Commentary

The circus has returned to Washington, DC with the opening of hearings on Judge Barrett’s confirmation to the US Supreme Court.  It is unlikely that they will be able to smear her with alleged sexual misconduct or cropped yearbooks.  Democrats have, therefore, signaled that they are willing to go lower.

They will attack her for being a mother.  They will attack her for adopting two children from Haiti.  They will attack her for alleged votes on future cases.  They will call her filthy names and try every imaginable way to destroy her ego and self-confidence.  All this despite the fact that the liberal American Bar Association has judged her to be “well-qualified” for the position.  All this despite the fact that Judge Barrett has served with distinction for three years on the US Court of Appeals.

At the bottom of this confirmation battle, we have an intense spiritual fight over abortion and the abuse of power by the judicial branch.

We must support Judge Barrett and the Republicans in the Senate with faithful prayer during these trying weeks. 

Thankfully, Judge Barrett is a person who values prayer.  She made that publicly clear in her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  She further expressed her gratitude for the prayers of the faithful around the country. This is the kind of humility the Supreme Court desperately needs.

Democrats are working hard to repackage Sen. Kamala Harris as a pleasant, moderate woman who just wants to serve America.  That will be no small task.

Sen. Harris has a dark and nasty history that betrays a radical vision for America.  She was, for example, a leader in the effort to smear Justice Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.

But what troubles us most is the intimate relationship Harris has with Planned Parenthood.  Prior to entering the U.S. Senate, Harris served as Attorney General of California. She was that state’s senior legal officer when the horrific scandal of Planned Parenthood baby-parts trafficking became public.

Remember that video of an abortionist munching salad while negotiating the prices and procedures for acquiring organs harvested from babies?  Or the one where the abortionist wanted a Lamborghini from her partnership with the ghouls conducting medical research on the bodies of helpless babies?  Yeah … THAT scandal.

So one might think that a decent person, with large legal authority, would move to stamp out such barbarous and unethical behavior.  And one would be right.  If Kamala Harris was a decent person with a respect for the basic moral norms of Western Civilization.  But the fact is, AG Harris did not move to shut down these illegal operations.  Instead, she used the full force of her office to defend Planned Parenthood and to hunt down the pro-Life activists who had the audacity to expose America’s largest abortion provider.

Harris used her powers to suppress the public release of additional undercover videos.  She then sent no fewer than eleven armed agents of the California Department of Justice to raid the apartment of David Daleiden.  They confiscated his computer and all his video equipment.  She then charged Daleiden and several others with a string of felony charges – charges which they are still fighting.

Largely because of Sen. Kamala Harris, the notorious practice of harvesting body parts and organs from babies killed in abortion continues unabated; a practice reminiscent of the evil “medical research” Nazi doctors conducted upon prisoners.  Planned Parenthood has walked away, largely undamaged by its ghoulish side business.  The brave souls who exposed this evil?  They suffer ongoing persecution and prosecution in federal and state courts. 

That is the America that Harris seeks to impose on our future.  Where black is white, right is wrong … and babies are slaughtered for profit.  May God spare us.

Many of us are worried about the future of our country as we enter the final stretch of the strangest presidential contest in history.  Will President Trump be re-elected?

This year has been unlike any other in American history:  Riots and organized lawlessness.  A questionable declaration of a health care “crisis”, leading to huge social, economic and spiritual disruption.  On an almost daily basis we have the assertion of new power and control by some government agency and “experts” over more intimate details of our life.  Teachers asserting the power to determine whether our kids will go to school.  Sports shut down.  On and on the list goes.

Against that backdrop of our continual turmoil comes the Democrat Party and their candidates – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

For months now, we have been told by the main stream media and many pundits that Biden has a commanding lead in the race.  Polls purport to show that Donald Trump doesn’t have a prayer.

And yet … both history and common sense tell us that something is wrong with the picture being painted.

There are striking oddities about the Democrat Party’s strategy going into the fall.  First, the candidate himself.  A majority of Americans believe that Biden has serious cognitive issues; one recent poll shows some 55% of voters believe that Biden is demonstrating a decline in mental faculties.  And anyone watching his attempts to complete sentences or answer the most basic questions understands that he is simply not up to the demands of the presidency.  It defies common sense to believe that the American people are ready to turn over the nuclear codes to a person in such a condition.

But the problems for Democrats go beyond the obvious weaknesses of their nominee.

In a trend that angrily defies both history and reason, Democrats everywhere have intentionally, repeatedly tacked further to the radical left as the campaign progresses.  With cities burning, Democrat mayors not only welcome the rioters back for nightly encores  – they brazenly advocate cutting or even eliminating taxpayer support for police departments.  As the economy reels from government-imposed shutdowns, Democrats insist that we open our borders to more illegal workers, shut down the energy sector and expand Medicaid to everyone.  And in a bizarre bid to “appeal” to moderate/swing voters, the Democrat Party is advocating for school closures even as they want the federal government to print more money to pay public employees and public retirees more money for not working.

In what universe does this strategy make any sense?  What party would offer AOC a prime speaking opportunity at their pseudo convention to advocate more communism?  In what alternate world does it make sense to pick a socialist from California – whose electoral votes are already bought and paid for – as the vice presidential candidate?

Despite all the daily chaos we’re presently enduring, certain fundamentals of politics remain true.  The purpose of campaigning in the closing weeks is to win over those moderate, less-ideological voters.  That is how candidates and parties build a majority vote.  By that measure, it is perfectly obvious that the Democrats are jetting along on a kamikaze mission of spectacular proportions.

What is not at all obvious, however, is why the Democrats and their national operatives seem oblivious to their ground-smashing trajectory.  After all, there hasn’t been a Democrat campaign this radical since George McGovern in 1972.

That election cycle does offer us a few important insights into what may be happening inside the Democrat Party.  That year also saw tremendous social tumult – as a result of racial tensions and opposition to the Vietnam War.  But, like 2020, there was more at play underneath that: The anarchist movement became resurgent through the “counter-culture” movement.  The emotionalism and passions of that movement overcame reason within the Democrat Party.  The party became so internally focused that it lost all perspective on its visceral impact on average Americans.  With each new radical prescription for “social change”, Democrats managed to alienate larger swaths of the American electorate.  Richard Nixon- not exactly the most charming incumbent –  was thereby re-elected in a landslide.

So there is that history from which to draw solace as we walk into the most consequential election in modern history.

But there is more.  While not pretending in any way to speak for the Lord, it seems quite possible that the Lord of Hosts has blinded the minds and wits of those presently running things at Democrat HQ.  A spirit of confusion has enveloped the Democrat Party.  Their pride and rage at the values of the Christian Church have clearly led them into a very dark place.  This is producing policy positions which are just plain childish.  (EG: With rising murder rates in most Democrat cities, let’s eliminate police officers).  Rather than working to appeal to moderate voters, Democrats are doubling-down on stupid.  The only explanation for such self-destructive behavior has to be spiritual.

America certainly does not deserve more of God’s mercy.  We continue to slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocents.  We have thumbed our noses at God’s teaching about sexuality, marriage and personal responsibility.  Many of those God-defying social blights have been officially enshrined by the nation’s highest tribunal.  So there is no doubt that we do not deserve another term of Donald Trump as president.  But, then, we didn’t deserve God’s grace in 2016 either.

Donald Trump has striven mightily these past three years to right the ship, to restore Christian values to society and the institutions of government.  No one has done more to defend preborn children.  No one.  The president has fought to defend religious liberty and conscience rights against the Democrats’ vicious agenda to effectively gut the First Amendment.  Trump has courageously fought for Israel, including his historic recognition of Jerusalem as its rightful capitol.  In fact, the list of Trump’s accomplishments in advancing Biblical values is truly magnificent, particularly when one remembers the unprecedented hostility he has endured from many quarters of society.

That record of faithfulness inspires confidence in God’s extension of grace to America by allowing Donald Trump another term.

The next few months will be a time of great upheaval and conflict.  With every day we are confirmed in the certainty that we do not know what the future holds.  But we do know who holds that future in His blood-stained hands.  May the Lord deliver us from evil.

Much of the conservative punditry has focused their angst on John Roberts and his continued pandering to the left side of the Supreme Court.  Granted, the recent DACA decision is a disappointing attempt to square a circle – but it seems fixable.  At least if Donald Trump is reelected.

The more important decision is Justice Gorsuch’s opinion to force America to accept the patently false “fact” that the drafters of the original federal statute barring employment discrimination meant to include the entire “Alphabet Population” in their definition of “sex”.  It is a shocking development.  Mr. Gorsuch was recently appointed to the Supreme Court as an “originalist”, a “strict constructionist”, a jurist who would help restore a limited judiciary and a respect for the rule of law.

Wow. To see him lead the effort to blatantly legislate from the bench is pretty disheartening.

And it is crystal clear that Mr. Gorsuch indulged himself in the sordid business of turning the 9-member Supreme Court into something of a “super legislative branch”.  We have witnessed the Idaho Legislature and many county commissioners wrestle with the social and moral implications of “adding the words”.  Many hours of testimony and legal analysis have gone into the question in the Capitol building.  And the Legislature has rejected the notion of legitimizing “gender identity”.  (We grieve for the wasted time of those many Idaho legislative heroes whose work has just been cast aside).

Our elected lawmakers – including members of the U.S. Congress – have been peremptorily overruled by the “Uber-Legislators” wearing really smart black robes.  And they have, therefore, set in motion a social revolution with dire consequences for America and our children.

Aside from the abuse of constitutional authority, it really is astonishing to see a man like Neil Gorsuch lend credibility to the absurd notion that gender is not a matter of biological reality  – but one of opinion or choice or pop trend.  It is such an anti-intellectual posture that one is left completely bewildered trying to account for how one of Gorsuch’s clear intelligence could validate such nonsense.  His opinion is nothing less than another attack on the whole foundation of Western society — and its embrace of an objective, knowable reality.

While the Gorsuch opinion is not a finding of the U.S. Constitution per se – it is clear that the present court will have no problem creating a plethora of new “rights” for the Alphabet Crowd once given the opportunity.

But let us return to this issue of Gorsuch’s abuse of Constitutional authority.  It is an axiom of conservative philosophy that the role of the US Supreme Court and federal judiciary should be greatly proscribed.  It does not have the legitimate authority to create new law or new rights; those are powers reserved to the People and their elected representatives.  Yet here we are: a Court we thought was “conservative” has betrayed, again, those principles.  Once more we discover a justice may not have been honest when interviewed for the position.  (And why does this only happen with Republican appointments to the bench?)

The obvious abuse of authority by Mr. Gorsuch and Mr. Roberts presents a serious challenge to the conservative movement: Our hopes for shrinking the abusive power acquired by the federal judiciary can no longer rest entirely on the proposition that we must win elections and find the “right” person to serve on the high court.  Of course, that strategy must continue to be pursued; it is simply elementary that that strategy is insufficient.  There will always be guys like Neil Gorsuch.

We must think deeper about this profound problem – as it is among the chief threats to a functioning and accountable Republican form of government.

We submit that the Founders would not be particularly shocked by a judiciary which continues to arrogate power to itself.  Some of the more learned might have predicted it, based upon their mature understanding of man’s nature.  In fact, they bet on it.  They crafted a Constitution built upon the assumption that man would seek to build personal and institutional power; the Founders then set those baser ambitions against one another.  We know this mechanism as “checks and balances” – and it was that grappling for competing power interests which would preserve our freedoms and accountable government.

This gets us closer to the problem at hand.

Upon just a rather lazy contemplation of our current straits, it becomes obvious that what we are missing is any real check upon the federal judiciary.  That branch of government is out of control, and threatens our very liberty to govern ourselves, because the other branches of government have failed to provide a meaningful check upon power-grabbers like John Roberts.  The Executive Branch, particularly under President Trump, cannot be much maligned for negligence in this matter since they are in regular conflict with the judiciary.

The real culprit in this tale of degrading freedom is Congress.  It has been an eternity since the U.S Congress has done anything meaningful to check the abuse of power which streams from our federal benches.

We propose that the conservative movement begin demanding of politicians seeking federal office a concrete action plan for holding the judiciary accountable.  The U.S. House of Representatives has at its disposal a huge weapon in the form of the appropriation process.  They also have the ability to override decisions like the one just foisted upon us by Gorsuch, by amending the original discrimination in employment act by making it clear that sexual “identity” does not meet the requirements of special protections.  It could also include particular protections for religious and moral objections to protect the First Amendment rights of employers.

But let’s discuss some other potential challenges to the arrogance of the judicial oligarchy.

We could demand that members of the U.S. Senate begin holding impeachment hearings on those members of the judiciary who have been convicted of crimes.  We might also demand that Congress approve an amendment to the Constitution withdrawing life-time appointments for all members of the federal bench – and granting ten-year renewable terms for lesser judicial offices at the district and appellate levels.  This might strike an appropriate balance between the need for an independent judiciary and the need for greater judicial adherence to the actual words and intent of the U.S. Constitution.

What if Congress enacted a ten-year term for each district and appeals court appointee?  Congress might require that, at the end of that term, a judge would have to be re-confirmed.  This would give senators the opportunity to review the work of said judge to see if they have upheld their oath of office.  Those with a clear record of abusing their authority could be denied reconfirmation, thus opening the position to a new nominee.  This change alone would likely have a profound impact on those judges tempted to impose schemes reordering society in their image.

This is by no means presented as an exhaustive list of reforms and actions available to Congress –  merely a beginning point to generate a new way of thinking about how to meet this most lethal threat to our Republican form of government.

Without a robust and concerted effort by the Congress to arrest the judiciary’s abuse of power, the trajectory is clear.  It is simply irrational to continue to pin all our hopes on individual nominees to restrain themselves in the face of gross temptation.  We must demand a restoration of institutional checks upon the judiciary’s lust for power.  No more hand-wringing at public rallies.  We must insist upon action.

Last night’s Trump rally was just what the doctor ordered.  After one challenge, crisis or outrage after another – it was downright thrilling to hear President Trump offer a full-throated defense of all that is great in America.  He gave voice to millions who wonder how the media and their Democrat allies could portray a nation so differently from the one we have actually experienced.  He provided comfort to the millions of us who weep over the destruction of our cities and history.  And Mr. Trump defended the thousands of men and women who wear the badge and answer the call to service.

Yes, this society continues to be challenged by serious problems.  And we live in an era in which “solutions” are thrown against the wall by socialists and other pundits; yet rarely do they bother to do the hard work of understanding the exact nature or scope of the problem.  This trend is even more pronounced now that most information in the public domain comes via Twitter or Wikipedia.  New demagogues pop up like mushrooms via podcasts or Facebook.

We are greatly blessed to have a president with the courage and vision of Donald Trump.  May the Lord continue to protect him and guide him.

Earlier this week, Planned Parenthood publicly announced its inevitable support of Joe Biden for President.  In doing so, they cited his work with Obama in expanding abortion through the “Affordable Care Act”.   And, of course, his 100% pro-abort record as a member of the US Senate was lauded by the group.

There’s not much news in talking about Planned Parenthood’s endorsement of Biden.  It has long been a matter of public record that Joe Biden abandoned his Christian principles for the applause of the mob. And, of course, Planned Parenthood has never had as bold an opponent as they have in President Donald J. Trump.  They would endorse anyone challenging our current president.

We bring this endorsement to your attention because of a comment made in the press release by the acting president of Planned Parenthood: “This is literally a life and death election”.

Finally, we have some common ground with Planned Parenthood.  The lives of tens of thousands of babies and their mothers could be at stake in this election; perhaps it is not too much to say that the next generation is at risk by the election of Joe Biden and his abortion cronies.

No president has done more for the pro-Life movement than Donald Trump.  We desperately need him to be re-elected if we are to have any hope of ending this tragic and horrific regime of legalized abortion.  God showed great mercy on America by allowing Trump to win in 2016.  We pray that His mercy for our nation is not yet exhausted.

Pro-Life advocates in Colorado have again qualified an abortion restriction for the November ballot.

This proposition would ban abortions after 22 weeks, except in cases where the mother’s life is threatened.  Pro-lifers were able to collect some 153,000 signatures despite the challenges of the Chinese Virus.

This measure has national implications: Colorado was the first state in America to provide for legalized abortion back in 1967 – well before the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade.  Approval of the measure would send a strong signal to the current Court that America has rejected its moral compass.

Currently, Colorado has almost no restriction on the practice of abortion, which led to the destruction of 12,390 preborn children in 2017 – the last year for which we could find data.  The state currently requires parental notification when a minor girl seeks an abortion.  And tax funding for abortions is limited to rape, incest and life of the mother.

Efforts to protect babies have been repeatedly rejected by a hostile, Democrat controlled Legislature.

Defenders of the Innocent have made repeated attempts to use the ballot box and initiative process to gain protections for babies at risk.  Those efforts have thus far been rebuffed by voters.  In 2008, for instance, an amendment to the Colorado Constitution was proposed which would have defined life to begin at conception.  That measure was opposed by 73% of Colorado voters.

Perhaps this measure will fare better:  Abortions continue to decline in Colorado.  And the measure would apply restrictions toward the end of the 2^nd Trimester.

We pray for their success.

Left wing news sites are abuzz with claims that a new documentary shows Norma McCorvey in her last days confessing that she only played at being pro-Life for monetary gain.
Norma McCorvey is the woman used by the Abortion Industry to establish Roe v. Wade in 1973.

In that era, Norma McCorvey was a 21 year old woman with one daughter and pregnant with another. Her liberal attorneys persuaded her to claim that she had been raped, when in reality – all she really wanted was a divorce. She did get the divorce, but not the abortion. In fact, she never had an abortion and left behind three daughters.  Once she became the infamous “Jane Roe” … Norma became a celebrity within the pro-abortion community. She even worked for awhile in a Texas abortion clinic – and it was that brutal reality which finally broke her.

After years of being the poster girl for legalized abortion, the inner turmoil took its toll. Drugs, depression, alcohol, guilt. Norma turned to Christ in 1995.

So what are we to make of the comments cited by liberal media outlets? Here are the exact quotes we’ve found – though the film maker has not released an unedited version of his McCorvey interview:

“This is my deathbed confession,” she chuckles, sitting in a chair in her nursing home room while on oxygen. Nick Sweeney, the film maker then asks, “Did [evangelical Christians] use you as a trophy?”

“Of course,” Norma replies. “I was the Big Fish.”  [Courtesy of LifeNews.com].

Norma died in 2017. The first thing which occurs to me is that it is more than strange that this ostensible interview has not surfaced until now. My suspicion is that there is much more to this conversation than may ever be revealed.

As it turns out, I got to know Norma McCorvey a bit. She was our featured guest speaker at the 2010 Christmas Dinner. We spent the better part of a day and a half together, plus considerable time on the phone before her arrival in Boise.

Norma McCorvey was not the best speaker we’ve had. It was clear that she was a person who had lived a tough life, and had plenty of barnacles. To be even more honest, it seemed to me that she had not yet accepted all of the emotional and spiritual healing which Christ offers to those of us deeply wounded by sin. There was a certain distance and cynicism that came through, with a covering shadow of loneliness. But the testimony she delivered that Friday night was rough and real. The life she lived, almost completely dominated as it was by the horror of abortion, was also on display for people in the room – redemption and scabs and seeping wounds.

Some in the room were disappointed. But all of it made sense to me, for I knew her on a different level.

Norma and I came to the pro-Life movement at virtually the same time, after being publicly involved in promoting abortion as a matter of a woman’s “choice”. We both have spent years coming to terms with that bloody history, wrestling with the Great Accuser – who would deny us the blessing of Christ’s forgiveness and healing.

Imagine for a moment, if you can, what it would be like to be Norma McCorvey. Perhaps the most notorious woman in American history. In her name, the nation has welcomed the industrialized destruction of millions and millions and millions of preborn children. That is a torrent of blood guilt. She used drugs and alcohol to cope with it. She carried a lot of defensive mechanisms and resentments in her life, and I think some of those resentments came through in this last interview.

And then there is the simple fact that this interview took place at a time when Norma was frail.

The truth is, stories of spiritual redemption are rarely neat and linear – they are rarely a nice Christian movie. Two steps forward and one step back. Days of victory and days of defeat, as Christ carries us forward. But Norma McCorvey fought the good fight against the evil that still bears her name. She publicly confessed the deceptions she helped foster many, many times over the course of some 30 years – even testifying before the U.S. Senate, and petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its perverse ruling.

I am confident that she is, finally, at peace in the arms of Christ.

Norma’s legacy is now left to us, to end the holocaust she helped unleash.

– David Ripley

The story has not received much attention yet. But the Coeur d’Alene Press reported this week that a woman was arrested for the killing of her newborn baby boy after giving birth on April 14th.

Police allege that she strangled her baby, after birthing him in the bathroom. Then she cut him open with a box cutter. Then she placed him in a garbage bag, placing him on the back porch of her Rathdrum home. Elizabeth Keyes has been arrested on first degree murder charges and sits in a Kootenai County jail cell under a $1 million bond.  She is just 22 years old.

The case is horrible in isolation. But in the context of our continued brutality toward preborn children, it once again highlights the schizophrenia of our current legal/social system.

Let’s be clear about this much: The woman had options if the prospect of nurturing this new life was too much for her to bear. We helped enact a law many years ago which allows for women in such circumstances to bring that newborn to a hospital emergency room, or even a fire station. No questions asked. They can simply leave the baby.

Then there is the more civilized notion of caring for the baby and giving it up for adoption to one of the many couples in Idaho desperately seeking a child to bring into their family.

This woman, allegedly, chose neither of those paths. Instead, she acted out of fear and loathing for this new life – a message and value system she has been pummeled with her entire life. The baby is nothing more than tissue. Its very existence a violation of her “rights”; a threat to her value as a woman. Lie after horrible lie, told by the most authoritative voices in our society.  Major newspapers, college professors, the highest medical and legal authorities have actively propagated contempt for the preborn child.  The propaganda is so pervasive that one must ask: Do we not all bear some moral responsibility for, some complicity in, this woman’s crime?

The state is, correctly, moving forcefully to seek justice for the horrible crime against that innocent baby boy – a boy that will not even have the dignity of receiving a name. Yet we cannot help but see the frailty of the state’s position: We all know she could have legally disposed of that very same baby only hours before in a Planned Parenthood facility. No questions asked.  How can our legal system stand upon such a flimsy distinction as two hours’ time?  On one side of the clock, the new life is a disposable problem, unrecognized by the Law.  Just a few turns of a clock’s hands later, his brutal death becomes first degree murder.  Perhaps Ms. Keyes is pondering those same questions.  You can bet her defense lawyers will be exploiting those legal absurdities as the case moves forward.

Rep. Thyra Stevenson passed away this week in a Coeur d’Alene hospital after suffering a heart attack last week. She was 75.

Thyra was an extraordinary woman. First elected to the Legislature in 2012, she served on a number of critical committees such as JFAC and the House Revenue & Taxation Committee. Folks recognized her intellectual skills and ability to dig into complex situations.

She grew up in Lewiston, but ventured forth into the world to acquire a wide range of skills and experiences. Thyra was an officer and pilot in the US Coast Guard; and became a qualified pilot in the private sector as well – certified to fly DC-9s and B757 airplanes, among others.

Thyra taught Spanish and literature at the University of Washington after earning a PhD in Latin American Literature. And, just for good measure, she was an accomplished performer on the bagpipes.

There is so much more that could be written about Thyra Stevenson, but it is important to honor her most important qualities: She was a strong, independent woman who was willing to fight for our core values. She was one of the most dependable friends we had at the Idaho Legislature.

We are going to miss her greatly.