Breakpoint

Last year, a coalition of organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Policy Alliance, Colson Center, and the Heritage Foundation, teamed up to issue a Promise to America’s Children, a commitment to protect their minds, their bodies, and their most important relationships amid this hypersexualized culture.  Today, we join again, this time to issue a Promise to America’s Parents. Why? As the website puts it,  Local, state, and federal government policies are imposing ideologies that divide children by race and promote the falsehood that a boy can become a girl or vice-versa. Some schools are treating children as if they are the opposite sex without the permission of parents. Medical professionals are performing harmful experiments on children who are emotionally distressed about their bodies. To protect children, parents need laws that protect their rights.  Simply put, no government entity should usurp the place of parents. In too many classrooms, progressive ideas are forced on children, targeting their hearts, minds, and identities. A reigning ideology in education is critical theory which, in its various forms, denies that every single person is made in the image of God. Thus, kids are taught to see other people in simplistic categories of oppressed or oppressor, to see Christianity as an oppressive and destructive historical force, and to see themselves primarily in terms of sexual orientation and gender identity.  The Promise to America’s Parents galvanizes parents to “A.C.T.”—an acronym referring to accountability, choice, and transparency—on behalf of their children. According to the Promise,  Children belong first and foremost to their families. In the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, they are not “mere creatures of the state.” The unique and intimate relationship between a parent and a child creates a duty and a corresponding natural right. Parental rights are fundamental rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. However, courts have not consistently protected parental rights against government interference and invasion as they should.   In the “A.C.T.” acronym, accountability means that “Every mother or father may hold the government accountable for infringing on their rights to care for their child.” Choice means that “Every mother or father has the responsibility and right to choose the education and medical treatment that they deem best for their child.” Thus, neither schools, nor healthcare providers, nor schools acting like healthcare providers should push a child toward an alternative gender without the parents’ permission. Schools also must not restrict a child’s speech by creating vague anti-racist policies that would prohibit differing viewpoints being stated.  Transparency means that “Every mother or father has the right to know about what their child is learning, their child’s health, and any harms to them.” Parents have the right to know the content within the curriculum, from textbooks to other materials. Parents have the right to know the content of their children’s files. Specifically, no separate files should be kept to maintain secretive use of counseling, gender pronouns, or treatments.  Please read the whole Promise to America’s Parents at promisetoAmericasparents.org. There’s also a free downloadable toolkit, explaining parental rights at schools and in doctors’ offices. It also provides practical advice on how to proceed if a child describes their school day, and warning lights start flashing in your head. For example, the toolkit explains what you can and cannot ask for in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, how to access the school’s curriculum, securing opt-out policies for classroom instruction that conflicts with religious or moral beliefs, and how to help children report statements or actions that treat students differently because of their race, religion, or moral views.  There are also plenty of stories on the Promise website about parents who took a stand. Two parents whose stories are told are plaintiffs in cases represented by ADF. Melissa Riley says of her son, who is biracial, “He is changing . . . . If things don’t go his way or things seem unfair, he will now claim it’s racism. He never did that before.” Another parent, Carlos Ibenez is a plaintiff because his daughter was told in middle school that as a Latina, she wouldn’t succeed because the system was set up to privilege people with white skin.  Parents can protect their children from indoctrination that targets the mind and the heart. Parents can protect their children from being co-opted by the state. Please, visit promisetoAmericasparents.org.  

According to a recent poll conducted by Gallup, the portion of Americans who believe in God has dropped to barely over 80%. That’s still a majority, but the one-in-five who don’t believe is the highest number ever recorded in this country.  Anyone seeking to understand this data should remember something theologian Carl F.H. Henry said, 70 years ago, when told that 99% of Americans believed in God: “The vast majority of Americans today may believe in a ghost god, in a phantom god, in a god who makes very little difference in the great decisions of life and even less in the cares of everyday existence.”  Imaginary gods, like imaginary friends, make us feel good for a time, but lose their staying power. That’s true for individuals and for societies—which is why Christians must be clear on Who God is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, in creation, and in Christ... not a god we create in our own image.  

What looks like good news for a nation in the midst of a demographic crisis isn’t really. Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that “U.S. births increased last year for the first time in seven years.”  In 2020, the U.S. fertility rate dipped to 1.64—the lowest “since the government began tracking it in the 1930s.” In 2021, the rate increased for the first time since 2014, to 1.66.   Though that sounds like good news, that’s a lower spike than we’d historically expect during something that keeps everyone at home, such as a pandemic. One economist has called it a “minor blip” that “still leaves us on a long-term trajectory towards lower births.” That’s because the replacement rate is at least 2.1, and some scholars think 1.7 is the threshold of no return.  Nations that fail to replace their population face economic stagnation and social instability. A society committed to adult happiness over the future and the well-being of children will be a nation that fails to replace its population.   In other words, birth rates are more than statistics and historic predictors. They reflect a nation’s priorities, values, and worldview.  

The first step in making abortion unthinkable has been taken. Now that the Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade with its ruling in the Dobbs case, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and work towards building a culture of life. This is not the time to back off, or as some Christians have suggested, to tone it down.  Back in May, at the “Preparing for a Post-Roe World” event at the Wilberforce Weekend, Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins issued a powerful and stirring challenge. Here’s Kristan:   Friends, tonight, I’m here to ask you to do something that’s never been done before in the history of our world. I’m here to ask you, the Church, to join with the pro-life generation to put our nation back together in a post-Roe v. Wade world. And I implore you to help us achieve this mission that has thus far spanned five decades—church by church, city by city, state by state—as we move forward to make abortion unthinkable.   Friends, the hour is upon us—something that we have all worked for, that many of you were working for before I was even created. Step one of our mission is almost complete. But there’s so many more steps we have to go. And the Church must rise to the challenge, and you are being called to lead it.   Make no mistake. The battles that we face in the coming months, the coming weeks will be physical, they’ll be political, and they’ll be spiritual. In our city streets, the violence that so many support behind the closed doors of the Planned Parenthood will be committed openly. And those in power will look the other way. In statehouses, those who we fought to elect will be forced to finally act to actually cast a vote that will determine the fate of lives. And I predict some of them who say that they’re with us will not be so.   And in our homes, our daughters and our granddaughters will start to order chemical abortion pills shipped from foreign countries or other states that could very well result in her own injury, infertility, or death. She’ll be aborting her child, your grandchild, your great-grandchild in her bathroom, and every morning she’ll return to the scene of that crime.   In our workplaces, women and men will be hurting from past abortion decisions, and they’ll be made to finally reckon with the choice that they made decades ago that they’ve been suppressing for years.   And in our churches, what will we be doing? Will we be a thermostat that can transform the mores of our society—of our country—or will we simply sit back and be a thermometer? I believe it’s not too late to become the former, but this relies on you.   First, I must ask you to speak truth at your church, especially to this young generation who has never lived in America without legal abortion. Show your youth group the truth about the violence of abortion. Show them how they can actually step up to serve and transform. Convince your pastor—6% of which say that they’ve given a sermon on abortion in the past year—convince them to speak. Start a ministry for men and women hurting from past abortions. Start a ministry for pregnant and parenting women and men and families in need. A great first step is to join Students for Life and the Colson Center for the national Standing with Her Sunday simulcast. We’re going to be launching August 28, and the goal is to get our churches all the tools that they need to support her.   The second thing you can do is envision what your community will look like and must look like in the post-Roe era. Ask yourself how your church can step up—what you can do. And I have to warn you—envisioning things is a little dangerous. It’s free—doesn’t take any money—but it’s powerful.   Quell the flames of fear that Planned Parenthood is fanning in our nation. Show them we actually have a progressive view for our families and women in America. This is 2022. This is not 1952. No woman in 2022 America should ever have to choose between the life of her child for her education or for her career goals. Tell America about the 3,000 nonviolent pregnancy centers, the more than 400 maternity homes that vastly outnumber the abortion facilities in our country. Tell America about support: AfterAbortion.org,  abortionpillreversal.org, standingwithyou.org—all the resources we have in place. This is fundamental.   At Students for Life, we’ve knocked on 120,000 doors in the last year in neighborhoods in 20 cities that surround an abortion facility. And 73% of the neighbors we speak to have no clue that the pregnancy center exists in our community—have never even heard about it.   Friends, when the Supreme Court finally reverses its anti-science Roe v. Wade decision, what choice, what decision are you going to make? What course of action will you commit to taking that will help us determine the fate of this cause—the greatest human rights struggle in the history of our life?   Tonight, I implore you. Make a decision. Church, make a decision for a positive peace—to stand for innocent children and their mothers. Get to work to ensure that no woman stands alone in a post-Roe America.   That was Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins speaking at our preparing for a post-Roe future event. To hear the entire talk, and for more recordings like this one equipping us to build a culture of life, go to WilberforceWeekend.org. 

As part of The Gospel Coalition’s “Good Faith Debates,” Scott Klusendorf and fellow pro-life advocate Karen Swallow Prior discuss what it means to stand for life today. Is it enough to oppose abortion? Or must the pro-life movement take on a wider range of causes?  The exchange brings clarity to a hot button issue. Both agree that Christians should be consistent, and that our love for neighbor and commitment to life should be reflected in how we think about and address other issues, from genocide to racism, from artificial reproductive technologies to poverty.  However, while the Christian life cannot be reduced to just one issue, the greatest injustices require our greatest attention. Pro-lifers should never apologize for focusing on and working tirelessly to end abortion, especially when about 900,000 children are aborted every year. So, we should celebrate the end of Roe, work for state-level protections for the preborn, speak with moral clarity on abortion, and help the women who need it most.   Now is the time to double down, not back off.  

Eleven years ago today, Chuck Colson delivered a Breakpoint commentary on what would be his last July 4 holiday. In it, Chuck reflected on the basis of our national identity. Specifically, he recognized that the only true way to ground the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal” and possess “certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” is if we are indeed “endowed by their Creator.”   The stunning clarity of the Declaration of Independence in stating that rights are granted ultimately by God, not the State, is something too often forgotten today, if not entirely dismissed. Here’s Chuck Colson reflecting on this important truth:   The great British intellectual G.K. Chesterton wrote that “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on [a] creed.”  Think about that for a moment. Other nations were founded on the basis of race, or by the power of kings or emperors who accumulated lands—and the peasants who inhabited those lands.  But America was—and is to this day—different. It was founded on a shared belief. Or as Chesterton said, on a creed.  And what is that creed that sets us apart? It is the eloquent, profound, and simple statement penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  I’ll never forget when I graduated from Brown University during the Korean War. I couldn’t wait to become a Marine officer, to give my life if necessary, to defend that creed. To defend the idea that our rights come from God Himself and are not subject to whims of governments or tyrants. That humans ought to be free to pursue their most treasured hopes and aspirations.  Perhaps some 230 years later, we take these words for granted. But in 1776, they were earth-shaking, indeed, revolutionary.  Yet today, they are in danger of being forgotten altogether. According to Gallup, 66% of American adults have no idea that the words, “we hold these truths,” come from the Declaration of Independence. Even worse, only 45% of college seniors know that the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are proclaimed in the Declaration.  As America grows more and more diverse culturally, religiously, ethnically, it is critical that we embrace the American creed. Yes, America has always been a “melting pot.” But what is the pot that holds our multicultural stew together? Chesterton said the pot’s “original shape was traced on the lines of Jeffersonian democracy.” A democracy founded on those self-evident truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence. And as Chesterton remarked, “The pot must not melt.”  Abraham Lincoln understood this so well. For him, the notion that all men are created equal was “the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”  So go to the Fourth of July parade. Go to the neighborhood barbecue and enjoy the hot dogs and apple pie.  But here’s an idea for you. Why not take time out at the picnic to read the Declaration of Independence aloud with your friends and neighbors.  Listen—and thrill—to those words that bind us together as a nation of freedom-loving people: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  These are the words that Americans live for—and if necessary, die for.  Chuck Colson’s words are just as relevant today, and perhaps even more important for us to understand. From all of us at the Colson Center, Happy 4th! 

After discussing the horrific death of migrants in San Antonio, John and Maria talk about the reactions of some Christians to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. They analyze the hedging that is occurring and insist there’s no shame in being grateful. Afterward, they parse misunderstandings of the establishment clause for Supreme Court cases on religious liberty.   — Recommendations —     What is a Woman>>   Tearing Us Apart>>    — In Show References —      Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler     “The Vatican's stance toward Nazism is fiercely debated. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him “Hitler’s Pope. But a key part of the story has remained untold”    https://www.amazon.com/Church-Spies-Secret-Against-Hitler/dp/0465094112      On a Texas road called 'the mouth of the wolf,' a semitruck packed with migrants was abandoned in the sweltering heat       “A distant cry led a worker Monday evening to a tractor-trailer abandoned on a desolate country road under the blazing Texas sun on the outskirts of the city.”    https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/us/san-antonio-migrant-truck-deaths/index.html    John Mark Mcmillan - Economy 

According to The Economist, potential employees are beginning to discover the cost of their online behavior.  "The rise of the online self means the employer’s eye can travel … past your desk, past your office and into your home, family and even (through ill-judged social-media posts) your most intimate thoughts. Today, companies wield the sort of spy power less commonly associated with directors than with dictators, even deities." Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise since our “most intimate thoughts” aren’t online in the first place unless someone chooses to post them. Still, the fact that some believe there should be a kind of immunity for bad behavior online points to a deeper truth about technology: Our tools shape us whether we like it or not.   For example, studies show that “negativity” spreads more easily than “positivity” online. What we’d never say to someone’s face, we’ll put on Twitter. What we’d never say about a neighbor, we’ll post on Nextdoor.   We aren’t two people. The best advice for Christians, whether online or off, is to “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer.” 

Today marks the death of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), a Christian whose storytelling ability inspired thousands to see the evils of slavery. Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Harriet was the sixth child of prominent Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher. Unlike many girls from that time period, she received a first-class education, attending the Hartford Female Seminary which was run by her older sister Catharine.   In 1832, Harriet’s father became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. The city was booming at the time, but competition for jobs between Irish immigrants and runaway slaves often erupted in violence, with the Irish attacking the black community. In 1834, the seminary held debates about slavery that, won by abolitionists, may have helped spur anti-abolitionist riots in 1836 and 1841. It was by witnessing these events that Harriet not only became interested in the issue of slavery, but also began to interview runaway slaves.   Harriet and her husband Rev. Calvin Stowe relocated to Maine in 1850. That same year, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which prohibited aiding runaway slaves, even in free states. As ardent abolitionists, the Stowes ignored this law. In fact, they made their home a station on the Underground Railroad.  After losing her 18-month-old son, Stowe’s sympathy for slaves separated from their families on the auction block deepened. Inspired by a vision of a dying slave, which she claimed to have experienced during Communion at her church, Stowe began to write the book for which she is now so well known. It is a book that can truly be said to have changed the world.  Uncle Tom’s Cabin was originally published as weekly installments in the anti-slavery journal The National Era, between June 5, 1851, and April 1, 1852. It was first published in book form in March of 1852, and sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies within its first year. By November of that same year, it was made into a play in New York. By 1857, the novel had been translated into 20 languages. Eventually, Uncle Tom’s Cabin would become the second bestselling book of the 19th century after the Bible.   While the main theme of the book is the evil of slavery, it also includes significant reflections on the nature of Christianity, Christian responsibility, and Christian love. In the end, Stowe clearly and compellingly presents slavery as incompatible with Christian theology. In this, she followed the mainstream of Christian tradition since the Middle Ages.  Stowe hoped her book would show how slavery affected, not just those directly involved, but everyone in society. She also hoped to document the horrors of slavery which she had learned directly from escaped slaves. In each of these aims, the book succeeded admirably. Its popularity energized the abolitionist movement in the North, and prominent abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass promoted it as a vital tool in the battle against slavery.  Not surprisingly, Uncle Tom’s Cabin generated significant backlash in the South. Southerners complained the novel was slanderous and accused Stowe of not knowing what she was talking about. Some Southern authors responded with novels of their own that defended slavery, but none that approached the success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe received hate mail from defenders of slavery in both the North and the South, including one package that contained the severed ear of a slave, ironic evidence for the accuracy of her description of slavery’s horrors. In response to her critics, Stowe wrote A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which she documented the sources used in her novel, as well as the accounts that corroborated her descriptions.  During the Civil War, Stowe was invited to the White House. Lincoln is said to have greeted her with the words, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”  Altogether, Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. As important as she was as an author, she was equally famous for her public stands on the important social issues of the day, from slavery to women’s rights. Her courageous life is a profound example of someone using their calling to engage the world around them. By obeying God’s calling on her life, using her God-given talent in the time and place in which He called her, she changed her world and continues to influence ours. May we also have the courage to do the same with our own skills in this cultural moment. 

“For many years, the internet in China was seen as a channel for new thinking, or at least greater openness,” writes Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang. “Online discussions were relatively free and open, and users, especially younger ones, had an eager appetite for learning and debating big ideas about political systems and how China should be governed.”    That changed when Xi Jinping took power. Explaining what’s known as China’s “Great Firewall,” Wang notes, “the government got savvier, and more aggressive about using its own technology.” For example, dissidents, journalists, and public figures disappear frequently, sometimes often for minor infractions like logging onto Twitter.  The state’s actions have created “a generational split,” says Wang. “[T]hose who experienced a relatively free internet as young people—many strongly resent the Great Firewall. Among people who started college after Xi took power, however, there is a strong impulse to defend it.”  It’s an extreme example of how tools intended and used for good can also be harnessed for evil. The same resource that can promote flourishing can also promote tyranny. That’s true everywhere, not just China.