The 3 - December 17, 2017

This week's edition of my weekly blog post of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance to the Christian community, features some recent encouraging news about the Department of Justice investigating Planned Parenthood.  Also, the Luis Palau Association has ministered on three continents over the past two months.  And, the 2017 special U.S. Senate election for the open Alabama seat yielded an outcome that many thought unlikely just two months ago.

3 - Department of Justice investigating Planned Parenthood

In light of video information indicating that the nation's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, was involved in trafficking body parts from aborted babies, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced that it is investigating the organization.

LifeSiteNews.com stated that Fox News reported that it had "obtained a letter from Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. This letter asked for unredacted documents from that committee, which had been investigating Planned Parenthood."

The LifeSiteNews story quotes David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress that had released a series of videos exposing Planned Parenthood's activity, as saying: "It is time for public officials to finally hold Planned Parenthood and their criminal abortion enterprise accountable under the law..."

The article included a review of Congressional committees:

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced in 2016 that it recommended the FBI and DOJ investigate and possibly prosecute Planned Parenthood, some of its affiliates, and companies involved in the trafficking of young human body parts.

The U.S. House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives also made 15 criminal referrals against abortion companies including Planned Parenthood, universities, and fetal tissue companies.

2 - 1 organization, 2 months, 3 continents of ministry

Over the last 60 days, the Luis Palau Association has been involved in ministry on three different continents, according to a news release from the association, posted at the Christian Newswire website.

The release states:

Evangelist Andrew Palau just returned from Beijing and Huai'an City, China, serving local churches to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the region through special Christmas events. Working directly with local churches and approval from authorities, Palau was met with great openness and joy as he shared the clear message of hope through Jesus Christ with thousands of individuals and distributed 9,000 copies of his Gospel-centered book What is Christmas?.

In October, Palau headed up an evangelistic outreach drawing 65,000 people in the African nation of Ivory Coast, and in November, he preached to 47,500 people in two Argentine cities.

Andrew Palau, the son of evangelist Luis Palau, said: It's been an immense blessing to experience so many different cultures in such a short amount of time," adding, "The beauty of the Church is the diversity and uniqueness of expressions coupled with the unwavering source of Truth that runs through each community of believers. It was wonderful to see the creativity of God in so many ways these past two months and it's been a tremendous honor for us."

The Association will be starting a three-year initiative called, 2020: Blessing the Nations.
 
1 - Moore defeat provokes question of role of faith in election

The race for the U.S. Senate seat from Alabama, to fill the unexpired term of now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, attracted national attention.  A WORLD Magazine website analysis states:

Over the next year, the 49.9 percent to 48.4 percent victory that Democrat Doug Jones gained over Republican Roy Moore will force Republican senators to work with the slimmest possible majority in the Senate, 51-49.

But, the analysis by WORLD editor-in-chief Timothy Lamer, also said:

But in the November elections, they won’t have to defend Moore or deflect attention away from him at a time when public anger is focused on powerful men sexually abusing younger women. Democrats won’t be able to make Moore the public face of Senate Republicans in 2018.

He also pointed out:

It was a close-run race, but the closeness belies a massive swing away from Republicans. Jones won by 1.5 points in a state that Donald Trump won by 28 points in 2016, meaning the state swung 29.5 points in one year. But Jones, a conventional liberal Democrat, didn’t win over Republicans. Moore lost them.

He pointed to lower turnout in Republican areas across the state.

There was polling data that showed the demographic keys to Jones' victory.  According to a Fox News analysis:

Jones carried the day by rolling up strong margins among blacks (93-6 percent), younger voters (62-36 percent), and women (55-43 percent).

Men went for Moore by 10 points (54-44 percent). His greatest areas of strength were working class whites (32-67 percent for a 35-point margin), white men (33-65 percent and a 32-point margin), and white evangelicals (21-77 percent, 56-point margin).

Also, according to this research, 95% of black women and 89% of black men voted for Jones.  CNN exit poll data showed the number at 98% of black women and 93% of black men voting for Jones.

With regard to the impact of allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of Moore, Fox stated: "by a narrow margin, Alabama voters believed the women – by a 49-44 spread. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) said the allegations were important to their vote – and those voters went overwhelmingly for Jones."  The number was over two-thirds of those voters choosing Jones.

I had written in a blog post last Wednesday:

The main struggle for Christian voters, I believe, was the reputation of Moore vs. the validity of the allegations against him. Jones' support of abortion rights made that a non-starter for a number of Christian voters, and saw Moore as more aligned with their position. But, there was no doubt hesitancy when considering the allegations. It certainly became a matter of prayer and critical thinking.

Christianity Today stated, with regard to the evangelical vote:

According to exit polls, 44 percent of Alabama voters Tuesday were white born-again or evangelical Christians (self-identified). In the last two elections with state-level exit polling, 2008 and 2012, their share was 47 percent—making them “the only group showing slight signs of slippage,” according to an analysis by The Washington Post.