Listen to Brian Johnston and Jacob Barr talk about about the prolife world after Roe overturned. Check out Brian Johnston’s book about Roe, The Evil Twins – Roe and Doe.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and in this episode of the Pro-Life Team Podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Brian Johnston, the Western Regional Director for the National Right to Life Committee. Brian shared his insights on the pro-life movement, emphasizing the importance of understanding and engaging in the legal and civic processes to protect human life. He reflected on the recent overturn of Roe V. Wade, clarifying that the Dobbs decision doesn’t protect a single baby but rather empowers states to legislate on life issues. Brian stressed the urgent need for pro-life advocates to participate actively in state legislatures and Congress.
He also criticized the media’s portrayal of Roe V. Wade and discussed the historical context of abortion laws in the U.S. Brian emphasized the importance of understanding Roe and Doe as conjoined decisions that shifted authority from women to doctors in abortion matters. He touched upon the Hippocratic Oath, highlighting its significance and lamenting its erosion in modern medical ethics.
Brian further encouraged pro-life supporters, especially those involved in crisis pregnancy centers, to understand and participate in the civic process. He shared his views on the Christian responsibility in politics and the importance of applying Christian principles beyond mere slogans. The conversation also delved into the necessity of pro-life individuals running for office to influence local and state politics, particularly in the wake of Roe V. Wade being overturned.
Throughout our discussion, Brian provided a rich perspective on the intersection of pro-life advocacy, law, politics, and Christian duty.
Hashtags that match the contents of this podcast:
#ProLifeAdvocacy, #RoeVWadeDiscussion, #CivicEngagement, #ChristianPolitics, #RightToLife, #StateLegislation, #AbortionLaws, #MedicalEthics, #HippocraticOath, #ElectionParticipation, #ProLifeLeadership, #CrisisPregnancyCenters, #PoliticalActivism, #ChristianResponsibility, #DobbsDecision, #LifeProtection, #PodcastSummary
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m Jacob Barr i’m here with Brian Johnston and we’re going to talk about his pro-life story and what his thoughts are in the pro-life world. So Brian, I’m excited to have you on the on the pro-life Team Podcast. Would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a small group of pro-life leaders and maybe pricing clinic directors?
Brian Johnston :
Sure. My name is Brian Johnston and I am the Western Regional Director for the National Rights Life Committee. So as mentioned to Jacob, we are a non sectarian and non partisan advocacy organization for the right to life. We have affiliates in each of the 50 States and as such we encourage people to understand the right to life so there’s a lot of education involved, but most importantly we have to apply these principles to the laws because it is the laws that determine whether or not human babies will be killed. We recently had a great opportunity come with the overturn of Roe V Wade. But I have found a lot of pro lifers did not really understand Roe V Wade. And the fact is that we now in this environment Dobbs doesn’t protect a single baby. It does not protect one human baby. What Dobbs does is it simply protects the rights of the states to now protect the innocent within their jurisdiction That was lost on many pro lifers. And we have to understand the battle now is in your state where you are, you must be involved in the civic process to elect pro-life advocates to your state legislature and then of course pro-life advocates to Congress and the US Senate there’s AUS Senate race in Arizona and couple of other states in the West, Colorado. But the fact is that we are in a very vulnerable place right now. Because it didn’t end abortion. The Supreme Court can’t end abortion. The Supreme Court simply returned us to what the condition was in 1973 in 73 All of the states were exercising their responsibilities to protect innocent lies within their jurisdiction. It’s called the compelling. That word is compelling state interest to protect life. Each state has a duty to protect the lives of the innocent in their boundaries, and they write out the rules we’re going to protect lives here. So think about homicide statues. Many pro-life bills in those several states were in homicide statues, but some weren’t. Some were in the medical codes. They’re in different places in those states it was up to the states to determine how they would protect those lives. And just think of it this way. In your state, there’s different rules for homicide. There’s different rules for manslaughter for vehicular manslaughter. The rules for vehicular manslaughter may be different in Arizona than they are in California. That’s just one form of manslaughter, which is a subset of homicide. What Dobbs said is it’s up to each state to determine that. It’s up to each state to protect lives and determine how those lives are to be protected it’s also up to each state, You should be aware of this. It’s up to each state to decide if someone’s going to die in that state legally. And each state can determine if there’s a capital crime and how it will be pursued. The state government will vote, We’re going to have the death penalty in our state, and these are the standards we’re going to apply because we as a state have that authority. Roe versus Wade threw all that out the window and said only one person has that authority when it comes to abortion. An abortionist, an abortionist could decide if this baby’s going to live or die and didn’t need any reasons if you read carefully what Roe V Wade really says, it gave all authority to the abortionist. It didn’t give any authority to the woman. I’m going to say that again. And I don’t know if, Jacob, I sent you a link. I have a direct quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreeing with what I’m saying now. Roe V Wade never gave women the right to choose, never gave them the right to choose. Roe V Wade explicitly said you do not have the right to control your body. That’s nowhere to be found in the Constitution, nor can it be found in any decisions the Supreme Court Justice Blackmun said that in Roe versus Wade. How come the media doesn’t say that the media has lied to you about what Roe did? All that Roe did is give authority to kill to what had been a healing profession. The medical profession had sworn. You see, before 1973 not only could you not kill a baby in the 50 states a doctor couldn’t kill anybody. The medical profession was bastardized through Roe versus Wade. They became hired killers. I’d like you to kill this baby. And they could voila they could be hired to kill babies. But the profession has always sworn in the Hippocratic Oath. They swear. And this is this is thousands of this is before the time of Christ. Doctors swore i will give no medley. Excuse me? I will give no deadly medicine even if asked. And in like manner I will not give a woman a concoction that causes an abortion because that’s killing a vulnerable little life. It being again, the probe works say, Oh well that’s because abortion was dangerous that was to protect women. Now it’s quite explicit in both English, which we use, and in Greek, which Hippocrates used in like manner. I will not cause an abortion. That’s a human being. So doctors had sworn to never kill. And yet in Roe versus Wade, they were told they can now kill when they thought appropriate. That’s what happened in Roe and when pro lifers understand that, they’re gonna get a better grasp on the right to life. By the way, Jake, if I could be I see it behind me here. But I have a book on this. It’s called The Evil Twins, Roe and Doe. Most pro lifers don’t know that there were two conjoined decisions that are now called Roe, but there were two separate decisions. And then DOE is where the teeth really come out, where it says, look, this is a medical decision. Women don’t get to decide, only doctors decide. That’s what Roe and Doe said. I sent you a link i don’t know if you have it there. There’s an audio link to Ruth Bader Ginsburg repeating that statement, another feature of Roe. Israel really isn’t about the woman’s choice, is it? It’s about the Doctor’s freedom to practice his profession as he thinks best. It wasn’t.
Jacob Barr :
Woman centered, it was physician centers.
Brian Johnston :
But Ruth Bader Ginsburg says the same thing roe versus Wade never gave women the right to choose. It only gave doctors the right to do whatever they want. It isn’t women centered. Roe versus Wade is physician center. She said that in 2013 at the University of Chicago at a briefing for radical feminists, she was reminding them what was really going on. So today, now we are in July. In June, the Dobbs decision came down, which overturned Roe. And they’re saying they want to restore Roe. They’re lying again, the media lied about what Roe V Wade did roe V Wade did not give women the right to choose. It didn’t. A woman does not have a right to choose the time, place or manner of her abortion that’s a quote from Roe versus Wade. How come N B C A B C P B S C B S How come they don’t tell you that? Because they want to push radical feminist doctrine who want to be able to kill babies anytime. And there’s a reason for that. There’s an ideological reason. It’s actually rooted in Marxism. We’ll get into that later. But the fact is the media has lied about what Roe allowed because a doctor could kill the baby at any time in pregnancy because of the health exception. Are you familiar with the health exception? Good that was in Doe V Bolton. That’s in Doe versus Bolton, which is a tax decision. You got to read the book to understand you can’t know the players without a program. So you have to understand what Blackman really said to understand what Alito now has said in DOPS, states have a duty to protect lives under our Constitution they’re assigned that job. It’s the job of the state. And again, our founders were brilliant. America’s founders said, look, we’ve been given a gift of life. We’re endowed by our Creator with a gift of life, the right to life. We didn’t get it from the government. Wherever you were born, under whatever government, it wasn’t the government that gave you the right to be alive. Your Creator did. But a just government will ensure these rights to that’s the reason governments are instituted among men, to ensure these rights that’s what our founders said now the job of each and every state in the United States if you really cherish the miracle of what the United States is, it’s a confederation of separate legal authorities that have decided to be bound together. It’s unique in American in all world history, but it is a unique Republic and each state has that authority to determine how the people of that state are protected under that state’s laws. That was taken away in row. No state could interfere with abortion if a doctor said we’re going to do abortion now, states can decide. But now the battle is honest because that decision is made at the ballot box. And if you’re not involved in civics and many pro lifers I found really don’t know. And the problem is, most Americans don’t understand civics so I’m not picking on us as pro lifers. But the civics process is where ideas become enforced. And an idea, just a conjectured idea, that is enforced, is called the law. And laws are going to determine if babies are protected or if they’re going to be thrown in the trash. If you’re a crisis pregnancy center, I want to remind you, laws are going to determine you’re doing a good job by the way, as a crisis. That’s a work of corporal mercy. Jesus put it this way. I was naked you clothed me i was hungry and fed me. These are young mothers that are in great physical need. They don’t know what to do. You’re providing for those physical needs. You’re following the teachings of Christ that’s a work of corporal mercy. A work of spiritual mercy is then helping that woman understand. A work of spiritual mercy is leading someone into the truth of what’s happening. That’s even more important because often I know, because I volunteer to credit for I as a family, we give to Christ’s breaks, the centers. But very often, if someone doesn’t understand the truth, they’re going to go out, excuse my friends, they’re going to get knocked up again and abortion is being used as a form of birth control and has been by those who embrace it. It’s just a form of birth control in their mind. So if we want to change things, we have to change how people think ideas or what we’re talking about. But ideas that are enforced are called laws. And that’s going to determine if not only babies are protected, if your crisis pregnancy center is protected because right now your opponents, your ideological opponents. Elizabeth Warren is just an example. She’s not faking. She wants to close down every crisis pregnancy center because you are evil In her world view. You’re stepping on women’s freedom, You’re lying to women in her world view, her ideas are distorted she’s been taken captive into the futility of her mind to do evil things i’m sorry, but it’s pretty straightforward. And she wants to put that into law. So if you’re not paying attention to civics and the law, your ability to be an effective pro-life or will soon be lost. I hate to be so frank, but I must. So that’s at stake right now, in this coming election, you have to be aware of elections you have to get your friends and family to vote properly, not just emotionally to vote on principles and again, most of these listeners, I believe, are Christians. And so if you’re a Christian, you need to understand how the principles of Christianity apply, not just the slogans of Christianity. Again, i love my Christian friends i’m a Christian i am one. But the problem is we need to use heart, soul, mind, and strength. We need to apply our mind to this battle. It’s a battle of ideas. And if you’re not applying your mind, if you’re only applying your feelings. And I have said this to many, and I’m sometimes defense people, but I know many Christians of different denominations. They don’t know much about their own theology. For them, it’s about how it makes them feel. And for them going to the church where love is and feeling, that’s why I just feel better. And they don’t. Have they had not been offered to get a spiritual mercy and that is to understand the principles, the ways of God, as it says. I sent you that link it says in Psalm several times. It teach me thy ways, O Lord, that I might walk in thy truth and again in the Psalms it also says that God showed his works to the people of Israel. God’s works are evident by the way Romans one twenty. He’s made known his invisible nature through his visible creation. So you’re without excuse. Everyone’s without excuse. He’s shown his works. The key is how do you understand his ways? You must seek to understand his ways, and that’s what David was pursuing. But again in the Psalms it says that he made known his works to the people of Israel his ways unto Moses, You want to be like a Moses, like Moisha. You want to understand why those laws are there. You want to be able to explain it says in Timothy, If you are a disciple, you need to be apartment to teach rightly dividing the word of truth, so that those who’ve been taken captive in the facility of their mind to do the will of the devil can come to their senses. And if you just throw scriptures at them say, well, God says abortion’s wrong and I believe in god said I believe that settles it so you stop abortion. That’s not a good method. You’re not making known to deal with them. You’re an ambassador. If you’re an ambassador, you need to speak the language of the culture you’re going to and be able to speak the language of God in a way that they have a chance. They may not always like it, but Paul demonstrated that at Mars Hill say, hey you Greeks, you’re smarter than you think. Look at this altar to the unknown God. You get it. You recognize there’s stuff you don’t know about spiritual truths i’m here to tell you about him. He’s right all around us in him, we live and move and have our being. He’s making himself manifest. And now I want to get to the details. I want to tell you about Jesus because he wants you to know him. Wow, Paul just went to it but he was relating to the Greeks, where they were at. And that’s our job, to be ambassadors. And really the best place is with the right to life, because everybody you’re talking to is alive for the time being, and you can hit that nerve about what it is to be alive and what it is to be cognizant of life and that there’s deeper issues at stake. Our enemy has stolen that. Our enemy has corrupted the truth. And use slick language. Make sure I’m a big CS Lewis fan so I don’t want to get too far afield, but make sure that you think it through. And language is the way that ideas are expressed, so make sure that you don’t let the slippery language stand. You know, I had to stop even a friend of mine were dealing with the bill here in California dealing with infanticide. And in the bill, it’s designed to protect people who are helping women. They’re helping women who wish to terminate the pregnancy. And so my friend was repeating what I said No, don’t use their words. That’s not helping. No they’re helping perform a human abortion. That’s not helping the woman. Don’t use the word help. That’s an ameliorative term. It makes it sound better. So you need to pay attention when they’re throwing words at you. And your opponents, as you know, will throw words at you that will try to slip into your feelings and conscious and you need to say, hang on a second, let’s look at this more carefully. I’d love to get along let’s talk further. I love talking about this. Let’s look more carefully. That’s our jobs as ambassadors. And so that’s what I do.
Jacob Barr :
So yeah, i really enjoy your yeah your express your passion and the need and just your. I feel like there’s a wealth of knowledge here, so I’m excited to ask you some more follow up questions. So the last interview that we did on the Pro-life Team Podcast was with Lewis Barnett, and he’s on one of the, I think it’s the Pro-life a Californian pro-life nonprofit group that’s a political action committee.
Brian Johnston :
I believe we’re.
Jacob Barr :
Connected with him and he was promoting the idea that pro-life people should consider running for political office of at different levels of local, state based political office. And if they were pro-life as their primary passion for wanting to get involved, that was, you know, as long as they were willing to put in the effort and also study, become a student of other areas that would be a successful reason to work and to work at. You know, work on getting the vote for a political office. What are your thoughts on that concept of someone entering the political scene with the pro-life passion as their primary reason for getting involved, but then being willing to take on the economic and the, you know, the different areas of government responsibility and voting, but having that passion is like they’re driving force what are your thoughts on someone taking that on as a new direction yeah.
Brian Johnston :
I think it’s critically important because we don’t live in a vacuum. I think I made it clear i’d be glad to pound it home. I believe that the assertion of the right to life is the predicate for America’s freedoms. That America is not built on the fact that we have a government and the government’s going to take care of you. That’s what every government and king before George the Third was proclaiming. Well, I’m the king do what I say and I’m going to take care of you i’m the boss. What makes America unique is no Americans as a founding they said there’s something you’re missing. God gave us our rights, and the first one is our lives. And if you aren’t protecting innocent lives, then you’re not a just government. And every pro lifer should understand that premise, that the reason abortion is wrong is not because babies are cute not because I like babies that I’m upset that babies are being killed. I am upset. But it’s not about my feelings and it’s not about my personal theology. That’s objectively a unique and vulnerable human person, and it’s the responsibility of a just government to protect that life. So that should be where pro lifers start from, regardless of their theological background. They should start from a place of intelligently explaining what the Scripture says about this, which is what our founders gave us the opportunity to do. What Lou Burnett was saying, we need people who now will at the lowest level, I’ll just say, for example, school boards and thankfully now we’ve been saying this for years by the way. But this year people finally realized, oh what’s going on in the schools, What’s been happening, what are they teaching? What Planned Parenthood has a school based clinic in our schools. How did that happen? You can elect A congressman, you can erect elect even your state legislators that are pro-life They have no voice in your local schools. It’s your local school board. And those are the easiest races to win for Congress there’s hundreds of thousands of votes that are thrown in and then count. And for your state legislature, your assembly, your lower house in the state legislature, not as many. But when it gets down to your county, your county supervisors, we call them in California. When you get to your county, it’s a smaller number. When you get to your city, it’s a smaller number. City Council, mayor. When you get to the school boards, most of them are elected by districts. So if you have intelligent Christians who now are aware, Oh my gosh, our enemies have taken over the civics process and we’ve been we’ve been hanging out doing religion stuff in church and ignoring our civic responsibilities we’ve been we’ve been off the grid, and the grid is going to crush our whole society we got to change things. It’s the school boards. You’ve got a great shot, and I’ll be quite utilitarian here. You’ve got two or three good churches in a school district, and you’ve got a good candidate. The odds are you just won that school district grace. If the church will wake up to its civic responsibility if the church goes back to, well, we don’t talk about politics here we’re actually a holy church. We’re the church where emotions and love preside. So come here and feel comfortable and we’ll share scriptures that’ll make you feel better. But don’t get involved in politics if that’s the theme of your church. That’s how we got here. People who should care about the culture and what is happening. Killing human babies and now bizarre stuff i’m sorry, I don’t even need everybody listening to this knows how bizarre the culture’s become, and a lot of it has started in the Schoolhouse. You can take back the schoolhouse, but just as Lou mentioned, and you did just now, Jake, that you got to apply yourself. I did not like having to learn Robert’s Rules of Order. I didn’t like, you know why I couldn’t just pop off with my opinion whenever I wanted to? You follow Robert’s Rules of Order it’s a good thing. It gives diverse people an opportunity to exchange ideas. But you have to learn it. You have to learn to sit still. I think many Americans have ADD, and I think many Christians are Americans, Christians in America. And people don’t want to sit still they don’t want to learn new things. And a lot of times, oh, I already know that i don’t need that. No, you just might if you want to grow up. And this is what I have found. What growing up is learning and doing something you’ve never done before. And my plan is to do that for the rest of my life. I am being transformed from glory to glory. I am doing things I never did before last year. I’m doing things now I never did last year, things I never would have thought of doing. And if you don’t think that way again, I wanted my titles you saw some various I’m a former commissioner on aging for California i’ve been in many nursing homes, as on the Board of Examiners of California Nursing Homes. I hate to say this, but it’s true. You’re going to get older. That’s guaranteed. You want to age well, but you’re going to get older. That may not mean that you’re going to be more mature, and I don’t want to be judgmental, but you do judge all things if you’re spiritual. I’ve met older people who are emotionally immature, people who were drawing very close to their time of death, that had attitudes and understandings that they adopted when they were 16. And those spiritual attitudes never changed. They never allowed themselves to become spiritually mature. Anybody who’s read, if you’re a Christian, you read the book of Ephesians. You know where I’m coming from because Paul got very upset that people need to learn to grow up. You need to, you should not always be dependent on the milk of a child. You need to learn to grow up that’s the call to maturity that all of us have been assigned. And in fact I want to say this, even non Christians, they just don’t know it. I think it’s tragic when Christians don’t know it. They don’t know that they’re supposed to change. Well, don’t you read the book? Why don’t you read the book you’re supposed to change from glory to glory you’re supposed to be transformed to the image. Oh, well, Romans eight twenty eight says everything ‘s going to work out fine. Everything works out for the good for those that love God are called according to his purpose, Watch his purpose. It’s an eight twenty nine to be transformed in the image of his son, You got to be transformed. So just that’s oh, everything’s fine i don’t care god said that i believe it so I’m just coasting. I’m going with the flow. If you’re going with the flow when you should be turning and swimming against the flow when you should be an athletic Olympic swimmer, anybody, a corpse will go with the flow. A corpse goes along with society spiritually. So if you’re just being cool, I’m a cool Christian i go with society. Be careful because we’re called to creatively bring a different message that society wants to hear how you going to bring it? God will inspire you and he’s going to grow you up as you try. He’s going to change you.
Jacob Barr :
So i in the Old Testament, there’s a lot of things that happen to groups because of the people that are in a group, whether it’s the Israelites or another group. But I feel like, you know, God or different groups based on who’s which group you’re in, the leaders of that group would impact everyone in that in that circle and what so when someone’s in a certain city or county, they’re in that group and so if we’re not impacting the leadership of that group by having God loving, Jesus loving leaders step up, then we’re going to essentially go with that group and that group’s going to impact what happens to us, whether it’s, you know, because of what God does to that group or what that group does to its own people. So essentially as Americans, we often think, you know, I make my own decisions, I’m very individual what their group does is outside of my control. But the reality is that we are individuals, but we’re also part of these groups. And so when that school board, you know that person we’re voting for sometimes it needs to be someone on our team or someone who we respect and you know understands the principles, God’s principles will then run for that office and then can be an impact on that group and so I think, you know, essentially when it comes to asking people with really, you know, good principles to step up and become part of these local state political offices, school board, you know, whether what you know the different levels, it’s a it’s a matter of helping direct the group that we’re already a part of and we’re already going to be, you know, so instead of being the corpse just simply floating downstream, we need people to step up and help direct the group in a new direction and provide some principle pushing leadership. And so I think that’s really good and I feel like that’s a really good message for people to hear especially now that Roe is overturned and the and the law and the has been returned to the states instead of the federal government hijacking that state level decision that should have been there the whole time it’s been returned to the states and now the need for state-run you know, the powers returned to the States and when it comes to abortion and when it comes to several things. And so having people who love Jesus, honor others, and just have the fruit of the Spirit to have someone like that in a position of power and decision making is important because we’re already part of these groups.
Brian Johnston :
That’s right no, I think that’s very well put, Jacob, that we have a responsibility to the community we may not like that, but I’ll tell you a quick story and it has to do with the word idiot. That’s a real word and it’s from the Greek and what an idiot was in Greece where they had in Greece they had pure democracy, In Rome they had a Republic but in Greece everybody got together and had a voice and could vote everyone it was expected and there were you can go back and read and coin a Greek in those types there they were urged and people say, look, I’m a Carpenter i don’t care about this. And yet they wanted, yeah, but you’re going to understand, we’re going to build this temple here. We need to have your understanding. You need to lift your voice. They would urge everyone, regardless of their background, to be involved in civics but some people still wouldn’t. I don’t care. I just, no, I don’t want to do that. They didn’t want to be involved in the public world. They wanted to do their own thing, the word in Greek for that, and you can hear hints of it, but you’re probably familiar with the phrase idiom and from language an idiom is a unique phrase that’s used really by very few people. A dialect, dia is 2A dialect is spoken by several, but an idiom is spoken by a few, and in linguistics, an idiolect. It refers to not a dialect, It refers to your use of language. You have a unique vocabulary, you have unique way of saying things that you’ve developed from your life experiences. And at times I’m gonna have to say, well wait, what did what did you mean by that? I haven’t heard that phrase because all of us have our own idiolect that’s unique to us. The Greek word for idiot is an individual who refuses to be involved in the public square refuses and they recalled idiots. Now you know what it really means. And the fact is, i hate to be mean, but I want to be honest. There’s been a lot of Christian idiocy in our communities where Christians do not want to be involved in the public square. That’s politics. I don’t like politics. I hate both parties i’ve heard this so many times. I just, I just go with what I feel like all vote for the personality that I like and they have no standards of judgement they’re going with the flow they think they’re not. They think, as you said, as we Americans, we think we’re going to do our own thing, but they’re really just going with the flow. They’re not really participating. They are involved in idiocy and it’s tragic, but that’s the Greek word tuck that away to remember what an idiot is.
Jacob Barr :
So you mentioned before many minutes ago about the Hippocratic Oath and I remember i interviewed a nurse many months ago about how the Hippocratic Oath used to be. I believe it used to be a requirement as people became doctors and forget which year that requirement was dropped. And it’s become something that someone can, you know, voluntarily opt in to agree to the Hippocratic Oath. But it seems like when it comes to what Elizabeth Warren was saying, that every Princi clinic needs to be closed because they’re causing damage. Which is a false belief, a lie however you want to state it and dangerous for her to say that because it’s not true and inviting people to look at a good group as in a negative light calling good evil. But it seems like a good response to that would be requiring the Hippocratic Oath, which is saying to do no harm and to not, you know, didn’t if there’s a baby within a mother, you know, to do everything we can to save as many lives as possible so that the most live will be saved. And so it just seems like, yeah a good. The flip side to what Elizabeth Warren seems to be calling for might be to call for the Hippocratic Oath, become part of our standards of care. And it’s part of yeah.
Brian Johnston :
’cause it’s a really good.
Jacob Barr :
Thing the oath is amazing, I think, when it comes to saying we’re going to save as many patients as we can. And the opposite of that is to save the patients that seem to have the most benefit, able to provide us with the most benefit for other reasons but it’s very much judgmental to pick and choose who to save.
Brian Johnston :
Yeah, the quality of life ethic. Well, we’ll save those who are higher quality of life but if this, if they’re part of this class of people, if they’re disabled, well, why should we save them they’re just going to cost us money if they live, they’re costly i mean, that’s what the Nazi said. Again, seamless plug but you just summed it up that’s what my book tries to help people understand. The evil twins Row and Doe, how the Supreme Court unleashed medical killing before 73 Every doctor knew their job was to protect human lives, not kill them. And you not only could you not kill a baby in abortion, you didn’t kill anybody. So it was with Roe, that whole cloth our nation throughout the medical ethics that have made us a just society, that have made us a loving and caring society that values each and every human life. That principle of medical ethics is a foundation of our culture and it was thrown out. So we have to restore that, Jake. We have to. That’s our assignment, to fight for that. It’s going to take creativity. It’s going to take learning new things. And that’s what I think we’re the best answer we’re the best because we’re in you know what I think about Christians i think it’s presumptuous when people say, yeah, I’m a Christian i go, oh, really? Yeah you’re, you know, the maker of the universe. You’re saying, you know, the maker of the universe. Well, you better be pretty good at explaining things. That’s the problem that Christians have we have to be able, and again, that’s what Timothy is saying, be able to understand and explain how things really work and why doctors should protect the vulnerable rather than killing them. Again, that’s it’s a Nazi concept that, well, this person is suffering. This person is no longer having a quality life. Let’s use medicine to kill them, because that’s compassion. You better be able to unravel that real quick, especially if you have authority in the civic realm. You better study to show yourself food, say, hang on a second. We’re not going to approve that in this City Council we’re not going to have a euthanasia clinic or whatever that proposal might be. There are better answers i would i’d like to offer an amendment. Let’s make sure that what we have first is intervention to help these people. Or crisis pregnancy, rather that we have more abortion clinics. Let’s make sure that we’re making known the resources, the many choices how come choice, the word choice in semantics has come to me in abortion, it’s the only, it’s the it has no object choice what are you choosing? Well, it’s just choice no what are you choosing hair color. I’m with you for hair color. Get whatever hair color you want. Apparently that’s very popular now. Real weird hair colors are real popular. But we’re not talking about hair colors shoes shoes what shoes you wear. I’m with you on choice schools where you send your kids to school. oh. But I’m with it. I’m for school choice. Whether or not you cut up a human baby and throw it in the trash, that’s what you were talking about here, let’s talk about that. Is there a bedroom? We’ve got to stop the discussion when they start sliding into the very manipulative use of language that is slippery. Yeah, but we’re helping with the choice no, it’s not helping them in order. And remember this, all pro lifers that are listening, every pro-life law in all of the several states that have been proposed is being proposed right now. Their first role is to protect the woman. They’re actually protecting women they protect Mom 1st and by that they protect the baby. Think of any of those laws particularly, let’s think about are you 46 Attacks the woman’s body. It actually is a very powerful combination of two artificial steroids that attack her body and tell her, look, you’re not pregnant anymore. Quit changing into now. That’s natural for when a woman’s pregnant. The laws of nature and of nature’s God say, hey, and the women I know who are godly women, I hate to get all preachy here, but a woman is kind of wired to have babies. And women that embrace that, they become incredibly womanly. It’s really amazing. But are you 46 says stop, and it’s a powerful chemical, an artificial steroid that attacks her body and says stop releasing those hormones. Stop it. Stop it right now. And it attacks her first. The second dose forces her body to expel whatever’s in the uterus. That’s how the baby’s killed, because she’s her body is exploding on her. It’s doing weird things. That woman, usually after they’ve taken the they don’t know when it’s going to happen, when is it going to kick in. She tries to rush to a toilet. Sometimes they don’t get there, but they do see what was in their uterus and they see that baby because this is not the morning after pill.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, this is like six six to ten weeks.
Brian Johnston :
Ten well, 10 on you have to miss 2 periods. So this is a baby you can see, and then she gets to see that baby and there’s nobody else around. This is the most dangerous. This is an insult to women there’s no one to comfort. She doesn’t know what the heck is going on. She never heard the book. She’s never been explained and they don’t in school they don’t explain reproduction in school they’re talking about reproductive rights. There’s nothing reproductive in an abortion. Don’t let them say we’re talking about reproductive. Hang on, what’s being reproduced? I’m sorry, did you say reproductive rights? Because there’s nothing produced. An abortion is the exact opposite of reproduction. I let’s please use the English language and let’s talk about this. But you’re not into reproduction. Something that I have and I’ve done this and they don’t like it, but it helps, I have to admit and it’s true, my mother terminated couple of pregnancies. Don’t talk about it a lot, but it’s true. I know it happened in my case because she terminated my pregnancy and I was born. The pregnancy came to an end. Birth is what ends pregnancy. Their goal is not to terminate pregnancy. They use that as an artificial language it’s intellectual lie. They’re using language to lie. And specifically in the bill that they had presented here in California, they actually defined it. While there’s no abortion, it is a termination of pregnancy that does not result in a live birth. So they admit birth terminates a pregnancy their goal is not to terminate pregnancy. Their goal is a dead baby. That’s their goal. And they have to be held accountable to the language that they’re intentionally misusing. They don’t like it. And they said, well, you’re really straining i said, actually, if you look at what, you’re the ones that are straining the language, I just want to talk about what we’re really talking about we’re not talking about choice as this vague American concept that we can do whatever we want because we’re American so we’re free to choose. What is it that’s being chosen? You can’t choose to throw your body off of the Golden Gate Bridge. You can’t choose to throw yourself off of the building. You can’t do whatever you want. Let’s talk about what’s really being proposed please quit using slogan hearing. Quit using new speak and a lot of new speak. Or do read Orwell’s 1984 but it’s a lot easier to read just the shortened version at the end, he has an epilogue that explains what New Speak was. It’s very powerful it’s how language was used. And in that world, it meant exactly the opposite. Whatever language that they would actually use, phrases that were the opposite of what they were trying to do, just to get people confused that’s happening right now. And if you can’t cut through that verbal fog, you’re going to lose. You have to be willing to cut through, use the sword and cut through the verbal fog. Pray for discernment, but apply that discernment and do it in a way that listeners can be edified. That’s what’s going to help don’t just hit them about the head and shoulders with King James. I love King James Version. Just don’t do that. Bring the principle. Bring the principles to bear in the civic realm. The facts are on our side, and facts are terrible things to waste. So let’s use the facts. We can be effective, we can take our states back, but we’re going to have to resolve to do it.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, this is. So it’s almost like a few weeks ago, one of the pastors at my church gave a message about meta narratives. Actually was he was an elder, not a pastor at our church, but he talked about meta narratives and how the Bible has competing meta narratives. So like, for example, one meta narrative would be David in the Psalms asking God or, you know, singing songs about, you know, crush my enemy, you know, you know, put your foot on their neck and Lord, just crush my enemy there. But yet at the same time, the opposite was true because he had the chance to kill Saul with a spear and he chose not to. And So what, You know. And so you expected his enemy of Saul. And then meanwhile, another opposite of putting someone’s foot or crushing an enemy would be Jesus saying they don’t know what they’re doing. You know, Father, forgive them, Love your enemies. And so there’s meta narratives in the Bible. But when I But the same is true when it comes to the rainbow like the rainbow in the Bible, it’s God’s promised that he won’t flood the earth again and wipe it out that way. Well, next time it’ll be with fire and brimstone, perhaps, but it won’t it won’t flood the earth again. And so the rainbow represents God’s promise but yet this opposite message from the LGBQ group is saying, you know, this is our symbol of adultery or of sexual sin. And so this is definitely a meta narrative, you know, you know, the world’s voice compared to God’s voice and the Bible has its own meta narratives as well, which makes it a really intriguing and amazing book. But you know, we also have God’s voice in comparison to the meta narrative of the world’s voice and they’re on opposite sides and or you know, it just feels like in the enemy, you know, Satan is an incredible liar. And so when you see lie after lie, built on lie after lie and they just want to see what sticks as if they’re trying to throw up spaghetti against the wall and see which one will gain ground, it just feels like that’s really clear that comes from an author of lies And so but at the same time good lies take a while to figure out sometimes and they’re not always. You know, spotting those counterfeit truths can be a challenge and they sometimes they’ll get ground before you realize, yeah, what damage has been done. Well anyways, all that to say is it feels like that speaking to that you know, 1984 Orwell new speak concept of using words with the opposite meaning in order to. Yeah, since it caused damage and part of a, you know, part of a lying strategy by the enemy perhaps. But anyway, that’s just that’s interesting to consider and think about. So moving on to a different area, would you reflect on when it comes to the pro-life work that you’ve been involved with? Can you think of a story where you’ve seen God’s fingerprints or God’s answer to prayer that you could share perhaps?
Brian Johnston :
Wow. Oh wow ’cause I see them every.
Jacob Barr :
Time i can buy you some time by chit chatting. You consider that or If you’re not sure right now, you guys come back to me.
Brian Johnston :
No, i just, no, I I’ve got so many. Because I think, yeah, no, the question is recognizing the fingerprints. And that I think is our challenge is we don’t always just as I we said earlier, God’s speaking to us all the time. He is speaking to him all the time we’re the ones that aren’t listening. And so the question is how can we tune in and see what he’s doing how can we tune our spiritual radios to that proper frequency so that something happens we think has been bad and gone against us, but on a deeper level, God is actually using it. And that’s happened many times i’ll try to. I don’t know where to start with this one, but I know I when I got involved in this movement, I used to be and this is goes back in 1980 Were you born yet?
Jacob Barr :
I was born in 77 on Father’s Day, so I was three in 1980.
Brian Johnston :
Ok, awesome, awesome. So in 1980 we used to go in front of an abortion clinic on Sonoma avenue in Santa Rosa at Feminist Women’s Health Center. And the young lady with me, we’d pray because Saturday mornings when they would come and she would go to talk to the young woman, and then I would talk to whoever was accompanying her. Sometimes it was her parents. That was never pleasant because they wanted that abortion, and I would try to talk to them about the other options available they did not want to hear that other times, and this happened a couple of times it was the boyfriend, and I promise you, he did not want to talk. He was there to get off the hook. And I think we need to realize that throughout its history, abortion actually has been used to benefit men it’s never been used to benefit women. And on more than one occasion I got punched. And it took everything in me to not respond in kind because that would not be a good testimony. You know how that would play out in the public realm. And then afterwards there were, there was a movement then Operation Rescue came along and there were a lot of people who would do things like break into clinics and chain themselves to the stirrups or, you know, they would do. What’s the term of art where you do, you’d violate the law for a higher purpose they would, you know, get arrested at the clinic. And as I looked at that and realized, it occurred to me how I how much I empathized, but I realized it was something deeper that I could then see I did not want and I do not want, because this might start happening again i do not want policemen coming to abortion clinics to arrest my brothers and sisters. I want policemen coming to abortion clinics to arrest abortionists. There’s only one way for that to happen. The policeman is going to do whatever the laws of that jurisdiction tell him to do. That’s all that a policeman is, an agent of the courts and of the state. They must follow the laws there’s higher laws that they’re going to follow. Their badge and their gun are there for that purpose. And when we understand that, then we’re going to want to get involved in civics, which was the last thing on my mind. I could care less about politics at that time, but I was gradually coming to see that that’s what we must do. And now we finally, I believe it was June twenty, fourth the jobs decision, the Dobbs decision. That is the sea change that allows us to have a voice in our laws, in our state, in our civic process. So we must do that. But that’s how I went through that transition, was way back then and getting punched in the stomach by some guy who’s he was going to get off the hook. And I learned a lot from that.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah And it seems like the opposition likes to use graffiti and threats and violence to promote, you know, they’re trying they’re trying to force people to comply with what they’re demanding and it feels like you know the right way to do this or what we, you know, what we’re trying to do is do this in a respectful and you know civil with voting and working to you know essentially like when you know when someone tries to firebomb a pregnancy clinic and spray paints. You know, if abortions aren’t safe, then you’re not safe either is you know, that’s the opposite, I believe, of civics or doing it through civics.
Brian Johnston :
When it comes to.
Jacob Barr :
Discussion and debate and voting and calling you know, trying to educate people on the issue and issues. But yeah, so and it and it feels like the overarching message here is to encourage people who are passionately pro-life who have the capacity to run for office that this is something that they should consider is something that they should consider as part of steering the group that you’re in into a more positive direction because the power has been returned to the states on the issue of the lives of the unborn children, this has now been returned and so the need for people to run and compete for the state offices has just increased. And when it comes to the schools and the education, you know, the opposition is working in a great deal through schools and even though a lot of Christians may be homeschooling may have their children and Christian schools. The need for Christians to be involved in the public schools is simply a matter of helping direct the groups that we’re in and it’s going to be, you know, these groups are going to have a huge impact on, you know, one generation at a time they’re going to have a huge impact on us. And so, yeah, it feels like we’ve been able to escape public schools through home school and Christian schools. But yet, when it comes to the groups that we’re in, we’re not, we’re not escaping the group that we’re in.
Brian Johnston :
That’s right we’re still members of society and we have a duty. We have a duty so you’re exactly right, Jake. No, there’s so much opportunity. And if you don’t run, it isn’t that everybody has to run, but I believe this is what I do. I find the good guys that are running and if there’s not, I try to find some. There are people now, maybe they’re semi retired, maybe they’re business people. And a lot of these posts are very part time. Sometimes the school board meets once a month on Tuesday evenings. It’s not necessarily going to consume your life. It will consume your thoughts at times. That’s what happens as you change. But even for those who don’t decide to run for office, they really need support. And I have volunteered for people i have. I’ve considered running for office it’s just right now, I don’t think is my call you need to discern that. But there are other friends that have, and I support them passionately i do fundraising committees for them. I do walks for them. That’s what helps change the culture. They can’t do it alone. So if someone in your community who’s a good guy, maybe they go to your church, maybe they don’t. But if you know that they’re going to stand for school board or City Council and they share your values, get on the team. It’s the name of your podcast. Get on the team. You can’t do this alone. We are a team. We need to impact society and culture and we need to do it now. There is. If people aren’t awake now, then bells should be going off soon in your mind, because reality is hitting and it’s hitting hard. Let’s make a change where we are.
Jacob Barr :
Well Brian, I really enjoyed hearing your stories and your just for you sharing and sharing in so many different areas. Would you wrap up our podcast by just praying for our country and for pro-life leaders who happen to be listening? Would you just sort of, yeah, maybe close us in a prayer?
Brian Johnston :
Yes, thank you, Heavenly Father, thank you that you have given us your grace and your son so that we could stand before you. And we do now come before you on behalf of our country, behalf of these issues we’ve been touching on. Pray for the listeners, whatever their background, that they would examine where they need to change and step up, whether it be to run for office or merely to help those who are running for office, to make sure, though, that they and their friends are impacting their community and the civic realm in which they live help us to do this. Thank you for the gift of freedom in the United States. Help us to retain it. Help us to practice it. Help us by your grace and your Spirit to walk joyfully as we go into the spiritual conflicts that we still reflect you in all that we do. We ask this in Jesus name amen.