Bringing the Light of Christ to the Darkest Issue of Our Culture
A crowd gathers, holding signs and
cheering. Half the crowd is wearing orange, the other blue. Slowly,
the cheering of the crowd begins to gain momentum and becomes louder
and louder, until it is a deafening roar. Individual voices get lost
in the cacophony of sound, as everyone vies for their voice to be
heard above all others. Children wave signs and scream, while parents
watch with approval and pride. Emotions are running high and everyone
is on edge. The excitement mounts as the event comes to a head and
tension builds as all wait to see the final outcome. Who will win?
If you think what I just described is
the scene at a typical Denver Bronco's game, you're wrong. The scene
I just described occurred outside of the Texas Capitol Building on
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013, as the Texas House Committee met
to vote on the controversial SB5, a bill that would ban abortion
after 20 weeks gestational age, as well as put more severe
restrictions on abortion clinics, requiring them to upgrade their
facilities into full-fledged surgical centers and mandate that
abortion providers have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30
miles of their clinic in the event that an emergency would occur.
This bill was met with both avid support and passionate opposition,
as blue-sporting pro-lifers and orange-clad pro-choicer's gathered
outside the Capitol to make their voices heard. The raw emotion
displayed on both sides is overwhelming, and a cursory glance at the
pictures from that night will take anyone's breath away, no matter
which side of this issue they land on. The Texas SB5 controversy has
once again thrust abortion into the political lime-light, and the
stance of the mainstream secular media is no mystery as they publish
article after article upholding Wendy Davis and Planned Parenthood as
the heroes who took on the evil villains of Republican bias that
threatened to suffocate women's rights and stamp out quality health
care in Texas. The question for pro-lifers is, “How can we make our
voice equally heard?” The number of orange-clad opponents to SB5
greatly outnumbered the number of blue-sporting supporters. Why is
that, and how can we change it? It's no secret that the evangelical
church in America largely believes abortion to be wrong. But why is
it that at political rallies and events, the presence of the
pro-abortion side of the debate is so much stronger than the
pro-life? Where are all the evangelical Christians when it comes to
the political side of this issue? I believe the answer to that
question lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of the responsibility
of the Church in combating abortion. I'm going to show in this
article both biblically and logically why evangelical Christians
should be more active in the abortion debate. (Note: the term
“Church” is used in this article as a reference to the universal
body of Christ- those who have placed their trust in Christ alone for
their salvation.)
The Problem
Before
I move into showing the responsibility of the Church to combat
abortion, I'm going to take a moment to show why
we should be combating it. There's no use wasting our time, right?
There has to be a legitimate problem before we should consider taking
action against it. While I know that most people are aware that
abortion is legal in the U.S, I believe that the majority of people
don't realize how prevalent it actually is. We hear the pro-choice
tag line of “safe, legal, and rare” so often that most of us have
bought into the lie that abortion is rare in our country.
Unfortunately, that's just not true.
The
latest statistics report that roughly 1,212,400 abortions are
performed annually in the U.S.
If one were to break that down into day by day numbers, that means
that 3,312 abortions are performed in the U.S every day. In
the time it takes a person to get up, go to work, run errands, spend
time with family, and go to bed, 3,312 young lives have been lost. If
we were to think about that every night before going to sleep, it
might make us a little more motivated to do something to prevent that
loss of life.
Continuing
on with statistics, the Guttmacher Institute, which incidentally is
neither a Christian nor a pro-life organization, reports that one in
three American women will have an abortion before the age of
forty-five.
G.I. also reports that half of all pregnancies in the U.S are
unexpected. Of those unexpected pregnancies, four out of every ten
are aborted.
And here comes the big shocker- the total number of abortions in the
U.S. since abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court in 1973 is
roughly 54,559,615.
If that's not sickening, here's something that will turn the stomach
of even the strongest person. The number of Jews that were murdered
during the Holocaust, as best we can tell, is most conservatively
roughly 5.6 million and most liberally somewhere in the neighborhood
of 12 million.
That means that even with the most liberal of Holocaust victim
numbers, abortion has still claimed the lives of 4.5 times as many
victims. Using the most conservative numbers, abortion has killed 9
times as many people as the Holocaust. I doubt anyone would uphold
Hitler's choice to mobilize the Nazi forces against the Jews and
other victims as “his right to decide for himself”, and yet
that's exactly what we say about abortion. Abortion is a huge problem
in the U.S, and it's not getting better- it's getting worse. The
Church has a responsibility to combat this pre-born Holocaust. Having
established the reality of the problem, I will now show what the
Church's responsibility is and how we can best fulfill that
responsibility.
The
Purpose of the Church
The
Greek word that we translate as “church” in our Bibles is the
word
ekklēsia and
its definition is “a called out assembly”. So by biblical
definition, the purpose of the Church is to be a called out assembly.
Now, this is obviously an empty definition, meaning that we have to
fill it with meaning. If we are a called out assembly, that means we
must have been called out for a reason. The question is, “Called
out to do what?” We find the answer to that question in I Peter
2:9. “ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, holy nation,
a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light.” We were called out of darkness into the marvelous light of
Christ so
that
we could proclaim the excellencies of the One who called us out. The
whole purpose of the Church is to proclaim the excellencies of God!
Having established this fact, now the question is posed, “What does
that mean and how do we do it?”
Proclaiming
the excellencies of God, in my opinion, is upholding His character as
accurately as possible and making issues that are important to Him
important to us. It involves a careful study of His Word in order to
understand His character and discern the issues that lie close to the
heart of God.
Once
that character and those issues have been identified as clearly as
possible, proclaiming His excellencies is a matter of upholding the
truth of His character and taking action on the issues that are most
dear to His heart. Proclaiming the excellencies of God is, in short,
the practice of being conformed to the image of Christ and applying
that conformation to the issues of our daily lives.
The
Purpose of the Church and Abortion
Now
that we know what the purpose of the Church is, we come to the
question “What does that have to do with abortion?” The purpose
of this article is, after all, to show that the Church has a
responsibility to combat abortion. Taking the definition of
proclaiming the excellencies of God that I gave above, the purpose of
the Church has everything to do with abortion. Let's start by
highlighting an aspect of God's character as it relates to abortion.
God,
the Giver and Sustainer of Life
Psalm
139:13-14 are perhaps the most quoted of all Bible verses when it
comes to the abortion debate. They say, “ For you formed my inward
parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for
I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” These verses state quite
clearly that it is God who forms the life inside the woman. Job 33:4
is rarely, if ever, quoted in regard to abortion, but it contains a
wonderful description of God's role in giving life. “The Spirit of
God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” It
is God who gives life to the woman, God who gives life to the child
inside her, God who forms that life, and God who should decide what
happens to it.
Not
only is God the Giver of life, He is also the Sustainer of it. Psalm
3:5 says, “I lay down and slept; I woke again for the LORD
sustained me.” Acts 17:28 says, “In him we live and move and have
our being.” Without God, the Giver of life, we wouldn't have life,
and without Him, the Sustainer of life, we wouldn't be able to
continue in life.
Since
God is really the owner of all life and the One who imparts it to us,
to take the matter of life and death into our own hands is nothing
short of arrogant. Abortion does just that- it gives a woman, her
family and her doctor the so-called “right” to destroy a life.
Abortion violates God's right to sustain that life as He sees fit. It
seeks to replace God with humans, to take the divine right to give
and sustain life and impart it to humanity. If we are to proclaim the
excellencies of the One who called us out of darkness into His
marvelous light, we must uphold this aspect of His character- the One
who gives and sustains life. That means being advocates of keeping
the right to decide who lives and who dies a divine right, and not a
human right.
Taking
Action
Upholding
God's character as the Giver and Sustainer of life by combating
abortion requires action. After all, how can I uphold something if I
never take action against the things that seek to tear it down? If I
claim to be upholding liberty, and then idly stand by and watch other
people be enslaved, I'm not truly upholding liberty. In the same way,
if I claim to uphold God as the Giver and Sustainer of life and then
idly stand by and watch as humans take the lives of millions of
innocent children into their own hands, I'm not truly upholding God
as the Giver and Sustainer of life. I'm going to give some practical
suggestions of ways that we all can take action against abortion, but
before I do that I want to address some objections that I think may
be raised against Christian involvement in what is largely considered
to be a political issue.
Political,
Not Spiritual
One
objection I believe will be raised is that abortion is a political
issue, not a spiritual one. It is largely believed that the Church
should focus on evangelism, and that as more people come to know
Christ, things like abortion will simply take care of themselves.
While I am a strong advocate of the importance of evangelism and a
fervent believer in the power of the Gospel to change lives, I also
believe abortion is more of a spiritual issue than we know. I wonder
how many of us have considered what abortion does spiritually to the
woman who chooses to have one?
Post-Abortive
Women and the Gospel
How
does a post-abortive woman respond to the Gospel? Is it the same as a
non-abortive woman? My belief is that a post-abortive woman responds
differently to the Gospel than a woman who has never experienced an
abortion. As a disclaimer, I do want to mention that the opinions I'm
about to state are just that- opinions. They are not backed up by
formal research to see how often these reactions happen, however I
have obtained some examples of women who have reacted in the way I
describe. I also believe these descriptions to be biblical, and will
provide biblical support to back them up. However, no formal
research has be done to confirm the frequency of these reactions.
I
believe that women who choose to have an abortion will react, for the
most part, in one of two ways. Either they will become defensive
about their decision and move more strongly into a pro-choice
position, or they will experience deep grief and regret that will
affect the way they view themselves and the way they view God. Either
one of these reaction could hinder a woman from responding positively
to the Gospel. To begin, we'll look at the woman who grows defensive
and moves more strongly into a pro-choice position.
Pro-Choice
When
a woman chooses to have an abortion and that experience strengthens
her resolve that abortion is an acceptable option for pregnancy,
something very important happens to that woman. God has created every
human with a conscience, an inborn capacity that distinguishes right
from wrong. Our conscience is the immaterial part of man that sits in
judgment over our actions, commending us for doing right and
condemning us for doing wrong. It is the part of man upon which God
has written His moral law (Rom. 2:14-15) and it is the vehicle by
which humans will be judged for their actions (Rom. 2:16). We do have
a measure of control over our conscience, in that we can choose to
ignore it and persist in actions our consciences condemn. If we
choose to do this for long enough, we sear our conscience to the
point that it no longer identifies an action as wrong (I Tim. 4:2). I
believe that this is exactly what happens to a woman who has an
abortion and then moves into a strengthened pro-choice position. In
order to go through with the abortion in the first place, a woman has
to silence her conscience which tells her that this is wrong, and
after the abortion has taken place, she must continue to tell herself
that her action was right. In convincing herself that her action was
right instead of wrong, she sears her conscience until she no longer
identifies her abortion as a morally wrong action. To illustrate this
point, I would like to quote a story of a young woman named Renee.
“The
day the appointment came, I was very scared. My parents went with me
and as we were driving into the parking lot, a man came up to the car
and threw a poster on the windshield so we couldn't see where we were
going, nice for a "pro-life" person to try and make us
crash huh? As I got out of the car, there were maybe 10 men that
started yelling things at me. I was a killer; my parents were
killers, the normal stuff. Then they took it to a new level and
started to throw big rocks at me! I found this so strange because I
was always told that "Pro Life" people wanted to protect
life, not hurt it. But they didn't care! They kept throwing rocks and
yelling things. My Dad actually had my head between his side and his
arm because they were trying to hit me in the head. I got in and
talked to the nurse about my decision. I was there for about 3 hours
before the procedure took place.… This is not a religious issue, it
is a health issue. For anyone to think that making this decision was
really easy is just wrong. But it was the best decision for me and it
was MY decision and if I had to do it over again, I would. I will
fight for the Pro-choice movement until the day I die”
This
young woman made a decision that she truly believed to be right, but
she in order to arrive at that conclusion, she had to rationalize and
make excuses: “This isn't a religious issue”, “It's a good
choice for me”, etc. This young woman used those excuses to
rationalize her decision to abort and to override what her conscience
was telling her. In doing so, she seared her conscience so that it
would no longer identify her abortion as a morally wrong action, and
she was able to live at peace with her decision to abort. When a
woman sears her conscience in this way, it carries over into every
aspect of her life. Once a conscience is seared in one way, it
becomes easier to sear in other areas. The consequence of searing
ones conscience is that it becomes more difficult to recognize sin
and realize the serious eternal consequences sin carries. As a
result, when this kind of post-abortive woman is presented with the
Gospel, it will be more difficult for her to recognize her need for a
Savior- her need for Jesus Christ. When a woman buys into the
cultural lie that the decision to end her child's life before it is
born is not morally right or wrong, but merely a neutral action that
requires her to decide what is “right for her”, her conscience
becomes seared in a way that erects a very real obstacle to her
hearing and receiving the Gospel message.
Deep
Grief
After
choosing to abort, many women experience something called
Post-Abortion Syndrome. PAS can take many forms, including a feeling
of guilt about the abortion, depression related to the abortion and,
in some extreme cases, suicide attempts. While it is difficult to
pinpoint exact numbers and statistics related to how many women
suffer from PAS, a national poll has reported that at least 56% of
women who have had an abortion feel some sense of guilt.
A 1985 study done by the University of Minnesota reported that 81% of
abortive mothers report a preoccupation with the aborted child, 54%
had nightmares about their abortion, and 35% had perceived visits
from their aborted child. PAS is a very real, though controversial,
condition that is associated with abortions and that has a long-term
affect on the post-abortive mother.
In
regard to how PAS could affect a woman hearing the Gospel, I'm going
to use an excerpt from a testimonial from
a post-abortive woman from the website Abort73.
It
explains one woman's story in her own words.
“I
have hated myself since that moment:10/9/2012 at 1:15 pm. I say now
that I lost my life that day too, but it’s just taking me longer to
die. It’s a slow and painful death, and I deserve it. I’ve prayed
and begged for forgiveness, I’ve apologized to my baby so many
times I can’t count, but none of that matters. It was the biggest
mistake of my life, and I made it because I was backed into a corner.
I made the biggest decision of my life for other people to be
happy...With all this loss and guilt, I lost myself. I had thought
about suicide after the abortion because I couldn’t live with
myself...It got to where I was crying every single day, and sometimes
I didn’t even know what about...I hope that sharing my story saves
someone, the life of one poor innocent baby or one mothers because
when you carry regret and shame this deeply, and when you hate
yourself as much as I hate myself, you are dead too.”
Now
place yourself in that woman's shoes. Having grief, regret and shame
so deeply ingrained in you because of your abortion decision, how
would you respond to the Gospel? My guess is that most women, at
least initially, will respond with some sort
of disbelief that God would actually forgive a sin like abortion-
they will believe that their sin is too great to be forgiven, or they
may reject the forgiveness that is available to them because they
know they deserve to be punished, and they want to be punished for
their sin. This type of post-abortive woman may choose to reject the
Gospel because she would rather be punished for her sin with an
eternity in hell than be forgiven for a crime so heinous. Now don't
get me wrong. Grief and regret over sin can be a valuable tool in
people coming to accept the Gospel; after all, God is “near to the
broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”(Psalm 34:18). But
when that grief and regret is carried to the extreme that the person
would rather be punished than forgiven, it becomes a barrier to the
Gospel, not an asset. This is the reaction I think would be more
likely for a post-abortive woman.
Having
gone through theses examples, I do want to say that it is completely
possible for a post-abortive woman who experiences either one of
these reactions to respond positively to the Gospel. Salvation is a
work of the Holy Spirit, and He imparts truth to all of us, including
the post-abortive woman. However, these barriers that I've discussed
are real, and they make a positive response to the Gospel more
difficult. Even in cases where the Gospel is accepted, the abortion
leaves a scar that still has to be dealt with. A post-abortive woman
could struggle with feelings of unworthiness and guilt years after
trusting in Christ for salvation, and those feelings can impair
spiritual growth as well. Abortion is a political issue on the
surface, but at its core it's a spiritual issue.
Secular,
Not Sacred
Another
objection I believe might be raised in regard to the Church actively
combating abortion is that it is a secular activity, not a sacred
one. In many ways, the issue of abortion has been relegated to being
considered a secular issue. It is something that lives outside the
Church, not within it, and therefore we don't consider it as
something the Church should address. In our modern world, we have
developed the idea that we can divide our lives into two categories:
secular and sacred.
Sacred
activities are those that we find within our church building every
Sunday: sermons, Sunday School, Bible study, prayer, and fellowship
with others who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ alone to save
them. When we think of serving God, our minds automatically go to
these places. We think that true worship of God and true service to
Him means that we will engage in one of these activities, or others
that are similar. Rarely do our minds cross over into what we would
consider secular activities or issues.
Secular
activities and issues are those we find in our everyday lives, those
that unbelievers as well as believers encounter. We usually include
things like jobs, housework, finances, leisure activities and the
like in this category. When we think of these things, we often feel
frustrated and helpless. We have the idea that engaging too much in
these activities will draw us away from God instead of closer to Him.
Because we want to be closer to God, we often have the inclination to
avoid these activities or at the very least, limit them so their
damage won't be too extensive. Because we believe these activities to
be outside of what God would consider worship or service to Him, we
hurry through them so as not to become distracted, or else we become
frustrated that we can't hurry through them and feel like we're
failing God because so much of our time is taken up by secular
activities. I propose that our understanding of secular and sacred
activities is flawed, and that both are equally glorifying to God and
both can be used to accomplish the purpose of the Church, when they
are handled correctly.
Romans
11:36 says “For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.” This verse says that all
things
are from God, all
things
are through Him, and all
things
are to Him. It doesn't say all things that happen within a church
building or that pertain specifically and only to teaching the Bible,
or things that include only other believers. It says all
things.
That means that cleaning my house is from God, through God, and for
God. It means that changing my son's diaper is from God, through God,
and for God. It means that studying my Bible is from God, through
God, and for God. It means that my husband working his job to provide
for our family is from God, through God, and for God. It means that
when my husband stands before a body of believers and preaches from
the Bible, it is from God, through God, and for God. The Bible
doesn't place these restrictions of secular and sacred on our daily
activities- we do. The Bible tells us that all
things
can be used for God's glory if we choose to do them with a heart that
seeks to honor God and know Him more. That means that no activity,
except outright sin and disobedience to the Bible, falls outside of
worshiping or serving God.
I
believe that this separation of secular and sacred has led to a
complacency on the part of the Church when it comes to issues like
abortion. We believe that to involve ourselves too much with
“secular” issues or causes would be a distraction from the
“sacred” work of serving God. If we were to understand that all
things are from God, are done in His strength, and can be used to
glorify Him, I believe we would begin to see that rather than being a
distraction, these are actually the issues that lie closest to God's
heart.
Taking
Action
So
now that we've explored the issue of abortion, the purpose of the
Church, how abortion relates to that purpose, and the possible
objections to Christian involvement in the termination of legalized
abortion in the U.S, let's take a minute and discuss practicalities.
What can the Christian practically do to combat abortion? It's
certainly not every believers calling to politically combat abortion
on a national or public level, so what can the every-day Christian do
to combat this growing problem? The answer is much more simple than
we might think.
Pray
“First
of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in
high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and
dignified in every way.” (I Timothy 2:1-2) One of the biggest steps
a Christian can take towards the ending of legalized abortion in the
U.S is to pray for the political leaders who make those decisions.
I'm not talking about the token prayer that so many of us are wont to
offer up on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, but fervent, continued,
desperate prayer to God on a regular basis that He would move in our
leaders hearts to end this pre-born Holocaust. This kind of prayer
takes time and commitment; it is the place where God will mold your
heart with His. Don't worry if your praying begins as an act of your
will- something you know you should do, but don't necessarily have a
natural passion for. Keep on as an act of obedience to God, and I
believe you will be surprised to find your passion for this issue
will increase with time and prayer. God, the One who created and
appointed the leaders of our land, is certainly capable of turning
their hearts toward Him in this issue. Let's pray with fervor and
confidence that He will do so!
Support
Your Local Pregnancy Care Center
There
are wonderful organizations called Pregnancy Care Centers all over
the U.S. Chances are that there is one in or near the city where you
live. The purpose of the PCC's is to bring practical help and the
love of Christ to women who find themselves facing an unexpected
pregnancy. The PCC's provide free pregnancy tests, parenting classes,
material services, and pregnancy options counseling, meaning they go
over all of the women's options with her: parenting, adoption, and
abortion. They provide realistic information about all of these
options, including abortion. They are a Christian life-affirming
ministry, which means they do not perform or refer for abortion,
instead they share the truth about the danger of abortion procedures
and the long-term physical and emotional side effects. They are
dedicated to helping the woman see the importance of the life within
her. The PCC's also exist to share the Gospel with women who come to
them for help. As a result, the PCC's purpose is to address both the
physical and spiritual needs of their clients. They are a wonderful
safe haven for the women who come to them for help and an integral
part of decreasing abortion rates in the U.S. An outstanding way to
help combat abortion in your area is to support your local PCC,
either financially or by volunteering your time. There are a myriad
of ways to volunteer, from becoming a peer counselor to the woman
facing the crisis pregnancy, to helping coordinate fund raisers, to
stuffing envelopes! Check into your local PCC and see where you could
be most useful!
Sign
the “Life at Conception Act” Petition
This
is a great option that really no one has an excuse for not doing. It
literally takes about five minutes. Here's how it works- Senator Rand
Paul is sponsoring a bill in Congress call the “Life at Conception
Act”. This Act seeks to establish that the unborn baby is
scientifically a new human being at the moment of conception, and is
fully protected by their 14th
Amendment rights. The 14th
Amendment states that “No State... shall deprive any person of
life...nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.” By establishing the scientific personhood
of the fetus, this Act would effectively overturn Roe Vs Wade and
abortion would necessarily be considered a punishable crime. Here's
where you come in. The National Pro-Life Alliance is circulating an
online petition that will be sent to the necessary legislators. This
petition shows support for the “Life at Conception Act” and
requests the legislators in your state to put their support behind
this Act. A video detailing how the “Life at Conception Act”
works and why the petition is important can be found at
http://nationalprolifealliance.com/rlacv_video.aspx
. There is also a link on this page to sign the petition. Just so you
know, there is a request for `donations in this video and immediately
following signing the petition, but there is no requirement for you
to do so. Please take a few minutes and sign this petition! We all
have a few minutes to spare, so please use a few of your spare
minutes to combat abortion.
Conclusion
From
this article we've seen the purpose of the Church, how that purpose
fits in with combating abortion, and some practical ways you can
combat abortion yourself. Now the only question that remains is “What
will you do with the information you've been given?” I hope you
will choose to give more of your time and energy to this issue that I
believe to be so near and dear to God's heart. I will leave you with
some words of exhortation from the Bible, and leave you alone with
God to make your decision. Thank you for taking time to read this
article, and God bless.
“Rescue
those who are being taken aways to death; hold back those who are
stumbling to slaughter. If you say, 'Behold, we did not know this',
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps
watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to
his work?”
Proverbs
24:11-12
“...Everyone
to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to
whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
Luke
12:48
