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Share this with your pastor and with people who want to commit to help: https://www.dlinstitute.org/jeremiah/#sign
Citations:
Letter from Sanger to Gamble: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-1171/116542/20190920143641893_18-1171%20Amicus%20Brief%20of%20ISSUES4LIFE%20Foundation.pdf
Maafa 21 Documentary: https://youtu.be/I6XfU8KVkzI
Summary:
This is Jacob Barr from the Pro-Life Team Podcast. In a profound discussion with Arnold Culbreath, we delved into the impacts of Planned Parenthood on African American communities, influenced by the organization’s founder, Margaret Sanger. Arnold, serving in multiple leadership roles, including the National Director of Ministry Engagement with the Douglas Leadership Institute, shared his insights and experiences working with pregnancy centers and churches.
We discussed a critical video project, the Jeremiah One and Five Project, highlighting the alarming statistic that since 1973, about 20 million aborted babies were Black. This project urges pastors to engage in life-affirming practices, focusing on the biblical perspective that life is precious from conception. Arnold emphasized the importance of viewing life issues from a biblical standpoint, rather than purely political, and discussed the need for churches to be more involved in life issues.
Reflecting on the insidious tactics of Planned Parenthood, Arnold shared how the organization has historically targeted African American communities, referencing a letter from Margaret Sanger. This letter outlined a strategy to employ African American ministers for promoting Planned Parenthood’s agenda, revealing a manipulative approach to influence community perspectives on abortion.
Throughout our conversation, the role of the church and pastors in addressing life issues was a key theme. Arnold stressed the need for pastors to be informed, healed from their own pasts, and proactive in preaching about life. He also pointed out the necessity for personal and communal healing, especially for those who have experienced abortion.
Our discussion highlighted the critical role of prayer, preaching, and promotion in tackling life issues. We discussed how pastors could be instrumental in reversing the negative influence historically exerted by organizations like Planned Parenthood. Arnold shared his personal experiences and challenges in promoting life within various communities, emphasizing the need for a compassionate, biblical, and relational approach.
Notably, Arnold and I touched upon the importance of authentic, scripture-based dialogue about life and purity, especially among the youth. We stressed the significance of guiding young people towards a life that honors God, including discussions around relationships and sexual purity.
This podcast session was not only informative but deeply reflective, encouraging listeners to consider the broader implications of life issues within communities, the role of the church, and the powerful impact of personal testimonies in promoting a culture of life.
Popular hashtags that match the contents of this content are:
#ProLifePodcast, #LifeIssues, #ChurchInvolvement, #PlannedParenthoodImpact, #AfricanAmericanCommunities, #BiblicalPerspective, #JeremiahProject, #HealingAfterAbortion, #YouthPurity, #PersonalTestimonies.
Transcript:
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m here with Arnold and we’re going to talk about some of the attacks that have been thrown at our population, at the African American population, at our communities, by Planned Parenthood and by their founder, Margaret Singer. Arnold, I am really glad that you are here to talk about some really exciting store, well, really important things for people to hear about. Would you please introduce yourself as if you were talking to a room full of pro-life Leaders and Prancy Clinic Executive Directors?
Arnold Culbreath :
Absolutely, Jacob thanks for having me on the on the podcast. And it’s intriguing that you say pregnancy center directors cause I’ve been working with hundreds of pregnancy Centers for the last 20 years. But my name is Arnold Culbreth. I live in Cincinnati, ohio i serve in three capacities essentially. One is I’m the national director of ministry engagement with the Douglas Leadership Institute. I also serve on staff at People’s Church, which is a. Racially reconciling, generationally rich life giving church thriving in the heart of Cincinnati, ohio we. Have thirty five nations worshipping and working there. And the other third bucket is I lead me and my wife’s for profit business street. Which is called Breath of Life LLC. So the best way to understand Breath of Life is it’s an umbrella for the ministry gifts God has given me so my music, I’m a professional saxophonist the 48 years of playing is under that bucket architecture i’m a degreed architect and been doing that for 36 years that’s in that, under that bucket, motivational speaking, pro-life and mentoring for pastors and for individuals in general.
Jacob Barr :
Wow so you have you have been gifted in a wide range of areas and it sounds like you probably stay up working late at night because that’s a lot of things to try and stay on top of.
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, i jokingly say I’m a classic underachiever. But actually, i don’t stay up late at night. I have learned in my as I age i’ll be 60 in December, but I learned how to. Work when I’m supposed to work rest when I’m supposed to rest.
Jacob Barr :
Play when I’m supposed to play so, oh, that’s good.
Arnold Culbreath :
It’s been a lifelong quest.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome well, so the one thing I wanted to let’s go ahead and get started with the main topic that we wanted to address. So you had this video and I could probably put the video in this podcast so that we can just watch it right here.
Arnold Culbreath :
My name is Reverend Arnold Culbreth and I serve as Director of Ministry Engagement with the Douglas Leadership Institute. One of our areas of focus is strengthening the family and one of the ways we do this is by focusing on the issue of life. So in an effort to be a voice for the voiceless, defenseless, purpose filled preborn babies in the womb. The Douglas Leadership Institute has birthed a brand new initiative called the Jeremiah One and Five Project. Did you know that since nineteen seventy three twenty million of the babies killed by abortion were black, what can we do about this as pastors and preachers in Jeremiah One and Five, as this project is so aptly named? God says to Jeremiah, I knew you before I formed you, and your mother’s womb before you were born. I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. There are three life affirming keys that jump out at us in this text, Purview, Personhood, and Purpose. First, we see the purview of god sees and knows us in the womb. Secondly, God acknowledges personhood even in the womb he didn’t say he saw a clump of cells. He said i saw you, Jeremiah. So preborn lives matter. They’re important to God. And thirdly, God assigns purpose in the womb. Jeremiah was set apart and appointed to be a prophet to the nations, and each of us are called to do something special in the earth to the pastors that sign and stand with us will agree to three things to pray, to preach, and to promote. Pray for an end to abortion. And that the goals and expectations of this pivotal project are achieved. Preach that life comes from God that is precious and that it should be protected, and promote the Jeremiah One and Five Project by recruiting three other pastors to join us. Think about it. 250 black pastors each promoting three other pastors. That’s a thousand pastors praying, preaching and promoting the Jeremiah One and Five Project. The Douglas Leadership Institute is working hard to end the abortion crisis by connecting pregnant women to free pregnancy help centers and also by networking with adoption advocates, the Fatherhood Initiative, abstinence education, abortion aftercare, and much more. Let me leave you with this. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, the leading promoter and provider of abortion in the country, wrote a historic and infamous letter to Doctor Clarence Gamble of the Procter and Gamble Enterprise in 1939 She wrote. We should hire 3 or 4 colored ministers, preferably with social service backgrounds and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro, she wrote, is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members, since ministers were the group that the thief, the devil John 10 and 10 strategically used to gain anti life entry into our communities. Through Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood, then, I dare to believe men and women of God that God wants to use pastors, preachers, ministers of the gospel to close that same door. Will you join us? The Jeremiah One and Five Project needs you. Visit ourwebsite@dlinstitute.org to learn more and to sign up. Your help is desperately needed because lives. Depend on it. God bless you, Doctor Clarence J gamble of the Of the Procter and Gamble Fortune was the president of the American Eugenics Society. Ok? Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was on the American Eugenic Society. And a eugenicist is somebody that believes in a racial division and racial superiority. And they miss. Mistakenly believed, I say mistakenly kindly believed, that a white blonde hair, blue eyed was kind of the premier race people here, Adolf Hitler. His writings talk about the Aryan race and whatnot. Well, he got a lot of that from the American Eugenic Society. Matter of fact, he came over here several times and studied under our Eugenic Society because they were so masterful at what they were doing. So Margaret Sanger wrote a letter to Doctor Clarence Jay Gamble in 1939 And in that letter she basically says that we don’t want word to go out, that we want to exterminate the Negro population. And the black preacher is the man that can stifle any of those, you know, any of that knowledge if it ever gets out.
Jacob Barr :
But that statement is so evil, so powerful, so much that I actually want this podcast to be primarily about that single idea because I feel like we need to make it so that it is very obvious as to the, yeah, I want essentially have a lot of light poured on that on that statement through this podcast and I want to Mull it over and talk to you about your thoughts and your reactions to hearing, you know, from your research on that idea or that those words that were written by Margaret Singer.
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, i encourage people to do their own research on Margaret Sanger her name is spelled just like Danger, but with an S. And you know, she was the enemy, the devil, because our battle isn’t with other humans, Ephesians chapter six said we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So the battle is really spiritual. And I say that because pro lifers of all persuasions need to realize that Planned Parenthood isn’t the enemy per Southeast. It’s the devil behind Planned Parenthood. Why am I saying that i’m saying that because I’m a preacher of the gospel, and every abortionist, every abortion facility worker are just as redeemable as you or I Jesus died for them, too. And when we realized that we take a more. A more gospel centric approach in our thinking about them, our praying for them, and our interactions with them. Does that make sense?
Jacob Barr :
That does so when I come going back to that letter, how does that make you feel or what do you think you know? What is it how does that represent, you know, just the what are your thoughts on those words when you see that Margaret Singer wrote that to Doctor Gamble, like what are your thoughts so how do you as you dig in on what was really being said there?
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, I have a number of thoughts and i’ll just share a couple of them. It angers me. It saddens me. The Bible says in Hosea four and six. That my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. So as one who traverses this nation like a madman, I mean I’ll be in Richmond, virginia next week and be in Dallas a few weeks after that i was just in Philadelphia a few weeks ago trumpeting truth on this issue. And what I found is by and large African Americans do not know what you and I are talking about right now. There are those that do know and for various reasons, whether it’s personal experience with. Abortion, whether it is a political allegiance to the Democratic Party that there are those that do know and don’t want this information out. However, what I have found is that group I just mentioned is the minority of the of the minority. The majority do not know. So the tactic of the devil is to get us focusing on those folks that are dug in and they’re entrenched and they’re willingly remaining ignorant. That we miss the masses that still don’t notice reality. So those are some of my thoughts. The other thoughts are we’ve got to get this information out to people so that we can begin to diminish Planned Parenthood’s unfettered access to the black community what do I mean by that? 79 % of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are in black and brown communities. We’ve done the research when I found it. And was the first director of Protecting Black life if you go to that website, protectingblacklife.org that research is there that shows that 79 % of their obituaries are in two mile walking distance of black and brown communities. When you talk to the average African American about Planned Parenthood, they become angry they become defensive. Why because they’ve been either unknowingly or knowingly drinking the Planned Parenthood Kool-aid But when we help them understand the this insidious plan that Planned Parenthood has many times their eyes and minds and hearts begin to open.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and it seems like that plan that Planned Parenthood had back in this letter was written, I think was 19 thirty nine nineteen thirty nine So the plan back then 1939 was to condition the African American community and if anyone fell out of that posture that they would bring them back in with the minister the African American minister. And so that’s just my question Mike, do you think Planned Parenthood is has continued with that same posture towards the African American community throughout you know in today’s, you know in twenty one are they currently still there and it just seems like what they’re conditioning. So how do so? How do we uncondition how? And I think you know, you have some of my thoughts on this, but how what are your ideas on unconditioning or disturbing or shaking the tree or disrupting this conditioning of Planned Parenthood being, you know, good in some people’s eyes?
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, number of things one is back to your original question, because your question was quite multifaceted but back to your original question. Yes, Planned Parenthood still has that posture many african American churches and I’m talking about African American churches, not to the exclusion of non African American churches but African American churches will often have health fairs. Ok. And what you do, and I’ve done this many years as a pastor, I’ve been in preaching the gospel for 36 years, is you do these things and you collaborate with your local health community and the health community will underwrite the event to where the vendors and those booths don’t have to pay. Pay any money so you do blood pressure screening. They can bring the old, the mobile unit that can do prostate exams for men and those kinds of things. Even though the vendors don’t have to pay any money to be there, I have watched Planned Parenthood persuade African American pastors to still receive some remuneration and it’s with this kind of mindset, they even use church or Christianese. You know, we know that there are a lot of expenses that you have. We know that times are tight. We want to, you know, just offset the cost and they may give them fifteen hundred to two thousand. Dollars what are they doing? They’re buying their allegiance. They’re buying into this warped friendship that we can continue to come in and we can continue to give the bad information. We can give low dose of birth control which Planned Parenthood birth control. Has been proven to be that and inferior prophylactics because the why? Because their goal is to get 3 to 5 abortions out of a young woman by age 24 By age 21 right. So you get this sent this heightened sense of protection. So you’re just Willy nilly having sex. And I mean, most women that go into pregnancy centers were on some kind of birth control when they got pregnant. Ok, so when you talk about how do we dissuade, how do we change the narrative, one of the things we do at the Douglas Leadership Institute is we do that very things through relationship. It’s quite different for someone to talk at somebody with this message. It’s another thing to build relationship, trusted relationship, which is a more longer play. Than a one off kind of event where you come in as a speaker but to come in build relationship. Now as we talk, I’m leaning into you know me, I know you. We’ve and I’m using real examples. We’ve golf together. Our families have vacation together. You know I don’t have 3 heads, right. So as I’m talking to you about this information that assaults your sensibilities. But I can. Rectify with Scripture i can corroborate with Scripture. It begins to change the mindset so let me conclude this statement with this tool. I train people to get out of the mindset of winning an argument and get into the mindset of sowing a seed. How many times has a accurate biblical, godly concept been presented to you or I or anybody? And years later, the light bulb came on. It’s rare that somebody shouting at us or talking down to us got us to open up and listen. So my goal is to sow seeds to do it lovingly, winsomely, biblically and then. It’s between you and God at that point I’m gone on to the next city, brother.
Jacob Barr :
Does that make sense that does?
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s how I sleep at night at Jacob. That’s good yeah.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, it’s. Yeah essentially i think people are persuaded after. I think the key is trust i think the key is when you trust somebody you’re willing to have them speak into your life when it comes to direction. But when it when you don’t know somebody yet and they just start to try and give you direction, it’s usually wise to not necessarily not, you know potentially the not to take that advice quite yet because trust is really important when it comes to being, you know, taking good advice and making good decisions.
Arnold Culbreath :
Think about that, Jacob. One of the things I trained, and I’m writing this in my book, one of the things I trained pregnancy center directors and Staffs and their boards to do is build a relationship with that church. Don’t come in with your two foot diameter and I’m being facetious 2 foot diameter i am pro-life button on, but just come in building relationships. And if you’re in an African American church, they can’t realize that you ain’t African American and they’re going to want to know why you’re there. But if your motives are genuine and if you’re not pushing an agenda down their throat, they’re going to be more likely to listen to you that’s one part of my statement. The other part of my statement and I love having these conversations at the local, that national and the international levels that I have the privilege of doing and challenging pro lifers to really honestly critique our presentation. I mean off times. We’re harsh, we’re shrill, We’re holier than thou. Your message might be right, but your methods? I don’t even want to listen to you. And I’m pro-life through and through. Does that make sense?
Jacob Barr :
Yeah definitely it makes sense. I think in the end relationship and trust and rapport, you know, these are all stepping stones towards someone you know, towards essentially helping someone you know give speak direction into someone’s life yeah. And so I and I feel like that’s what the enemy was using in this exact scenario by hiring the black minister to keep the African American religious population in line. And so I feel like they were using that same exact tactic. And that’s crazy.
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s why the Douglas Leadership Institute’s Jeremiah 1-5 Project is geared toward pastors, not exclusively, but primarily geared toward pastors because we intentionally want to reverse the curse of Margaret Sanger and that letter, which we call the Negro Project. Yeah, if we and what we’re finding with this Jeremiah One and Five project, and I can unpack the project if you’d like, here in a moment. But one of the things we’re finding is that in these private pastor only zoom conversations, many male and female pastors are with tears sharing their personal abortion stories for the first time. So if we can’t get to the pews, if the pulpit is hurting and captive. So we’ve been speaking as one of them. Not, I’m not talking to you as a pet, you know. And I tell a pregnancy center directors this all the time it doesn’t minimize their role their role is powerful. I love them i pray for them i’m a colleague with them and I’ve done with the help of the Lord much advancement to help in their efforts. But if a pregnancy center director is talking to a pastor there is something in his psyche that OFT times and it’s sad but often dismisses what she’s saying purely on the virtue of, well, you don’t understand my plight. I’ve got all these to do’s I’ve got alligators snapping. Somebody wants me to do this, that and the other you don’t understand what I’m dealing with so one of the things that we do Jacob is to help him identify what I’ve coined and I’m giving away a lot of stuff in my book, but I’ve coined as lieutenants for life. Let’s help you identify one to two seasoned trusted mature members of your flock that we can come alongside. Put resources and information and tutelage in so that it doesn’t become a major to do on that pastors plate. Then he can determine what do you want the reporting with your team to look like. How frequently do you want them to report. But now it’s a ministry in your church but you’ve got people that are doing it in his brain. He shuts down because when the pregnancy center director bringing these directives and action items and to do’s all of which are good he sees them i’m telling you, as a pastor, he sees it as, oh man, here’s one more thing I have to do. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Jacob Barr :
And I think there’s also, you know, he’s probably thinking that there’s people in my congregation who need who, you know, who went through a post, you know, who are who are post abortive or they’ve gone through an abortion. And bringing up that topic is going to affect the people in his in the room in different ways.
Arnold Culbreath :
And well, yeah, let’s get under the hood let’s kick the tires a little bit more. One of the things he’s thinking of, and this is with this is with hundreds of pastors that we’re talking to. I work with pastors all day, every day, right. So first they’re thinking, well, this is a political issue. I shouldn’t be touching it. Here’s another thing I challenge pro lifers locally, nationally, internationally, to stop saying because what they say is what, Abortion isn’t a political issue. Now think about this. If we’re talking about Planned Parenthood, if you’re talking about rhetoric or debate, I was trained by the late doctor Jack Wilkie, right, who got used along with a handful of others to start the pro-life movement. Wonderful Catholic gentleman. He’s gone on to be with the Lord now, but he trained me on if you’re going to debate with the other side, then you want your arguments to be to be rock solid. Does that make sense? So if you say abortion isn’t a political issue, then how is it that it was voted into law by a seven to two decision by our Supreme Court in 1973 that makes it political? Now, if what you mean to say is the overarching issue or the larger aspect is that it’s a moral imperative, a biblical mandate that we defend life, then say that. But don’t say it’s not political let me say what I just said another way. You remember in school we had the pie graphs right? And yet different slices connoting different things, right? Well, there, when you talk about abortion, there is a political slice, right? Otherwise we wouldn’t fight so vehemently to get legislators into office that are going to uphold life. That’s political, you know, But the bigger slice is the Bible slice that life comes from God, right that is sacred, that it should be protected. If that’s what you mean, then say that. But stop saying it isn’t political because it does have political implications.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that’s really good. I like that because there are several facets to it and it does touch different parts of our life and the fact that every unborn child reflects. A you know it has a reflection of God and was met you know and God opened the womb to let that child be conceived and so there’s yeah God’s fingerprints are on that child’s beginning and then that child has a unique way of reflecting who God is or a way to reflect who God is.
Arnold Culbreath :
At least that’s absolutely right if the child arrives here, if the child is conceived, God was part of that, right? So regardless of how crazy the scenario may have been to get the child here one night, stand even. And I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but even in cases of rape, if God allows that child to be, to be conceived, then he’s got a plan behind the purpose and destiny of that child. And we’ve got to grapple with that is it uncomfortable truth? Absolutely but it’s still truth.
Jacob Barr :
Going back to this, so Margaret Singer pulled in gamble to and gamble was. Funding this right he was helping fund this idea. Can you speak to sort of like, you know, some of the back story on the funding and some more of the back story on, you know, how you know essentially, you know, who was controlling Margaret Sanger or who or who Margaret Sanger was controlling to bring these pieces together?
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah i don’t know, I don’t have evidence that Gamble was funding this or anything other than to say he was the president of the American Eugenic Society which was very influential and presumably, you know, there’s some, I’m sure there’s money ties around it and all of that. But be that as it may, what is the result of the American Eugenic Society and what is the impact to the community at large, more specifically, communities of color? And what are the what is the carnage that we see today might be what is an intriguing thing to consider for me.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and so the.
Arnold Culbreath :
So let me let me come at it this way, Jacob, which is some of what you’re trying to get up. There have been some recent admissions by Planned Parenthood that they acknowledge their fractured foundation, you know and the founding and Margaret Sanger and all of this. And they’ve done a poor job at trying to acknowledge that because what they’ve done is so condescending it’s almost like yeah we recognize the, you know the dark past of Margaret Sanger and you know but this is a new day and all of that. But when you sift through the smoke and mirrors the new day and your model your business model is still abortion. I mean they’re closing down the smaller quote, unquote mom and pop, you know kind of a facilities and building these mega facilities, you know that are mind blowing you can go to Houston, you can go to Nashville, you can go to you know Kissimmee florida and you see these five or six story monstrosity that have ambulatory surgical care centers within them. So when there’s a botched abortion, which happens more often than people realize that young woman doesn’t have to leave that facility where we’ve been getting a lot of in and photos and video is when the botched abortion happens in a stand alone facility and then that young woman has to be rushed to the hospital. Well, Planned Parenthood is not stupid. They realize that, oh, this is a chink in our armor. Let’s begin to build facilities where they don’t have to leave these premises. But the other thing people need to do is, and this isn’t a selfless plug, but they really need to Google my name and the roll call. Because what we did in our roll call video, it’s on, it’s on YouTube, is to start to highlight some of these young women that are going into the obituaries of our land and never coming out. Not only is their baby not coming out, but they’re not coming out. I mean, think about it, Jacob. Abortion is one of the most unrestricted under regulated medical procedures that there is. You know, people talk about, well, that’s a decision between a woman and her doctor. Most of the time she doesn’t even consult with the abortionist. She goes in and signs a bunch of paperwork that she may not even know what it is because she’s mired in the pressure, the anxiety, the fear of I’ve got this new life coming and it’s going to change the trajectory of my life in a way that I don’t want. So she signs the stuff. She goes in under heavy anesthesia. And then this alleged doctor. I struggled even to, you know, refer to them as doctors, comes in and does this procedure. And I’ve talked to several former abortionists you had my dear friend Jeannie Bernia on recently. There are others out there, the late Noreen Johnson, who just died a month or two ago. You’ve got Carol Everett who didn’t perform abortions but she ran and network of Portuaries and it’s big money because you will have your own medical practice off to the side. But then you’re doing this cash money abortions. It’s big business, Jacob.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah And it’s interesting how there’s this push to make it less and less medical or less and less like there’s been these laws that have been coming out that say. You know, you know the abortionists must have, you know, admitted rights to work in a, you know to be able to go to the hospital and if they don’t have that, then they can’t provide the abortion you know, the they have to have admitting rights to work in a hospital and then essentially the opposition is trying to keep they keep, it seems like they keep trying to make it less and less medical and more and more unrestricted.
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, you know, we talked a moment ago, Jacob, about the political side of this. Ok, so you can have states like Georgia who arguably have more pro-life laws on the books than any other state. But that means nothing if you have judges that rubber stamp from the bench and don’t hold Planned Parenthood and other abortion networks accountable, right. I mean, we’ve had battles here in the state of Ohio where I live, where the laws clearly say what you just said, that the doctor has to have, the abortionist has to have admitting privileges, but the judges aren’t standing behind that law. So he continues to do what he does. It’s crazy, but less if I may and I don’t want to take over the interview oh.
Jacob Barr :
No, please do.
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah, let’s transition this to the men and women that are most impacted by abortion. That’s those that have had one or more abortions. I never want to and I’ve been trained on this from my precious post abortive wife who had an abortion 2 years before we met. And so often we have this kind of discussion. And there may be a young woman or a young man who can’t even hardly listen to what you and I are saying because of the condemnation, because of the hurt and the pain. And I just want to speak to that post abortive listener. And the Bible says in first John one and nine, first John chapter one verse nine, that if we confess our sin that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if you’ve had an abortion or maybe multiple abortions and you ask God to forgive you based on his word, he will do just that. Because in the in the subconscious mind I’ve drilled, not drilled that’s a little too harsh. But I’ve had intricate dialogue with many post aborted men and women who feel who felt before they got free, felt as if because of my calculated manner in which I perform this act, I paid for it with my own money, I made a calculated decision to have this abortion i’m not suggesting it’s a light decision or they did it easily, but they feel as though I can’t be forgiven for that, and nothing could be further from the truth. God will and does forgive if we allow him to. And here’s what the devil’s afraid of. Revelation 12 and 11 says that we overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb that’s the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at Calvary and the word of our testimony. So if we can get these men and women healed and whole following their abortion, then they become some of the most effective advocates for life. Let’s go back to my wife. My wife worked for 32 years for the city of Cincinnati. She retired a couple years ago and now she’s working part time at a local pregnancy center, Elizabeth New Life Center, sharing her testimony, sharing the gospel and ushering life into the world so what the devil meant for evil, God turns it around and uses it for good. But that’s after we’ve embraced the grace, the forgiveness, the mercy, the healing from God. And what I love about pregnancy centers is most of them across the country do some form of free post abortion counseling, Whether it’s one, whether it is forgiven and set free. You know, there are so many powerful, biblically based curriculums out there that are helping men and women and men who suffer and hurt from abortion. They just suffer differently than women.
Jacob Barr :
And it seems like that’s where we should be leading is in calling people towards forgiveness and healing because otherwise they’ll shut out the message that we might be trying to say like that’s where people need to start when And you know if they’ve gone through a scenario where they’re part of a previous abortion calling them towards forgiveness and healing and showing that you know the love of Jesus more so than trying to say. You know, here, you know, instead of going the political or the law route or the, you know, here’s what’s here’s what we need to do in this situation i think. I think trying to focus on that healing and forgiveness is maybe that’s the approach that you know needs to be adopted as like the gateway or the doorway towards other topics at the right time.
Arnold Culbreath :
I agree. Let me back up for a minute we were talking about some of the roadblocks that happened with pastors and I stopped that political they view it as political and mistakenly think, OK, this isn’t something me or my church needs to be involved in. Let’s set that to the side. Another issue is just lack of understanding and fear concerning the issue because he may be at the time totally unknowledgeable about the issue, right. Even though they are hurting men and women in his congregation, Planned Parenthood says one in every three women in America will have had at least one abortion by age 45 One in every three. If that’s the case, they’re sitting and they’re silently suffering in our church views, right? But the pastor is OFT times the pinch point preventing the message to get to the flock, right? So now let’s talk about the pastor himself. He may have and abortion in his past, or more. Maybe before he received Christ. Maybe after he received Christ. So he feels condemned within his own conscience. I can’t preach about this right.
Jacob Barr :
Or he might also have people that he’s counseling who have gone through an abortion and he knows the pain and suffering. Wait, hold.
Arnold Culbreath :
Let me say it. Let me say it more strong. You’re on to something, but I’m gonna say it even stronger. He’s had congregants that have come to him who were pregnant and either he allowed them to have abortion by his silence or encourage them to have an abortion. You see what I’m saying? So now he’s condemned in his mind. Let me shift gears a little bit in a more favorable light toward the pastor because I am one of them. The pastor congregate comes to no, let me say it this way. He hears what you and I are saying maybe he sees your podcast. And he says, man, this is good stuff. I want to preach this i want to teach this. And then he goes home and his poster board of wife who’s never been healed, says you will not preach that because based on the Bible, the husband is the head of the wife, the head of the home i didn’t make that up. That’s in God’s word. But I’ve been married 36 years and I know that the wife is sometimes the neck that turns the head. So if she said you ain’t going to preach it, you ain’t going to preach it right now he’s active where he’s got this truth, but he can’t talk about it so we’ve got battalions. I’m a United States Army veteran, so I use those metaphors a lot of times. We have battalions of women who are reaching the first ladies that’s a euphemism for the pastor’s wife and the ladies in the church getting to them. Sometimes the pastor’s not the conduit for the message to come through, but it is his wife. Once we get her healed, let me give one other example. And this is going to, I hope, turn a light switch on for some of the pregnancy center directors of our nation. They come into the XYZ Baptist Church and they want to bring their literature. They want to do a three to five minute thing on Sunday morning or whatever the case may be and they lead, they drop off their literature and it’s crickets after that, they get no response. Well, so often the chatter around the pro-life community is where we tried to go to the XYZ Baptist Church and we couldn’t get in because they’re pro abortion. That’s an assumption. Let me tell you what happens and I know this for a fact. Not once, not twice, but many times across our country is you come in and talk to the administrator, the gatekeeper, the secretary right she may be post abortive, unhealed. You’ve given her this literature. That’s a trigger for her. Watch this now. And the information never even makes it to the pastor because she destroys it. So the pregnancy center can’t get in. Not because the pastor and his unwillingness, although that happens sometimes, but in this example I’m talking about, it never even makes its way to the pastor because you got that unhealed post abortive secretary at the door that you interface with does that make sense? And that is so prolific across the church that it’s that it’s profound.
Jacob Barr :
And I think that speaks to what people who are called out of who have been healed from their post abortion past and they have been now empowered to help others avoid or to find healing as well and to also avoid the pain of abortion. And so I think. People who have gone through this have a special voice in order to help you know the secretary who’s also pushed the board of and who hasn’t found healing to invite you know by leading with healing and recovery and forgiveness and grace. I feel like there’s something that feels like that’s the that’s the way to reach. Some of these harder, you know these people who have barriers up or who are very you know, they’re damaged they’re hurt they need they need repair and help.
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah You’re definitely on to something Jacob you really are i mean we can’t we can’t pound them with the truth. You know, the animation and the flailing arms and the raised voices. If I can use bad grammar on purpose to make a point, ain’t nobody trying to hear that, right? But you know, and I’ve trained people over the years that have worked with me, Calm, loving, level headed, biblically based, strict, statistically corroborated conversation coupled with the Holy Spirit wins the day every time. Hollering at somebody is never going to move the ball down the field ever.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah. And I there, there’s a, there’s this. Are you familiar with the Celtic way of evangelism have you heard about Saint Patrick or the story of Patrick in Ireland have you heard about that before?
Arnold Culbreath :
Say some more about.
Jacob Barr :
It sure so Patrick was kidnapped and as a young boy and he was brought to Ireland and the Irish people were very violent to say the least. And so. And he was, you know, a slave there in Ireland. And God told, you know, years later God tells them to go towards the coast, and he would find a way to escape and he did. And so he escapes. But then years later, he comes back as a missionary to the Irish people. And he come and they and Irish people know that Patrick was the slave boy who escaped and here he is coming back. To share Jesus with this group. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church had marked the Irish people as unreachable because they didn’t respond the way, you know, they didn’t respond to the Catholic Church’s approach to evangelism. And essentially and so the Catholic Church said these people are barbaric, they’re unreachable. But that but Patrick. Those of this group, and they were essentially they listened to Patrick because he came back as a previous slave, ministering to the people that he had spent time with as a slave and loving on these people. And essentially they listened to him because they knew that he came back, even at the risk of, you know, being hurt, because he, you know, all to say is. He, you know, he was a slave. He escaped and he comes back and then he saves the people who were barbaric and put him on slavery in the 1st place. And then it just simply sort of represents, you know, an idea of how to reach people. Sometimes we have to, you know, put ourselves out there at risk and invite. I don’t know, it’s just there’s a lot to draw from that story but essentially what I feel like is that. You know that the post the post abort of women coming and inviting other post abort of women to find healing and inviting people to avoid abortion. And it’s a very difficult journey to say that I’m that I had an abortion and that I’m looking you know that I found heal. You know, essentially trying to say that publicly is difficult, but it also is also healing and it provides, you know, invites A pathway for people to find healing. And it’s a very difficult journey, but it’s one that’s worth travelling and then it brings light into these dark spaces in the past of a person, I believe.
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah, let me give a let me give a modern day correlation to the story you just gave about Saint Patrick. I was endeavoring to reach the N Double AACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People most people are aware of that large, historic, significantly liberal organization. And I was trying to I’m here in Cincinnati, the Cincinnati chapter. I was trying to prevail upon them about the life issue as an outsider. I was not a member of the N Double ACP but I would attend the meetings in attempts of trying to carry this message and I wasn’t getting anywhere. So I was lamenting to my dear friend, a doctor Alveda King who is one of the seven Co founders of the National Black pro-life Coalition i’m one of the seven as well, but she said she’s a lifetime N Double ACP member as the, you know, as part of the King legacy, the niece of Doctor Martin Luther King. She said, well, Arnold, she said what you’re doing is like being outside of the camp lob and rocks over the wall. She said you got to become a member and get on the inside. And I fought it for a while because I didn’t want to become a member, but I but I but the Holy Spirit moved on my heart again. There’s the power of that winsome loving relational interaction that God then Waters, that seed in the heart of an individual on any given topic, became a member of the N Double ACP, built a wonderful friendship with the then president of the N Double ACP, who is now our vice mayor here in Cincinnati, ohio Christopher Smitherman, who is a dear friend of mine. The end result was having pro-life presentation full blown. Three or four times in the two or three years I was a member of the N Double ACP we debated meet myself and a panel of colleagues debated Planned Parenthood of Southwest South Southwest Ohio in the N Double ACP meeting. And it wasn’t me who had to defend or give a lot of commentary during the Q and A. It was the audience who we had educated over the course of several years that were firing into them. And the young woman did such a poor job of defending their quote unquote brand, that Planned Parenthood had fired her the next day right so a friend of mine said, and she almost said it in a condescending kind of way that’s how it felt to me, almost like I was a little kid getting patted on the head. She said, well, Arnold, that’s some good work that you’re doing with the N Double ACP. You continue to do that if you think it’s a redeemable organization. And the response the Holy Spirit gave me in that moment was I could care less whether it’s a redeemable organization. What my focus is it’s an organization comprised of redeemable people.
Jacob Barr :
Oh, that’s good.
Arnold Culbreath :
You see what I’m saying? So when we do this work, even like Planned Parenthood and the work that my dear friend Abby Johnson has done with and then there were none, you know, ministering to former abortionists and former abortion facility workers to provide help and hope and healing to them because they’re redeemable, right. It’s a similar kind of a concept. But that is an example similar to Saint Patrick, you know, of going into a bastion of liberalism. And I would sit through meetings and I’m listening to various things that they’re voting on and discussing, some of which I vehemently disagreed with and other things I agreed with. One of the things that was also key in my example, and I’m only saying this to lift up the Lord. But one of the things that was key was that I’m a lifelong Cincinnati. Other than my United States Army experience and my architectural training, I’ve been right here in Cincinnati. So they’ve known my family my father was a pastor before me. They’ve known my ministry so it’s like, OK, we don’t understand all this abortion stuff he’s talking about, but we like him. We like his character. So they were willing to listen going back to what we said earlier, so let me put all that in the scriptural context. The Bible says let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So yeah, I’m putting myself out there we put ourselves out there so that they can see our light, our good work, but ultimately so that they glorify the Father we got to draw him back to him. It’s not about me.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah so that’s really good it reminds me of a story I was once. I was on this Prairie tree over a weekend and I was off in the desert area, writing in my journal, trying to hear God’s voice talking and writing it, not writing down what I was thinking and then writing down what I heard God’s voice say. And one of the things I was writing down was, you know, it sure is beautiful out here god, I can hear, you know, the in nature i can hear the crickets and the and the, you know, the birds. But then I can hear this traffic off in the distance, God and i know that sounds, you know, marking it as like an ugly noise and I hear like I heard God’s voice say. Each one of those cars are full of people that I love.
Arnold Culbreath :
Come on, man. Yeah, that we say among the preachers that’ll preach, man.
Jacob Barr :
So that make me that made me think of i get goosebumps right now thinking about this organization that you know, whether it’s redeemable or not. You know, that’s sort of like traffic noise traffic noise in my mind is one of the worst noises you can have you know, imagine like it’s just simply not attractive, right? But God turned it around, saying each one of those cars has people in it that I love, each one of those organizations that are, you know, marked with. You know, a variety of decisions, you know, and so it’s full of people that God loves like, that’s that was what you were that’s what you found too.
Arnold Culbreath :
Let me add to that. Let me add to that. I love that analogy, Jacob let me add to it. I’ve got friends from New York and they travel and go other places and they can’t sleep because they’re accustomed to hearing traffic and handled advances and police cars. What am I saying? What I’m saying is sometimes people are so accustomed to chaos, yeah, and pain that to hear anything other is so counter to their mind. Whereas you and I, we’ve met Christ. We’ve met Christ, you know, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. So we understand peace. So that that’s powerful, man.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, it is and identifying an organization that you don’t want to be a part of or you don’t know if it’s going to turn around or not, like identifying that that’s not the case it’s full of people that God loves. Loves and that are redeemable. That’s it’s a whole different lens to see that group through and that’s really cool. That’s really beautiful.
Arnold Culbreath :
So when we talk about our Jeremiah one and five projects, talk about that, please. We took Jeremiah one and five. And I happen to be reading from the New Living Translation. It’s worded this way. This is God talking to Jeremiah. I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb, before you were born. I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. So I took that verse. I prayed, I fasted i sought the Lord for illumination concerning that verse. And what he gave me were these peas you know, I’m a preacher, so a lot of times literation is what bubbles up. But I saw the purview of God in that verse. He sees all he knows all he saw us even from our mother’s womb before we were born so purview. Second thing we see is personhood. God acknowledges Jeremiah in that verse as a person. He didn’t say he saw a clump of cells. He saw Jeremiah right and when we think about clumps of cells in it, in it, in an in a pro abortion argument, because that comes from the other side, we’re biologically speaking we’re all clumps of sales some of us are just bigger clumps than others. But we’re really just an amalgamation of sales, right. So we see purview, we see personhood, and then we see purpose because he called Jeremiah, he said he said I appointed you as my prophet to the nations, so he had purpose even from the womb. And all of us do too. Now what that purpose is, we have to sort and sift that out as we live and grow and become more knowledgeable about God and self. And we got to stop doing this hierarchical comparison. You know, if a person’s a preacher, or if they’re a doctor, or if they’re a janitor, or if they’re a crossing guard, if they’re serving God and leaning into life and the lives of people with him, with his truth bubbling out of them, it’s of equal significance in the economy of the Kingdom. So what are we asking pastors to do? We’re asking them to pray into abortion, right? I speak in front of a lot of audiences, banquets, conferences, seminars, college campuses. And I ask from time to time for a show of hands. And i offer this to whoever ‘s listening to the podcast, a show of Hands of who prayed today for an end to abortion. I didn’t ask, do you want to see abortion ended? I didn’t say, do you feel that abortions wrong? I said, did you pray today for an ending of abortion? And most people can’t raise their hands. Do they ever pray? Yeah, I’m sure they do. But the question was, did you pray today? Why am I saying that? I’m saying that because prayer is one of the most underutilized weapons of our warfare as Christians we do not pray enough, right? The great EM Bounds, who wrote more volumes on prayer than any theologian I know, he said this. He said the greatest travesty regarding prayer is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. Prayers that you didn’t even lift the God. So we’re asking for praying for an end to abortion. Second thing we asked the preachers to do, pastors to do is to preach that life comes from God and that it’s sacred and it should be protected. Now some pastors and i trained pregnancy center directors about this all the time. Don’t fall out of your chair when the pastor says he’s not ready to preach a full-fledged pro-life sermon. Let’s starting with baby steps, they say well, what baby steps? Well, when you preach the gospel and you give an altar appeal at the end, you list things that God can forgive people from, right? If you’re a liar, if you’re a gambler, if you’re this, if you’re that, simply add to that list. If you’ve had an abortion, God can forgive you. I’ve talked to so many men and women, Jacob, that God used that simple but powerful statement as the catalyst to start them toward their healing. So pray, preach, and then promote. And we asked them to promote our Jeremiah One and Five project from a pastor to pastor perspective over a cup of coffee sitting across the table in a coffee shop. We’re friends, we golf together, we fish together. You know me. But we’re talking about this controversial topic, and that’s very different than somebody hollering at them.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that’s really good. Yeah, I would just add one more step, I guess right after the word prayer, I guess peacefully wait or you know, essentially having 5 minutes of not talking and seeking God’s voice and direction. I feel like that’s one of the ingredients of prayer I recently learned a few years ago as part of hearing God’s voice and I feel like that’s really important after praying something. Or you know? Talking to God, to have that peaceful, quiet time to try and give, you know, essentially to try and stop talking in my head, and primarily to then give space for God’s voice to resonate and to be heard.
Arnold Culbreath :
That that’s good. I appreciate that and I can I affirm that if you’re going to pray concerning who it is God would have you to speak to i’m talking to pastors now what pastor God would have you to speak to about this truth. You’re going to have to get quiet and you’re going to have to listen to us as to The Who because he knows who’s ready and who may be receptive you know and he’ll lead and his and he’ll got and that’s good point you raised. When we talk about prayer, most of our prayer in Western culture is talking. But if God is omnipotent, not omnipotent, that means all powerful if he’s omniscient. He knows all things. Then why am I taking all the prayer time talking to him i need to shut up and listen to him. Maybe that’s why he gave us two years and went out.
Jacob Barr :
It’s more it’s a it’s a good dialogue like you know part of. Positionship with anybody is talking back and forth and so you know he says I heard I say he, you know, essentially I think there’s that back and forth that is really important. And very often I feel like i was raised in a prayer life where I would talk to God, but I wasn’t there to receive. You know, I wasn’t there i you know, I would just keep talking. I was one of those friends that would never shut up. I would just keep talking and talking.
Arnold Culbreath :
And you know what’s powerful, Jacob, is I really think God will take this part of the segment and really prick people’s hearts, because if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us do that. Who wants to interface with a friend that you can never get a word in?
Jacob Barr :
Exactly yeah. My wife’s on the phone sometimes with a friend who talks for like an hour, and I and I know who it is because my wife doesn’t say anything she just kept her listening.
Arnold Culbreath :
You can sit the phone, you can set the phone down in another room and go walk up the dishes and they don’t even know you’ve gone. And sometimes that friend we’re describing is US.
Jacob Barr :
Yes, exactly. And that’s that was my prayer life for many, you know, for a long time that was how I knew to pray. And so I think that’s an important lesson that I learned and I would like other people to have that experience that they haven’t had it yet.
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s something that’s worth pursuing and finding, yeah. So I think you have, I think you have content for a couple of segments quite frankly well.
Jacob Barr :
And hopefully someone enjoys, yeah, doing the treadmill or the dishes while listening to this longer piece. But before we wrap things up, I want to ask, so you mentioned in that letter back, you know, Margaret Sanger’s letter. She was asking for funding to pay for ministers to influence the African American community back then. I think she also, in that same letter, she said she marked the opposition back then as her enemy. And so that was interesting that she used the word enemy back in 1939 But going back to that money piece you mentioned that Planned Parenthood had given like fifteen hundred dollars to a pastor or a church potentially buy an influence that’s a lot cheaper than having someone on staff. And so I’m wondering today and i don’t think you have the answer to this, but I’m posing the question of I’m wondering today what financial? Sewing is Planned Parenthood doing in churches today. But they definitely have a lot of allegiance just generally speaking from different people who have the you know, essentially Planned Parenthood. You know, the allegiance of Planned Parenthood in spite of what they do seems to be quite strong and so there’s a lot of work there’s a lot of change that needs to be taken that needs to take place for that to. For the ship to turn around or for things to change. But at the same time, I think, yeah, I think it starts with prayer. It starts. And then I think that listening piece will give people confidence when they hear God’s voice tell them to do something or speak to something. I think the confidence will be there beyond anyone’s ability to shake them the confidence of what they should do. And so I think there’s a lot there, but I’m wondering, like, what is? Yeah is Planned Parenthood still sowing and I think the answer is probably yes, but I don’t know the answer to that.
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, they’re definitely, they’re definitely still sowing and going back to the statements we made earlier about abortionism, political Planned Parenthood is unapologetic, arrogantly so, with who they are, what they’re about, no apologies. They have arguably one of the most deeply funded, aggressive lobby bases of any facet of the political spectrum. I mean, they’re lobbyists and their reach, you know, persuading and quote unquote buying politicians is off the chart. So while we’re sitting back talking about, well, it’s not political. They’re moving the ball down the field consistently because they understand the power of politics. I love the fact that in the pro-life movement we have battalions that their focus is on politics. Ok, let me just give up let me give an analogy of how God has shown me a perspective on what he’s called me to do in the pro-life movement. I tell pregnancy center directors this all the time. It’s a lot like they are the infantry on the battlefield in the foxhole. Ok, so mortar fire is going overhead. You’re firing at maybe an you can’t see. And in the foxhole next to you a soldier is dead. You know, ’cause he’s he or she has been shot. So it’s like you don’t know whether you’re winning or not you’re despondent, you’re overwhelmed, you’re fearful. And one of the things God, I feel the Holy Spirit right now, one of the things I feel like God has called me to do is to be the Air Force. And what I do is national and international, so I can see the whole battlefield. And it’s like we’re winning. The enemy is running. Don’t stop engaging. The other thing I try to do with the help of the Holy Spirit is the challenge pro lifers i’m in meetings with national heads of national pro-life organizations, closed door meetings and they’re bickering back and forth like little kids. What are they bickering about? They’re bickering about because our niche is adoption. And if you’re not doing adoption, then you’re missing the boat. And this other organization, well, we’re sidewalking counselors. If you’re not out on the sidewalk, then you don’t get it, you know and this other organization is saying it’s like and I every time I’ve gone to those meetings, I get to the point where I’ve had it up to here. And I stand up and I passionately, strongly, unapologetically and diplomatically challenge all of them. Because if we’re a football team and all of us are quarterbacks, we going to lose the game. We need somebody catching the ball. We need somebody blocking. We need somebody putting the stripes on the field. We need somebody cheering with pom poms. We need somebody in the doggone concession stand making hot dogs. Everybody’s got work to do, and when we do it together, particularly across color lines with the racist tentacles of abortion in the black and Hispanic community, we can. We have the opportunity to simultaneously do damage to the principalities of abortion and racism at the same time.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah that’s really good i appreciate that those thoughts. I want to back up one step and ask. So when you were saying lobbyists, I. It spurred me to think so Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry hasn’t just sent lobbyists maybe to the in the political sphere. I sort of feel like when they sent that minister to the African American, you know, using the African American pastor to essentially see, well, essentially. It’s almost like they brought a lobbyist to a group. Like they essentially bought like a lobbyist to try and negatively influence a group using their weakness, which was love of God. It just feels so evil. Like it’s i have a hard time understanding, like how they can take something so, you know, something so beautiful as a pastor. But then to essentially warp a pastor into being something that’s not a pastor of the gospel but a pastor of you know, based on their agenda and it just. I feel like they have, you know that it feels like they, you know, they’ve gone too far by trying to leverage a religious pastor by to weave their message in such a way that like I feel like that should have been, you know.
Arnold Culbreath :
Out of bounds or because it’s just like, well, I mean think about it Jacob, if your, if your business model if your source of revenue is killing babies i mean what What’s beyond what’s beyond? Well, I hear what you’re saying but what’s beyond reason let’s shift gears off of the for a moment and I’m not taking anything away from what you just said. Let’s let that stand and let that simmer, right. But let me shift gears when we think, when I think about some of the intentional tactical strategic methodology that Planned Parenthood uses, they’ll get young women who are all into, you know, my body, my choice, who are all particularly right now, I’m specifically talking about young African American, militant young women, right. And they pump them with their talking points and when we did when we debated Planned Parenthood at the N double ACP meeting in Cincinnati ohio is what is a young white woman who was over Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio at the time and she had three young black girls with her all of whom had been drinking the proverbial Planned Parenthood kool-aid And we’re spouting off the point and the those older, I call them church mothers in the audience that we had educated over the course of a couple of years, they would just, they know how to how to tighten you up politely, you know, because they’ll say now baby, let me explain something to you and then they just shut you down with love. You know, it was, it was amazing to watch. But when we did the regional black family reunion, which is a big festival that happens in our city every year and there’s music there, some local acts, some national acts, there are vendors there, there’s clothing, there’s perfumes, there’s ice cream, there’s funnel cakes, all of that. And that happens every year around the country. But we do it here in Cincinnati and down through the years. I’ve had a booth there, a truth booth if you will bring information with people putting resources in their hands. And one year I brought in I’ll Be the King catherine Davis, Dean Nelson ryan Bomberger these are all my friends and we brought them in to do an episode of our A pro-life television show. At the time I was working at Life Issues Institute with Doctor Jack Wilkie and Brad Mattis and this pro-life show facing Life head on i brought them in to film an episode at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. And then after we filmed, we went over to the black family reunion and these pro-life giants that I just told you about, who were my close personal friends, worked the booth for a while. So Albeda and all of them will love that I told this story, Albeda said. We need to go down and visit the Planned Parenthood booth and I’m you know I’m radical i’m like let’s go you know so I had volunteers there that were working the booth and we went down to and again it’s the here’s my point it’s these young African American militant they’re educated they’re articulate they’re just misguided who are working in this booth and Alvie and Catherine and Ryan particularly just commenced to lovingly diplomatically shut them down bro. And i mean as far as debate and as far as conversation and offering them some truth and offering and it’s interesting to watch the dynamics because one of them or maybe two of them will be strong and will almost like be the leader. And the other ones that are there are really kind of going along almost like sheep because this because the because the leader is the most vocal but you’re they’re starting to listen they’re starting to ask questions Does that make sense And it’s amazing to watch but I’m just saying that to say when we talk about lobbying as a concept not so much literally even though what I meant originally was Planned Parenthood literally has lobbyists on Capitol Hill and at in our state houses working the legislators of our State House as well but you defined pastors as a type of lobbyists but now I’m adding to that mix those young militant. Yeah, that it’s powerful, man.
Jacob Barr :
And that might be their modern day lobbyist is essentially hire younger people of influence.
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s exactly what it is. And one of the things I’ve been telling folks in my camp frequently is that we’ve got to get to the historically black colleges and universities and educate these young people because millennials are, particularly millennials of color, are more often than not very justice oriented, you know, And if we don’t give them some biblical accurate grounding, they’re going to spin off seeking justice concerning whatever the matter may be. And what we’re finding is they’re pushing for an injustice, a justice agenda. That’s different than what you and I are saying, because their mindset is the rights of the woman. When Roe versus Wade came into play and abortion became legalized. Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry then pivoted and begin reaching out to the black community because the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King and others were starting to die off and they attached themselves to the civil rights movement i’ll Be the King will tell you this story from the perspective of these are your rights. You don’t want anybody taking away your rights. This is your body and you and I know that. Ok, yeah, you got some rights, but doesn’t that preborn baby according to the Constitution. Again, I’m talking politics, have unalienable rights, you know, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. The other thing is when you talk about, and I’m not a pro-life apologist, I have many friends who are. I just know the scriptures and I know logic. If we’re not even talking about your body, I mean, you know, the baby inside has his or her own DNA. Oftentimes, they’re a different gender than you are growing on the inside so when you say my body, my choice, I’m not arguing about your body. I’m arguing about the body that’s growing inside of your body.
Jacob Barr :
That’s a good point. Yeah, I like that.
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah but most times, people come to the conclusion that because I or others are saying what I’ve been, we’ve been saying in the course of this podcast that we are unfeeling we are insensitive that’s not what we’re talking about. My wife and so many others will tell you that you might go and have this abortion that you think is the solution to your problem and it will haunt you and hunt you down for decades. Jacob i had a woman in my church, one of the churches i’ve had the privilege of being a lead pastor in several churches, and one of the churches that I pastored. I had this woman who I was trying to get her to fit into a ministry role, right? And I tried her in the choir because she had a good singing voice and she just kind of wreaked havoc in the choir. Then I moved her over into another ministry area and she wreaked havoc over there. And she was such a lovable sister she was just broken, if you will so i had the presence of mind of appreciating and utilizing licensed professional counseling beyond my capabilities. Most pastors are not licensed professional counselor. They teach us some counseling tools and tactics in seminary, but not like a licensed professional counselor. So I encouraged her over the course of a month ago at first she didn’t want to go. She started avoiding she didn’t want to talk and then she finally said OK, pastor because she loved me and trusted me you talked about this earlier, she said I’ll go. And this particular Christian licensed professional counselor, after about 3 sessions, was able to unlock for her, but not one, not two, but five abortions she had that she had stuff down so far that she didn’t even attach that to. Not being able to keep a job, not being able to maintain a marriage, running through relationships, bad decisions. But you got all of this volatility and brokenness that you’ve stuffed down. So when I work booths at various events and a young person, or maybe a not so young person comes up to me at the booth and they’ve had an abortion, most of the time you don’t have to say anything because they’re doing all the talking and they’re trying to convince you that what they did was the best thing for them. And it helped me in this way or that way. And they just keep talking and it starts to get more and more sad and more and more bitter. And before you know it, they’re in a puddle of tears and you haven’t said anything why? Because their conscience is condemning them. They need the love and the grace and the mercy of God to break out of that. yeah.
Jacob Barr :
That’s really well. I really appreciate your time and you speaking on this, you know, these dark difficult topics. And I and I’m really excited to share this with people that to hear this story, these stories and this insight and I think, yeah and I pray that God will speak to people and that people will. Yeah listen to for his voice and his direction so they can know what he’s calling them to do.
Arnold Culbreath :
Amen and if I go back to the example I gave of my wife and I shared a story about my wife because I have permission to do so. And OFT times my wife is with me. I started her out in small settings sharing her testimony she hated it she was terrified. And then I start pulling her on to even national platforms and she would share we’ve done the heartbeat International Conference with thousands of pregnancy centers from across the nation. And she gave her testimony, and now God is using her to your point in a. At the pregnancy center on a daily basis, sharing her testimony but here’s what I really want to say. When I shared the statement about her having an abortion 2 years before we met, that wasn’t with me. I’ve never been involved in an abortion. This was with some other young man who I’ve never met. I came alongside of her in relationship and you know, and was able to walk alongside her, you know, to get to this point i don’t take the credit i give God the credit. But we had never even heard of post abortion counseling, you know, for years. She’s just studying the word of God, wrestling with her own guilt. She pray for forgiveness and believe she received forgiveness. And then she spiraled back into depression and things like that because she, you know but once I worked at Life Issues Institute and I learned about post abortion healing, she was able to go through forgiveness and set free and it changed the game. Yeah, powerful.
Jacob Barr :
Stuff that is powerful that and that’s and it’s beautiful to see how I mean God calls all of us from death to life or from broken pots, the pots that can hold something or from, you know, from ashes to beauty, from. You know, and from, you know, from post abortion to healed or from to restored and I think, I think that’s the common story of God’s calling is that we’re being called from. Yeah, from death. You know, essentially without Jesus, we’re all dead. And then Jesus is the.
Arnold Culbreath :
He’s the Conqueror of death, and He can just breathe life into us, making up so that we have eternal life, which is just so good. Yes, it is. And I’ll tell you as we’re wrapping up for those that might be listening, You know, my dear friend Father Frank Pavone, who is the founder of Priest for Life, he says that you don’t choose the pro-life movement, it chooses you know, so all of us have stories as to how we got into this work i don’t know many people that wake up in the morning and say I want to deal with the volatility and push back or revolving involving abortion i don’t know anybody that does that. But he thrusts us into this work. And you might be listening to this podcast right now, but God is stirring your heart while you’re listening. And I just want to let you know, you don’t have to have a title. You don’t have to have a business card. You don’t have to have a ministry. You just have to have a heart and respond obediently to the spirit of God. And he’ll blow your mind with the opportunities, the influence and the impact of him using your life to touch others oh.
Jacob Barr :
That’s good. I think we’ll end right there i think that I think that’s it.
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s the mic drop.
Jacob Barr :
Because I think. You know, because honestly, like that’s, you know, if when God calls you to something, that’s what you should do it’s not based on what you decide you should do it’s based on God’s calling. And when God calls you can have confidence that that’s where you need to invest your time resources and efforts into answering that call.
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s so powerful Jacob and I like the way Bill Bright the late Bill Bright you know the founder of a Campus Crusade for Christ says is find the thing that God is doing and do that because that’s already blessed. So when you look at this pro-life work, you know what I do i just kind of stepped into this stream and then the current carried me because this is, this is an area that’s majorly on the heart of God if he’s the creator, a giver of life, then we’ve got to be involved defending and promoting life. And i love going back and talking to young people and not so young people i just had a mentoring session with a young man yesterday about the relationship that he’s in, you know, and if I can just be raw for a minute. Yeah, he is. You know, he’s in this relationship with this young woman and he’s made his determination that he’s not going to have intercourse until he gets married right but he’s doing everything else, you know, that quantifies as sex. So we’ve got to talk to young people pre abortion and equip them people say, well, you know, abstinence education doesn’t work no, abstinence education works i mean, if you’re not having sex, the chances are pretty good that you won’t get pregnant, right? It’s not the abstinence education that doesn’t work. You ain’t working the abstinence education.
Jacob Barr :
That’s the right way to say it.
Arnold Culbreath :
So we’ve got to have these conversations with young people we have to help them. Young men understand. It doesn’t make you cool. It doesn’t make you a man because you got all these sexual conquests under your belt it makes you a fool. You know what I’m saying? So I love having conversations in a room full of men. And we’re talking about everything you and I just talked about. Because think about it. The woman is the carrier of the egg. The man is the carrier of the seed. So if we can get men to stop slinging seed all over town, right four five six ten baby mamas, we can shut the abortion industry down. Yeah, and that’s another podcast, brother, I think to.
Jacob Barr :
Summarize what this podcast is doing is I feel like we’re encouraging pastors and for people of you know, young 2020 year old, 30 year old influencers along with pastors to essentially counter the. Not just the ministers that Planned Parenthood hired back in 1939 but also to essentially counter the lobbyists, the pastors, the ministers, the lobbyists, the young influencers. We need pro-life young people, pro-life You know, essentially Jesus loving ministers to counter that message and to essentially and then leveraging that doorway of abortion restoration and abortion healing. And listing that off as one of the sins that God’s calling us to find healing from as and weaving that in so that it becomes it has more light shone on it. And helping people tell those tell the stories of their healing and helping people find healing and helping them tell those stories is shining light in these dark spaces in our past that will then not be so dark because they’ve got Jesus’s light restoring.
Arnold Culbreath :
That part of our of our lives, that’s powerful you say that Jacob, because when you think about the power of testimony, right again, I’m a quote revelation 12 and 11. We overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb we’re talking about the shed blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God and the word of our testimony. So when my wife first start sharing her testimony years ago, she was terrified she hated it she didn’t push back or fight me as a result of it but there were times when I would go places and she would say, I don’t didn’t make me say anything today. And I would, I want to respect that. I want to move at the pace that you’re comfortable with. But over the years of doing that consistently, she’s become more confident. She’s become more centered. She’s become more convinced of the love and the grace and mercy of God. And she’s become more determined to share her testimony with other people. So there are men and women that are listening to this podcast right now who have had multiple abortions and they’re like man A and I want to get healed from this. And B, I’d love to be able to share this with my friends and colleagues. So i pray that God uses this podcast to catapult them into this incredible area of opportunity in their lives. All of us already have spheres of influence. Maybe your influence is local. Maybe somebody’s influence is national maybe somebody’s influence is international. That’s not important. What’s is are you using that avenue that sphere of influence for good and for God? That’s the key.
Jacob Barr :
Everyone’s got their circle, you know, the people that they talk to and that and that they have a voice in those people’s lives. And we just want more people to, well, to be at a point where they can share their story and for it to be heard and for it to have a positive influence on those people in their circle.
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah and you know, I know we still keep, we keep saying we’re stopping and we keep going. When men have these kind of conversations with men, I’m talking about older men having it with younger men. It is so powerful because the lies that we’re told in the locker room and on the bus and through the media that you’re less than a man if you not one colloquialism is in. You know guys will be dating a young girl and the and the fellas I have man you hit that yet, man come on man you better hit your knees and pray You talking about hitting that. You know what I’m saying? Don’t you respect her enough that’s somebody’s daughter. You know what I’m saying that that’s eventually going to be somebody’s mother and you talking about hitting that you know that doesn’t make you a man you know, and we’ve got to get to a place where we have those kinds of uncomfortable, candid but necessary conversations 1-1 with another.
Jacob Barr :
That’s really good.
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah i’m trying, with the help of the Holy Spirit. I’m trying to make virginity cool again, Jacob, because that’s God’s best. That’s what the Bible talks about. I was talking to this woman one time. That was at a conference. Sad to say, it was a church conference again we’re talking about Planned Parenthood wiggling into the church. This is a church conference. And before you go into the breakout sessions, there’s a huge fishbowl with condoms in it. And some of the women are going into the session, grabbing in the bowl, putting condoms in their purse and they’re going in. So I’m watching this and i’m moved to tears, literally. And this one woman comes out, I didn’t want to talk to just anybody and everybody i’m like, God, show me the right person to talk to so I’m talking to this woman. And I said, ma’am, I saw you take some of the condoms i said, can you talk to me about that? She said, Oh yeah, I got, I got two young sons, you know, and they’re in their teens and they starting to starting to feel themselves and all this kind of stuff, you know and she said, she said, I want them to be prepared. I said what can you say some more about that? She said, well, you know, boys are going to be boys and I just, you know, if he, if he finds himself in a sexual encounter, I want him to, I want him to wrap himself up. You know, we know what that means put on a prophylactic. And I told him, he said, I said, ma’am, I hear you i said, but when you say boys will be boys, this is a church conference. You’re a follower of Christ. You’re a student of his word. I said let’s teach him the word of God. And I can’t find in the Bible where it talks about wrapping it up, but I can find in the Bible where it talks about zipping it up. Could it be that we teach them how to keep themselves? I’ll use my son for an example he’s now married to my wonderful daughter in love and graced us with our youngest granddaughter, Justice, Right? Working with him in his teen years, putting him in accountability groups with other young men, Their National Honor Society students. There’s their letter athletes, good looking young men, put them in that group of accountability and then you mentor them from afar and sometimes up close as a dad and you challenge them to challenge each other, right? So when they’re dating young women, let’s bring that in a public setting. You going to spend time with her? Do it at McDonald’s. You know. Don’t be down in that basement and you know her mother’s not there. You know what’s about to go down, right. And they challenge one they call one another hey man, i’m getting weak. You know and they’ll get in their cars and drive over and getting and spend time with him. Let’s go to the arcade or whatever you understand. So there are practical and real ways to avoid some of this risky behavior and it doesn’t make you a nerd to me. It makes you cooler than ever. When you intentionally keep yourself like that, you distance yourself from people that aren’t living that way. I’m not talking about in a in a judgmental kind of way. I’m just saying you’re not moving in the direction I’m moving in. I need to pull myself close to some people that have the same goals and focus as I do. Are you understanding what I’m saying? And it works. So he did not and I’m giving God the glory, but I’m also patting my son, who’s 28 years old now, patting him on the back. He never had sex until his marriage bed. That’s cool, man. Not that’s. Awesome 1415 young women mental and emotional scars you have or maybe some uncurable sexually transmitted infection. Are you understanding what I’m saying? This is what young people need to hear. That does not make you cool. It makes you a fool. Yeah, man, I feel like I need to live for offering, brother we hey, they need to chew the organ, man, ’cause we preaching up in here, brother. Oh, that’s good
Video Version: https://youtu.be/MfNjjQRtMYM
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