If we’re going to claim to be “pro-life” then let us be for all of life. Let us do what we can to remove the inconsistencies that remain so that the pro-life message is not lost because of our failures. As a Christian my ethic is derived from the law of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments. The inverse of “Thou shalt not kill”—the sixth commandment—is that we are to endeavor to preserve our own life, and the life of others. It is not only life in the womb we should be concerned for, but life everywhere. We need to promote all of life as far as we can in the sphere, with the resources, according to the providential circumstances, and with the different responsibilities God has given us. That is going to apply differently from person to person. Even Jesus taught that every duty has its particular time and place “For you will always have the poor with you” (Mark 14:7). What are some practical ways we can be for all of life?
I have not done much in a public way to speak or write about abortion. That is not because I find abortion acceptable or even slightly defensible. Far from it! It is the holocaust of our generation, and even that is probably not strong enough language to describe it. Too many have turned what should be the safest place in all of creation, the womb of a mother, into a tomb. Rather, I have found it to be true that my engagement changed when I had to begin dealing with abortion face-to-face. It changes things when someone says, “Pastor, I’ve had an abortion. What should I do?” Suddenly, the faceless person has a face and the nameless person has a name. You’re no longer dealing with a vitriolic opponent but a tender soul that needs to work through the shame and guilt by the forgiveness, hope, and freedom of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That changes things. But I’m breaking from my relative public silence to offer a few thoughts.
Yesterday marked forty-four years since the Supreme Court invented a Constitutional right to kill babies in the womb. Since that date there have been nearly sixty-million little boys and girls murdered by this so-called “right” given to women. Within that time we have also witnessed a dramatic shift. It seems in bygone days abortion was regarded as an undesirable but necessary evil. Yet today it has become something to be celebrated, normalized, and shouted. Could a society get any more depraved?
However, my comments aren’t going to be directed at the pro-abortion crowd. Rather, I’m concerned with those that I would most closely identify with: the pro-lifers. As those who oppose abortion we often face the criticism that we are pro-birth but not pro-life. That is to say, we care about life in the womb but we don’t care about life outside of it. While I don’t like the spirit in which the criticism is sometimes made, or the logic that it generally deduces, or the wicked manipulation with which it is often offered, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop and discern if there is truth in it. And, in an attempt at full disclosure, I’m sometimes suspicious that there’s too much truth to it!
If we’re going to claim to be “pro-life” then let us be for all of life. Let us do what we can to remove the inconsistencies that remain so that the pro-life message is not lost because of our failures. As a Christian my ethic is derived from the law of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments. The inverse of “Thou shalt not kill”—the sixth commandment—is that we are to endeavor to preserve our own life, and the life of others. It is not only life in the womb we should be concerned for, but life everywhere. We need to promote all of life as far as we can in the sphere, with the resources, according to the providential circumstances, and with the different responsibilities God has given us. That is going to apply differently from person to person. Even Jesus taught that every duty has its particular time and place “For you will always have the poor with you” (Mark 14:7). What are some practical ways we can be for all of life?
Pro-Life in Attitude
While I’ve never been fully persuaded against all and any method of birth control—though I vehemently oppose all abortifacient ones including the pill—many of the reasons even well-intentioned Christians have for using birth control reveal an attitude that is not dissimilar to those who support abortion. Children and parenthood is often viewed as an inconvenient obstacle to our time, finances, pleasures, marriage, and pursuits. But the Bible never speaks so disparagingly of children who are a heritage, reward, and blessing (Psalm 127:3-5 and Deuteronomy 28:11). Others use contraceptives as a way to exercise some illusory control over their womb. In many ways that is what’s at the heart of the abortion movement: my body, my choice. But it is God who opens and closes the womb (Genesis 20:18 and Isaiah 66:9). In a culture that has such a negative attitude toward pregnancy and children we need to be pro-life in our attitude.
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