Jackson Hole Landslide

Jackson Hole Landslide 
By Jeremy Aughenbaugh,
28 April 2014

Lately, there have been some very interesting events unfolding in Jackson, Wyoming. As some of you may know, there has been a slow and steady landslide creeping down a butte in downtown Jackson along its busiest street for several weeks. As there is shifting in the ground that results in a landslide, I also believe there has been a spiritual shifting over the past several years that continues to leave this small resort community forever changed.

Before 2011, the town Jackson had been harboring Wyoming’s only abortionist with little to no objection from the community. Local pastors would occasionally visit Dr. Brent Blue to encourage him to stop performing abortions but to no avail. There were the annual pro-life banquets and candlelight vigils in the town square. For the most part, those efforts went unnoticed. Pro-life ministry in Jackson, Wyoming was forever changed with the arrival of Operation Save America (OSA) in May, 2011. Jackson had never before had been confronted with the sin of abortion in such a public and powerful way. This message from gentle Christians laying their lives and reputations down to rescue their unborn neighbors was soundly rejected not only by the majority of Jackson’s citizens and political leaders, but also by the church. I noticed things beginning to shift soon after.

Not long after OSA’s 2011 visit, an electrical transformer spontaneously combusted near the Teton Science School, sending fire racing up a butte just outside town limits. It burned for several hours before firefighters were able to extinguish it. In May 2012, OSA and Missionaries to the Preborn came to plead with the town of Jackson to end the sin of abortion. Again, the message was rejected with even more intensity. Several months later, a major wild fire broke out south of town, this time threatening the town itself. It was caused by a resident burning trash in a backyard barrel before darting up the mountainside in a flash.

The smoke appeared so thick that it looked like a mushroom cloud. The air quality in and around Jackson became poor due to the smoke. For some residents, this caused respiratory issues. Residents in the east side of Jackson were put on high alert for an evacuation notice if the fire came any closer to town. Air tankers, helicopters and over 600 firefighters were brought in to subdue the blaze. The fire would go on to burn nearly five square miles of national forest around Jackson and cost nine million dollars to fight. Though it’s not uncommon for fires to occur in this area, a fire of this magnitude threatening the town of Jackson like this one did is truly historic.

There is now a landslide in the town of Jackson adjacent to Powderhorn Plaza, where Abortionist & family practitioner Dr. Brent Blue currently operates. The slide began rapidly moving at the beginning of April, splitting a house at the top of the hill in two making it national news. This has resulted in an entire neighborhood being evacuated leaving residents displaced. Businesses near the slide have been closed, and there has been the threat of underground water pipes bursting that would rapidly flood the area and leave about a third of the town without water. $750,000.00 has been allocated towards the slide by local officials, straining the town’s budget. The Jackson Town Manager said the budget will be affected by the slide for the next two fiscal years. Though the slide has slowed, it is still moving. No one yet knows when or where it will stop. The Governor of Wyoming is planning on inspecting the damage for himself. Thankfully, no one has been hurt.

The cliff itself has been moving slowly for years due to the increased development of the area. Jackson residents have been trying to find the culprits responsible for triggering the recent slide. Some think it’s the businesses or developers that dug into the hill side, some believe it’s the planning engineers, and some have shifted the blame to town and county officials who have issued permits for development. While earth movement and urban development are the usual suspects here, there is an additional factor that should be considered.

I believe the timing of the hillside breaking apart is significant just as with the timing of the two Jackson area fires mentioned earlier. For the first eleven years that I lived here, these things just didn’t happen in Jackson. Now, it seems disasters like these are becoming more common place. We live in a cause and effect world; not only physically but spiritually. The root of these disasters can be traced to man-made causes but they have all occurred after the rejection of repeated public pleas from Christians to end the practice of child murder in the name of reproductive choice in Jackson. Could this be a coincidence? Is God trying to get our attention? The bible says in Leviticus 18:21 “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through to the fire of Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.” It continues in verses 24-25 saying, “Defile not you yourselves in any of these things: for which in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you. And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.” There is a direct connection in Leviticus chapter 18 between the defilement of the land and the abomination of child sacrifice. We have allowed the killing of unborn children in this community for decades. The landslide we’re now seeing is literally pushing people out from across the street where the abortionist’s office is located. I believe we are more vulnerable now than ever before.

As a community, we all share responsibility for this injustice, including me. I knew abortion was taking place in my community for over ten years without making much of a peep. By my silence, I had been an accessory to this injustice. Most of us, if not all of us, know that abortion is taking place right under our noses. None of us can plead ignorance. We will all have to give an account for what we have or haven’t tolerated within our community. Though I believe we are currently on a collision course with God’s judgment, there’s still hope. 2 Chronicles 7:14 states, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” This is a wonderful promise but it has conditions; we must first repent. Without repentance we cannot be healed. It is my hope and prayer that we repent and turn from the sin of abortion sooner than later. Our future depends on it.

Operation Save America