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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 00:00:26.620 |
As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people 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 00:01:51.760 |
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. 00:02:08.580 |
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 00:02:21.040 |
The same Planned Parenthood that has strategically placed about 88% of their locations in urban 00:02:29.520 |
Margaret Sanger was born in New York in 1879 and was embedded within socialist politics 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 00:02:50.860 |
In one of her essays, her evolutionary viewpoints for humankind and the hierarchy of the superiority 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 00:03:38.080 |
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 00:03:57.520 |
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 00:04:13.960 |
But against all these he fought because he became endowed with such attributes as reason, 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 00:04:59.440 |
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 00:05:11.200 |
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 00:05:45.960 |
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 00:06:00.620 |
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 00:06:42.500 |
The origins of the English usage goes back to Louis-Auguste Blanqui, who was a French 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 00:08:08.940 |
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 00:08:29.020 |
Given her enduring influence, it's worth considering what the women who founded Planned Parenthood 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." 00:09:33.620 |
That she generated enthusiasm among some of America's leading racists says something 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 00:10:02.920 |
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, 00:10:19.740 |
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, 00:10:33.060 |
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. 00:11:22.740 |
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, 00:11:36.900 |
In the case of the mother, heart disease, kidney trouble, and pelvic deformities are 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 00:12:51.540 |
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. 00:13:50.040 |
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 00:14:05.480 |
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 00:14:27.560 |
K. Cole James, President and Founder of the Klaus Schuster Institute and also current 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 00:14:52.620 |
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 00:15:15.060 |
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 00:15:38.260 |
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 00:16:08.220 |
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 00:16:34.460 |
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 00:16:47.640 |
Yet for years, Planned Parenthood has had the audacity to claim that it believes Black 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 00:17:32.460 |
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 00:17:43.860 |
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 00:18:02.460 |
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, 00:18:15.860 |
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, 00:19:12.140 |
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, 00:19:35.640 |
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 00:19:53.860 |
Canceling Margaret Sanger and the symbolic gesture of removing her name from a building 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. 00:21:19.820 |
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. 00:21:37.300 |
If we miss on the first try, we'll certainly get them on the second, Dr. Menegly." 00:21:50.700 |
This is Governor Ralph Northam talking about babies who are born from botched abortions 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 00:22:21.260 |
The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, that is the same bill that's been introduced 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 00:22:47.180 |
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 00:23:11.240 |
And believe me, calling out infanticide, what I'm saying right now, calling it out is going 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 00:24:00.700 |
Let me prove it to you by showing you what the scriptures say concerning this barbaric 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. 00:24:15.700 |
Deuteronomy 18.10, "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his 00:24:23.380 |
One who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens or 00:24:28.940 |
2 Kings 21.6, "He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft, and used divination, 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 00:24:52.380 |
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, 00:25:20.540 |
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 00:25:38.180 |
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. 00:26:24.220 |
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. 00:27:21.260 |
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. 00:27:50.740 |
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 00:28:21.740 |
Even helping the disadvantaged nearby right here. 00:28:31.260 |
But what I am saying is that we need to heed our calling as individuals while also considering 00:28:45.020 |
So what is the one thing, one thing that all of us could do? 00:28:58.480 |
That is the one thing that we all can do and that we all should do. 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. 00:29:18.860 |
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 00:29:44.500 |
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 00:30:23.860 |
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 00:31:06.940 |
The gospel, and only the gospel, has the power to transform individuals and thereby entire 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 00:31:48.440 |
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 00:32:02.060 |
Remembering Pro-Life Trailblazer Mildred Jefferson. 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 00:33:21.100 |
You made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is a taking of human life. 00:33:28.460 |
That letter would mark the beginning of a frequent correspondence between Jefferson 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 00:33:59.780 |
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 00:34:32.140 |
She was a sought-after speaker and would captivate audiences everywhere, even those that disagreed 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 00:34:48.900 |
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 00:35:23.260 |
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 00:35:43.820 |
Today, as president of the Heritage Foundation, advocating for pro-life laws is one of the 00:35:51.740 |
While I, Jeannie Mancini, didn't have the blessing to know Dr. Jefferson personally, 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 00:36:16.780 |
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, 00:36:30.700 |
Mildred Jefferson helped the public see the cruelty and inhumanity of abortion and the 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 00:36:53.860 |
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 00:37:30.500 |
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 00:37:49.580 |
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 00:38:22.300 |
Mildred Jefferson was motivated by her deep Christian faith. 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.