Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Collapse of Their Righteousness

Douglas Wilson

I have just a couple points this morning, and not surprisingly, they are all related to the continuing Planned Parenthood scandal.  First, no one should doubt that the pro-abortion party is reeling, and there are objective grounds for saying this. And second, their precarious position needs to be connected, at every opportunity, to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

First, look at the extraordinary thing that has happening in just the last few weeks. We had a straight up-and-down vote in the Senate yesterday on defunding Planned Parenthood. A majority voted in favor of defunding them, and this was revelatory on a number of fronts. This vote happened after only a third of the videos had been released. Do not doubt the potency of these videos. That is why a judge who was a big Obama fund-raiser slapped a restraining order on them. There were, ahem, um, legalities, points to consider, due advisement. Yeah, right. If you are thinking that the same legalities would be in play if this were a secret video of caddies at Augusta bullying a fellow caddy for being gay, then you have quite a career in naivete waiting for you. The remaining videos are a lit stick of dynamite, and the bad guys know it.

As I was writing this, David Daleiden released the next video anyway, and good on him. We must back that man to the uttermost.
That’s another reason for asking each presidential candidate to promise to give Daleiden the Medal of Freedom. This must be put to the Democratic candidates as well, not just the Republicans. He should release the video they have put the corrupt restraining order on, and if they threaten to jail him for that, they need to be threatening someone who is already a national hero. As I believe he already is.

This Senate vote put everyone on the record, including Lindsey Graham, last seen disappearing into the tall grass. His idea of a profile in courage is “asses and elbows.” All the Democrats but two voted in favor of continuing massive federal subsidies to the nation’s premier merchant of baby pieces, and all the Republicans but one voted in favor of defunding. Such votes matter, and we are just a handful of votes away from the 60 votes needed — and your senators are now home on recess. That means you can speak to them. You can get at them. This issue needs to come up at town meeting after town meeting — #HowDareYou? #DemocratsSellBabyParts #AreYouKidding? #NotInOurName #DefundPPAlready #AnotherBoyAnotherDollar

But here is how it all ties into the gospel. To my mind, the single most striking thing about this whole controversy is how the White House is pretending to be above it all. Josh Earnest thinks that someone there has likely seen the videos, but looking at the videos is somehow not necessary. Earnest hasn’t and the president apparently hasn’t. Jake Tapper of CNN said this, wisely enough, in response to Earnest: “somebody at the White House should maybe watch the videos.”

Why haven’t they?

This is not just a matter of not wanting to see something that might be harmful to your position, that would provide some modicum of evidence against it. No, it is far more fundamental than that.  The apostle Paul says this about the perennial human desire to be righteous on terms other than what God offers. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). Notice that — going about to establish our own righteousness is the only alternative to submitting ourselves to God’s righteousness. Only two ways to go. Either you submit to what God says is righteous, or you go about to establish your own system of righteousness.

So their whole worldview is built on the assumption of a high and lofty moral superiority. Egalitarianism, feminism, all their isms, the whole lot, is a supercilious worldview that has specialized in looking down on the unsophisticated masses. America has been an “imperious whorish woman” (Eze. 16:30), but one that has aspired to be a virtuous one — defined in her own way of course. The reason they don’t want to look at these videos straight on is that it reveals them to be unrighteous. That would be intolerable, and they will try any device rather go along with it.

So this is far greater than a threat of their political sway, or their cultural authority. This whole thing is the collapse of their righteousness.