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I guess if we were to look at the most immediate history in terms of what has been exciting

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or far-reaching or impactful, if you would indulge me for a moment or two on yesterday's

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Supreme Court ruling.

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It was a little over a month ago, I believe six weeks ago, when I did a sermon on my thoughts

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regarding the leaked version of the Supreme Court ruling in Dobs, not Dobs, but Planned

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Parenthood.

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I'm getting my cases mixed up.

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It's the Alabama law with the Women's Health Clinic there.

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In other words, it was an abortion-related case that because of what Alabama was doing

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with their law, it necessarily brought Roe v. Wade right up to the forefront at the Supreme

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Court.

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So please, if you haven't read or heard or watched that sermon, it's in our archives.

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You can find it on Facebook.

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We might have a recording of it somewhere.

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It's lengthy, but I kind of cover quite a range of things in that sermon.

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I want to give a reaction to yesterday, though.

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So I do hope that you'll indulge me for, again, just for a moment because the ruling came

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pretty much as expected.

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It was a 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, that landmark 1973

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Supreme Court ruling that from a federal level legalized abortion.

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Up until that point, it had been decided at the state level, yesterday's ruling, don't

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believe the lies you will hear.

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It doesn't outlaw it.

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It just puts it back to the states.

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In a nutshell, the ruling basically said, we the Supreme Court don't believe that we

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the Supreme Court should make this decision, that the legislature, that the people in the

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states should be making decisions on this issue.

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That was essentially the ruling, that it shouldn't be a Supreme Court decision.

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It should be a state level.

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That was basically it.

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You're going to hear a lot of other commentary to distract, to inflame the emotions, to get

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people riled up on all the sides.

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It's not going to be just one.

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But in a nutshell, it just goes back to the states.

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So you can pay attention to how states move.

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There will be some states that, in fact, some yesterday immediately outlawed abortion.

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Immediately.

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Just like that.

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Other states are going to, and they've already voiced this, they're going to expand it.

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Companies are going to offer financial support for ladies seeking that kind of service, etc.

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So there's going to be some movement in the coming months and years as far as how the

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states and the people react and respond.

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I want to give a biblical Christian answer to it, or reaction to it, if you will.

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I am thankful that now more babies will be born.

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I am thankful that now we won't be coming close to one million aborted babies annually.

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I am grateful for that.

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I am especially thankful that now in some communities like the underprivileged and so

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on, we won't just be aborting a baby because of burdens, because we look at now human life

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as a financial rock that gets placed on our lives and holds us down.

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We now will see human life as something to be protected and valued and supported.

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I would love to now see the conversation shift towards how do we support the families, take

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care of the babies that they will now have, rather than how can we provide a way for them

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to end life.

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I would rather one than the other.

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I believe that now we will start to see more black and Hispanic babies born because in

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New York City you have a greater chance of being aborted if you are a black baby than

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being born.

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To me, that's a tragedy.

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I would love to see more humans alive.

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I think that's good for our society.

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I know that it's a sensitive issue and I know that in today's day and age it is tough to

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find a family that has not had that topic or that immediate impact be real in their

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discussion or real with the members of their family or real with their friends and so on.

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My family is no exception to that.

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I try to rattle off the different ways that that topic has come up in my family and I

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can come up with about a handful, half dozen.

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So you struggle to find a family that hasn't faced it or talked about it or had it be an

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impact.

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I don't want to recognize that.

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I don't stand here saying that I'm grateful for the ruling and I'm grateful for the additional

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life and I don't want to acknowledge that it is for many, many, many people, many women,

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many families, a very challenging and difficult thing to face.

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It's difficult to face an unwanted or an unplanned pregnancy.

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It's difficult to face it when the finances aren't there.

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It's difficult to face it when other struggles and challenges are right in front of you.

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It's difficult to consider giving up plans for a future when now you've got another human

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that's relying on you.

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I want to acknowledge that and I don't want to downplay that it is a real challenge for

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many.

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I also don't want to downplay that there might be some ladies who chose to have an abortion

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and are really struggling with guilt or really struggling with depression.

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The statistics are very clear.

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Guilt, depression, et cetera, relatively high amongst women who have abortions and I am

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actually saddened for that.

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I don't want to gloss over that.

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What I would like to do is I would like to not pull an either or.

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I would like us to not say either you have to take in 15 refugees and adopt 31 children

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and do all of these things or you have to allow abortion to be the law of the land.

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I don't think that's okay.

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I think we should do a both and.

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I think we should both celebrate the fact that more humans are going to be born alive

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and have a chance at living a fulfilled life and I want I want Christians to step up and

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support those ladies.

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I want churches to be a safe haven for girls who find themselves with a pregnancy in need

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of support, not pointed fingers.

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I would like support and not slander.

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In other words, I would like girls and women who maybe don't have the husband or the boy

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friend there to be with them to find it amongst the pews.

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They should not be ostracized.

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They should not be harshly criticized.

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They should not be condemned.

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We should not say suck it up and get over it.

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If you're struggling, we should cry with them, hug them, support them, pray with them.

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And for those of us who can financially support them, I think that is a burden that comes

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to the church community.

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We shouldn't just kick them out.

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I think there are too often we look at some some situations that are uncomfortable or

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we don't find in line with scripture and we're ready to we're ready to condemn or we're ready

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to withhold resources when really we should be responding like Christ did.

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When that woman that was caught in adultery is just tossed before him into the dirt and

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before he spoke to her, he made sure no one else kept pointing fingers at her.

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I think we should respond like Christ and make sure that that these ladies are protected

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from the accuser of the brethren.

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And sometimes that's amongst the brethren.

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But then we turn to the ladies and we support them and we help set them back up on their

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feet with a loving encouragement.

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Go and send no more.

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And we're right here beside you.

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I think we can do that.

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I think we should.

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That's my reaction to yesterday.

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I of course have many, many more opinions, but I'm not going to go on for for longer

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on this.