OPINION:
The late Cardinal Henry Edward Manning once said all human conflict is ultimately theological in nature — and he was right. It would be difficult to take a step back from the culture war, take a good, sincere look, and not conclude there’s more going on than what’s being debated on the surface.
No matter how loudly they scream it, abortion is not about a woman’s right to choose. Likewise, gay marriage is not about equality or love. Mutilating kids is not about affirming identity. And critical race theory is not about helping minorities. Deep beneath it all, there’s one common thread: each of these movements, peddled by the Left as “progress,” is dehumanizing. They hurt individuals, take a wrecking ball to society, and offer up a giant middle finger to the God of the Bible. To put it succinctly, they’re evil.
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More than a hundred years ago, Margaret Sanger understood she was in a religious war. She made no secret of it. In an issue of her short-lived magazine “The Woman Rebel,” she wrote, “Birth control appeals to the advanced radical because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches. I look forward to seeing humanity free someday of the tyranny of Christianity no less than Capitalism.”
While I believe that Sanger’s work in this world, beginning in 1916 with the opening of the nation’s first birth control clinic, forever altered the trajectory of Western civilization, it can’t be said that Sanger started something new. In truth, the spiritual battle began long before Brownsville; what we’re experiencing now as the result of her diabolical efforts is merely the latest front in a war that’s been waging since ancient times.
Abortion, Sanger’s favorite crime against humanity, may seem a modern problem but it has roots that stretch back into antiquity.
SEE ALSO: The epidemic of sexual deviancy known as ‘sex ed’ started with Margaret Sanger in 1916
Across the ancient world, people would sacrifice their children to the gods in exchange for peace and prosperity. Contrary to what someone may have told you, these gods were not make-believe; they were — and still are — dark spiritual creatures, demons. Without knowing the true God, people would give these demons what was most precious to them to demonstrate their loyalty and receive blessings.
Now, fast-forward to our day.
People are still sacrificing their children to demon-gods, only now we call it “reproductive health” or “family planning.” But the bargain is the same: a child in exchange for promised peace and prosperity. Some take it a step further, designating abortion as a “sacrament.” Invoking the Greek pantheon, psychologist Ginette Paris writes, “Abortion is a sacrifice to Artemis. Abortion is a sacrament for the gift of life to remain pure. Our culture needs new rituals as well as laws to restore abortion to its sacred dimension, which is both terrible and necessary.”
Tell me again, David French, how it’s only the radical Right pushing religion into the public sphere.
But let’s look at the social corrosion that is transgenderism. You may not know this, but the transgender-industrial complex is Planned Parenthood’s fastest growing revenue stream. Planned Parenthood has quickly become the second largest supplier of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers. Their literature, curricula, and conferences for educators and medical practitioners are changing a generation before our eyes. Needless to say, they’re all in on chemical castration and slicing off genitals. On the surface, it would seem a strange thing for Big Abortion to pivot toward procedures that sterilize their future clientele. But that’s only because we’ve failed to see Planned Parenthood for what it truly is: Evil Incorporated.
Once again, there’s an ancient connection.
Back in the days of the early church, there was a vicious heresy going around called Gnosticism. One of Gnosticism’s core beliefs was the that the material world is inferior to the spiritual realm; the body is evil, while the human soul is good. Christianity, of course, refutes this, for God created a “very good” material world (Genesis 1:31) and our Savior came, put on flesh (John 1:14), and never took it off.
While Gnosticism proper has been extinct for some time, its insidious ideas have continued down through the centuries. Transgenderism is built upon the idea that the human soul — who a person really is — can be trapped inside the wrong body. Since the body is of lesser value, it can be abused, modified, or desecrated as its passenger sees fit. Just as abortion is a stab at the image of God in a human being, so too is the transgender mania infecting our society: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27 NIV, emphasis added).
The sooner we face the fact that the battle we’re in is a religious one, the sooner we’ll understand there isn’t some grand compromise that will save us. In this spiritual war, ideas have consequences. Just look around at society collapsing bit by bit each day. In real time, we’re seeing the impact of the ideas pressed upon us by Sanger and her ilk.
The only appropriate response to evil is to stand up and say, “Absolutely not. We’re not giving an inch.” It’s to recognize the battle we wage is “not against flesh and blood, but… against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV).
To most people, Oct. 16, 1916 was an ordinary day in New York City, but on that day these “forces of evil” staked their claim. It’s up to us, in this generation, to revoke it, once and for all.
“The 1916 Project” unearths the how and why of our “progressive” culture shift. In 1916, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, opened her first clinic and launched America into a moral revolution that would have far-reaching consequences worldwide. Seth Gruber traces a direct path from Planned Parenthood to the Nazis to the current Democratic Party. Get a copy of the book here and host a screening of the film at your church or catch our tour dates here.
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Seth Gruber is one of the most trusted and influential voices today, driving change in the battle for Life. With a clarion call, he exposes the chilling realities of America’s “Culture of Death” while urging the church to rise and lead the charge on the front lines of our cultural war. As the host of the Seth Gruber Podcast, he reaches tens of thousands with his impassioned message. Additionally, he serves as the Executive Producer on the groundbreaking documentary The 1916 Project, shedding light on the twisted history of today’s modern abortion crises. Seth Gruber is on a journey to empower others to stand against the tide of darkness and fight for a culture of life. Seth and his wife, Olivia, have three children and live in Kansas City.
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