion providers, funneling them to life affirmingpregnancy centers, instead. The most recent CDC report on abortion rates brought with it both good news and bad news, with overall abortion rates falling, but a troubling increase in the use of the abortion pill.
Additionally, this year Minnesota saw an important victory for religious freedom when a federal appeals court protected Carl and Angel Larsen’s First Amendment rights.
But at the start of a new year, there is still work to be done. 2019 also saw an increase in assisted suicide, as well as continued attacks on life and those who speak up to defend it.Radical ideology has striven to replace common sense policies in sports, and religious foster care and adoption agencies have had a year of ups and downs as they fight for the freedom to affirm God’s design for marriage and family.
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” - Isaiah 9:2
Christmas is the time for remembering the incarnation and its significance—the fact that we were rebels, dead in our sin, but God broke into our darkness. God owed us nothing, yet he chose to take on human flesh and to cover our sin by his perfect life and death. In a world full of sorrow, violence, and evil, the baby in the manger brought joy, peace, and hope. That incredible reality, and the fact that through Christ, God is reconciling us to himself shapes every element of how we interact with the world around us, including how we approach cultural engagement.
It isn’t a stretch of the imagination to believe that everyone, at some point, has asked, “Why is the world like this? Why is there so much brokenness? Why so much darkness?” There is reason to grieve the brokenness of the world, but we must not forget that, thanks to the incarnation, the darkness that we see and feel around us has already been broken. As the old Christmas carol reminds us, there is “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!” At the incarnation, a new day has dawned.
Last week, four members of Congress sent a letter to Attorney General Barr calling on the Trump administration to follow through on a campaign promise to enforce obscenity laws to stop the spread of pornography.
The letter, sent by Jim Banks (R-Indiana), Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina), Vicky Hartzler (R-Missouri), and Brian Babin (R-Texas), points out that the explosion of pornography coincides with increases in human trafficking and violence toward women. It also makes the point that children are increasingly exposed to pornography on the internet.
Pornography takes sex, something designed by God for good, and distorts it by divorcing it from its purpose. Rather than an expression of intimacy between husband and wife, pornography treats sex as a commodity in which human beings become objects to be viewed and used the sexual gratification of another.
Although many defenses of pornography emphasize “consenting adults,” the reality is that pornography is fed by and fuels human trafficking. Content on pornography websites frequently shows the rape and abuse of sex trafficking victims. When people are treated as objects rather than humans violence follows, and there is no way around the fact that pornography monetizes sexual violence. Pornography commodifies women (and men) and this is not without consequences. Violence is mainstream in the pornography industry, and it isn’t just conservatives who are pointing this out. Feminist activists, and even porn producers have called attention to the increasingly violent behavior that is normalized through pornography.
A Minnesota middle school is being sued for not allowing a female student to change in the boys’ locker room. The student’s mother, Helene Woods, claims that this was an act of discrimination and has filed a lawsuit against Buffalo Community Middle School. Her daughter began to identify as a boy when she was eleven, changed her name to Matt, and asked to be referred to with masculine pronouns. In September of 2015 she made it clear to school officials that she wanted access to the boys’ bathroom and locker rooms. The school offered her access to a single-occupancy bathroom instead.
The school made special arrangements for Matt, but according to her mother, these were not the right special arrangements. Buffalo Community Middle School made accommodations that rightly acknowledge that Matt is female, and as such, did not arrange for her to disrobe in the boys’ locker room. In the lawsuit, this is being described as an act of isolation.
Preventing a student from disrobing in front of a member of the opposite sex is not an act of harmful isolation. Rather, it is a protection of everyone involved. Unfortunately, many adults have bought into a radical sexual agenda that not only permits but encourages policies that remove privacy protections and place children and teenagers in harm’s way, regardless of objections from the student body.
During National Adoption Month, let’s talk about how religious freedom is crucial to making sure children find a home.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells his followers, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Throughout its history, the church has paved the wayin caring for vulnerable members of society. Among the most vulnerable members of our society are children who are awaiting families, whether because their parents have died, they have been placed for adoption, or their families are currently unable to care for them.
Children in need of families include children in foster care, as well as babies whose mothers are facing unplanned pregnancies and choose to place their child for adoption. To be pro-life is to value and cherish the life of every individual, regardless of age and regardless of place. This doesn’t end when the baby is born. Recognizing that every life has value because every person is created in the image of God shapes our attitudes toward children who are adopted or in need of adopted families, families who adopt, and biological mothers who place their child for adoption. While not every family is called to adopt, to be pro-life is to be pro-adoption.
MINNEAPOLIS – Today the Minneapolis City Council voted to enact a ban on so-called “conversion therapy” after holding a public meeting on the subject earlier this week. The ban is an attack on individual choice in health care as well as on the constitutional rights of therapists, patients, and families. Minneapolis’s ban could prevent mental health professionals from helping patients explore all options when addressing questions over sexual orientation and gender identity, something they should be free to do.
“Young people should have access to voluntary, compassionate, client-driven care in the field of sexual identity that pursues the goals of the patient, including living in accordance with biblical teaching on sexuality or becoming more comfortable with their biological sex,” said John Helmberger, CEO at Minnesota Family Council. “Throughout this debate, we’ve heard from men and women with moving stories of how sexual orientation change counseling helped them meet their therapeutic goals. At the end of the day, the Minneapolis City Council just outlawed a type of mental health care with no real justification.”
Local elections matter. The results often fly under the radar, but they have lasting effects. Here’s just one example: with Tom Heidemann’s defeat in the Anoka-Hennepin school board race, the state’s largest school district could soon chart a very different course.
There wasn’t much media coverage about Tom Heidemann’s reelection efforts, or the radical activist who challenged him for the seat he’s held for twenty years. But what differentiated Tom from his opponent came down to two simple questions:
Should all students have access to safe, single-sex restrooms and changing rooms at school?
Who should be in charge of sex education: parents, or Planned Parenthood?
Under Heidemann’s leadership, Anoka-Hennepin Schools instituted a policy that ensured that restrooms and changing rooms for male and female students were maintained, while students who identify as “transgender” were able to use alternative facilities if they were uncomfortable using those designated for their sex. This was a way to deal with a real issue some students have without compromising the privacy of other students - but that wasn’t enough for radical activists.
Recentresearch from the New York Times has revealed that there are over 45 million videos and images of child sexual abuse online. These numbers represent an exponential increase from a decade ago. Even more sobering, behind those numbers is the harrowing reality of millions of children who have been exploited and abused, their lives upended, and their innocence destroyed.
In light of this horrifying reality, will people wake up and replace thesexualization of children with focused efforts to protect their innocence? A great starting point for Minnesota would be to stop the push for radical Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) in children’s classrooms.
For the past ten years, Pew Research Center has been observing the decline in religion in the US. Last week they released their findings under the headline, “In the U.S., Declines of Christianity Continues at a Rapid Pace.” Pew found that the number of Christians in the U.S. had dropped by 12% in the past decade, while the religiously unaffiliated share of the population increased by 17%.
Pew is right in noting that this is a significant decline to have taken place in only ten years, and an understanding and awareness of this trendmatters. The declining number of people identifying as Christians has implications for believers. However, as we think about these numbers, we must never lose sight of the fact that the power of the gospel is not dependent on cultural trends. Pew’s findings are an urgent reminder that the people around us are lost and hurting, and this should motivate us to act with urgency, compassion, and concern.
Earlier this fall, Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued an advisory on the dangers of marijuana, especially for young people and pregnant women. “Recent increases in access to marijuana and in its potency, along with misperceptions of safety of marijuana endanger our most precious resource, our nation’s youth,” Adams stated. The health risks detailed here by the Surgeon General are some of the principal reasons Minnesota Family Council opposes recreational marijuana legalization in Minnesota.
In his advisory, Surgeon General Adams states,
No amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or adolescence is known to be safe. Until and unless more is known about the long-term impact, the safest choice for pregnant women and adolescents is not to use marijuana. Pregnant women and youth--and those who love them--need the facts and resources to support healthy decisions. It is critical to educate women and youth, as well as family members, school officials, state and local leaders, and health professionals, about the risks of marijuana, particularly as more states contemplate legalization.
A Roman soldier wrote the following in aletter to his wife over 2,000 years ago: “If you bear a child and it is male, let it be; if it is female, cast it out.”
The jarring statement appears in a casual letter home, highlighting its cold brutality. This was what it was like to live in a society that did not value human life and chose to see women as less valuable than men.
If the same statement was uttered today, it would surely be met with shock, horror, and outrage. Right?
Speaking in Minneapolis last night before a crowd estimated at more than 19,000, President Trump gave his first campaign appearance in Minnesota’s largest city. His wide-ranging remarks lasted 102 minutes (the second-longest speech of his presidency so far), but at one crucial moment, Trump spelled out his position on abortion.
“Virtually every top Democrat supports late-term abortions, ripping babies straight from the mother’s womb right up to the moment of birth. That is why I have asked Congress to prohibit extreme late-term abortions, because Republicans believe every child is a sacred gift from God.”
As first reported by the Star Tribune, Minnesota’s solicitor general Liz Kramer has filed a motion to dismiss a frivolous lawsuit brought by radical abortion activists.
The subject of the lawsuit is Minnesota’s reasonable health and safety protections for women. Minnesota’s bipartisan laws regarding a sometimes-dangerous procedure, such as requiring that only physicians perform abortions and providing women factual non-biased information about abortion before undergoing it, are pure common sense and supported by most Minnesotans. This lawsuit seeks to create a lawless and unsafe environment that would hurt women in Minnesota, whom these laws are designed to protect.
Solicitor General Liz Kramer’s 27-page filing (read the whole thing here) asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit because the plaintiffs, anonymous medical professionals and First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis. “The Plaintiffs want to re-write Minnesota law with respect to abortion,” Kramer wrote “The courts are not the right vehicle for that effort—the Legislature is.”
