Pandora’s Box

In 1956, a popular game show was on television.
The show featured a panel of four celebrities.
The panel had to identify a contestant with an unusual occupation or experience.
There was a central character and two imposters pretending to be the central character.

The celebrity panel questioned the three contestants.
The panel needed to determine who was lying and who was telling the truth.
The two imposters were allowed to lie but the central character must always tell the truth.
All three contestants were believable.

When the questioning was complete the panel determined who was telling the truth.
The announcer simply said, Will the real ______please stand up?
After each pretended to stand and then sit, the real central character finally stood up.
The central character was revealed.

I watched To Tell The Truth as a little girl.
More often than not, I was wrong in my assumption.
The imposters did a good job of pretending to be someone else.
The imposter’s story was very believable.

A modern-day version of To Tell The Truth needs to be played.

The Senate is ready to vote on a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood.
Companies that once supported the organization are walking away in droves.
The Pandora’s Box has been opened.
Will the real Planned Parenthood please stand up?

Pandora’s Box is an artifact in Greek mythology.
In reality, Pandora’s Box was not a box at all but rather a jar.
The jar contained all the evils in the world.
Opening a Pandora’s Box has far reaching consequences.

It may seem like a small thing to open a Pandora’s Box.
However, in reality, it is usually detrimental.
Once opened, the contents are unleashed.
Once opened, the contents cannot go back into the box.

Often when the contents are spilled and cannot go back into the box, someone is blamed.
Usually the blame goes to the messenger who opened the box in the first place.
That tactic seems to be the time-honored emotional response to unwelcome news.
However that method is not very effective.

Don’t shoot the messenger is appropriate here.

The Center for Medical Progress is the messenger in this case.
A series of four undercover videos has been released.
The evils of Planned Parenthood have been unleashed.
The contents that have been hidden for so long have now been spilled.

William Wilberforce said it best.
You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.
Never again.
The Pandora’s Box has been opened.

In this case, Pandora’s Box contained atrocities and heinous crimes against children.
The neatly wrapped box has a respectable appearance.
However, we are finding that an imposter was sitting before us all the time.
Will the real Planned Parenthood please stand up?

Planned Parenthood has been uncovered and we the people do not like what we see.
We the people have finally been awakened.
We are offended and angry and know that we can no longer hide our heads in the sand.
However some people want to shoot the messenger that brought all this to light.

Planned Parenthood is angry and trying to do damage control.
Planned Parenthood’s PR firm is now getting involved.
They are asking reporters not to air the undercover videos.
The White House has called the undercover videos fraudulent.

The Pandora’s Box has been opened.
What are we going to do about it?
We can call, we can write letters to our elected officials: the 5/10 rule.
Five phone calls and/or ten letters is all that is needed to get an official to pay attention.

We the people can do this!
We the people can speak up!
We the people have a voice and can affect change!
We the people can make a huge difference!

Our future is at stake.
The future of our children is at stake.
We have allowed the murder of entire generations of children on our watch.
We allowed it to happen as Pandora’s Box sat respectably on the shelf.

Now the Pandora’s Box is seen for what it is.
It is hideous.
It is evil.
We don’t want it on our shelf any longer.

In the mythological story, all the contents were thought to have escaped Pandora’s Box.
All except one thing that lay at the bottom.
Elpis, which is usually translated HOPE, was still laying on the bottom of the jar.
Hope was still there.

Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:24,25)

We the people have hope.
Our Hope is in the Lord Jesus.
Our Hope is in the Giver of Life.
Our Hope is in the One who told His disciples, Let the little children come to Me.
(Matthew 19:14)

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible to God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedeck. (Hebrews 6:18-20)

The Hope we have may be at the bottom of the jar, but it is still there.
The Hope is still there because of Jesus.
This Hope, our Soul Anchor, will keep us firm and secure.
Pandora’s Box has been opened but evil does NOT have the last word!

We the people must speak against this evil.
Our nation cannot be blessed with blood on our hands.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of My sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”  (Isaiah 1: 15-18)

Hope is at the bottom of the jar.
God is God; God is Sovereign.
Will the real ______please stand up?
We will stand for imposters no longer.

Hope is at the bottom of the jar.
____________________________________________________________________

Addendum: While a majority of Senators voted to end funding of Planned Parenthood, the final tally failed to meet the 60 vote threshold to stop the flow of tax dollars.
(Michael Geer, president – Pennsylvania Family Council)

Hope is at the bottom of the jar.
We press on!