Words of Truth

I love words. They convey meaning, they can make us laugh, they can make us cry, they can make us FEEL.  They can make us know things we need to know.  I love words.

I almost always know what I’m going to say in situations.  “Speechless” is not a word that applies to me. Seriously, just ask anybody who knows me.  There are words to describe my use of words:  Verbose. Loquacious. Garrulous.  Sometimes I feel like Bugs Bunny in the cartoon where someone tells him to shut up and he shuts up with a paragraph..

And so it means something when I say that I have no words.

At least I didn’t.  After some time, I now have words again. I just got out of the theater.   I knew it wasn’t going to be entertainment. I knew it wasn’t going to be “fun.” But someone told me I needed to see this movie, and so I went.

I saw Gosnell.

Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer

This is the story of a man who lost his respect for human life.  For those of you who are pro-choice, you need to see this movie.  For those of you who are pro-life, you need to see this movie. For those of you who are reading this right now: You. Need. To. See. This. Movie.

It is not fun.  It is one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.  And sadder still because the practice of legal abortion continues.  In the hour and a half that I sat there watching the movie there were an estimated eight thousand abortions performed across the world. 125,000 babies are killed every day in the world, 3,000 of them in the United States.  That’s over forty-five million abortions per year.  There are eight million people living in New York City.  The population of NYC is killed in abortion clinics every two months.  The scale of this boggles my mind.  In the United States alone there have been 60,000,000 babies killed since Roe v. Wade was decided.

To me, abortion is two things.

1. Abortion is the holocaust of our day. We look at the holocaust as a horrible event because of the 17 million people that were murdered by the Nazis. Well a holocaust-worth of human babies are killed every 4.5 months in the world. The fact that every person in the world isn’t rising up in protest of this atrocity is amazing to me.
2. Abortion is the slavery of our day. It’s the moral issue that is perfectly legal and practiced in most countries in the world, just as slavery was several hundred years ago. And yet today no decent person would say that slavery is a good thing or even that it should be legal.  It is my hope and prayer to Almighty God that someday we will look back on abortion with the same attitude that we now view slavery:  a horrible human rights crime that our ancestors practiced, a practice we’re ashamed of, but something we fought to end.

The smugness on the face of the actor portraying Kermit Gosnell all throughout the movie was infuriating. The roadblocks that were thrown down for the prosecutor at every turn, the media blackout that happened (this may be the first time some of you are hearing of this man), and the outright censorship that is currently occurring just because the movie was released is amazing.  Theaters refused to show this movie. Theaters are pulling this movie prematurely. Why? Because there are those in our society that will do anything to keep people from hearing anything negative about abortion. A “woman’s right to choose” is held up over and over and over as vastly more valuable than that of human life itself.  At one point in the movie a judge commands the district attorney’s office to care for Gosnell’s endangered pet turtles.  The irony of her vehemence that turtle life be preserved in light of her attitude towards abortion is shocking.

In short, watch the movie.  You will not enjoy it, but your eyes will be opened.  Pray for our country. Pray for our world. This massacre will not go unpunished.  God is love, but God is also wrath.  And as Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

May God have mercy on our souls.

When I was a kid, I lived for a time in the house that my great-grandfather built. I have been told that my grandfather was born in that house. As in, not at the hospital but inside the house.  My parents were living there when I was born (at the hospital).  Years later I lived there again.

We had a magnolia tree in the back yard.  I used to climb in that tree, and I loved the smell of the blossoms every year.  I can honestly say that tree has been my favorite tree ever.   I recently moved back to Adel, Iowa to pastor the Baptist church in town, and since I hope to be here for many years, I decided it might be a good idea to try growing my own magnolia tree.  There are over 200 varieties of magnolia.  I don’t know what variety my tree is, but I knew that’s the one I wanted.  So I called up my aunt (to get access to the house, which is currently vacant), and we went looking.  I really hoped there would be a seedling that I could just dig up and transplant, but there weren’t any.  Plan B was to get cuttings.

As the title says, I’m not a botanist, but I am following the advice of videos I’ve found online to attempt to grow a new tree from some branches I cut off the existing one. I removed most of the side twigs and leaves from the cuttings I took, and then made a cut in the end of each one, and dipped them in this root hormone powder I bought.  Then I shoved them in a mixture of dirt and peat moss.

I don’t know if anything will come of it.  If the tree is still there next year I may try again if these cuttings are unsuccessful, as one video informed me that June-August is the best time to do this.

I also took a cutting of the Concord grapevine that has grown there for decades. Did the same procedure.  I have less hope for that one, but we’ll see what happens.

What would you say if I told you that there was a man that is on his way to your house, and when he arrives, he is going to live there whether you like it or not? That’s the situation our country is in right now, because there is a large invasion force seven thousand people strong that is headed for our southern border from Honduras. These people are not American citizens. They have not received permission to enter the United States.

Now some would say (and I agree) that life is a basic human right, which is odd coming from those who support abortion, but I digress. They say, “You don’t care that these people are fleeing the violence in their country.” That’s not true. I DO care, and it should stop, but Honduras is NOT the United States. Honduran citizens are NOT the citizens of the US. They need help, but forcing us to care for them is not the way.

When I was young I helped my family participated in sending care packages to Honduras. I still remember packing boxes with bags and bags of rice, beans, powdered milk and many other things. I didn’t speak Spanish, but packing those boxes is why I will never forget the meaning of the words arroz, frijoles, and leche en pulvo. We took the boxes to a farm in Minnesota where they then shipped them to some aid station in Honduras to help feed hungry people. I am not heartless. But if those Hondurans had shown up at our door and started taking our food and other belongings out of our house? They would have gotten a much different response.

I sincerely hope that the United Nations takes action to help the country of Honduras. I think human rights abuses are horrible. But I don’t think that allowing the citizens of Honduras to enter other countries illegally is the answer. So far Guatemala and Mexico have not stopped them. Let’s hope that Trump can stop them at our border.

I don’t have any easy answers, but if I were President, here’s what I would do:
1. I would immediately put a hold on all immigration from the three countries that have helped cause this problem: Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, until such time as they show willingness to abide by international law.
2. I would immediately end foreign aid to all three countries.
3. I would assemble a force of Americans to stop these people from crossing the border. I would direct this force to detain anybody who crcosses illegally. I would then determine if the person has a visa. If no visa, no entry, and they would be returned to Mexico, and let Mexico deal with them, since Mexico let them in at their southern border.

I don’t have all the answers. Maybe somebody has a better idea. But I know that allowing 7,000 people to enter illegally is not the answer. If these people are allowed to enter, then our borders truly mean nothing.

I just had a great idea. At least I think it’s a great idea.  I’m not really sure, I mean, it’s new. It’s a baby idea.  Maybe someone else thought of this already and there’s whole books written about why this would be a bad idea.  I don’t know, because I’ve never heard of it. It just came to me.

What if we passed a law that said if someone files paperwork to run for federal office (US House, US Senate, VP, or President), the day they file papers to run, they must also resign from their current elected office.  You’re a congressman that wants to run for Senate?  First resign from your House seat.  You’re a Senator that wants to run for President? First resign from your Senate seat.

That way we could clean out the legislative branch in a few election cycles, because the number of congresspeople running for Senate every two years AND President every four would allow fresh blood into the legislature.  Ultimately I’d like congressional term limits (maybe two terms for each chamber: four years in the House, 12 years in the Senate), but that doesn’t seem to be popular.

So what do you think?