Justin Taylor's Blog, page 70

10 Updates on Planned Parenthood; A New Video; and How to Contact Congress

Mollie Hemingway, writing at The Federalist, provides ten updates on Planned Parenthood:

Injunction On Release Of Potential Upcoming Video
Crisis Communications Firm Helping Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Claims Web Site Attacked, But Was It?
Media Very Interested In Cecil The Lion, But Not Cecile The President Of Planned Parenthood
Hillary Clinton Says Videos Are ‘Disturbing’
Planned Parenthood Poll Mocked
Planned Parenthood Fails To Show Up To Texas Hearing
Trouble for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood
#UnplannedParenthood
Planned Parenthood Mammogram Falsehood Resurrected

You can read the whole thing here.

Here is the latest video released today (Thursday, July 30, 2015):

DENVER, July 30–New undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ Vice President and Medical Director, Dr. Savita Ginde, negotiating a fetal body parts deal, agreeing multiple times to illicit pricing per body part harvested, and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) is a wealthy, multi-state Planned Parenthood affiliate that does over 10,000 abortions per year. PPRM has a contract to supply aborted fetal tissue to Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

In the video, actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company meet with Ginde at the abortion-clinic headquarters of PPRM in Denver to discuss a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs. When the actors request intact fetal specimens, Ginde reveals that in PPRM’s abortion practice, “Sometimes, if we get, if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then we are intact.”

Since PPRM does not use digoxin or other feticide in its 2nd trimester procedures, any intact deliveries before an abortion are potentially born-alive infants under federal law (1 USC 8).

“We’d have to do a little bit of training with the providers or something to make sure that they don’t crush” fetal organs during 2nd trimester abortions, says Ginde, brainstorming ways to ensure the abortion doctors at PPRM provide usable fetal organs.

When the buyers ask Ginde if “compensation could be specific to the specimen?” Ginde agrees, “Okay.” Later on in the abortion clinic’s pathological laboratory, standing over an aborted fetus, Ginde responds to the buyer’s suggestion of paying per body part harvested, rather than a standard flat fee for the entire case: “I think a per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.”

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). Federal law also requires that no alteration in the timing or method of abortion be done for the purposes of fetal tissue collection (42 U.S.C. 289g-1).

Ginde also suggests ways for Planned Parenthood to cover-up its criminal and public relations liability for the sale of aborted body parts. “Putting it under ‘research’ gives us a little bit of an overhang over the whole thing,” Ginde remarks. “If you have someone in a really anti state who’s going to be doing this for you, they’re probably going to get caught.”

Ginde implies that PPRM’s lawyer, Kevin Paul, is helping the affiliate skirt the fetal tissue law: “He’s got it figured out that he knows that even if, because we talked to him in the beginning, you know, we were like, ‘We don’t want to get called on,’ you know, ‘selling fetal parts across states.'” The buyers ask, “And you feel confident that they’re building those layers?” to which Ginde replies, “I’m confident that our Legal will make sure we’re not put in that situation.”

As the buyers and Planned Parenthood workers identify body parts from last fetus in the path lab, a Planned Parenthood medical assistant announces: “Another boy!”

The video is the latest by The Center for Medical Progress documenting Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal parts. Project Lead David Daleiden notes: “Elected officials need to listen to the public outcry for an immediate moratorium on Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding while the 10 state investigations and 3 Congressional committees determine the full extent of Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby parts.” Daleiden continues, “Planned Parenthood’s recent call for the NIH to convene an expert panel to ‘study’ fetal experimentation is absurd after suggestions from Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Ginde that ‘research’ can be used as a catch-all to cover-up baby parts sales. The biggest problem is bad actors like Planned Parenthood who hold themselves above the law in order to harvest and make money off of aborted fetal brains, hearts, and livers.”

Are you looking for a way to contact your representatives to let them know how you feel about this and to urge legislative action?

Susan B. Anthony List provides a way to Tell your Senators to Co-Sponsor the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (which would ban abortions after 20 weeks when babies have been scientifically proven to feel pain).

The March for Life Education and Defense Fund provides some guidelines on contacting elected officials.

Writing a Letter

Clearly identify what your letter is concerning, and address only one subject or piece of legislation per letter.
Clearly state what you want the Member of Congress to do (sponsor, oppose, vote for, investigate, etc.)
Be brief, but give good reasons for your letter or request. Keep your letter to no more than one page.
Send a thank you letter if appropriate.

Follow these guidelines when addressing your letter:




To a Senator:

The Honorable (full name)

__(Rm.#)__(name of)Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator LAST NAME:

To a Representative:

The Honorable (full name)

__(Rm.#)__(name of)House Office Building

United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative LAST NAME:



Sending an E-mail

The same guidelines apply to e-mails as letters.
E-mails will reach the recipient more quickly. When writing on time sensitive matters, e-mail may be the best option. Webmail forms can be found on Members of Congress’s individual websites.

Social Media

Find your Senator on Twitter HERE. [Also, House reps on Twitter.]

Call on the Phone

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senator’s or Representative’s office.
Ask to speak to the aide who handles the issue about which you are calling.
Identify yourself, and leave a brief message clearly stating what you would like the legislator to do.
Be brief, but give some reasons to back up your position on the issue.

To find contact information for Senators, visit:

http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/How_to_contact_senators.htm

For House members, visit:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

As Matthew Hawkins of the ERLC points out, local/district offices (like this) can be more sensitive and responsive than the DC offices, particularly during or near the Congressional recess.

Johnathon Bowers provides a sample email you can adapt and send:

Dear Senator ____,

By now, you may have watched the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress exposing Planned Parenthood’s profiting off of the sale of aborted fetal tissue. The content of the videos is disturbing and highlights the destructive nature of the abortion industry. I would urge you to please support S.1881: Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood. I am grieved that our federal tax dollars are being funneled to support an organization that, according to its 2013-2014 annual report, performed 327,653 abortions in one year.

I realize that Planned Parenthood does not only perform abortions. They offer STD testing and contraception resources, for example. However, other organizations offer these kinds of resources, too, without involving themselves in the destruction of life in the womb. As the Bill S.1881 calls for, let’s direct federal funds to these organizations, not to Planned Parenthood.

Thank you for your service to our state and country and for taking the time to consider this very important issue.

Sincerely,

What the Original Really Means: An Exegetical Parody

A classic illustration from New Testament scholar Moisés Silva:

It is approximately the year 2790. The most powerful nation on earth occupies a large territory in Central Africa, and its citizens speak Swahili. The United States and other English-speaking countries have long ceased to exist, and much of the literature prior to 2012 (the year of the Great Conflagration) is not extant. Some archaeologists digging in the western regions of North America discover a short but well-preserved text that can confidently be dated to the last quarter of the twentieth century. It reads thus:

Marilyn, tired of her glamorous image, embarked on a new project. She would now cultivate her mind, sharpen her verbal skills, pay attention to standards of etiquette. Most important of all, she would devote herself to charitable causes. Accordingly, she offered her services at the local hospital, which needed volunteers to cheer up terminal patients, many of whom had been in considerable pain for a long time. The weeks flew by. One day she was sitting at the cafeteria when her supervisor approached her and said, “I didn’t see you yesterday. What were you doing?” “I painted my apartment; it was my day off,” she responded.

The archaeologists know just enough English to realize that this fragment is a major literary find that deserves closer inspection, so they rush the piece to one of the finest philologists in their home country. This scholar dedicates his next sabbatical to a thorough study of the text and decides to publish an exegetical commentary on it, as follows:

We are unable to determine whether this text is an excerpt from a novel or from a historical biography. Almost surely, however, it was produced in a religious context, as is evident from the use of such words as devoted, offered, charitable. In any case, this passage illustrates the literary power of twentieth-century English, a language full of metaphors. The verb embarked calls to mind an ocean liner leaving for an adventuresome cruise, while cultivate possibly alerts the reader to Marilyn’s botanical interests. In those days North Americans compared time to a bird—probably the eagle—that flies.

The author of this piece, moreover, makes clever use of word associations. For example, the term glamorous is etymologically related to grammar, a concept no doubt reflected in the comment about Marilyn’s “verbal skills.” Consider also the subtleties implied by the statement that “her supervisor approached her.” The verb approach has a rich usage. It my indicate similar appearance or condition (this painting approaches the quality of a Picasso); it may have a sexual innuendo (the rapist approached his victim); it may reflect subservience (he approached his boss for a raise). The cognate noun can be used in contexts of engineering (e.g. access to a bridge), sports (of a golf stroke following the drive from the tee), and even war (a trench that protects troops besieging a fortress).

Society in the twentieth century is greatly illuminated by this text. The word patient (from patience, meaning “endurance”) indicates that sick people then underwent a great deal of suffering: they endured not only the affliction of their physical illness, but also the mediocre skills of their medical doctors, and even (to judge from other contemporary documents) the burden of increasing financial costs.

A few syntactical notes may be of interest to language students. The preposition of had different uses: casual (tired of), superlative (most important of all), and partitive (many of whom). The simple past tense had several aoristic functions: embarked clearly implies determination, while offered suggests Marilyn’s once-for-all, definitive intention. Quite noticeable is the tense variation at the end of the text. The supervisor in his question uses the imperfect tense, “were doing,” perhaps suggesting monotony, slowness, or even laziness. Offended, Marilyn retorts with a punctiliar and emphatic aorist, “I painted.”

Readers of Bible commentaries, as well as listeners of sermons, will recognize that my caricature is only mildly outrageous. . . .

Silva goes on to point out the obvious: not only does is the exegesis “overinterpretation,” but “it contributes virtually nothing to the reader’s understanding of what the passage actually says!”

He continues:

Preachers who make appeals to “the original” may in some cases help their readers obtain a better insight into Scripture. More often than not, however such appeals serve one of two functions: (1) they merely furnish illustrations to heighten interest to that hearers think they have a better understanding of the passage (cf. the comment on embark above); (2) they provide the occasion to make a point that has little do to with the passage (cf. the comment on patient).

The parody is found in Silva’s excellent book, God, Language, and Scripture: Reading the Bible in the Light of General Linguistics, reprinted in the volume Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation (Zondervan, 1990), pp. 199-201.

This book is profitably read in conjunction with D. A. Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies (2d ed., Baker Academic, 1996).

6 Predictions about Evangelicalism over the Next 5 Years

Greg Forster—author of the excellent book Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It (foreword by Tim Keller)—offers his predictions about evangelicalism over the next five years:

Evangelicals will lose little ground as a percentage of the American population.
Evangelicals will hold steady on core beliefs, but will often sound like we aren’t.
Evangelical cultural influence will decline in the short term as we are persecuted and excluded.
A new Religious Right and a Benedict Option movement will both rise and flame out quickly.
Evangelicals will cultivate local, holistic responses to economic and sexual destruction.
Evangelicals will embrace a “hopeful realism” about America, and end up in a position of strength.

You can read his explanation of each point here.

The Planned Parenthood Exposé Takes You into a Lab that Procures Baby Parts

The third video from The Center for Medical Progress released this morning, shot in more of a documentary style with interviews to go alongside the secret recordings:

Human Capital – Episode 1: Planned Parenthood’s Black Market in Baby Parts

Proverbs 24:11-12:

Rescue those who are being taken away to death;

hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”

Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?

And will he not repay man according to his work?

Image from http://adam4d.com/silence/

The Single Most Practical Advice for Christians? Never Read a Bible Verse

Greg Koukl shares his advice: ”Never Read a Bible Verse.”

If there was one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one single skill I could impart, one useful tip I could leave that would serve you well the rest of your life, what would it be? What is the single most important practical skill I’ve ever learned as a Christian?

Here it is: Never read a Bible verse. That’s right, never read a Bible verse. Instead, always read a paragraph at least.

Koukl explains that on his radio program, when people call in with Bible question, this is the technique he uses to answer questions, even when he’s totally unfamiliar with the verse:

I read the paragraph, not just the verse. I take stock of the relevant material above and below. Since the context frames the verse and gives it specific meaning, I let it tell me what’s going on.

This works because of a basic rule of all communication: Meaning always flows from the top down, from the larger units to the smaller units, not the other way around. The key to the meaning of any verse comes from the paragraph, not just from the individual words.

You can read the whole thing, where he goes into more detail and gives a number of examples. Here’s his summary conclusion:

Never read a Bible verse. Instead, read a paragraph, at least. Always check the context. Observe the flow of thought. Then focus on the verse.

Remember, meaning always flows from the top down, from the larger units to the smaller units. A reflection on a Bible passage from a sermon or a devotional may be edifying, encouraging, and uplifting. If it is not the message of the text, though, it lacks biblical authority even when the quote comes right out of the Word of God.

If you will do this one thing if you will read carefully in the context applying the paraphrase principle you will begin to understand the Bible as God intended. Without the bigger picture you’ll be lost.

Only when you are properly informed by God’s Word the way it is written in its context can you be transformed by it. Every piece becomes powerful when it’s working together with the whole.

It’s the most important practical lesson I’ve ever learned . . . and thing single most important thing I could ever teach you.

Just How Sovereign Is God?

Charles Spurgeon:

I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—

that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens—

that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.

The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—

the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.

Does Scripture really teach this? I believe the answer is yes. Here is just a tiny sampling:

God Is Sovereign Over . . .

Seemingly random things:

The lot is cast into the lap,

but its every decision is from the LORD.

(Proverbs 16:33)

The heart of the most powerful person in the land:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;

he turns it wherever he will.

(Proverbs 21:1)

Our daily lives and plans:

A man’s steps are from the LORD;

how then can man understand his way?

(Proverbs 20:24)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,

but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

(Proverbs 19:21)

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. . . .  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

(James 4:13-15)

Salvation:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

(Romans 9:15-16)

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

(Acts 13:48)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

(Romans 8:29-30)

Life and death:

See now that I, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me;

I kill and I make alive;

I wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

(Deuteronomy 32:39)

The LORD kills and brings to life;

he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

(1 Samuel 12:6)

Disabilities:

Then the LORD said to [Moses], “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”

(Exodus 4:11)

The death of God’s Son:

Jesus, [who was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

(Acts 2:23)

For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

(Acts 4:27-28)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

he has put him to grief. . . .

(Isaiah 53:10)

Evil things:

Is a trumpet blown in a city,

and the people are not afraid?

Does disaster come to a city,

unless the LORD has done it?

(Amos 3:6)

I form light and create darkness,

I make well-being and create calamity,

I am the LORD, who does all these things.

(Isaiah 45:7)

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

(Job 1:21-22; 2:10)

[God] sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. . . . As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

(Psalm 105:17; Genesis 50:21)

All things:

[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will.

(Ephesians 1:11)

Our God is in the heavens;

he does all that he pleases.

(Psalm 115:3)

I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

(Job 42:2)

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

or say to him, “What have you done?”

(Daniel 4:35)

And since compatiblism is true, none of this contradicts the equally biblical teaching that Satan is “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) and that human choices are genuine and significant.

Second Planned Parenthood Senior Executive Haggles Over Baby Parts Prices, Changes Abortion Methods

Brit Hume Delivers the Best 1.5 Minute Commentary on Abortion Ever Heard on Network News

With a New Undercover Planned Parenthood Video Due Out on Tuesday, Watch This Emotional Speech from a Courageous Politician

Senator James Lankford (R-OK): “It doesn’t bring me comfort to know that one child is torn apart so maybe they can do research on the child’s organs so at some future moment [they can] help a different child.”

5 Days to Learn a Simple, Practical, Biblical Approach to Prayer

When it comes to prayer, do you ever feel like you’re saying the same old things about the same old things?

Sign up to join Don Whitney—author of the new, short book, Praying the Bible—on a 5-day journey to learn a simple, practical, and biblical approach to prayer that will turn duty into delight! In just a few minutes a day, you’ll learn a time-tested method that could transform your prayer life: praying the words of the Bible.