He calls his blog Wrestling with Discipleship, and claims to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, he actually is employed as a minister at the First Presbyterian Church (PC-USA) in Boise, Idaho, but he is more a minister of death than of the gospel, as he praises what he calls the life-affirming “ministry” of Planned Parenthood, while calling baby killers workers of resurrection.
Andrew Kukla’s blog tells of his encounter with a pink sticker that says “I heart Planned Parenthood.” So infatuated with this pink heart sticker of death is he that he plasters it on his profile and writes a blog about it— his tone sounding more like a junior high kid obsessed with stickers on a binder than a person of true conviction.
This launches his public love affair: “I love Planned Parenthood,” he declares proudly. His reasons for “hearting” these workers of death would probably cause Jesus to turn over in his grave— if Jesus were still there. Instead of proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus, this not-so-reverend declares that Planned Parenthood is doing “resurrection work.”
Yep. He says the work of killing babies parallels the work of the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
“I walked out of a meeting this morning at a Planned Parenthood office/clinic and saw a lone protestor holding a sign that said, “They kill babies here.” I have a lot of thoughts about that sign but I will restrain myself. Here is what I thought that is most relevant: This is resurrection work. No, not the sign carrier. The people I love at Planned Parenthood. They are resurrection workers.
“I don’t love why Planned Parenthood exists…. I don’t even like all that Planned Parenthood has to do…. What I love is the dedicated staff of people who are doing the ministry of caring for people. Fighting for people. Fighting for life.”
Kukla’s words are abhorrent to everything that is the true gospel; Jesus declares in the Gospel of John, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10, ESV.)
Kukla’s perverted idea that Planned Parenthood – which steals, kills and destroys life – “has to” kill babies is, in itself, sick enough reasoning, but to call death resurrection is a reminder of the foreboding prophecy of Isaiah which says:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” -Isaiah 5:20 (ESV)
Kukla’s justification of likening the work of Planned Parenthood and its killing of the preborn to the work of God resurrecting Jesus Christ is that, like the work of the real resurrection, abortion services help “remove the stone” of the tomb of humanity the same way the resurrection involved the removal of the large stone that was over the tomb that held the crucified body of Jesus.
“The tomb the women in Mark’s Gospel encounter is not empty. It is full. It is full of mystery and wonder and messenger who tells them that Jesus has be raised from the dead…. And then today it hit me: when I saw that message of death, that what these dedicated people were doing for the lives of those who come to them was EXACTLY that. They were rolling back stones too large to move. They were working hard to remove shame and barriers and replace them with care and nurture. They were promoting life in a place all too often named a tomb. They were resurrection workers.”
He concludes by returning to the gushy junior high school voice:
“I heart Planned Parenthood. I love these people who do not care what others will label them or say about them or even say to them. They care too much about people and too much about life to let hate and ignorance hold them back. “
“Reverend” Kukla may revere the killing of preborn babies and call it the resurrection gospel of Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t make it so.
Black is black even when we choose to call it white. His blog sounds like an excerpt from a dystopian novel in which some controlling leader tries to twist the truth so much that people believe it’s true. Two plus two does not equal five, no matter how many times someone tries to say it so that it sounds true.
Kukla’s position is, sadly, reconciled with the perverted ideas of the PC-USA denomination. This denomination is so anti-life that they would not even consider a resolution which would cause them to simply reflect on the plight of the preborn baby and the plight of the orphan and also to denounce infanticide. If an entire denomination that calls itself Christian is afraid to denounce infanticide, it ought to come as no surprise that one of its appointed ministers would proudly support the number one killer of babies in the nation.
Nor is it any surprise that the PC-USA, and one of its six agencies of church government, is a proud member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice – the “religious” version of Planned Parenthood ideology. But the lack of surprise should not preclude a lack of horror for the perversion of the gospel. Kukla’s concluding line is exceedingly perverse as he sums up the work of Planned Parenthood:
“I love that they live resurrection in a way I only talk about it.”
Truly, it is baffling to comprehend how any person of reasonable sanity and intelligence can call the taking of lives a ministry of resurrection. But that is just what Kukla is preaching from his pastoral pulpit.
