Unintended Consequences

“In the age of #MeToo, where women are encouraged to tell their stories and be heard, where liberals are demanding the public trust women, I implore the nation to hear me out, to trust me.
There is such little tolerance for women on the national stage who don’t agree with the hosts of The View or celebrities who march with Planned Parenthood. No one wants to be silenced, especially women at this time in our history.”

Abby Johnson

She worked at Planned Parenthood for eight years, climbing her way up in the ranks from volunteer to director. After assisting at an ultrasound abortion one day, she realized everything she’d believed about this ‘business’ was a lie. Abby Johnson’s movie “Unplanned” opened this weekend, and in spite of some very dramatic moves to squash it’s voice, it succeeded, pulling in just over six million dollars.

The film received an R rating, though completely unmerited. The reason being that it depicts abortion, something which a teen year old girl could get in real life without a parent, but not see portrayed on a screen. There was of course an advertising blackout for the film, meaning even in theaters where it was showing, you’d hardly know it. The real icing on the cake came over the weekend when Twitter decided to suspend the movie’s account for no apparent reason. Just a glitch, don’t cha know…

The backlash that ensued was something to behold. The deliberate attempt to silence the pro-life bunch created so much hoopla that the movie and the suspension began trending all over the world. In their zeal to control the narrative, the Twitter gods helped the movie’s account skyrocket from a few thousand followers to over 250k people.

Within a few hours, things were seemingly back to normal. Positive reviews of the movie were pouring in, the word was getting out, and numbers were surging. Then last night, more shenanigans ensued when practically everyone who had followed the account discovered that they were no longer able to receive updates from it. Twitter kicked off most of Unplanned movie’s followers, including myself, and we were not allowed to follow them anymore.

Do not tell me this is about algorithms. I momentarily followed Planned Parenthood’s main account and guess what? No issues there!

I can live without Twitter. It holds no importance in my life other than bringing me information. My point is this: censoring and trying to silence your opposition may be their way, but it can never be ours. This goes far beyond a social media platform and right to the heart of who we are as believers.

Paul told us in Ephesians 6:12 that “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

This present darkness indeed. How else do you explain an entire population of people who go to such strange lengths to protest life? Truly, it is a sobering thing. They get free reign in our culture to put out all the (mis)information they want, freely and without ever being questioned. Every day is Planned Parenthood day in this culture. One little movie comes out that dares to present the other side, and look at this reaction.

Abby Johnson isn’t lying. The folks at PP know that everything she says is true and they can’t handle not being the ones to control the narrative.

Our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood… we have to remember that as we each head out in the world to fight our battles. The enemy lies, manipulates and coerces people into all kinds of things… being a Christian who knows and acts on truth isn’t optional.

Whether you see the movie or not… remember that there is nothing so ‘unplanned’ that it is beyond God’s redemptive love and mercy. Jesus forgives us when we can’t forgive ourselves. He redeems the impossible situation and brings it life.

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:20,25