Read the article at Christianity Todays site. Choosing Life at the Movies | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction Choosing Life at the Movies 2007 could be remembered as the Year of Pro-Life Cinema.

I hope you find what I’m reading helpful and entertaining. Please feel free and suggest any reading that has blessed you that will benefit me also. God bless you and enjoy!

The yearly number of abortions has fallen 25 percent in the last 17 years to 1.2 million abortions per year. Almost all of them are for personal reasons having nothing to do with rape (less than 1 percent), incest or the life of the mother. 1.2 million

abortions are still alarming, but it is down from 1.6 million in the early 90s.

Why? Let me count the ways.

First, pro-life education and advancing technologies like ultra-sound, have destroyed abortion arguments. We all know what is in the womb. It’s a someone, not a something; a baby, not a choice, contents of the uterus, products of conception or whatever dehumanizing terms abortion advocates use. The popular arguments for abortion have become an embarrassment in the wake of ultrasound.

Second, the pro-life community’s passion to “love them both” has made a huge difference. While Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates pit the interests of the woman against her child for $400 an abortion 1.2 million times a year, volunteers and donors at Grace Home in Las Vegas, Casa Da Vida in Reno, City of Refuge in Gardnerville, the Carson City, Fernley, Fallon, Winnemucca, Elko, Reno, S. Lake Tahoe and other Crisis Pregnancy Centers and homes for unwed mothers are pouring themselves out to love both the mother and child. Planned Parenthood has no answer for the love of Steve & Sue Wren, Kathleen Miller, Pat Glenn, Carlene Napolitano and others who help these women and their unborn children.

Then there’s post abortion pain and the impact on women. This Saturday pro-lifers from Reno will join over 10,000 people at a rally and march through the streets of San Francisco under the banners “abortion hurts women,” “women deserve better than abortion,” and “I regret my abortion.” Abortion hasn’t worked- because it can’t work, and women are speaking out about it. That’s having a HUGE impact.

That’s not all. University of Alabama Political Science Professor Michael New says that pro-life laws, like parental notification, waiting periods, informed consent and other laws- which do not create an “undue burden” are a significant factor, if not the most important, in reducing the number of abortions, especially among teens. The educational impact of the Partial Birth Abortion Prohibition Act and The Unborn Victims of Violence Act has been huge.

But all of that is bad news to Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates. They oppose all of the measures that reduce abortion. If they had their way, they would shut down crisis pregnancy centers tomorrow. They oppose standards for abortion clinics that would make them comply with other outpatient surgical centers. They oppose waiting periods, parental notification and among other things, informed consent. While most Americans believe that these are necessary for such a life changing decision and that parents have a right to know, Planned Parenthood thinks this is “limiting access to abortion.” What’s more, they support Partial Birth Abortion. So much for making abortion rare. So much for calling us extremists.

There’s something else going on in Nevada- at least in N. Nevada. When I arrived in Sparks as an associate pastor 17 years ago, we could count on Paul Holland, Robert Owens, Herb Ireland, Jim Wallace and a few other pastors to support pro-life efforts, but that was about it. All that has changed. New pastors like my pastor Steve Bond, my pastor Roger Yount, John Jackson, Greg McIntosh (now in Las Vegas), Roger Canary, Joe Taylor, Pat Propster, Fr. Norm King, Fr. Mark Hannifin, Bishop Calvo-the most energetic Bishop I’ve ever seen, youth pastors like Gabriel Rodriquez and Bryan Smith and many other clergy are now in Northern Nevada and supportive of pro-life work. There are many others which would take too long to list.

The encouragement of these pastors is wind beneath my wings.

Well, it’s 25 percent down and 1.2 million to go. That’s a huge number but here’s the most encouraging sign. Young people are profoundly pro-life! There are many reasons, but in 2003 Boston College junior Kelly Kroll told the New York Times that “she is a ’survivor of abortion’ because she was adopted. ‘Myself and my classmates have never known a world in which abortion wasn’t legalized,’ she said. ‘We’ve realized that any one of us could have been aborted.”’ “Surprise mom, I’m against abortion.”NY Times, March 30, 2003.

Our opponents can’t figure this out and are in hysterics. We are going to be roughed up, face setbacks, and suffer some more, but friend, we own the future! Thank you CPC workers, thank you pro-life lobbyists, legislators, pastors, prayer warriors, email list forwarders, letter writers, contributors, encouragers and those of you who support the work. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we are making progress. Let’s keep marching until every child is protected in law and welcome in life.

Don Nelson
Nevada LIFE

Don Nelson
Nevada LIFE

Yesterday Washoe County gave Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in Reno another $190,000 dollars in taxpayer funding. Commissioner Bonnie Weber voted no.

This was the second grant to Planned Parenthood this year. The county previously gave Planned Parenthood $160,000 While other state and local governments are cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, Washoe County has given them $350,000 this year! $350,000!

Planned Parenthood survives and subverts family values, parental rights and goes about destroying the moral fabric of America in large part through the tax payers, whose values and families they undermine. In fiscal year 2005-2006 (p. 16) Planned Parenthood Federation took in over $300 million in tax payer funding in fiscal year 2005-2006 and reported a profit of $55 million. They performed 265,000 abortions (p.6)

The outcome of the meeting was bizarre. Other commissioners, especially Chairman Bob Larkin who blistered the Health Department reps, seemed on the verge of denying the grant to Planned Parenthood when the Washoe County DA attorney told Commissioners that they were REQUIRED by statute to “RUBBER STAMP” the un- elected Washoe County Health Department’s recommendation to give Planned Parenthood the money.

The program aims to reach “high risk” kids (11-18 year olds) through the CDC’s “Street Smart Program.” “By December 31, 2009, (p.7) 70 % of program participants who complete 6 out of 10 sessions will report increased knowledge of the risks associated with unprotected sexual activity.”

Planned Parenthood should not receive one cent of tax payer funding because the sexual crises we are facing are a result of their 40 years of failed sexual policies. They are the problem and cannot fix it. They oppose the two things that are reducing teen pregnancy and other negative teen indicators. Those are abstinence training and parental notification laws. They don’t need the money and taxpayer funds should not be given to organizations that form the backbone of the abortion industry. All funds are fungible and tax dollars given to Planned Parenthood will be used to lobby and litigate for their positions at taxpayer (your) expense.

See our testimony below for other reasons. We don’t care that it was federal money and not county money. Not one cent should go to Planned Parenthood except to file notice that they are leaving town.

What to do: if you are a Washoe County resident, please email the commissioners and tell them you oppose giving tax payer funds to Planned Parenthood. Ask them to explain their vote.

The commissioners have web based email forms. Click on these links to fill in the your message

Commissioner Bob Larkin
Commissioner David Humke
Commissioner Kity Jung
Commissioner Bonnie Weber
Commissioner Jim Galloway

Or send a message to the Commission’s General Email.

Our comments to the Commission on why Washoe County should not fund Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in Reno are below.

Don Nelson
Nevada LIFE

I am frustrated by the DA, but I think she was giving her opinion to the commission.  As the DA she is the attorney for them and advises them.  I do not hold her in contempt.  I am upset by the law which I don’t understand.  The big thing for me is that we are giving money to the very people who are undermining our society.  Even though we lost, it was a foot in the door.  Don’t be discouraged.  We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but this was the first time I can remember someone going to oppose this in this forum.  We learned a lot.  Note, a few commissioners were asking where the faith based applicants to this contract were.  I said that it’s not in our mission, but we hadn’t heard about it.  I also noted that it’s faulty to say there’s a difference between faith and evidence based programs.  It’s not as if Christians don’t rely on the truth, research and etc and that abstinence isn’t scientific… it works.  It’s not as if what we say is not objective.  We are subjective people, but the subjective part is our judgments and values.  It’s the same with Planned Parenthood and their nonsense about “medically accurate” information.  What does that mean?  It’s just a ruse to say you can’t do abstinence.  They make value judgments too.  Their judgment is that their way is better and they want their way to work.  And to be honest, I sometimes wonder if their opinion that young people can’t abstain is a projection of their own failure to do so.  That is, they couldn’t do it, so no one can.  That doesn’t cut it with me.  We’re humans, not animals.  As Morgan Freeman said in Lean on Me, if you treat them like animals, they’ll act like animals.  We have a superior idea/ideology at least in part because we have a higher vision for human beings than they do.  Christ was a sinless human.  He was God the Son, but he was also like us in everyway.  He was more human than me because of his sinlessness.  I’m a Baptist so I don’t think I’m not going to be that perfect man, but if I don’t aim at it and think I can make progress toward it, it won’t happen.

I had a neighbor.  He was my youngest brother’s best friend for a while when they were growing up.  My dad left when I was 11-I was the oldest and it was devastating.  But I remember my mom always saying she expected our best, whatever that would be.  She expected we could do more than we thought.  But my brother’s best friend had a tough time reading, even in high school.  I remember his dad saying one time, “I don’t expect much of anything out of him.”  Well guess what, he didn’t reach his potential.  Neither did his siblings.  He would work occasional labor for my uncle.  I used to be my uncle’s laborer and worked for our plastering company.  It’s a good and honest living.  Anyway, he was accused of stealing valium out of a home we were working on and he never really reached the potential we thought he had.  My brother is the VP of something or other at the largest time share resort in the world… www.orangelake.com.  He’s a total overachiever who hasn’t reached his best days.  He was student body president two times, home coming king.  All my brothers did very well.  I know we don’t all have the same capacities.  I’m not you.  I’m not pastor Roger.  But I can’t help but believe that my mother’s expectations of him had a lot to do with the difference between him and his best friend. 

Mark hits home with this sermon. I just made the decision to have a vasectomy done and for my wife and I it’s been the best things we could have done. I hope that everyone that listens to the sermon gets what I have out of it, that’s that you need to show grace to those that have made a decision that is not yours to make and love them, but also make sure that your conscience towards God is what leads your decision making for you family. God bless and enjoy.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/sermonseries/religionsaves/week_01.aspx

It’s so important that the church and this society teach boys to become men. We need real men that can love God to teach little boys trapped in  men bodies to love and be reponsible. Enjoy the article over at theresurgence.com.

Link >>  Preaching to Smothered Mamas Boys | TheResurgence

The latest Pew Research shows that: Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004. The time spent on the internet amongst teens is up. What that means for the church is that we have to figure out how to bring the gospel to this online world. That won’t be easy, but it’s possible. How? We should learn how to use these tools and master them for the l sake of the gospe. I have seen and heard may preachers who hate change say things like, “we’ll leave it up to the younger generation to figure it out”, well if you’re going to go that route, then expect for your churches to not grow. I think it’s a sin to think that way. But times are changing and we still need to work many of these things out. God bless and leave me your thought.

I will be blogging twice a week now, so stay connected to my feed. You can also find me on Facebook and MySpace. I’ll be updating those profiles often also. Let me know what you think about my new theme and especially my picture of the beautiful “Biggest Little City in the World”, Reno! This is my mission field.

This verse says it all for why I’m called to Reno, NV.

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Jer 29:7

This blog will be my main site to keep you all updated with what’s going on in my life as a Christian, husband, father, leader and missionary to Reno. Also any issues relating the church, youth and culture. God bless and good night.

Watch this video. Every young leader need to get this in their hearts.

Video LINK