View this email in your browser

It's Saturday, May 27, 2023.

Today’s edition covers pro-lifers touting a study as proving that women don’t really want abortions, Target’s $9 billion loss amid backlash for its Pride collection, and more.

Your feedback is invaluable. Please submit your comments and ideas here.

If this briefing was forwarded to you by a friend, sign up here.

Of Christian Concern

PRO-LIFERS CLAIM STUDY SHOWS WOMEN DON’T WANT ABORTIONS + OTHER ABORTION NEWS

LifeNews.com reported last week that a recent study “shows 70% of abortions are coerced or not what women really wanted.” However, the study itself, which surveyed post-abortive women, states that only “one-fourth described their abortions as either unwanted or coerced.” The numbers break down like this: 33% described their abortions as Wanted, 43% as Inconsistent, 14% as Unwanted, and 10% as Coerced. Perhaps significantly, a definition of “Coerced” was not provided in the survey.

In other abortion news, the well-known abortion provider Planned Parenthood is planning to lay off 10-20% of its national workforce (at least 80 people), according to union officials. The decision comes with plans to restructure the organization’s national office and invest $70 million in its affiliates.

Meanwhile, a small abortion pill info site called “Plan C” tweeted last week, “Hey, Kentucky, abortion pills are a thing!” The ad targeting Kentuckians highlighted that having an abortion is still possible even though “Kentucky’s legislature has shuttered Kentucky’s abortion clinics.” In point of fact, abortion pills are still legal in all 50 states.

TARGET LOSES $9 BILLION IN ONE WEEK AMID PRIDE COLLECTION OUTRAGE

After dropping another 1.22% on Friday, Target’s total losses in market value are calculated to be $9.3 billion in the past week. This sudden decline was instigated by controversy that broke out last week about its 2023 Pride collection, which included “tuck-friendly” bathing suits, alleged child-sized LGBTQ apparel, and children’s books with such titles as "Bye Bye, Binary," "Pride 1,2,3" and "I'm not a girl." Some of the products’ designs, it was revealed this week, came from a Satanist-headed UK-based brand called Abprallen.

In response, Target shifted the Pride merchandise in some of their stores from the front to the back. Then, the retailer announced on Wednesday it would be removing some of the items from the collection due to “threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work.” On Thursday, a leaked internal email to employees referred to the previous day as “a very hard day for Target” before stating, “Today brings more reflection, pain and the need for continued care as our team, hometown and world remember the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.”

The retailer’s “worst six-day stretch” in about a year comes amidst other brands also struggling under backlash for trans-related messaging, most notably the beer brand Bud Light, which is now offering to buy back expired cases of beer from wholesalers, which have not sold due to the ongoing boycott.

Also Noteworthy

→ A study by Infinity Concepts found that “Among evangelicals who strongly believe reading the Bible contributes to positive mental health, 60% do not read it daily, and 26% do not read it even monthly.”

→ A survey by NORC at the University of Chicago found that less than half of American adults believe in God without doubts, but almost 80% still pray.

→ A report by Lifeway Research revealed that 86% of Protestant churchgoers want to serve the community outside the church in hopes of sharing the gospel, but only 30% volunteer for any charity outside or inside the church.

→ A 1,100-year old Hebrew Bible, one of the oldest, was sold in an auction last week for $38 million, and donated to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

→ Lionsgate has acquired worldwide distribution rights to “The Chosen,” Dallas Jenkins’ hit series about the life of Jesus.

→ The United Methodist News Service says that more than 3,500 congregations have disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church recently.

→ Pastor Rick Warren has been appointed the first-ever Chancellor of the London-based Spurgeon’s College, which was founded as “Pastor’s College” by Charles Spurgeon in 1856.

→ A therapist, in a video clip viewed on Twitter over 66,000 times, says she believes deconstructing one’s racial identity is “the only real spiritual path of meaning available to white folks.”

→ Pastor Dale Partridge stoked controversy on Sunday when he tweeted that men who love to play video games are tough to respect. He called the hobby “very adolescent,” and said those who love it seem to be “the same men who can’t find time to catechize their kids and lead family worship.” Read responses here.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content by Christian creators.*

→ Cornelius Van Til’s Transcendental Theory of Knowledge: In an episode of the podcast Parker’s Pensée’s, host Parker Settecase interviews Dr. K. Scott Oliphant, professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, on the philosophical ideas of the late, influential, and controversial Christian scholar Cornelius Van Til, who Oliphant knew personally. (Video)

→ Ex-Psychics Warn About A Growing Occult Movement: On her podcast Ex-Psychic Saved, psychic-turned-Christian Jenn Nizza and her guest @MustardSeedHannah (TikTok handle) discuss “star seeds,” an “exponentially growing” occult movement in which people believe they are extraterrestrial beings sent to earth to guide others to enlightenment. (Podcast)

→ The “Latest Scientific Literature” Challenges Darwin: Author and journalist Jason Mattera argues in a recent op-ed that pastors do not need to feel shy about defending creation on account of science, because science itself is bucking Darwinian evolution. (Article)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

The Bible, Briefly

Mark 2:1-12 records how Jesus healed a paralytic who was lowered by a group of friends through the roof of the house where the Lord was teaching. Before He healed him, however, He scandalized the religious leaders present by forgiving the man’s sins: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:5).

As 16th-century French theologian John Calvin observes, since Christ forgave the man after seeing “their faith” (the faith of the friends), the question is often raised, “How far do men derive advantage from the faith of others?”

Calvin points out, “the paralytic could not have obtained the forgiveness of his sins, if he had had no faith of his own,” since “there is no other way in which [Christ] is reconciled to us than by faith.” So, when the writer of Mark relates this forgiveness to “their faith,” Calvin says, there is a synecdoche in the word “their.” A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole, or vice versa. In this case, the reference to the friends is made to represent the whole group, which included the paralytic. So, “Christ not only looked at those who brought the paralytic, but looked also at his faith.”

With this, every believer can relate. This was the paralytic’s moment of salvation, in which he “passed out of death into life” (1 John 3:14), the moment when the blood of Jesus that would be shed on the cross applied to his sins (in his case, retroactively).

And as the late pastor Warren W. Wiersbe comments, “Forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs. It meets the greatest need; it costs the greatest price; and it brings the greatest blessing and the most lasting results.” 

Church History Tidbit

The Martyrdom of Polycarp is an ancient letter that recounts how the bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor, a disciple of the apostle John, was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce Christ.

Written from the church in Smyrna to the church in Philomelium sometime between AD 155 and 168, the letter is one of the earliest authentic accounts of Christian martyrdom. Differences between the account in existing Greek manuscripts (from the 10th century and later) and the account given by the ancient church historian Eusebius (from the 4th century) suggest some details have been added. 

In any case, the letter tells how the elderly Polycarp was tracked down by Roman officials and urged to recant his faith. Refusing, he was ushered into a stadium of onlookers and told, “Swear by the fortune of Caesar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists.” (The Romans referred to Christians as “Atheists” because they did not believe in the Roman gods.) Polycarp turned the phrase back on his opponents, gesturing toward the crowd, looking heavenward, and saying, “Away with the Atheists.” Urged again to renounce Christ, he said, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”

When all attempts to pressure him failed, he was sent to be burned at the stake, fulfilling a vision he’d had earlier. When the flame was lit, rather than consume him, it miraculously formed an arch around him, and rather than burn, his flesh appeared “as bread that is baked, or as gold and silver glowing in a furnace.” Seeing this, the Romans pierced him with a dagger, and “there came forth a dove, and a great quantity of blood, so that the fire was extinguished . . .”

As the letter comes to a close, the church of Smyrna relays their plans to celebrate the anniversary of Polycarp’s death, and sends warm greetings to the brothers in the church of Philomelium.

Read the full letter here.

 If you learned something from this email, please take a few seconds to text “Project1815.com” to a friend. 

More Christians should know more.

Spread the knowledge by sharing  

Project 18:15 with your friends.

Your feedback is vital. The success of this project depends on hearing from you, the reader, with your thoughts and ideas about how this digest can best serve you. Please reply to this email and let us know how we’re doing, and what we can do better.

Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright (C) " target="_blank">unsubscribe