Stefanie Garber, Elementary Principal & District Superintendent, has an excellent response to the mandates coming down on districts.
You can find the original here.
Category Archives: Current Events
America the Beautiful, You’re In Trouble
My heart is breaking for our Republic today. I know many of you are grieving with me.
2020 will go down in history, at least for me, as the year we lost our Republic. The 24/7 attacks against our President by the mainstream media and leftist elites seems to have had its intended result: the faith in our democracy has all but disappeared for over 75 million Americans who watched as the unimaginable happened in slow motion
right before our eyes.
President Trump, though he is flawed like the rest of us and even arrogant at times, was a champion for this country, for Israel, and for the unborn, to name just a few of the reasons I loved and supported his presidency. His patriotism moved a generation out of their slumber and back into caring about what happens in DC.
Trump wisely saw a storm brewing on the horizon. That storm is socialism, and it is here now. With no one to stop it, it can sweep unhindered over the free people of this great nation like a swarm of locust over the plains of Africa.
Trump tried to stop it, and the elites in Washington hated him for it.
Unlike Biden, Trump couldn’t be bought.
Like him or not, Trump didn’t mince words about the issues we sent him to Washington to address. He told the truth about everything from the sanctity of human life to the truth about gender. He rightly noted that there are only two genders. He refused to play the political game. It was why we elected him. He spoke for us. He couldn’t be bought, and they knew it. For this, he was castigated, investigated, abandoned by the cowards in his own party and ultimately, cheated out of re-election through a fraud and deception that only the devil himself could have designed.
But the devil didn’t do this alone, of course.
He had help.
“Woke” Christian leaders, many of whom I have studied under and admired for my entire adult life, have shown themselves to be woefully lacking in discernment about simple ideas like socialism but also about spiritual matters, like the sanctity of human life and the dangerous nature of rebelling against
God’s clear instructions regarding sex and gender.
Speaking out about this fact comes at a high price today. I have paid both personally and professionally— right down to my career as an author … simply because I supported President Trump and the ideas he represented. The wounds are real, as many of the President’s supporters will attest to.
Many of these wounds have been carried by my family and myself privately because to disclose them publicly would have been professional suicide.
And so instead, we suffered a thousand cuts in private as I stood by my convictions and stated them in the public square. It’s what I have always done. But this time, it was different. This time, it was costly.
The public is no place for discourse in this brave, socialist world, is it? Speak and get canceled. That’s the lesson they want you to learn. Social media will teach you the hard way if you don’t conform to their version of truth.
Fact checked lately? Yeah. That’s because you’re stupid and they’re not. Get it?
“Learn it now, and don’t you ever forget it.” That’s the lesson they want you to learn.
In the spring of 2020, Covid hit the US. The nation buckled under the weight as the Democrats, who had spent the previous three years trying to make something out of nothing, finally saw their chance to do mortal damage to the man who was well on his way to winning another term.
We.Can’t.Have.That. So the political elites, far-left governors and doctors who hadn’t seen real patients in years locked us down. The country could go to hell for all they cared.
This was political. It was NEVER about our health.
You will never convince me that a nation who murders its most vulnerable cares about my health. Never.
My husband and I suffered the loss of nearly 100% of the income we bring in from my speaking engagements as one event after another was forced to cancel. That “stimulus” check we just received? It was like getting a sucker in exchange for the government stealing our livelihood.
It was an insult.
Days turned to months. Fear got a strangle hold on us. After almost a YEAR of watching our businesses die from government mandates, after months of “social distancing” and watching doctors who spoke the truth about the virus lose their jobs and reputations at the hands of the media elites, things became very clear:
we could be controlled by fear.
Never mind that the virus has a 99.89% survival rate. Forget the facts.
Feelings and fear are what we worship now.
God says, “Do NOT fear!” But we’re not listening to Him right now. Father Fauci is the one we listen to.
Weary, disillusioned and discouraged, we obeyed and treated each other like enemies. Thanks to Fauci and his ilk, we are no longer the Americans who hug one another at weddings or give handshakes in the grocery stores. No. Instead, we are disease carriers, who could accidentally pass on a highly survivable virus.
“STAY HOME!” they ordered.
And so we did. More distance. Only now, there was anger mixed with sadness. The plan was working. The elites went on with life as usual. Governors dining at expensive restaurants w/out masks or the required “social distancing” while the serfs in the United States were forbidden from gathering.
Our elderly were left to die alone. The elites justified this.
It was for their safety, you know. And yours. “It’s for the best,” they told us. “We’re all in this together,” they said via their television commercials and magazine covers. How did we fall for this?
Are we really this stupid? Yes. Yes we are.
The double-standard of the highly politicized corona virus was stunning: no social distancing seemed to be required as Black Lives Matter burned our cities for the sake of “justice” and taunted our law enforcement officers. We watched in disbelief while the political elites and woke celebrity evangelicals remained silent.
Somehow, this was allowed.
Portland, Oregon, the city I grew up in is no longer recognizable to the native Portlander. It’s not safe. But hey. We’re all in this together. The drug epidemic. The street fighting. The murder and looting. It’s cool. It’s for justice.
During a debate, Biden casually said that a “long, dark winter” was coming. It was almost like he knew something that the rest of us didn’t. His vision of America was coming true, it seemed.
By the time November rolled around, we were right where the self-aware and woke evangelicals wanted us to be. Tired and discouraged, we were easy prey for their shiny new version of evangelicalism. “Be good citizens,” they told us. “Stop being nationalists. Especially white ones. Really stop that. Y’all are racists, you know.”
The social justice warriors then turned their attention to our schools and churches. Critical Race Theory was embraced. Why? Don’t you know yet? All this pain and suffering is our fault, you know. Our crime?
Supporting our President. We have this coming.
That’s what they tell us, anyway.
I thought it was fascinating that while our nation was struggling under the weight of the Chinese Virus, the man who would be the President of the United States did not campaign. He won no one over. He was unappealing on almost every level. Forget the fact that he has obvious signs of serious mental deterioration
and often seems confused and bewildered.
They want us to believe this is the man who got more votes than President Obama. And we’ll believe it, or else. We’re supposed to swallow what they tell us no matter how hard it goes down. We know the drill by now. “Swallow it! NOW. Or we’re gonna fact-check you into oblivion, you stupid commoner!” Our social medial overlords, working in tandem with the mainstream media meant business. We knew it—because most of us have at the very least been sent to social media jail or shadowbanned for the sin of thinking for ourselves.
We don’t do that now, you know. Mail-in ballot dumps in the middle of the night? Swallow it. All the bell-weather counties wrong? Swallow it. Sworn testimonies from people who witnessed fraud at the ballot box? Swallow it!
Or else. Stop asking questions. Put your mask back on. Shut up.
So we did.
On election day, the nations watched. Many of my Canadian friends, who themselves are living under a tyrannical government, fasted and prayed. They knew the stakes. They all know what happens if the US fails. It seems we’re the only ones who don’t know. The nations of the world, including our enemies, know that as the USA goes, so goes the rest of the world. We have always held back evil. Now, it appears that we have all but been overcome by it.
I know some of you can’t understand my sorrow. That’s okay. I won’t cry forever. Instead, I’ll ask God to allow this terrible time in our nation’s history to wake us up. Not the “woke” kind of awake, but the real kind. The waking that comes from truly seeing the sin that our nation is literally drowning in. This kind of “awake” means seeing the mess we’re in as a result of our national rebellion against the God who gave us the freedom we have enjoyed for so long.
I’m grieving today. But tomorrow, I’ll ask God what He wants me to do and how He wants me to participate in this new version of the America I love and find myself still living in.
I also know that some of you are mocking me—and that’s okay.
I honestly don’t care anymore.
I know that I don’t know much—but I do know this: we need to refocus. We need to remove our kids from public schools—and do it yesterday. They are not safe places for young minds. We need to get back to training our children about what it means to really follow Jesus. To share the gospel. To be students of the Word of God. God’s justice is the real kind of justice. Social justice is just worldly justice which has no root in righteousness.
Our kids need to know this.
Some of you will say that my writing reveals that my hope hung too much on politics. Not so. It wasn’t in Trump (though I like him) or in the cowardly Republicans who didn’t have the will to do the right thing even when they had the House and the Senate. No. My hope has never been in a political party—but I did believe that we at least understood good versus evil.
I was naïve enough to believe we had at least a rudimentary understanding of socialism and Marxism.
I was wrong.
So yes. I’m not sure of much right now, but I am sure of this one thing: Jesus will return some day and He will set all this right. Until then, I will keep praying, keep trusting, keep telling the truth
and keep loving those people God places in my life.
I was blessed to have lived in the days of Reagan. My grandpa was a pastor who loved this nation with a passion. He taught me that we must never take for granted the freedom that so many died to give us. And so I will not. I will defend it as long as I have breath.
And yes. I can do that and still follow Jesus Christ with an unbridled passion. We can love both God and our nation. It is a lie to say otherwise—a dangerous lie that evangelical elites will keep peddling from their platforms to the applause of the “woke” and the “social justice warriors” who are loving every moment of this,
now that the “Orange Man” has been defeated .
To be fair, I don’t think these evangelicals understand what they’re celebrating. But someday soon, they will.
I will continue to support President Trump. As I watched him leave on AirForce One today,
I wished I could hug him and say one thing:
“Thank you for your service, Sir—and I’m sorry for the shameful way this country treated you from the day you were inaugurated.
Some of us saw it for what it was.”
Transgenderism and Children: A Grave New Threat to Parental Rights
A little over a week ago, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered testosterone injections for a 14-year-old girl who now considers herself to be a transgender boy, against her parents’ wishes. Even more frightening, her parents face legal penalties if they use the wrong pro-noun or dare to call her by her birth name.
John Stonestreet of Breakpoint rightly pointed out that “Just as same-sex marriage proved to be a grave threat to religious freedom, transgender ideology is proving to be a grave threat to parental rights.”
He’s right.
The stories that parents who are losing their parental rights in court simply because they do not subscribe to the pseudo-science behind transgenderism should send a shiver up the spine of every parent.
Recently, five mothers shared their stories for The Public Discourse. When their daughters and sons announced they were transgender, the heartbreak for their parents was only just beginning. Even though children usually make these announcements after intense indoctrination via the internet, schools and trans-activists, the concerns of parents are ignored. Instead, they are often vilified and threatened with legal action.
The result for families is heartbreaking. Children are suffering through surgeries which remove perfectly normal, healthy sex organs while parents suffer an equally agonizing situation—being sidelined and cut out of these life-altering decisions.
Twenty years from now, when these kids are more unhappy than ever, twenty years from now, when these kids cannot have children of their own—where will all these trans-activists be? They’ll be long gone, like the dreams of healthy outcomes for thousands of children who have become prey to a dangerous and scientifically flawed ideology.
Parents, beware. Protect your kids from this madness. If you don’t, who will?
Links:
Canadian Court Rules Parents Can’t Stop 14-Year-Old From Taking Trans Hormones
- Jeremiah Keenan | The Federalist | March 1, 2019
In Their Own Words: Parents of Kids Who Think They Are Trans Speak Out
- Five Anonymous Moms | The Public Discourse | February 26, 2019
Devastating Distraction: The Snare of Offense
I hope you guys don’t mind if I cut right to the chase today… because this is important.
Do you know what happened last week while our nation was arguing over Civil War statues? While demons were pouring gasoline on racial tensions in the US and re-igniting our deep offense toward the Confederate Army (I can’t believe I just typed that in 2017) Oregon Governor Kate Brown quietly signed the nation’s most devastating abortion bill into law.
Last week, just days after the horrible events in Charlottesville took place, Oregon made sure it’s position was secure as the most radical provider of unrestricted abortions in the nation. Oregon’s House Bill 3391-B compels insurers, public or private, to provide a whole swathe of “reproductive services” free of cost and regardless of income, insurance type, citizenship status, or gender identity. Because the bill prohibits insurers from shifting costs to customers in the form of higher deductibles or co-pays, private insurers will be forced to eat the costs — or, more likely, to distribute them among their customers through higher premiums. Medicaid (read: Planned Parenthood) will receive an extra $10 million from the state to cover the procedures. That’s ten MILLION DOLLARS of Oregonians money going to the murder of innocent babies up to nine months gestation for any reason, including gender selection.
Of course, the major media outlets aren’t talking about this American tragedy. No, they’re too busy trying to stir up an angry debate about slavery that was decided during the Civil War. It’s as if we have forgotten who won the war! The outcome of the Civil War determined that slavery in this nation will not stand. And indeed, it does not. Christians all around the world should stand in stark opposition to the evil that is racism—and certainly slavery—but can I suggest that something even more sinister than racism is at the heart of our struggle over statues?
It’s curious to me that old statues getting the attention of popular preachers and teachers while abortion, the horrific murder of babies in the womb that is happening now gets little to no pulpit time. Oregon says that they’ll use taxpayer money to fund your sex-change surgery and your gender-selection abortion… and all we hear is … nothing. The silence is deafening. Where is the outrage over that? Black women are aborting their babies at an alarming rate compared to every other culture in America and we want to march about statues? We are losing thousands of precious black women every year in this country. Feminists? Where are you?
The standard by which we measure offense as Christians needs to be re-calibrated, and fast.
We have lost our way, men and women of God! We have made an idol out of our right not to be offended. Tell me, what good is going to come of this? Do we really want to teach our children to march in the streets because we are offended over statues while real, live babies are callously ripped from their mother’s wombs?
Listen. Offense is a trap; a snare set by the devil to distract us from what really matters, and boy are we stepping on almost every trap the devil is setting right now. It seems that every time I turn on the news, another trap is springing shut. SNAP! Can you hear it, too?
The Bible teaches us that we should be on guard against the snares of the enemy. One of those is the snare of offense. At the risk of boring you, I looked something up. The Greek word for “offense” is skandalon, which literally means the part of an animal trap where bait is hung! In other words, an offense is literally a trap.
We need to understand this deep in our souls and guard against it, because if we’re in a battle (and the Bible clearly says we are), it makes perfect sense that the devil would choose to use offenses to trap and enslave us. Satan lays all kinds of traps for us, and I’m convinced he hunts among the hurting. Think about it— when people offend us, we get angry and hold grudges. Grudges lead to unforgiveness, which leads to broken relationships, or in this case, racial division.
The fact of the matter is that many offenses are going to come our way in this life. When they do, we get to choose how we respond. We can choose to not be offended. In Colossians 3:13, Paul reminds us that we should be “bearing with one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
And there’s more: while we’re allowing ourselves to get drug into the swamp of offense, a coup is taking place. We’ve forgotten to keep our eyes out for the REAL enemy. Our enemy, the devil, comes to steal, kill and destroy. Right now, he’s taking direct aim at destroying our unity in Christ.
Offense is one of the enemy’s most powerful weapons, and its primary purpose is to keep us from growing in power and strength in the Lord. Offended people are ineffective in the spiritual battle that we have been called to engage in, because when we are offended, we focus on our own pain, often at the expense of others. The devil uses the snare of offense to take us off the battlefield and ultimately out of the war. His goal: to sideline Christians who would otherwise be effective witnesses for the Lord.
A heart that is easily offended is in trouble. It’s a biblical truth that the pure in heart hear from God more readily than those who are full of bitterness: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8, kjv). A heart that is full of offenses and unforgiveness isn’t a pure heart. If we want to hear from God, we have to refuse to allow offenses to rule and reign in our lives. Even big ones.
There’s no question: forgiving the big things is hard. But Jesus, who knows all too well the pain of rejection, doesn’t give us an option. He made it clear: we are to forgive anything against anyone.
“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:25
The next time you find yourself struggling with feelings of offense, ask yourself, “Does this offense warrant the emotional and spiritual energy I am giving it? Are there larger issues in play? Am I doing what Jesus commanded?” Jesus’ requirement that we forgive carries eternal consequences with it, and the devil knows it.
The devil loves it when we get drawn into offenses – because he’s got his sights set on a much bigger target: the human soul. He’ll use whatever he can to distract us from the goal of setting people free in Christ. And that’s the bottom line. Paul tells us to “be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). It’s the Holy Spirit that encourages that unity in the body of Christ. “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Christians who proclaim Christ, cherish truth and love others should also pursue unity, because we have been designed by God to be ambassadors for Him: witnesses to the world of the love of Christ. The apostle John makes clear what our aim should be: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
We must stop making government our god and return to our first love. Until we do that, healing will elude this nation. John Piper said, “The bloodline of Jesus Christ is deeper than the bloodlines of race. The death and resurrection of the Son of God for sinners is the only sufficient power to bring the bloodlines of race into the single bloodline of the cross.”
Let’s not forget what our call really is: to bring the gospel to a hurting world. We can’t do that until we’re willing to let the gospel eclipse everything else in our lives.
That’s something worth marching for.
Good Thing My Pastor is Reading His Bible
It’s 3:35 pm, and after a day of setbacks and frustrations, I finally opened my Bible to write today’s passage. James 1:5 is all about asking God for wisdom. Wisdom, I think, was telling me to ask God for His help at 6am instead of 2:30 p.m. today.
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Have you noticed how hard the devil works to keep God’s people from becoming students of the Word?
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I have. I think it’s by design. I think the devil knows that a Christian who isn’t in the Word is weak. I think satan is smarter than I give him credit for most of the time.
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I can only speak for my own “quiet time,” but I have a feeling I’m not alone when I say that every day, I fight with the enemy of my soul for time alone with the One who made me. I fight my flesh to spend time in the Bible. I go to war just to prioritize prayer over parenting.
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There’s always something that disguises itself as being more important.
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Laundry calls. Kids argue. Phone rings. To-do list presses harder.
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“I don’t ‘need’ to read the Bible today,” I lie to myself.
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And so, after a compulsory prayer, I turn my attention to more important, more urgent matters. School. Social media. Housework. Bills. Oil change. Grocery store. Meal prep. Bedtime. Start again tomorrow.
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After days of this, (sometimes months… if I’m really honest), I notice my ability to discern good from evil has been compromised. Little by little, my spiritual eyes grow dim. >>Maybe God doesn’t really care about this and that. Less controversy, please. More peace.<< Yes. Peace is what I want most. The demands of a culture that stands in stark opposition to what God says is right makes even the most seasoned warrior prone to discouragement, I tell myself—as I glance in the direction of my Bible.
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“Good thing my pastor is reading his Bible so he can tell me what I need to know on Sunday,” said a generation of Christians in crisis.
Culture Creep and the Sidelining of Parents
Something sad and fascinating is happening to parents in this postmodern era. They’re being lied to. They’re being told that they aren’t necessary and what’s worse they’re buying the lie! After all, they say the “village” can do it better. Well, I’ve seen the village. I don’t want it raising my kids.
I call it “culture creep.” I live in a rural (well, it used to be rural) part of Washington State. Slowly but surely, urban sprawl has reached my town. I like the convenience that comes with it; for example, we just got Red Robin and Walmart last year… but I don’t like the traffic. I loathe the congested streets and long lines at the grocery store. I miss the “small town” feel that it used to have at Christmas and the 4th of July.
Culture is the same way. Except that from what I can tell, we’re not benefitting one bit. There are no perks. The culture has it’s own agenda. Look carefully. It’s creeping up into places where parents should not want it to go.
Slowly but surely, culture is shutting parents out of what should be the parent’s primary place: decision makers in the lives of their children. Parents have the right and responsibility to know what is happening with their children.
In August 2016, I learned that Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland, in a effort to make their schools “safe spaces” for kids who identify as transgender, produced a training video, starring the district’s chief communications officer, Bob Mosier. The video surfaced a few days ago on The American Conservative, but was uploaded on YouTube in mid-July.
In it, Mr. Mosier makes a few key suggestions to teachers and chaperones who take students on overnight trips—chief among them is the advice that if a transgender student wants to sleep with students of the opposite sex, just let them.
Oh, and pssst! By the way: since the school values the transgender student’s privacy, make sure no one tells the parents.
This is what I’m talking about.
Since when did we stop valuing a parent’s right to know what in the world is happening with their children? How can parents make wise decisions for their children if information is being purposely withheld from them? How can we protect our kids if we don’t know what they’re being taught or exposed to?
Parents today are being told that kids can make their own decisions (starting in elementary school) on everything from birth control to which gender they want to be. What used to be regarded as a parents responsibility is often seen as an infringement on the child.
Here in my state, simple tasks like looking at my 13 yr olds’ medical records require effort, persistence and even permission from my 13 year old. If we want to stay in the race and finish it well, we must refuse to be sidelined. Moms who go the distance possess a willingness to endure rather than become a passive onlooker in the lives of their children.
I understand that there are abuse situations that require different measures, but shutting healthy parents out of the lives of their kids is not the solution. Keeping parents from knowing what is happening with their children at school should not be commonplace! It should be a crime.
When the world says “give up” or “it’s not your business,” I challenge you to stand up for the sake of your child. Go ahead and risk being annoying. Be the mom who knows the names of your child’s friends. Be the mom who asks the hard questions and loves unconditionally. Be the mom who refuses to be sidelined and instead guides her child in the way of Truth through every stage of growing up, including adolescence.
Our kids need their parents. They don’t need the government or the school system to teach them about the big things in life, they need their parents.
And parents? Today’s parents need the wisdom of Solomon. They need the wisdom that comes straight from God Himself.
A Strong Warning About False Teachers
A couple weeks ago, my heart broke as a woman who claims the name of the Lord Jesus invited her followers on social media not to “overburden” their conscience by hesitating to vote for a pro-abortion candidate.
In a Facebook post, this woman said,
“…I’d like to suggest that voting for a pro-choice candidate in this election, or any election, need not overburden your conscience.”
Through her blog, she went on to give a defense of her opinion that was utterly devoid of any evidence of Biblical truth, stating that abortion is a “debatable” topic and that government should make decisions on behalf of women and families.
“Given the complex nature of these and other issues, the degree to which the government should make decisions on behalf of women and families regarding pregnancy is, and should be, debatable.”
Debatable? Not according to God. Not when it comes to the murder of unborn babies. We can talk all day about what the role of government should be in the lives of the we, the governed, but abortion is another animal. Men and women, if you love God and know that you are going to stand before Him someday, your conscience should be terribly burdened by what is happening to our unborn in the name of “choice.” Anyone who suggests that God doesn’t care about it is not listening to the Lord—or cannot listen because they do not know Him.
God’s Word warns us against false teachers. If there was ever a time to be on the lookout for them, the time is now. We are living in a generation of biblically illiterate, immature Christians—people who, while claiming the name of Jesus, and wanting His mercy, forgiveness and salvation, do not wish to carry His cross.
This was evidenced by the thousands of people who cheered her post and encouraged her in her deception. These people are easy targets for wolves among the sheep, and they are blogging, pastoring and counseling God’s children away from, not into, what God says is truth.
Our hearts should break over what breaks God’s heart–and abortion is at the top of the list of things God says he hates. Here’s the Truth, according the the Bible, which is the believer’s final authority:
Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes,feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Isaiah 49:1
Before I was born the Lord called me;from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. Every baby whose life has been snuffed out at the hands of another human being belonged to God.
Are we so foolish as to believe He will not exact wrath and pour out His righteous anger over us for NOT “overburdening” our conscience? God forms us in our mother’s womb and has spoken our names before we took a single breath. Oh, how we have sinned against the Lord in this nation by calling evil “choice” and excusing sin for the sake of convenience.
False teachers promise peace when God says there will be judgment—and teachers who suggest otherwise are wolves in sheep’s clothing. False teachers tell you that you can live in sin and that God will not discipline you. These are all false teachings.
Get in your Bible, Christian! Know the Word of God. Don’t be fooled by false teachers.
In the end, we will stand before the Lord and give an account for the way we lived our lives. I, for one, am willing to carry the burden of the unborn on my conscience until the Lord comes and makes it right. As believers in Christ and in His gospel, we have no choice in this matter.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it best before he was executed at the hands of the Nazi regime:
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”