Breakpoint

Yesterday, when our writing team gathered to discuss the horrific events at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, we struggled to know how to even process what had happened, much less what to say: Yet, another evil attack on vulnerable children; evil so shocking, it's impossible to fathom; and, at the same time, a story horrifyingly familiar. On Tuesday morning, an 18-year-old young man, after shooting his own grandmother, drove to his former elementary school, rammed through the security gate with his car, and barricaded himself in a classroom. Before it was all over, 19 children and two teachers had been killed. As if that were not horrible enough, it came just days after two other mass shootings. On May 15, one man was killed and five more wounded at a California church, and the day before that, 10 were killed in a racially motivated assault in Buffalo, New York. Over 30 dead in less than a week. For what? This simply should not be. We're left with a lot of uncomfortable questions. How could anyone be capable of such evil? How long until something like this happens again? Why does this keep happening? Why so often here in America, but rarely elsewhere, in places like Britain or Australia? Why did it not happen here even a generation or two ago? What is plaguing young men in our culture, who are far more likely to commit acts of evil like this? Basic clarity seems elusive, much less progress. As a friend pointed out, it's alarming to think that younger generations are being conditioned to think that these events are normal occurrences, and that retreating to political corners and blaming others is the normal way to respond to them. That would be a tragedy upon a tragedy. Still, what hasn't changed is that God has called His people to a particular time and place, and He's called us to be part of His redemptive work in the world in this time and this place. While the temptation to "just do something" at times like this is strong, it also quite often misleading. Thank God for the vast resources He has given us in Scripture, and how they apply even to times as confusing as these. First, the psalms of lament and the imprecatory psalms offer godly direction for our rage and sorrow. Not just once or twice, but repeatedly, God invites His people to weep before Him for the sorrows of the world and to be angry at the injustices we experience. Second, the Apostle Paul gives us something to do at times like this: "Mourn with those who mourn." This instruction matches the incarnational way that God, in Christ Jesus, interacted with His fallen world. He was with us. May God give strength to His people in Uvalde, Texas, to be the Church there. At the same time, this is another symptom of culture-wide brokenness, so all of us have the same incarnational work to do. And we can do this work, because of what we learn from the shortest verse in the Bible. In one of the most poignant moments in Scripture, we read that "Jesus wept." In Bethany, Christ joins in with a dead man's sisters in their mourning for their loss. What makes this so astonishing is that Jesus knows that He will raise Lazarus to life again, and, by doing so, he is going to end the family's suffering, even turn it into a party. Yet, He is not aloof or dismissive of their grief. Instead, He weeps with them—for the pain of a fallen world, for the unnaturalness of death, for the hopelessness people feel in the face of tragedy. Because Christ—who had the power of life and death at His command—can weep with those who weep, we can do the same. And finally, we have the gift of knowing that one day, death itself will be cast into Hell. So, we do not grieve as though without hope. One day, everything sad "will become untrue." And because we do not weep as the world weeps, the Church has so much to offer when the world does weep. Like now.

A couple of weeks ago, an article by National Public Radio's Sarah McCammon's made the rounds on various public media outlets with this headline: "When Does Life Begin? Religions Don't Agree." Clearly, it was an attempt to warn pro-lifers against stubborn certainty on abortion. The central claim of the article is that not every religion holds that human life begins at conception. Of course they don't, but why would they? Religions don't agree on all kinds of essential matters, such as if there's a God, who is God, whether Jesus was God, or whether we are God. And that's just about God. If disagreement among vastly different worldviews is somehow supposed to trivialize the convictions of pro-lifers, wouldn't the same reasoning trivialize any convictions of religious abortion supporters, too? So, what's the point? Interestingly enough, even though religions disagree on whether life begins at conception, science doesn't. Or at least, every embryology textbook is clear about when life begins. Honest abortion supporters, such as Peter Singer, acknowledge as much, that abortion takes a human life. So, should we follow the science, or not?

During the "Preparing for a Post-Roe World" event at the recent Wilberforce Weekend, Jim Daly described how the Focus on the Family team displayed the truth about preborn babies right in the middle of Times Square. The event not only made a powerful case against abortion, it showed how courage is contagious, and how Christians can be emboldened to speak the truth in love even in difficult situations. Here's Jim Daly, explaining what happened in Times Square before the pandemic: What the Lord put on my heart was "Show them the baby." Isn't that just like the Lord to make it real simple? Show the baby! So, we applied for the permits and everything. Six months, eight months out, they're not showing up. We got the permits at 7:30 the morning of our event. But the Catholic cops were awesome. Tip the hat to the Catholic cops in Times Square. They called and said, "Hey, we like you guys. We're going to do all we can do to help you out here in New York, OK?" That's a true story. We're like, "Awesome. We've got the cops on our side." But anyway, we get there, and there was a stage, we had 20,000 supporters that came in. 20,000. We were only permitted for 10,000, but they came in, and then we had all the bystanders. It was real simple. We had a couple of speakers, and then we showed them the ultrasound right in Times Square. Now, the big ABC and all the big jumbotrons when we were eight months out [we asked] "We want to buy inventory for those jumbotrons." "Sure, there's plenty of inventory. What do you want to show?" "A preborn baby." "You know what? We're all out of time." That is a true story as well. That's exactly what they said. The team came to me and said, "OK. Let's just bring in our own jumbotrons." So, we did, and we showed that baby…. Oh, whose baby was it? Abby, Abby Johnson's baby in the back of the mobile (ultrasound) unit that people were spitting on and cursing at. And Abby's in there, and her baby goes across Times Square and that baby's heartbeat. Bum, bump, bum, bump. And everybody stopped. It was like this amazing spiritual silence. I mean it just stopped everything. Everybody was looking. People were crying. I think one of the things that we need to do is show that emotional connection. These people know what they're doing. They absolutely know what they're doing. About two weeks ago I had a broadcast recording that we're going to air in a couple of weeks with Winsome Sears, Lieutenant Governor in Virginia. So, these are her words to me. I could never say this, but she did, and I'll repeat them. She said, "Planned Parenthood has been far more effective at killing black babies than the KKK ever was." She went on to say 6% of the population is African American women but 40% of the abortions. And we don't think Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist, succeeded? Oh, she succeeded. Planned Parenthood just doesn't admit it. I had a Planned Parenthood executive tell me that. I said, "I'm a business person. I came from international paper. I didn't go to seminary." And I just said, "What is it that drives you?" She said, "Cash flow." Cash flow. And I said, "That's a very honest answer." And one of the things we're looking at— pray for us—because I said to her, "If it's cash flow, what if I gave you—what's an average abortion?" She said $600. I said, "What if I could pay you 1,200 for an adoption placement?" She said some clinics might do that. So, I'm working behind the scenes right now—not so much now—to find some clinics that might be willing. Let's turn them into adoption clinics. Wouldn't that be amazing? I'll end with this. Again, I think for us in this century to look back to the first, second, third century: What did the Church do? That's the blueprint, and what it is is action: Telemachus going to the gladiator events on January 1, 404 A. D. He went down to see what this thing was all about. He saw men killing each other in the colosseum. He jumps onto the floor of the colosseum in his robe and says, "You shouldn't be doing this. You're destroying people made in God's image, each one of you." And they killed him. But that was the last day they had gladiator events because it made an impression on the empire. So, how do we make those impressions on the empire, that even hard hearts might crack open, and they might say, "Maybe it is life"? That was Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family at our "Preparing for a Post-Roe World" event from the Wilberforce Weekend. Focus on the Family will be hosting its annual SeeLife conference on June 14 at 7 p.m. Though this year's event won't be hosted in Time Square, it will be livestreamed and something you won't want to miss. For more information on the SeeLife conference, visit: focusonthefamily.com/seelife22/

John answers how a listener can respond and think well about the issue of replacement theory, something that has become a popular topic due to the recent shooting in Buffalo, New York. John also gives perspective to how abortion became not only illegal, but also unthinkable. He answers which came first and how the abortion movement can replicate the trajectory of slavery becoming unthinkable in society. To close, John answers a listener's question related to social movements inside the business community. He provides a path forward for Christians who find themselves in a changing landscape.

According to the BBC, the Chinese government has arrested Joseph Zen, a 90-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal and outspoken critic of the Beijing regime. He is now in chains for his role in the 2019 human rights protests. On the same day this arrest was reported, the Daily Mail announced that ISIS forces had slaughtered 20 Nigerian Christians, guilty only of being Christians, which was enough to seal their martyrdom. While the last few years have presented incredible challenges to the Western church—plagues, riots, scandals, even war—followers of Christ in places like China and Nigeria have consistently weathered incredible hardship, and for so long. Their stories remind us that there's a wider world out there—and a wider Church. Ours is not the only part being played in the grand drama of God's redemptive work in the world. Let's pray for our suffering brothers and sisters around the world, and take hope that their role in shaping Christ's kingdom doesn't rest in our success but in God's faithfulness.

This past Sunday, a devastating report was released about America's largest Protestant denomination. According to the Guidepost Solutions' Report of the Independent Investigation on the Southern Baptist Convention, not only has sexual abuse been a scourge within the denomination, but leading members actively obstructed efforts to expose the guilty, hindered attempts by victims to report the crimes, and worked to maintain the public image of the Convention at the expense of the truth. What the victims have been forced to endure for so long is sickening and heartbreaking. Lives will be forever marred by the corruption exposed in the report. Though it feels as if some new report is revealing sexual misconduct, abuse, or criminal behavior within the Church every few months, in God's economy, the day after evil is exposed is better than the day before. When evil is allowed to remain hidden, it flourishes. When it is exposed, both victims and perpetrators are in a better position to find grace, healing, and forgiveness. At the same time, we can expect the world to be wagging its fingers at Christian hypocrisy. In response, there's a strong pull in our hearts to point right back. After all, the infamous "casting couches" of Hollywood legend have raised such lechery to an abhorrent art form. And this has gone on for decades. Even Shirley Temple, the Golden Girl of classic cinema, was chased around an office by one of the top movie moguls of her day. Yet, he kept his post despite this and other crimes. More recently, after headlining everything from dramas, to comedies, to action flicks through the 90s and early 2000s, Brendan Fraser found himself cast from favor after refusing the very aggressive advances of a (male) movie executive. Five years ago, Oscar-winning Kevin Spacey was blacklisted as stories broke of his habitual abuse of young actors. Most notorious of all, Harvey Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in the film industry until the rising #MeToo movement gained enough momentum to bring him down for his abuse of young women and threats to any who spoke against him. And that's just Hollywood. We could also talk at length of public schools, congressional leaders, and corporate executives. Of course, why would we expect any better from a culture like ours, in which sexual activity is treated as the high point of human existence? When Hugh Hefner is treated as a virtual saint and praised as an advocate for women's dignity, who is the world to cast stones at the Church for its own failings? If they're not any better than we are, why do we get the third degree while they get a pass? It's almost as if followers of Christ are held to a higher standard or something! To this we can only say, we are. By God. One of the premiere accounts of worldly morality in the Scriptures is in the infamous story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19, the story is told of two angels coming to Sodom, meeting Lot in the town square, who takes them into his home. After the men of the city seek to sexually accost his guests, Lot instead offers his daughters to them as sexual sacrifices. This horrific tale is echoed later in Judges 19. Visitors from out of town, a meeting near the city, an invitation to dinner, a rapacious mob, and finally, a young woman offered to the lust of the crowd which, in this case, turns murderous and leads to military revenge, mass executions, and human trafficking. In this story, however, it's not sinful pagans. It's the people of God who commit an evil that exceeds even that of Sodom. The reason the story is told how it is—other than to report what actually happened—is clear. The people of Israel had become indistinguishable from their pagan neighbors. And this, God could not abide. In Romans 2, Paul writes, "You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'" And, in 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle is aghast that a member of a Church has done worse than "the pagans." Sexual abuse is just as horrible and evil within the Church as without, yet we are more guilty because we should know better. We know where the human propensity for sin, evil, and abuse comes from. We know the human capacity to deceive and deflect. We know our own vulnerability, and the sin nature shared by all after Eden. So, if our defense for the sins of the Church is that those among us are no more guilty than Harvey Weinstein and Hugh Hefner, it's fair to say that we've lost the plot of our own story. When the unbelieving world acts in an immoral manner, it is no less horrible to its victims, but this is tragically to act according to their worldview. When Christians do the same, it is an abomination. After all, God doesn't simply call us to be no worse than the world: He calls us to be set apart, faithful to His standards. As Peter Kreeft once observed, when you find yourself on the edge of the moral abyss, the only way forward is backward. Thank God, there is repentance. Let judgment begin in the House of the Lord, and may His good and true judgment bring us to our knees. The answer now is not to circle the wagons, it is to tend to the wounded, confess our sins, and seek His face.

On Friday, according to the Catholic News Agency, "San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone instructed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to present herself for Holy Communion until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion." On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg told the archbishop via her audience on The View, "This is not your job, dude. That is not up to you to make that decision." It is, of course, the archbishop's job to oversee the proper administration of the sacraments in that geographic region of the church. It is exactly his job, in fact. Other than playing a nun in the Sister Act movies, it's not clear what qualifies Goldberg to tell an archbishop what his job is. Years ago, Dr. Frank Beckwith taught a group of students how to respond to someone dismissive of their arguments: "If anyone ever says to you, 'Who are to say what's right?' just ask back 'Who are you to say, "Who are you to say?"'" This isn't about Whoopi, of course. Skeptics, secularists, and non-believers will often ask, "Who are you to speak for Jesus?" while speaking for Jesus. A good response is, "Well, who are you to ask?"

On the YouTube channel "Lutheran Satire," there's a video entitled, "A Christian and a Feminist Almost Agree on Stuff." In it, two sock puppets discuss the cultural breakdown of sexuality and marriage and how pornography plagues both. "Pornography harms women," says the feminist sock puppet. "Totally agree," says the Christian puppet. "Pornography demeans women, and it also corrupts men by making them think of women as nothing but sexual objects." "Therefore," interrupts the feminist sock puppet, "women should empower themselves by taking control of the porn industry and producing their own sexually explicit material." To which the Christian puppet responds, "That is not the solution I had in mind." Pornography and sexually suggestive material of any kind objectifies women, training consumers that female bodies are things to be leered at, to be lusted after, rather than persons to be loved and valued. Those Lutheran sock puppets came to mind last week after Sports Illustrated announced the covers of its annual swimsuit issue. Of course, there's never been any point to the swimsuit edition other than to objectify women to the publication's largely male readership. It has nothing at all to do with sports. It has nothing at all to do with even marketing swimsuits. It has been, instead, for decades now, the most visible example of everything that Christians and feminists and other protectors of women have decried about our objectifying culture: selling skin, airbrushed and impossible beauty standards, sexual provocation, etc., etc., etc. This year's cover model does not represent the typical, unreachable standards of thinness that porn and photoshop have imposed on women. However, she is still posed provocatively in a barely there swimsuit, as objectified as any other cover model has ever been. There seems to be some confusion. The problem here is not that all women should be objectified for their bodies. It's that no one should be objectified at all. Valuing a human being made in God's image by changing standards of outward appearance is always wrong. But we don't atone for a sin by committing it against everyone. Now, I know it sounds a bit quaint in 2022 to object to swimsuit covers, but at the heart of even the mildly suggestive material in our culture is a lie that has long consumed our culture, the same one that is at the heart of the always accessible and ever darker online pornography world. That lie is that people are things to be used and therefore can be abstracted from their bodies for our gratification or titillation. This lie can never be made true, even when people consent to it. As Christine Emba pointed out recently in The Washington Post, it is possible for a woman to objectify herself, and therefore consent to things that are actually terrible for her. Consent, Emba concludes, is not a sufficient sexual ethic by itself. We need to talk about a much more important value: love, which she defines, taking a cue from St. Thomas Aquinas, as "willing the good of the other." There is no sense in which reducing a woman to her body and putting her on display for millions is willing her good. No person—man or woman—is merely a body. Christians have always insisted, and must continue to insist against things like prostitution, polygamy, slavery, and pornography. Because human beings are bearers of God's image, they must always be taken seriously, body and soul. If there is a problem with displaying scantily clad women as objects for the eager eyes of sports fans—and there is—if we recognize the connection this ritual has with far darker corners of our culture especially online—and it does—the answer is to stop. Certainly, the answer is not more of the same. We have to treat women as whole people.

Kristan Hawkins, founder and president of the Student for Life. Kirsten spoke at the recent "Preparing for a Post-Roe World" event at the recent Wilberforce Weekend.

The day after a mass shooting in a New York supermarket left 10 people dead, a 68-year-old opened fire on parishioners at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church in southern California. He killed one and injured five before parishioners subdued and tied him up. The man killed in the attack authorities are calling "hate-filled" was 52-year-old Dr. John Cheng, who charged the shooter in an attempt to save fellow church members. Orange County officials called Cheng's actions "heroism" and "a meeting of good versus evil." His quick thinking and courageous actions undoubtedly saved lives, including his recently widowed mother. Mr. Rogers always told kids, in times of calamity, to "look for the helpers." Dr. Cheng is now part of Christian history, a history full of those who ran toward the danger in self-sacrifice. Jesus called this love—when a man lays down his life for his friends—the greatest. It proves that evil will not have the last say, and that evil is overcome with good.