LUTHERANS FOR LIFE of IOWA

Over lunch and a glass of Merlot, Dr. Deborah Nucatola detailed the harvesting of body parts from partially aborted babies. She explained the "crushing" procedure of the unwanted parts of the baby, including the child's head, followed by the gentle extraction of valuable organs. She quoted the price per heart, liver, and kidney while swirling wine in a goblet and dining on an elegantly served meal.

You can watch Dr. Nucatola, Abortionist and Senior Director of Medical Services for Planned Parenthood, and listen to her explain the business of abortion in this edited, eight minute video clip. If you can stomach it, you'll find the three hour video entitled "Planned Parenthood in the Business of Selling Baby Parts FULL FOOTAGE" on YouTube.

My daughter-in-law, Alison, watched the video. Gut wrenched and with heavy heart for the children, she began to pray. But, Alison told me that her prayer was interrupted by an image from Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King. After you have watched Dr. Nucatola casually explain the purposeful killing of children (for a profit), Alison would like you to watch this movie clip.

"Please watch carefully," says Alison. "Listen to the words of Pippin's ballad. (You can read the lyrics on the screen.) Ponder the meaning. Then focus on the character Denethor, the greasy man with food dripping down his chin while death is all around."

Alison asks, "Do you see light and darkness, good and evil?" If you are familiar with J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King, then you, like Alison, might have wondered, "How dead on the inside does someone have to be to have such a voracious appetite at a time like this? He eats with not a care in the world, yet there is blood on Denethor's hands."

Dr. Nucatola, is younger and much more attractive. But, Alison wonders, what about her appetite? What about her soul? How can she so casually detail the slaughter and sale of innocent human life while enjoying her fine feast?

"I pity her," Alison told me. "What has been stripped away from her heart and mind to leave her in such an icy state of callousness? Is her conscience so dulled or deadened that she can discuss the price of a human child's body parts and the crushing of that child's skull in much the same manner as she might discuss the price of furniture or office supplies?"

Tolkien probably never imagined that his work "would be tied to abortion or the profit motivations of the human tissue industry," Alison said. "But, while I was praying, the comparison between Dr. Nucatola and Denethor came so clearly to my mind that I cannot be silent."

Alison believes that Jesus forgives women who repent of their abortions. He forgives the repentant boyfriends, husbands, or parents who insisted on abortions. He forgives the doctors who repent of doing abortions. Upon forgiveness, the Lord Jesus wipes the sinner's slate clean so that he or she is as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). With true repentance and sorrow, the Lord Jesus freely gives His mercy and the gift of salvation to all, no matter the offense (Psalm 86:5). Then, He says, "Go, and from now on sin no more" (John 8:11).

But, she asks, what of those who do not repent? What of those who not only do evil but defend evil? What of those who call themselves Christian but support Planned Parenthood or refuse to acknowledge what happens on the surgical table in a Planned Parenthood facility?

Alison is concerned about the spiritual health and salvation of people that you and I know people in our families, our congregations, our neighborhoods who continue to insist that abortion is a "woman's choice." She wonders: If a person defends Planned Parenthood while forsaking the "little children whom Jesus wants to come to Him" (Matthew 19:14); if a person champions the death of their littlest neighbor-the babe in the womb, then does God turn His face away?

Alison is right to be concerned. There is a spiritual battle that rages for our very souls. During prayer, Alison was moved to compare the callousness of a Planned Parenthood abortionist with that of Tolkien's lord of death. The powerful imagery brought to Alison's mind should leave you and me as gut wrenched and soul sickened as it did her. "There is a burden on my heart," Alison told me. "This burden causes me to ask a hard question to all who call themselves Christians: Will God forgive any of us -whether we have sinned by defending abortion or by keeping silent—if we have not confessed sorrow and repentance of that sin?"

Alison knows that "choice" is the word used by those who seek self-gratification and lordship of their own lives. But "choice," she points out, is something we all really do have. We can choose evil… or good. We can choose to serve ourselves and the world... or God. To the Israelites, freed from captivity, Joshua said,

"Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:14-15).

Alison asks, "Will we, the people who proclaim Jesus Christ, ignore Dr. Nucatola, Planned Parenthood and the imagery of Tolkien's Denethor? Or will we say, "No more! My eyes are open! I will speak! I will speak for my littlest neighbors, the ones Jesus calls by name."

by Linda Bartlett for Ezerwoman Blog, 7-17-15