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Whisper Transcript | Transcript Only Page

00:00:00.000 | I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast.
00:00:15.620 | The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's
00:00:19.740 | been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand
00:00:24.600 | the test of scrutiny.
00:00:26.620 | As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people
00:00:32.320 | in the right direction.
00:00:41.000 | For this episode, I wanted to focus much of the time to talk about Margaret Sanger while
00:00:46.640 | at the end comparing her to Mildred Jefferson.
00:00:50.960 | Before I begin this episode, I want to state as is true for every episode that I've ever
00:00:56.200 | done, my goal is to not attack people per se.
00:01:01.480 | I am not trying to attack people, I am trying to point out ideas and movements.
00:01:09.480 | But as you know, ideas are connected with people.
00:01:14.040 | So if we're going to have an intellectual, dispassionate conversation, we need to be
00:01:21.040 | frank, candid, and direct while not giving sway to unbridled emotion, logic must prevail.
00:01:31.040 | To the extent that it matters to any of the listeners, I've had and continue to have close
00:01:36.680 | people who've had abortions much, much closer to me than you might even know.
00:01:43.240 | I do not hate people who've had abortions because if I did, then that would mean I would
00:01:48.080 | hate some of the people closest to me.
00:01:51.760 | At the same time, I will not sacrifice truth and I will not circumvent talking about topics
00:01:58.680 | that need to be talked about because that would be inherently unloving.
00:02:04.280 | With that disclaimer, on to the episode.
00:02:08.580 | To start off, Margaret Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood, the same Planned Parenthood
00:02:14.600 | that has locations all across the country and performs the majority of the abortions
00:02:19.280 | in the United States.
00:02:21.040 | The same Planned Parenthood that has strategically placed about 88% of their locations in urban
00:02:27.800 | areas.
00:02:29.520 | Margaret Sanger was born in New York in 1879 and was embedded within socialist politics
00:02:35.540 | from early adulthood.
00:02:37.640 | By 1911, she was writing for a socialist magazine called New York Call.
00:02:43.120 | In a series for that magazine entitled "What Every Girl Should Know," she wrote two essays
00:02:48.120 | on the subject of sexual impulse.
00:02:50.860 | In one of her essays, her evolutionary viewpoints for humankind and the hierarchy of the superiority
00:02:58.880 | of races was clearly on display.
00:03:02.600 | If you recall in Episode 3 on Darwinian Evolution and Scientifically Validated Racism, Episode
00:03:10.320 | 3 on Darwinian Evolution and Scientifically Validated Racism, I went over the origins
00:03:16.760 | of evolution and how it perpetrated and gave so-called intellectual cover for racism.
00:03:25.200 | For a clearer context, I'll go ahead and refer you to that episode.
00:03:29.200 | My point is, in this quote I'm about to read to you, you see Margaret Sanger's worldview
00:03:35.320 | on clear display.
00:03:38.080 | This is again Margaret Sanger in an essay on sexual impulse.
00:03:43.840 | When man has emerged from the jungle and stood upright on his hind legs, the shape of his
00:03:49.560 | head and his face change from the long jaw and flat head of the animal to the flat face
00:03:55.560 | and high head of the man.
00:03:57.520 | All progress from that time forward was made along mental lines.
00:04:02.800 | According to the universal law then in existence, he should have been limited to a geographical
00:04:07.300 | area and killed by the extreme heat or cold or starved for one kind of food if it were
00:04:12.760 | not obtained.
00:04:13.960 | But against all these he fought because he became endowed with such attributes as reason,
00:04:18.680 | knowledge, and willpower.
00:04:20.400 | Instead of using his creative powers solely in hunting food and reproducing his species,
00:04:25.160 | he used his force in making plans for his self-preservation.
00:04:28.620 | He built rafts and boats to cross rivers and streams.
00:04:31.680 | He devised methods of clothing himself against extreme heat and cold and discovered various
00:04:36.840 | ways of preparing food for different climates suitable for his various needs.
00:04:42.340 | In other words, he conserved his creative force and redirected it into channels which
00:04:47.440 | have resulted in giving him precedence over all other living creatures.
00:04:51.960 | For man has developed a conscious mind which asserts itself by reasoning, which in turn
00:04:57.260 | has developed his brain power.
00:04:59.440 | It is said a fish as large as a man has a brain no longer than the kernel of an almond.
00:05:03.920 | In all fish and reptiles where there is no great brain development, there is also no
00:05:09.160 | conscious sexual control.
00:05:11.200 | The lower down in the scale of human development we go, the less sexual control we find.
00:05:16.040 | It is said that the Aboriginal Australian, the lowest known species of the human family,
00:05:22.400 | just a step higher than the chimpanzee in brain development, has so little sexual control
00:05:27.920 | that police authority alone prevents him from obtaining sexual satisfaction on the streets.
00:05:33.840 | According to one writer, the rapist has just enough brain development to raise him above
00:05:38.280 | the animal, but like the animal, when in heat knows no law except nature which impels him
00:05:43.080 | to procreate whatever the result.
00:05:45.960 | Every normal man and woman has the power to control and direct his sexual impulse.
00:05:51.000 | Men and women who have it in control and constantly use their brain cells in thinking deeply are
00:05:56.160 | never sensual."
00:06:00.620 | From the quote I read to you, you could clearly see the implication that she believed in a
00:06:05.320 | hierarchy and superiority of differing races much like Darwin espoused.
00:06:12.020 | After all, Darwin's magnum opus is called "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
00:06:19.200 | Selection or the Preservation of Favorite Races in the Struggle for Life."
00:06:26.620 | In 1914, Sanger launched a newsletter using the slogan, "No Gods, No Masters."
00:06:35.580 | This slogan is interesting because it dated back to England in the 19th century used by
00:06:40.460 | anarchists and socialists.
00:06:42.500 | The origins of the English usage goes back to Louis-Auguste Blanqui, who was a French
00:06:48.740 | socialist and political activist.
00:06:51.980 | The French term was "Neither God nor Master."
00:06:58.140 | Unsurprisingly, this term was shared by Friedrich Nietzsche in "Beyond Good and Evil."
00:07:06.620 | Sometime afterwards, she founded the American Birth Control League and began to promote
00:07:11.220 | her organization by speaking for various groups, one of those groups being the KKK.
00:07:18.060 | In 1948, she started what would become today's Planned Parenthood.
00:07:23.620 | She died at the age of 86 in 1966 in Tucson, Arizona.
00:07:30.260 | For the next segment of this episode, I want to quote to you verbatim some articles written
00:07:34.740 | about Margaret Sanger that I did indeed fact check.
00:07:39.100 | I'm quoting these articles to you to give you and bring more color to who Margaret Sanger
00:07:46.380 | Irina Grossu, A-R-I-N-A Grossu, G-R-O-S-S-U, who is the Director for the Center for Human
00:07:55.380 | Dignity at the Family Research Council, wrote the following in an article entitled "Margaret
00:08:01.020 | Sanger, Racist Eugenicist Extraordinaire."
00:08:04.460 | She wrote this on May 5, 2014.
00:08:08.940 | Irina Grossu says, "Recent articles have reported on an unearthed video from 1947 of
00:08:16.620 | Margaret Sanger demanding no more babies for 10 years in developing countries.
00:08:21.820 | A couple of years ago, Margaret Sanger was named one of Time Magazine's 20 Most Influential
00:08:26.820 | Americans of All Time.
00:08:29.020 | Given her enduring influence, it's worth considering what the women who founded Planned Parenthood
00:08:33.980 | contributed to the eugenics movement.
00:08:36.820 | Sanger shaped the eugenics movement in America and beyond in the 1930s and 1940s.
00:08:42.420 | Her views and those of her peers in the movement contributed to compulsory sterilization laws
00:08:47.100 | in 30 U.S. states that resulted in more than 60,000 sterilizations of vulnerable people,
00:08:53.460 | including people she considered feeble-minded, idiots, and morons.
00:08:57.680 | She even presented at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1926 in Silver Lake, New Jersey.
00:09:02.960 | She recounted this event in her autobiography.
00:09:05.660 | "I accepted an invitation to talk to the women's branch of the Ku Klux Klan.
00:09:09.900 | I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses.
00:09:14.740 | I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak.
00:09:19.100 | In the end, through simple illustrations, I believed I had accomplished my purpose.
00:09:23.220 | A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered."
00:09:26.380 | Margaret Sanger, in Autobiography, page 366.
00:09:33.620 | That she generated enthusiasm among some of America's leading racists says something
00:09:38.540 | about the content and tone of her remarks.
00:09:42.020 | In a letter to Clarence Gable in 1939, Sanger wrote, "We do not want word to go out that
00:09:48.500 | we want to exterminate the (insert archaic word for black person here) population, and
00:09:54.780 | the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of
00:10:00.180 | their more rebellious members."
00:10:02.920 | That was Margaret Sanger in a letter to Gable, December 10, 1939.
00:10:08.800 | Her own words and television appearances leave no room for parsing.
00:10:12.700 | For example, she wrote many articles about eugenics in the journal she founded in 1917,
00:10:18.140 | The Birth Control Review.
00:10:19.740 | Her articles included "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics," "The Eugenic Conscience,"
00:10:25.020 | "The Purpose of Eugenics," "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics," and "Birth Control,
00:10:30.780 | the True Eugenics," to name a few.
00:10:33.060 | The following are some of her more telling quotes.
00:10:36.260 | "While I personally believe in the sterilization of the feeble-minded, the insane, and syphilitic,
00:10:41.980 | I have not been able to discover that these measures are more than superficial deterrence
00:10:46.860 | when applied to the constantly growing stream of the unfit.
00:10:50.320 | They are excellent means of meeting a certain phase of the situation, but I believe in regard
00:10:56.620 | to these, as in regard to other eugenic means, that they do not go to the bottom of the matter."
00:11:02.700 | That is in Birth Control and Racial Betterment, February 1919, The Birth Control Review.
00:11:08.460 | "Eugenics without birth control seems to us a house builded upon the sands.
00:11:14.300 | It is at the mercy of the rising stream of the unfit.
00:11:18.860 | Stop our national habit of human waste.
00:11:22.740 | By all means, there should be no children when either mother or father suffers from
00:11:27.580 | such diseases as tuberculosis, gonorrhea, syphilis, cancer, epilepsy, insanity, drunkenness,
00:11:35.900 | and mental disorders.
00:11:36.900 | In the case of the mother, heart disease, kidney trouble, and pelvic deformities are
00:11:41.860 | also a serious bar to childbearing.
00:11:44.900 | No more children should be born when the parents, though healthy themselves, find that their
00:11:49.260 | children are physically or mentally defective.
00:11:54.120 | The main objects of the Population Congress would be to apply a stern and rigid policy
00:11:59.780 | of sterilization and segregation to that great a population whose progeny is tainted or whose
00:12:06.180 | inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring to give certain
00:12:13.120 | dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization."
00:12:20.260 | In a 1957 interview with Mike Wallace, Sanger revealed, "I think the greatest sin in the
00:12:26.220 | world is bringing children into the world that have disease from their parents that
00:12:31.260 | have no chance in the world to be a human being practically, delinquents, prisoners,
00:12:36.960 | all sorts of things just marked when they're born.
00:12:39.740 | That to me is the greatest sin that people can, can commit."
00:12:45.940 | This line of thinking from its founder has left lasting remarks on the legacy of Planned
00:12:50.540 | Parenthood.
00:12:51.540 | For example, 79% of Planned Parenthood's surgical abortion facilities are located within
00:12:56.060 | a walking distance of Black or Hispanic communities.
00:12:59.800 | The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Abortion Surveillance Report revealed that
00:13:03.860 | between 2007 and 2010, nearly 36% of all abortions in the United States were performed on Black
00:13:11.020 | children even though Black Americans make up only 13% of our population.
00:13:15.900 | A further 21% of abortions were performed on Hispanics and 7% more on other minority
00:13:22.180 | groups for a total of 64% of U.S. abortions tragically performed on minority groups.
00:13:29.540 | Margaret Sanger would have been proud of the effects of her legacy."
00:13:39.620 | There's a database online of most if not all of Margaret Sanger's works.
00:13:46.300 | I read through a good chunk of her material.
00:13:50.040 | But if you want to fact check the material, feel free to go ahead and do it yourself.
00:13:57.580 | So what does Planned Parenthood have to say about its founder today given the state of
00:14:04.260 | the culture?
00:14:05.480 | After all, what I read to you should be considered, if there were consistency, extremely offensive.
00:14:18.520 | So what does Planned Parenthood have to say about its founder today given the state of
00:14:25.160 | the culture?
00:14:27.560 | K. Cole James, President and Founder of the Klaus Schuster Institute and also current
00:14:34.760 | president of the Heritage Foundation.
00:14:37.420 | To the extent that it matters to you, K. Cole James is a Black female.
00:14:41.520 | She wrote an article this year for the Heritage Foundation on June 29 entitled "Even with
00:14:46.780 | removing Margaret Sanger's name, Planned Parenthood is still influenced by a racist
00:14:51.620 | founder."
00:14:52.620 | It was published June 29, 2020 for the Heritage Foundation.
00:14:57.300 | K. Cole James writes, "One of Planned Parenthood's largest abortion affiliates has finally disavowed
00:15:09.820 | Planned Parenthood's founder for her racist legacy and her connections to the eugenics
00:15:14.060 | movement.
00:15:15.060 | However, this symbolic bowing to the far-left's "cancel culture" doesn't change the fact
00:15:20.060 | that the organization is still influenced by her inhumane beliefs.
00:15:24.940 | Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) is finally removing Margaret Sanger's name
00:15:30.860 | from its Manhattan clinic after decades of choosing to overlook the organization's
00:15:36.220 | white supremacist roots.
00:15:38.260 | Sanger said all sorts of disturbing things like, "We don't want the word to get out
00:15:42.020 | that we want to exterminate the (insert archaic word for Black person here) population."
00:15:48.100 | She favored the forced sterilization of those she deemed unfit.
00:15:52.080 | She gave a speech to the Ku Klux Klan and she once wrote, "The most merciful thing
00:15:56.880 | that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."
00:16:01.500 | Mind you, like Virginia Governor Northam, she was talking about a child who had already
00:16:06.660 | been born.
00:16:08.220 | PPGNY's national organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has long said that
00:16:14.680 | many of Sanger's racist quotes have been taken out of context.
00:16:18.420 | While the national organization acknowledges some of Sanger's many flaws, it says her
00:16:22.700 | story is "complicated" and it hasn't totally disavowed her.
00:16:26.960 | It still labels her a "woman of heroic accomplishments" and it still calls its highest honor the "Margaret
00:16:33.460 | Sanger Award."
00:16:34.460 | However, in its news release, PPGNY parted ways with the standard talking points, acknowledging
00:16:39.780 | what it called "Planned Parenthood's contribution to historical reproductive harm within communities
00:16:46.640 | of color."
00:16:47.640 | Yet for years, Planned Parenthood has had the audacity to claim that it believes Black
00:16:52.220 | lives matter.
00:16:54.160 | As we know all too well, the "cancel culture" is one of the far left's frequently used
00:16:58.660 | tools to destroy anyone or anything that doesn't comport with its racial ideology.
00:17:05.540 | Ever at a loss for hypocrisy though, the left frequently attempts to nuance the troubling
00:17:10.300 | pasts of its heroes, trying to make them acceptable while at the same time tearing down statues
00:17:16.660 | of those who helped make America the exceptional nation it is.
00:17:21.060 | Some will accuse me of having a double standard when I say that it's okay to cancel Margaret
00:17:25.300 | Sanger while I defend statesmen like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, yet there's
00:17:30.380 | a significant difference.
00:17:32.460 | While we roundly condemn Washington's and Jefferson's participation in the evil of
00:17:37.060 | slavery, we can still celebrate their lifelong work to create a nation built on the highest
00:17:41.700 | ideals of humanity.
00:17:43.860 | On the other hand, Sanger's open racism, her promotion of eugenics, and her advocacy
00:17:48.820 | of forced sterilizations to keep those she deemed unfit from breeding was her vision.
00:17:55.540 | Planned Parenthood was formed on that vision, and much of that vision still exists at Planned
00:18:00.580 | Parenthood today.
00:18:02.460 | Planned Parenthood still considers certain people less than human and rejects the science
00:18:06.600 | of prenatal development by calling babies in the womb clumps of cells, tissue masses,
00:18:13.460 | and products of conception.
00:18:15.860 | Planned Parenthood also still targets minority communities.
00:18:18.740 | If Black Lives Matter to Planned Parenthood, then why, according to a 2015 study, are nearly
00:18:23.660 | 80% of its surgical abortion facilities located within walking distance of minority neighborhoods?
00:18:30.220 | According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2014, a year when Black women only accounted
00:18:34.580 | for about 13% of the U.S. population, they made up 28% of those having abortions.
00:18:40.460 | Each year in New York City, more Black babies are aborted than born.
00:18:45.580 | Pro-lifers have been pointing out Sanger's despicable views for decades, and Planned
00:18:49.380 | Parenthood didn't just find out about Sanger's past yesterday.
00:18:52.940 | So why is Planned Parenthood only now rejecting its founder?
00:18:56.740 | And why isn't the entire organization doing it?
00:18:59.700 | It strikes me how blatantly we see the double standard at work here.
00:19:03.260 | Sure, Sanger is getting canceled, but only at one of Planned Parenthood's facilities,
00:19:08.900 | and in a relatively mild way.
00:19:12.140 | Planned Parenthood still talks about the good she allegedly did, and is willing to ascribe
00:19:16.580 | her transgressions to being a "woman of her time."
00:19:20.180 | How ironic that the left doesn't give America's founders the same courtesy.
00:19:24.540 | There's no allowance for context, no allowance for being "men of their time."
00:19:29.180 | There is only cancellation and demands that everything they produced, for example America,
00:19:34.220 | be destroyed.
00:19:35.640 | Until Planned Parenthood stops dehumanizing living, growing children in the womb, until
00:19:40.580 | it ceases performing abortions, and until it stops locating facilities and advertising
00:19:45.980 | heavily in and around minority communities, it will continue carrying out Margaret Sanger's
00:19:51.940 | original vision.
00:19:53.860 | Canceling Margaret Sanger and the symbolic gesture of removing her name from a building
00:19:57.980 | won't change any of that.
00:20:03.900 | Let me be absolutely clear about something.
00:20:08.060 | I'm not detailing the life of Margaret Sanger because of republicanism.
00:20:15.820 | I'm not detailing the life of Margaret Sanger because of republicanism.
00:20:20.660 | In the last episode, I've already detailed to you when life begins.
00:20:26.140 | If life indeed does begin at conception, then the undeniable conclusion is that modern-day
00:20:33.980 | abortion could easily be equivocated with child sacrifice we see in the scriptures.
00:20:41.060 | That is empirically proven, but in case you think I'm taking it out of proportion, listen
00:20:46.500 | to what Governor Ralph Northam stated on the issue of infanticide.
00:20:51.260 | This is the same quote alluded to by K. Cole James in the article that I just quoted to
00:20:57.300 | Again, these are babies who survive abortion that are outside the womb.
00:21:05.380 | Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia states this in 2019.
00:21:10.780 | If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen.
00:21:15.240 | The infant would be delivered.
00:21:17.260 | The infant would be kept comfortable.
00:21:19.820 | The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired.
00:21:25.380 | And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.
00:21:29.580 | So I think this was really blown out of proportion.
00:21:36.100 | Don't worry.
00:21:37.300 | If we miss on the first try, we'll certainly get them on the second, Dr. Menegly."
00:21:44.060 | Let me say that last part again.
00:21:50.700 | This is Governor Ralph Northam talking about babies who are born from botched abortions
00:21:57.260 | outside the womb.
00:21:59.620 | "Don't worry.
00:22:02.020 | If we miss on the first try, we'll certainly get them on the second, Dr. Menegly."
00:22:12.700 | Indeed as I'm producing this episode, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
00:22:19.100 | still hasn't passed.
00:22:21.260 | The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, that is the same bill that's been introduced
00:22:27.700 | by Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
00:22:30.660 | That is a bill that aims to protect living human beings from botched abortions instead
00:22:36.400 | of murdering them when they are outside the womb and this country has slid so far that
00:22:43.580 | this is now controversial.
00:22:47.180 | It is now too political to call out infanticide.
00:22:53.700 | However, we will not let culturally induced dialectics dictate what is merely political
00:23:06.180 | versus what is objectively right.
00:23:11.240 | And believe me, calling out infanticide, what I'm saying right now, calling it out is going
00:23:19.940 | to age very well.
00:23:24.440 | And just like we judge the generation that didn't fight to abolish slavery or Jim Crow
00:23:32.220 | laws, generations in the future will look back and judge us.
00:23:41.260 | What I'm telling you right now is going to age very well.
00:23:48.360 | In every way, this is just like the infanticide described in the scriptures just transferred
00:23:57.140 | to fit contemporary society.
00:24:00.700 | Let me prove it to you by showing you what the scriptures say concerning this barbaric
00:24:05.240 | practice.
00:24:06.240 | Leviticus 18.21 says this, "You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to
00:24:11.700 | Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God.
00:24:14.580 | I am the Lord."
00:24:15.700 | Deuteronomy 18.10, "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his
00:24:20.900 | daughter pass through the fire.
00:24:23.380 | One who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens or
00:24:27.940 | a sorcerer."
00:24:28.940 | 2 Kings 21.6, "He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft, and used divination,
00:24:34.900 | and dealt with mediums and spiritists.
00:24:37.000 | He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger."
00:24:39.860 | 2 Chronicles 33.6, "He made his son pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom,
00:24:46.300 | and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, and dealt with mediums
00:24:51.140 | and spiritists.
00:24:52.380 | He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger."
00:24:56.140 | Isaiah 57.5, "Who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree?
00:25:02.920 | Who slaughter the children in the ravines, under the clefts of the crags?"
00:25:07.860 | Jeremiah 7.31, "They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the
00:25:12.820 | son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command,
00:25:18.580 | and it did not come into my mind."
00:25:20.540 | Jeremiah 32.35, "They built the high places of Baal, that are in the valley of Ben-Hinnom,
00:25:25.780 | to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I had
00:25:30.260 | not commanded them, nor had it entered my mind that they should do this abomination
00:25:35.500 | to cause Judah to sin."
00:25:38.180 | Psalm 106.35-38, "But they mingled with the nations, and learned their practices, and
00:25:45.900 | served their idols, which became a snare to them.
00:25:49.940 | They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons."
00:26:00.180 | They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
00:26:09.900 | Perhaps some of you are listening to this, and you're moved.
00:26:16.260 | This information is new to you.
00:26:19.140 | You're wondering what you could do to help.
00:26:24.220 | Let me tell you what we could all do, each and every one of us.
00:26:30.940 | And I want to say, before I tell you what we could all do, I want to say, yes, perhaps
00:26:41.020 | some of us will be called to do something more radical in terms of visible occupations.
00:26:47.660 | And yes, some will be led to do more substantive work, like Samuel Say over at Slow2Write.com.
00:26:56.420 | If you don't know Samuel Say, he is a blogger extraordinaire, a pro-life advocate.
00:27:03.740 | If you ever catch his story, he'll tell you about how he has saved in one summer 70-80
00:27:12.300 | lives by just talking to people outside of abortion clinics.
00:27:17.980 | He's doing amazing work.
00:27:18.980 | Go check him out at Slow2Write.com.
00:27:21.260 | And so maybe some of you listening will be a future Samuel Say, and yes, maybe some of
00:27:26.180 | you will even be moved to budget away your vacations and give monetarily.
00:27:34.540 | But the real talk is, not all of us are called to leave our occupations and do legislative
00:27:39.980 | work, and you shouldn't feel bad if that's not your calling.
00:27:43.980 | And we cannot all be involved in every worthy cause that exists.
00:27:48.100 | Let me say that again.
00:27:50.740 | We cannot all be involved in every worthy cause that exists.
00:27:56.420 | What I mean by that is, a worthy cause is to fight human trafficking.
00:28:00.420 | A worthy cause is to fight the slaughter of civilians by Boko Haram.
00:28:05.860 | A worthy cause is to help the village Christians in India.
00:28:09.340 | The imprisonment of the entire country of North Korea, Iran, and so on.
00:28:13.060 | Those are worthy causes, but not all of us are called to devote our time to every single
00:28:19.180 | worthy cause.
00:28:21.740 | Even helping the disadvantaged nearby right here.
00:28:26.520 | I'm not saying we shouldn't care.
00:28:29.380 | That's not what I'm saying.
00:28:31.260 | But what I am saying is that we need to heed our calling as individuals while also considering
00:28:41.020 | that we work as a body.
00:28:45.020 | So what is the one thing, one thing that all of us could do?
00:28:51.660 | That one thing is to speak truth and love.
00:28:58.480 | That is the one thing that we all can do and that we all should do.
00:29:03.580 | Speak truth and love right where you are.
00:29:08.340 | Just open your mouth and begin to speak truth and love.
00:29:12.500 | Pray for opportunities that you can speak truth and love.
00:29:16.380 | If you get shut down, you get shut down.
00:29:18.860 | If you've tried and they don't want to hear about it, we've all been there.
00:29:22.660 | But my point is to just open your mouth at some point.
00:29:29.060 | Because some point sometimes becomes no point for us if we say I'll do it later.
00:29:36.920 | That could be with a group of your friends, your coworkers, or whatever other social connection
00:29:43.100 | you have.
00:29:44.500 | And yeah, you're going to get shut down 99% of the time.
00:29:49.820 | But you might also be surprised at how powerful speaking truth and love could be.
00:29:56.540 | I want to devote an episode one day to just kind of expand upon that.
00:30:01.500 | But you might be surprised at how powerful speaking truth and love could be and why we
00:30:10.780 | need to keep that the primacy in all things.
00:30:14.860 | The gospel works inside out.
00:30:19.140 | The gospel works inside out.
00:30:23.860 | And it does indeed have an effect when it is lived out and also spoken.
00:30:32.740 | All societies are built one brick at a time and not from systems at a time.
00:30:41.500 | Bloom where you are planted since that is the one principle, that is one of the principles
00:30:47.640 | given to us, and that is in 1 Corinthians 7, 19-24.
00:30:53.660 | There is a reason why the Great Commission is the Great Commission.
00:30:58.700 | There is a reason why the last thing Christ tells his disciples, tells the apostles, was
00:31:04.660 | Matthew 28.
00:31:06.940 | The gospel, and only the gospel, has the power to transform individuals and thereby entire
00:31:14.820 | societies.
00:31:17.140 | Suffice it to say, our Lord knew what he was doing and what he was saying.
00:31:24.760 | And perhaps if we were better biblicists, we would see it too.
00:31:31.540 | To give you an example of the power of gospel transformation, I want to read to you an article
00:31:38.100 | by the same K. Cole James I quoted to you earlier and Jeannie Mancini, who was the president
00:31:46.420 | for March for Life.
00:31:48.440 | This article was also written for the Heritage Foundation.
00:31:52.260 | This was written on February 4th of 2020 and is entitled, "Remembering Pro-Life Trailblazer
00:32:00.060 | Mildred Jefferson."
00:32:02.060 | Remembering Pro-Life Trailblazer Mildred Jefferson.
00:32:06.660 | She was a deeply committed Christian.
00:32:09.860 | So imagine speaking truth and influencing what would be a Mildred Jefferson.
00:32:15.700 | K. Cole James and Jeannie Mancini writes, "As a nation prepares to celebrate the 100th
00:32:28.340 | anniversary of the 19th Amendment and looks back on the impact of women throughout the
00:32:33.260 | last century, we should remember one woman who broke out not just gender barriers but
00:32:37.980 | racial barriers and influenced the course of the nation, Mildred Jefferson.
00:32:42.500 | Dr. Jefferson was a bona fide pro-life icon, a brilliant black Harvard educated surgeon.
00:32:49.980 | She helped found the nation's oldest and largest pro-life organization.
00:32:54.220 | Her eloquent pro-life arguments and her irrepressible passion also inspired some of the biggest
00:33:00.540 | voices in the nation to speak up for the unborn.
00:33:04.280 | In fact, in 1972, after seeing Jefferson on a national television interview, then California
00:33:10.580 | Governor Ronald Reagan credited her with his pro-life conversion.
00:33:14.560 | He wrote to her, "No other issue since I've been in office has caused me to do so much
00:33:19.220 | study and soul-searching.
00:33:21.100 | You made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is a taking of human life.
00:33:25.900 | I'm grateful to you."
00:33:28.460 | That letter would mark the beginning of a frequent correspondence between Jefferson
00:33:32.220 | and the governor.
00:33:33.740 | Reagan would go on to be one of the most unapologetically pro-life presidents in American history.
00:33:39.780 | Mildred Jefferson wasn't just brilliant, she was also a trailblazer for women.
00:33:44.300 | She earned her bachelor's degree in three years and was the first African-American woman
00:33:48.580 | to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1951.
00:33:52.020 | She also became the first female surgeon at what was then the Boston University Medical
00:33:58.300 | Center.
00:33:59.780 | She was inspired to get involved in the pro-life movement when the American Medical Association
00:34:04.500 | decided it was ethical for physicians to perform abortions.
00:34:09.140 | It was a decision she strongly disagreed with and felt violated the Hippocratic Oath.
00:34:14.260 | In the 1970s, as the nation was debating liberalizing abortion laws, she helped found the National
00:34:20.260 | Right to Life Committee, the NRLC, and later served three times as its president.
00:34:26.180 | As president, she became one of the most visible spokespersons for the pro-life position in
00:34:31.020 | the nation.
00:34:32.140 | She was a sought-after speaker and would captivate audiences everywhere, even those that disagreed
00:34:37.860 | with her.
00:34:38.900 | As a woman and a surgeon, she had an enormous amount of credibility to talk about abortion.
00:34:44.140 | As she worked to change hearts and minds, she also knew that America needed to change
00:34:47.700 | its laws.
00:34:48.900 | In 1980, she was a driving force behind forming the NRLC PAC, one of the most successful political
00:34:56.460 | action committees in the country dedicated to helping elect pro-life candidates.
00:35:01.500 | The PAC has been instrumental in stopping numerous attempts to advance abortion laws
00:35:06.540 | and in passing laws to protect the unborn and their mothers.
00:35:10.540 | Like so many others, I, K. James, was one of those Dr. Jefferson inspired.
00:35:17.380 | I first saw her speak in the late 1970s when I was sitting in the audience as a mom with
00:35:22.060 | young children.
00:35:23.260 | Her talk left me awestruck and motivated me to become involved in the pro-life movement.
00:35:28.000 | She was gracious enough to serve as a mentor to me in my early days in the movement.
00:35:32.380 | I became the national spokesperson for the NRLC.
00:35:36.060 | I was inspired to start a crisis pregnancy center in my hometown and to this day, I speak
00:35:41.300 | around the country in defense of the unborn.
00:35:43.820 | Today, as president of the Heritage Foundation, advocating for pro-life laws is one of the
00:35:49.260 | things that I'm most passionate about.
00:35:51.740 | While I, Jeannie Mancini, didn't have the blessing to know Dr. Jefferson personally,
00:35:56.380 | she is an inspiration to me.
00:35:58.060 | She swam upstream against the cultural current to fight for what is real, true, and good.
00:36:03.340 | Dr. Jefferson always saw the unborn person as a patient with equal dignity.
00:36:08.140 | She did, as I do, lead a major pro-life organization when the issue was contentious and being pro-life
00:36:14.500 | wasn't politically correct.
00:36:16.780 | As we celebrate the upcoming centennial of the 19th Amendment, I am reminded that Dr.
00:36:21.580 | Jefferson's entire life profoundly embodies our 2020 March for Life theme, "Life empowers,
00:36:28.500 | pro-life is pro-women."
00:36:30.700 | Mildred Jefferson helped the public see the cruelty and inhumanity of abortion and the
00:36:35.440 | inherent dignity of every human life.
00:36:38.580 | She inspired a president and countless lawmakers, pro-life leaders, and everyday Americans to
00:36:44.280 | fight to save the lives of innocent children in the womb.
00:36:47.460 | And at a time when the abortion proponents were winning in the courts, she was winning
00:36:51.180 | the hearts and minds of the American people.
00:36:53.860 | Though she died in 2010, her legacy, her inspiration, and her example live on.
00:36:59.740 | Mildred Jefferson's fight is a fight that all people must join until abortion is unthinkable
00:37:05.140 | and the law of this great land reflects the dignity of the unborn person.
00:37:10.260 | As she so profoundly said, "The fight for the right to life is not the cause of a special
00:37:15.460 | few but the cause of every man, woman, and child who cares not only about his or her
00:37:22.260 | family, but the whole family of man."
00:37:30.500 | That was K. Cole James, Jeannie Mancini talking about Mildred Jefferson.
00:37:38.940 | What a stark contrast when you take a look at the lives of Margaret Sanger and Mildred
00:37:47.180 | Jefferson.
00:37:49.580 | Margaret Sanger, who was so determined to terminate and murder the lives of people that
00:38:00.300 | she deemed unfit, while Mildred Jefferson spent her life doing the exact opposite, fighting
00:38:11.080 | for those who are the most vulnerable in a time when it was politically incorrect to
00:38:19.660 | do so.
00:38:22.300 | Mildred Jefferson was motivated by her deep Christian faith.
00:38:31.260 | Thanks for making it to the end.
00:38:33.260 | I'll continue to try to make the journey worth it.
00:38:36.980 | To him be honor, glory, and eternal dominion, James Hong out.
00:38:41.160 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:38:42.160 | [END OF TRANSCRIPT]
00:39:14.160 | (upbeat music)