Posted Sep 02, 2015 by Michael L. Brown
Many Christians in America have been discouraged and downhearted since the Supreme Court’s infamous June ruling in which the justices voted 5-4 to redefine marriage. We have been told that “the ship has sailed,” that we have lost the culture wars and that it’s time to accept the new reality and move on. But the recent sting operation against Planned Parenthood – with nine eye-opening, guilt-exposing videos released to date and with national sentiments turning rapidly against this abortion giant – reminds us that a Supreme Court decision hardly marks the end of the battle. In some cases, it actually marks the beginning. When the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade in 1973, pro-life forces were in disarray, yet they quickly mounted “a push for a constitutional amendment affirming that life begins at conception.” But, Nina Martin reported in the New Republic, “that first effort fizzled, and it’s only in recent years that a new wave of pro-life activists – many of them born after Roe and educated in fundamentalist Christian settings – have once again seized on personhood as a way not just of weakening Roe, but of overturning it. In state after state, they have been pushing to have their beliefs enshrined in policy.” (Note that Martin is not pro-life.) Did you catch that? Many of those leading the pro-life charge today were born after 1973 and were raised in conservative Christian settings. Why can’t the same thing happen when it comes to turning the tide of homosexual activism? These recent years have been marked by major gay-activist victories, but again, this is the beginning of the story, not the end. In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, we were told that the younger generation would completely embrace abortion, and yet more and more it has become increasingly pro-life. As Austin Ruse noted in the same article that announced the growing support for same-sex “marriage” among GOP youth, “Social conservatives point out that the number of young people opposed to abortion used to be equally bleak among the young but is now trending their way.” Why can’t the same thing happen with homosexual activism? The revival scholar James Edwin Orr once quoted Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who wrote to Bishop Madison of Virginia in the early 1800s, saying, “The church is too far gone ever to be redeemed.” Not long after that, the Second Great Awakening spread through much of the nation, and parts of America were dramatically transformed, not to mention the church dramatically revived. Who says it’s too late for the culture to be changed? Who says the church of America has passed the point of no return? Who says it’s too late for revival? I personally agree with those who believe we’re in grave spiritual and moral danger. I agree with those who say that, in many ways, judgment is already in our land. I do expect lots of shaking and upheaval in the coming days. But I do not exclude what I call the “God factor,” speaking of God’s ability to intervene and turn the tide as his people cry out to him. (That’s why the seventh of eight principles in my book “Outlasting the Gay Revolution” is “Factor in the God Factor.”) The recent events with Planned Parenthood show us that things can turn on a dime, and quite unexpectedly at that. At the same time, these events did not happen in a vacuum. Instead, these recent pro-life advances come on the heels of years of sacrificial and selfless labors of Christian workers who shared the Gospel outside abortion clinics and helped women find alternatives to abortion, years of around the clock prayer for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, years of political and social efforts to turn back the pro-abortion culture. And then, suddenly, these videos appear, and the national climate is changing, even in the halls of Congress. The same thing can happen with gay activism and the redefining of marriage. That’s why I say that it’s not time to throw in the towel. It’s time to push back!

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