I watched a good bit of the testimony that Cecile Richards offered to Congress yesterday, but I suspect that most Americans did not. Most Americans will view news reports about the hearings if they hear anything at all. That means that most Americans are going to be woefully under-informed about what happened yesterday. So let me give you the bottom line about what came out in the hearings. 1. Planned Parenthood harvests organs from aborted babies and gives those organs to researchers in exchange for money. Planned Parenthood disputes the claim that they “profit” from this exchange, but they do not dispute that the exchange happens. They provide the baby…
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Fact-checkers claim Planned Parenthood video doesn’t exist
Carly Fiorina’s big moment at the last Republican debate occurred when she described one of the videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby parts. Since the debate, critics have claimed that the video she describes doesn’t exist. Fiorina’s campaign responded with the ad above showing that the video does in fact exist (WARNING: The video is graphic). Still, the critics have been piling-on as if Fiorina’s claims are completely fabricated. Just yesterday I saw Chuck Todd rake her over the coals about it on “Meet the Press.” Fiorina stood by her guns. So who’s telling the truth here? Fiorina or the fact-checkers? The best article I’ve seen on this so…
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Pope Francis supports right of Kentucky Clerk to withhold marriage licenses
Earlier today on the flight back to Rome, Pope Francis answered questions from reporters about a variety of issues. In one fascinating segment, ABC News’s Terry Moran had this exchange with the Pope—an exchange that seems to imply papal support for the conservative side of a recent religious liberty controversy concerning gay marriage: Terry Moran, ABC News: Holy Father, thank you, thank you very much and thank you to the Vatican staff as well. Holy Father, you visited the Little Sisters of the Poor and we were told that you wanted to show your support for them and their case in the courts. And, Holy Father, do you also support…
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Nothing explicitly Christian about Pope’s speech
I just finished listening to the Pope’s speech to Congress from earlier today (watch below). There is no question that the occasion was historic—the first time ever that a Pope has delivered such an address. Indeed, it would have been impossible to imagine such an invitation being extended just fifty years ago. But the times have changed, and now the United States Congress has done something unprecedented. Nevertheless, even though the speech was historic, it was also a disappointment—not so much for what he did say but for what he didn’t say. For example:
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Ted Cruz gets booed on gay marriage in interview with Colbert
Ted Cruz appeared on the “The Late Show with Steven Colbert” last night and was booed over his remarks about gay marriage (watch above). Colbert had to turn to the crowd and ask them not to boo his guest, even though they disagreed with him. Some reflections on this appearance:
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3801 Lancaster: American Tragedy
The documentary releases on November 10, and it includes interviews with Gosnell himself. You will hear his voice in the trailer above. The documentary’s website is here.
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Secretary Clinton defends legal abortion through all nine months of pregnancy
Secretary Hillary Clinton appeared on “Face the Nation” yesterday and was asked whether she supported “any federal limit on abortion at any stage of pregnancy?” She said that she does not support any limits on abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Let the reality of that land on you. That means that Clinton believes it should be legal to kill a full-term unborn child one day before birth. A day later, to kill the child would be murder. But as long as the baby has yet to emerge from the birth canal, Clinton believes that the law should protect the right to kill that child. When asked specifically about her…
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John Piper delivers a little Hermeneutics 101
Many readers give very little thought to what they are aiming to do when they read a text. Most want to understand the meaning of the text, but very few could tell you what they mean by meaning. And that is a problem for a couple of reasons. 1. Some people define meaning as a reader’s response to what he is reading. Because there can be as many responses as there are readers, this theory implies that there can be as many different meanings of text as there are readers. 2. Some people define meaning as a property of the text without respect to the author who wrote it. This…
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Leonard Fournette Is a Beast
My commentary on week three: 1. Leonard Fournette is a beast–a Heisman beast (see 1st video below). 2. Ole Miss had the wackiest play of the day (see 2nd video below). 3. Louisiana Tech is better than their record shows and should have won that heartbreaker today (see 3rd video below).
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Thin Complementarianism?
David Talcott weighs-in late on a Complemenatrian controversey pitting Aimee Byrd and Carl Trueman against John Piper. Talcott explains: Several weeks back there was a bit of a dust-up in conservative Reformed Protestant circles over the following simple question: Does being a man or a woman have any ethical significance for the way we live together in civil society? Despite the success of feminism in radically reworking gender roles over the past half century, conservative Evangelicalism has maintained a modest conviction that our sexuality has ethical import. Certain New Testament passages compel conservative Evangelicals to maintain that women should not be pastors and that the husband is in some way…
