Planned Prayer?

It’s not a pre-April Fool’s joke. Starting in March and continuing for forty days, a Planned Parenthood group in Eureka, California, will once again hold forty days of prayer, in cooperation with the Humboldt County Clergy for Choice.1 The pastors will offer “40 different prayers for those involved in the ‘sacred care’ of abortions to continue protecting, providing, and embracing the procedure—including mothers, escorts, [and] abortionists.”2 Of course, none of the forty prayers is for the unborn.

This program makes a mockery of real prayer to the living, life-giving God, who cherishes every soul and unequivocally pronounces woe on those who do not. For instance, “The Lord hates … hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:16–17), and “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).