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| From: Abe Books |
By Gretchen Garrity
"You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?
So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God." James 4:4
My friend and fellow writer David Rice wrote a scathing and brutal satire regarding certain political figures' support for Amendment 3: "Prohibit Abortion and Gender Transition Procedures for Minors Amendment" that is on the Missouri ballot for November of this year.
The satire described in visceral detail the spiritual crime of supporting an amendment that pays lip service to pro-life policies, but in reality changes almost nothing of the current state of affairs in Missouri regarding abortion.
While a previous Amendment 3 enshrined the right to abortion in the Missouri constitution, this new Amendment 3 supposedly adds a few restrictions. The "pro-life" movement gladly accepts another round of incrementalism hoping to curtail the murder of pre-born babies at some point in the distant future.
Among other provisions, Amendment 3 states, "...prohibit abortions except in cases of "medical emergency, fetal anomaly, rape, or incest," and permit abortions in cases of rape or incest only through 12 weeks of gestation..."
Do any pro-life proponents believe that there are not doctors willing to provide an abortion on the merest pretext? Who decides what a medical emergency is? Most surgical abortions are procured within the 12-week time frame. Additionally, the majority of abortions now are chemically induced by pills, which are not covered in this amendment.
The bottom line is that abortion will continue unabated in Missouri--without missing a heartbeat. Almost nothing is gained. In exchange for a Yes vote on Amendment 3, supporters will gain a bit on the transgender front (which is already on its way out) and which has nothing at all to do with abortion.
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| Sen. Adam Schnelting |
In essence, we are back to square one on the abortion issue. Proponents on each side of the issue continue on as before, while babies are being murdered and women are being traumatized. The political rhetoric to score points continues on. The fundraising on both sides continues on. The lies on both sides continue on. The status quo remains.
Declaring pre-born babies as persons is a third way of making abortion untenable. See linked personhood bills below.
By affirming the personhood of pre-born babies, it necessarily categorizes abortion as a crime. Committing abortion is committing a crime. This is the crux of the matter. It matters not if a child has been conceived in rape or incest. It matters not if a child is unwanted. The circumstances of a child's conception does not negate the personhood of that child.
There have been several personhood bills introduced in the Missouri Legislature in the last several years. The Republican Majority has been unwilling to seriously consider these bills. Why? Here are several current bills:
No one of substantive thinking and reasoning can credibly deny that our culture is in a death spiral. Abortion, sex trafficking, drugs, transgender ideology, Critical Race Theory (which has jump started white guilt and self-hatred) as well as the breakdown of the nuclear family have been largely triumphant over a weakened Christian culture.
Aside from the Catholic Church, which was valiant in the early years of the pro-life movement but has waned, it is Protestant laypeople who are now propping up the pro-life movement. Pastors are lethargic and cowardly. Sheep without a shepherd are easily scattered.
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| Sen. Rick Brattin |
Abortion, the selling of baby parts, and medical experimentation is big money. Women are often devastated by aborting their children and may end up with further medical issues, as well as the emotional devastation of the decision to kill their child. The sorcery of Big Pharma (the word comes from pharmakeia (φαρμακεία) which is partly defined as magic spells) benefits many ways from abortion.
Back to David's satire, which you can read HERE. He spares no one. Sen. Adam Schnelting, his Chief of Staff Sherry Kuttenkuler Arthaud, Sen. Rick Brattin, Scott Faughn, and Pastor Tom Estes who is Sen. Brattin's Chief of Staff are all rhetorically skewered by Rice for their support of Amendment 3. 
Pastor Tom Estes
Essentially, Rice's satire details the spiritual crime of supporting a constitutional amendment that approves of the murder of pre-born children in certain cases. The moral slicing and dicing it takes to legislatively destroy the Sixth Commandment is indicative of how far Christians and Republicans have fallen.
Realize that Republicans could have passed a personhood bill at any time in the last several years. THEY CHOSE NOT TO. Instead, they are compromising with grave evil. This moral chasm is as great as that of Lazarus and the Rich Man, and it is precisely this that has caused the divide in the Republican Party in Missouri.
Some interesting fallout of David's satire occurred yesterday. A particular champion of conservative values, Lisa Pannett, took great offense at his article. Pannett is one half of the Shield Maidens, who are savvy political pundits (Pannett is a lobbyist) navigating the corruption in Jefferson City.
The graphic physical description of the spiritual sins being committed by politicians who support Amendment 3, was too much for her sensibilities. She took to Facebook to complain. A few others, including former state senator Bill Eigel (who frankly sounded like a prudish school marm) also sounded off at Rice's satire. There was outrage, there was disgust, there was a reactionary gathering of offended individuals, and it wasn't long before talk of a lawsuit was bandied about.
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| Scott Faughn |
The real thing, the physical murder of certain babies that Schnelting and Brattin and Estes and Kuttenkuler Arthaud are willing to compromise with by supporting Amendment 3 apparently pales in comparison to Rice's satire.
No, in the estimation of the self-righteous, Rice's sin is greater, and he must be shut down. Money must be raised to hire lawyers to conduct lawfare. Rice, who has done great work on behalf of Republican causes in Missouri, must be buried.
Sherry Kuttenkuler Arthaud
This is the state of reasoning in Republican circles. I cast about for a reason why the satire triggered a few others. Most of them are quite active in political circles. Perhaps they were concerned they may someday come under scrutiny from Rice's pen. Perhaps they felt compassion for the objects of David's scorn. Perhaps they see an avenue to get rid of this troublesome fellow.
Perhaps some have been traumatized by abortion themselves, whether through procuring one or knowing someone who has. If so, that speaks directly to the emotional damage that abortion inflicts on women as well as their babies.
Prediction: accurate
— The Chivalry Guild (@ChivalryGuild) January 11, 2026
"Just think, my dear ladies, of how many mentally disturbed women we are going have in the United States in the next 10 or 15 years when the guilt of abortion begins to attack the mind and soul."pic.twitter.com/MKYphIXia3
Whatever went on in the minds of those who improperly, unchristianly I might add, decided to publicly attack Rice, it is a very bad look. Pannett had already voiced her objections to Rice in a private chat. He ably defended his satire to her.
Taking it public was a mistake. You won't stop him or others like him from writing stinging critiques of public figures. In fact, you have called into question your own bonafides as darlings of all things conservative.
Jefferson City is a stronghold of spiritual evil. Very few survive it unscathed, uncompromised. Weak-minded Republicans (the majority) are mostly useless. You don't win by playing by the rules of evil systems. You break the system. If you are in Jefferson City thinking you are going to win by playing within the system, you have already lost.
If you doubt that the system can be destroyed, you are an unworthy Republican, let alone Christian. The system, of itself, will eventually fall. All such compromised systems fail in the end, whether you personally do anything about it or not. They flourish like a green bay tree and then are gone. They fall like the Tower of Babel. Failing to accept their Messiah, the Jews saw their temple destroyed within a generation, not one stone left upon another.
The personal, spiritual question for Republicans, conservatives, pro-life advocates is this: What are you doing in Jefferson City if you aren't pulling down strongholds? Where is your moral clarity? If you are more offended by a writer's depiction of spiritual sin than by the abomination of actual abortion, then you should sit down.
And if you find yourself suggesting a lawsuit to shut down free speech, you have become what you purport to hate. I have observed the spirit of compromise that permeates Jefferson City's Republican Party. To compromise with sin is to make yourself an enemy of God.
Committing abortion is committing a sin. It should be illegal as it is the murder of a person. The stuffy Republicans who cannot abide descriptions of visceral spiritual sin but who would advocate for supporters of Amendment 3 over free speech should spend some time in self-reflection. They should withdraw their threats of a lawsuit, not least because they will lose. If they persist, they show themselves to be the comrades of the lawfare crowd.
Above all, they should seek moral clarity. I suggest they open their Bibles at Genesis and commence reading through to Revelation.