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It's Saturday, November 4, 2023.

Today’s edition covers the latest Southern Baptist controversy related to sexual abuse, abortion pill training offered to Tennessee college students, the influential but controversial reign of Charlemagne, and more.

Here’s some knowledge for you.

Of Christian Concern

SOUTHERN BAPTIST ENTITIES RECEIVE BACKLASH FOR PETITIONING AGAINST A SEX ABUSE VICTIM’S LAWSUIT

Image: RosZie

Southern Baptist entities are under fire for filing an amicus brief seeking the dismissal of a Kentucky sexual abuse victim’s lawsuit. The lawsuit, brought by Samantha Killary against a number of defendants who failed to report or prevent her adoptive father from abusing her throughout her childhood, was originally dismissed due to a statute of limitations.

However, in 2017, the Kentucky legislature doubled the statute of limitations, and in 2021, it said “non-perpetrators” such as police, government units, or religious organizations could be sued for neglecting their duties to protect children. In light of these changes, a court of appeals reopened Killary’s case.

Several Southern Baptist institutions, including Lifeway Christian Resources, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the Executive Committee of the SBC, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), filed an amicus brief urging the case to be dismissed, out of concerns for its implications about retroactive litigation. If non-perpetrators can be sued in cases of sexual abuse that occurred prior to the increase in the statue of limitations, the SBC will be at risk in “separate civil action pending in a Kentucky circuit court that involves allegations of childhood sexual abuse dating back to 2003.”

The existence of the brief came to public attention last week, resulting in backlash. Several SBC leaders have responded. SBTS president Al Mohler issued a statement deferring the matter to legal counsel, and SBC president Bart Barber published a lengthy blog post apologizing for approving the brief. Learn more here.

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE STUDENTS TAUGHT TO OBTAIN ABORTION PILLS DESPITE STATE RESTRICTIONS

Screenshot of the Instagram post announcing an abortion pill training on the University of Tennessee campus. (Women’s Coordinating Council / Instagram)

A pro-abortion organization instructed Tennessee college students last month on how to circumvent the state’s anti-abortion efforts and obtain abortion pills. The October 19 training was hosted on the University of Tennessee campus by student group Women's Coordinating Council, put on by pro-abortion organization “Self-managed Abortion; Safe and Supported” (SASS), and led by trainer Maxine Carwile.

During the event, Carwile recommended ordering abortion pills from a website called PlanCPills.org. In audio obtained by Campus Reform, she urges students who get an abortion or help someone else get an abortion to “keep their mouth absolutely, completely shut,” and to tell doctors they are having a miscarriage. She even recommends using private search browsers, encrypted messaging apps, and anonymous VPNs to hide evidence of the abortion. Her justification for taking these actions, despite the use of abortion pills being “legally complicated,” is simple: “We all do crimes, like, everyday.”

Is taking an abortion pill a crime in Tennessee? No, in fact. But some Christian and conservative outlets reporting on the event may have incidentally misled readers on the legal status of self-managed abortions. A Not The Bee headline reads in part, “Tennessee college students [are] taught to illegally obtain abortion pills from Indiana.” The phrase “illegally obtain” may imply that obtaining abortion pills is illegal for the mother who obtains them for herself. However, as the article itself notes, Tennessee law “EXPLICITLY states that women who kill their children are exempt from penalties…”

Readers of The Tennessee Conservative may also have been misled. The outlet reports that “under state law, abortion is illegal in all instances other than [to prevent death or serious harm to the mother], regardless of the manner of abortion, be it by a procedure or by drugs.” However, the referenced senate bill states that the abortion ban “does not subject the pregnant woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to criminal conviction or penalty.” In other words, while performing an abortion for another person is criminalized, abortion is not illegal for the mother.

The article goes on to say, “It is unclear who could potentially be prosecuted if abortion-inducing drugs are obtained through the organization that Carwile recommended to UT students.” But, in fact, the law is clear about who could not be prosecuted: mothers.

Despite mischaracterizations on either side of the issue, the legal reality is that exemption of mothers from legal penalty for self-managed abortions is pervasive in the United States. As Carwile says, “It’s not illegal anywhere to order pills.”

Also Noteworthy

→ Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer Kansas City, steps down  from ministry amid allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse.

→ Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, a church in California that has been ballot collecting for recent elections, encourages other churches to do the same to increase Christian voter turnout for the 2024 election.

→ Homeschooling is the now the fastest-growing form of education by a wide margin, The Washington Post reports.

→ Half of U.S. pastors (51%) are “very concerned” about younger generations (Millinnials and Gen Z) not financially supporting the church in the future, according to data released by Barna and Gloo.

→ Researchers at a symposium in Istanbul present new evidence of ancient human activity, including pottery, at a site which some believe to be Noah’s ark.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content by Christian creators.*

→ I Witnessed A Theft, and I’m A Monster: In a new blog post, creator of Project 18:15 Anthony Langer (yours truly) reflects on a recent encounter with a boldfaced crime, self-righteousness, and moral depravity. (Article)

→ Responding to Apologia Studios: Biblical scholar and radio host Dr. Michael Brown responds to Pastor Jeff Durbin and Apologia Studio’s take on ethnic Israel’s covenant status before God. (Video)

→ All About Lilias Trotter: The latest issue of Christian History Institute’s quarterly magazine focuses on “the life, work, and surprising legacy of an unsung artist an missionary.” (Magazine)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

The Bible, Briefly

Poor Wise Youth vs. Old Foolish King

Photos: Andrea Piacquadio

Take a moment to meditate on Ecclesiastes 4:13: “Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.”

A king is wealthy and powerful. But that doesn’t mean he’s wise. Money doesn’t make a person wise, and neither does power. In fact, even if it took wisdom for someone to become wealthy and powerful, success can have the effect of dulling that person toward what made him successful in the first place.

Likewise, age doesn’t necessarily make a person wise, despite what some parents have been known to say: “I’m older than you, so I know more!” While one would hope that more experience leads to more understanding, it doesn’t always. Why? Because “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding” (Proverbs 18:2a). If someone is a fool, he will stay a fool because he prefers foolishness to wisdom. That’s foolish, but of course it is—he’s a fool. In that way, foolishness is self-perpetuating. Getting older cannot in itself solve that problem. For that reason, an older person can be a fool, and a younger person can be wise.

So, what’s the difference? What does make a person wise? The difference is the ability to take advice.

Proverbs 9:8–9 says, “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Church History Tidbit

Charlemagne and Christianity

A denarius of Charlemagne dated c. 812–814. (Public Domain)

Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great (c.747-814), is considered “one of the most significant rulers in European history.” He was king of the Franks, the Germanic people that “emerged as the strongest military and secular power” in northern Europe in the beginning of the Middle Ages*—and, according to church historian B.K. Kuiper, “the first Germanic tribe to adopt Christianity.”

Charlemagne, himself a professing Christian, greatly expanded the Frankish kingdom through conquest and alliances, unifying western and central Europe for the first time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The combination of faith and force points to a complex interplay between his Christian beliefs, his political ambitions, and the realities of the time. In an era when warfare and conquest were often the norm for expanding territories and asserting power, Charlemagne’s violent expansion of his empire was often framed as an effort to protect and spread Christianity.

One highly significant alliance was with the Pope at Rome, which had “remained the spiritual center of Europe” after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.* In the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor, thereby inaugurating what was later called the Holy Roman Empire. This empire, which again established a government that unified church and state, would remain in place for the next millennium (until 1806), outlasting the Middle Ages (ending around 1500).

Among other achievements, Charlemagne championed literacy, encouraged culture and arts through the Carolingian Renaissance, and laid the foundation for medieval Europe's legal and political systems, with lasting effect.

To learn more about his influential and controversial legacy, read this article.

_____________

*Bill Yenne, 100 Men Who Shaped World History (San Mateo: Bluewood Books, 1994), 34.

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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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all 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.

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