Thank you for allowing me to share our updates with you and for praying for us. It means a lot to our family to have your prayerful support.
We received notice late July 3rd that all five petitions in our motion to dismiss the case was denied. This was not unexpected, but still another milestone in this surreal journey. You can read the 32 page example of 21st century propaganda here.
As it stands today we are scheduled for trial January 2024.
Now that we are going to trial at least one of the defendants in our case received a plea deal today. Their offer required pleading guilty to both counts. In exchange he would receive no jail time and three years of parole with the same restrictions we are all under currently based on our pretrial release. He could not stand outside an abortion clinic and minister to moms in need for three years. He declined. To put this in perspective, and I think most of the defendants are on the same page, this would be agreeing with a deception on a grand scale.
This is the mistake many January 6 folks have made and the reason we keep seeing news headlines saying over 800+ convictions related to the "insurgence" is because the government has a big stick and can make your life miserable. So the majority of J6 defendants did not commit a crime worthy of any jail time and certainly not a felony. But when the prospect of 10 years in federal prison has been hanging over you for more than a year and you are offered 30 days or parole, it seems like a victory. But when the defendants do this they become complicit in the government's lies.
When you consider the truth of the narrative in our case, the government has already arrested and harassed us for doing the job they should be doing. We were defending the helpless, the weak, the needy, the fatherless... the orphans. This is a basic function of government, to reward those who do good and to punish those who do wickedly. Is it wicked to kill unborn children? Is it good to speak up and defend those who can not speak for themselves? These are not hard questions.
The reason we are being punished is because the government has said abortion is a right. Our Creator says it is not a right. We say, as pro-life Christians have said consistently throughout the 50 years of Roe, abortion is murder. We would not agree with the lie regarding the existence of abortion in our nation and we acted like it was killing a child. That is our crime.
This is the heart of the gospel. The apostles were not arrested, beaten, and martyred because they believed Jesus was “a” god. Rome was a polytheist nation. There were temples to different gods all around the city. The issue was not one of allegiance, as much as it was one of authority. Who is Lord? The Greek word translated “Lord” is the word “Kurios”. It means “supreme authority, controller - as the possessor, owner, or master of property.” Caesar made a claim to this title and the Christian’s refused to acknowledge the lie. The issue was, and still is, who owns the earth? Who gets to set the rules for how humanity will function? In short, who gets to define truth?
So to agree with the government's lie regarding the disposition of this case is to give credence to their claim of supreme authority. When they say admit you are guilty they are asking for a false confession. That want us to acknowledge, not that we broke man’s law, but that killing unborn children is good and protecting them is bad. But again, our God says “woe to them that call evil good and good evil.”
He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just,
even they both are an abomination to the LORD. - Proverbs 17:15
The judge said in the denial ruling, "The defendants, though, are not the center of the moral or political universe." In other words we don't get to declare abortion is wrong if the court says it is a right. But what she is missing is we are ambassadors to the Creator of the universe, not just the "moral center of the universe". The very God who created her, and the complete system of justice she makes a mockery of when she puts forward her own opinions as law, is the one we represent. We do not come representing our view, or our opinion, in contrast with her opinions. We come and declare what God has said about his little children. He said it is better that a mill stone be hung around one's neck and be thrown in the sea than to harm a little child. We come declaring what God has said about political leaders and nations. Bow your knee or be crushed. Blessed be the nation, whose God is the Lord. (Psalm 2 & 33)
The take away is this, we do not pray to be delivered, but to be faithful to speak the truth with boldness no matter the cost. Please pray for us, that we might be able to stand in "that day" and give a good testimony to the truth. I think the following passage from Acts 4, shared recently by one of our co-defendants, highlights how you might effectively pray for us in this matter.
Acts 4:23-31
And being let go, they went to their own [companions] and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You [are] God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, “who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD and against His Christ.’
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, “by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.