I believe we could end abortion virtually overnight—if we really wanted to.
But much as I hate to say it, it appears we don’t really want to. At least, not badly enough. Permit me to explain.
Going Viral
We live in “the viral generation.” When an idea with universal appeal hits YouTube, practically the whole world knows about it overnight. It’s like a trumpet blast, rallying everyone together all at once.
“Yeah,” you say, “I think I see where you’re headed with this. Problem is, there isn’t ‘universal appeal’ for this issue yet.”
Exactly. But we can fix that.
“Who’s ‘we’?” you ask.
The evangelical church, that’s who.
“Yeah? And just how?”
I was afraid you’d never ask. It’s so simple it makes a body ache to think it hasn’t been done yet. Stay with me while I set this up just a little bit more.
A Matter of Priorities
In great measure, we march to the loudest drumbeat. We fall in step with the worldview that commands the most deference and respectability amongst our 70-80 million American evangelical friends and leaders. We give ourselves to what we perceive as God’s highest priorities. So the question becomes, “Do we perceive the battle for the unborn among God’s highest priorities?”
In my opinion, we do not. Because if we did we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
The zeitgeist, the shared consensus, the thread of common consciousness and call to mission that unites and excites and incites most evangelicals to heroic prayer and jackhammer preaching and the kind of sacrificial action from which legends are spawned, is not pro-life activism. It is missions and evangelism and church-planting and other respectable work that, to be sure, is exceedingly high among the great list of kingdom priorities. But it is not the highest.
The Great Commission and the Greater Commission
The aforementioned ministries, important as they are, are not supreme. They conform to the Great Commission, but there is, if you will, a Greater Commission. It is what Christ called “the great and foremost commandment” (Matthew 22:38). It’s called love.
Echoing the words of Christ, the apostle Paul said, “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10), and “he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (v. 8), and “the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14)
Important as the Great Commission is, it is not to be performed to the dilution, neglect, or negation of the Greater Commission. If a neighbor’s house is burning down around him, God’s will, God’s priority, is clear: You risk all to save the precious life.
Who among us can’t see the holocaust engulfing the unborn? The house is burning down around our little neighbor and we consider it merely “important.”
But the pro-life cause is not “important.” It is crucial. You’ve heard of “damning with faint praise.” Well, what we’ve been doing is “damning with half-hearted action.”
You don’t tell a patient, “It is ‘important’ for you to keep breathing.” If you don’t breathe, you die. It is crucial that we do every lawful (and I stress the word lawful) thing possible to end abortion. If we don’t, they die. And you know what? For all practical purposes, so do we (see Revelation 3:1).
Over 50 million children have been aborted in America under sanction of federal law since Roe v. Wade. Fifty million.
If we honored each of those 50 million human beings with a single minute of silence, we would remain speechless for over 95 years. How about instead of remaining speechless as, to our everlasting shame we have done now for 39 years, we open our mouths and blow the trumpet?
If I Have All Faith, but Have Not Love . . .
Too many of us are preoccupied with “ministry.” The entire law, the whole duty of Christians, is summarized in one word: love. “Ministry,” if it is not the incarnation of love for people, is unlikely to be able to look straight into the eyes of Love Incarnate on the Coming Day and survive the realization that to do everything else in life well but fail in this one, all-important point, is to fail in all. Read Matthew 25:31ff again—“for the first time.”
Let’s quit “straddling both sides of the fence” on this. Where do we stand? The all-revealing test is easy to perform. Just ask yourself, “If it were MY child they were going to put to death, what would I do?”
Preacher, missionary, Christian worker—if it was your child they were going to put to death under sanction of a perverse and evil law, what would you do?
Bottom Line
Well, enough browbeating. And no, I’m not apologizing for it. As someone said, if the truth hurts, it should. But we need to move on to the “how to.” I said we could end abortion virtually overnight. Here’s how we can “go viral” with this.
If every Sunday, in every pulpit, in every evangelical church across America, ministers would devote one minute—ONE MINUTE—to decrying the evil of abortion on demand, such universal solidarity within the ranks of Christian leadership would accomplish two things, maybe three.
First, it would dispel ambiguity and send a clear signal to every pew-sitting believer that this is a top-line priority with God, not a fine-print codicil, not “one more good thing that Christians ought to do when they have time.”
Second, it would foster unanimity amongst all believers—at least on this one all-important issue—and enable us together to render unto God what is God’s (i.e., sufficient advocacy at the ballot box to get Roe overturned) while at the same time rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s—which, don’t forget, includes the advice and consent of “the governed.”
And third, maybe, just maybe the voice of conscience would become less easily ignored by those outside the church and we would see abortion on demand outlawed, not only in America, but around the world—“overnight.”
But it’s a big “if.” After all, how many ministers can spare a whole minute?
Rolley Haggard is an IT manager for a multinational corporation in the Southeast, and a frequent commenter at the BreakPoint Blog.
Articles on the BreakPoint website are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Chuck Colson or BreakPoint. Outside links are for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply endorsement of their content.
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I did not know. But our tender Heavenly Father did; and now, five years from that dark, bitter day I weep and mourn with you, my dear, dear, beloved sister.
And I promise, with God as my Witness and Helper, so long as I have breath I will be a nettle in the conscience of every Christian minister until the church repents of its inexcusable silence on this monstrous evil.
And I am encouraged, for God Himself promises that “our labor in the Lord is not in vain”, and that “in due season we shall reap.”
That does not in any way detract from the power of the message that we must PROTEST. Isaiah 58 speaks powerfully about our complacence in the face of evil. The light of Christ will indeed shine forth when we raise our voices to cry aloud in the streets.
woman who is considering killing her baby in abortion, to choose
instead to carry her baby--and give it LIFE!
We have initially contracted with 4 women in 2005, when the
contract
stated that she had to give her baby up for adoption, but the judge at
the final adoption hearing stated we must change the contract--so we
added language that the money will be paid when the mother gives her
baby life-she may keep it or give it up for adoption. We have helped
save 8 babies in 2009, another 10 women will be choosing life in 2010,
and 10 in 2011, and another 4 in 2012!
We KNOW that a mere sum of $3000 will save an unborn baby from
being
torn apart in abortion, NOW we must ask other concerned pro-LIFE people
to join us!
We will only get referrals from CPC's, who counsel
abortion-minded
women, showing them free ultrasounds with the hope to change her mind,
and choose life for her child--and we have gone with the judge's ruling
on the new language, we are incorporated as a 501 C-3 in Pennsylvania!
Interested people may call 814 835-0249, and join us or
go to our website http://saveunbornlife.org, and join us in saving
many more babies!
MAY GOD BLESS US EVERYONE!
Mrs. Laura Merriott-
President- Save Unborn Life
5235 Wolf Rd., Erie, Pa. 16505
814 835-0249
ALL citizens of the world should remember the courage of Oscar
Schindler who offered a small sum of money to save 1,100 Jews from
concentration camps, and regretted he did not save more, and I pray
that you will join us, as we believe we ALL should be doing all we can
to save unborn human lives from abortion, a mere $3000 will do
that--PLEASE JOIN US!
I have done some research, and found that the countries of Russia,
Italy and Japan are now paying women a baby bonus-$5000-$9000, because
of the falling birth rates affecting their futures, I would think that
the greatest country could understand that poor women should not have
to KILL their baby because they can't afford them.
Here is the most recent country already doing this LIFE-SAVING MISSION:
Russia: A Dying Nation
In Abortion, Birth Rate, Demographic Decline on August 26, 2011 at
10:36 am
“Mother Russia” is experiencing an unprecedented decline in population.
In the last 20 years, it is estimated that an astounding 80 million
unborn Russian children have been aborted. On average, a Russian woman
over the course of her reproductive life will have seven abortions.
Combing that high abortion rate with a fertility rate of 1.2 (a
fertility rate of 2.1 is needed for replacement of population), Russia
stands to lose over one-third of its population every generation.
“We’re losing almost three quarters of a million people every year,”
said Alexey Komov, chairman of the Moscow Demographic Summit that was
held this last June.
The video below, by Population Research Institute, gives an excellent
overview of the demographic problem and some insight into Russian
history and culture. It notes the ways that Russia is attempting to
reverse the decline – albeit not very successfully.
For example, in 2003 President Vladimir Putin put in place a $9,000
“baby bonus” to encourage couples to have children. This video tells
of a Russian bank that is currently offering a 0.5 discount in mortgage
rates to families for each child born. All valiant attempts, but
history has shown that is extremely difficult – if not impossible – to
reverse this type of demographic decline.
UFI
The United Families International Blog
Italian Women Paid to Not Abort their Children
In Abortion, Birth Rate on June 4, 2010 at 6:15 am
Pregnant women in Italy’s northern region of Lombardy will now have
real “choice” when it comes to their unborn children. The President of
the regional government, Robert Formigoni, announced last month that
“no women will abort in Lombardy because of economic difficulties.”
Pregnant women who choose not to abort their child will be given
assistance for the first 18 months of the child’s life—monthly
installments that add up to U.S. $5500 per year.
According to Lombardy’s Family Commissioner, Julius Boscagli, Italy’s
difficult economic conditions and social instability are pushing more
women into abortions. In addition, Italy has one of the lowest
fertility rates in the world ranking 206th out of 223 countries. With
a total fertility rate of 1.32, Italy will lose more than one-third of
its population with each successive
The region of Lombardy deserves credit for recognizing what many
municipalities and countries do not—bearing and rearing the next
generation is a societal imperative and they are willing to spend money
to assist mothers. United Families would prefer that each child would
have a stable, married mother and father that could provide for their
children’s needs, but taxpayer funding is preferred over seeing an
unborn child fall to an abortionist’s knife.
Commissioner Boscagli sums it up: “”What we are doing in Lombardy, the
primary objective [is] to minimize the tragedy of abortion.
Go to
http://www.theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/LifHlth/Abrt/AbortNotLgl-Titus.htm
and to
http://www.theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/LifHlth/Abrt/AbortNotLgl-Fox.htm
Acts 5:26 Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, 28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”
29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. 31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Was it wrong for the abolitionists to help runaway slaves? Was it wrong to break laws in Nazi Germany for Christians to help rescue Jews from being taken to the death camps? Was it wrong for Rosa Parks to ride in the front of the bus and get arrested? Some laws are immoral and need to be broken!
“Why don't we have the same compassion and urgency for those being led to the slaughter via abortion?”
Part of the answer to that searching question, I think, is theological. I’ve heard it said that “if ending abortion was all THAT important to God, He’d have a verse in the Bible saying, ‘thou shalt not abort’.
Interesting that if we applied the same logic to say, slavery, the church to this day might still justify its inexcusably once-tepid reaction to that heinous crime.
Proof-texting has its limits. The Bible would have to be ten times the size of Britannica to enumerate even half the evils God abhors. But there is one “proof-text”, one single word, that embraces all Christian duty: That word is Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
Jesus loved “even the least of these”, and so ought we, without slavish dependence on a scripted proof-text. To love our neighbor, our every neighbor – with tireless, costly, unpopular, counter-cultural, selfless deeds – defiant, if necessary, of even a stuck-in-the-mud church, is to fulfill the entire law of God.
Pharisaism is nothing new. We tithe “ministry” and neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.
The only thing under the sun that is new is the moniker: we aren’t Pharisees; we are Phariseevangelicals.
Thanks for your words – and your works – Wanda, dear sister. Your labor will not prove vain. In due season we shall reap.
Thank you for your challenge and the wake up call to the Church! There is a fitting song pastors can use to wake up their churches - Wake Up O Church Of God written and sung by Dawn Pate, Kissimmee, FL. Very Powerful Song and used by Focus on the Family as the recommended song for Sanctity of Life Sunday a few years ago. Even though the song is not on her website, you can email her at dawn@anewdawnmusicproductions.com and and she will give you ordering info to get her song on CD, DVD with slides, etc.
Thank you for your no compromise stand in this issue of LIFE!
Wanda Kohn, www.PersonhoodFL.com Church Coordinator and Director of Pregnancy & Family Care Center, Leesburg, FL
Birth control pills have several mechanisms of action. Prevention of ovulation is only ONE of them. In cases of breakthrough ovulation which DOES happen even when one is on the pill, the pill provides other "backup mechanisms". The hormones in the pill also thicken a woman's cervical mucus so even if she ovulates, the sperm and egg have difficulty meeting. But there's one last action: Birth control pills also thin the lining of the uterus, making it difficult for a fertilized egg to implant.
Many people still don't understand how contraception really works, and so they may be against abortion, but not understand the connection between contraception-abortion. 54% of women who had an abortion (according to a 2008(?) report from Guttmacher) were ON contraception. Which means ovulation still happened, fertilization still happened, implantation still happened.
These are all facts you can verify through pro-life websites, or even through sites like Planned Parenthood or the Morning After Pill (which is an abortifacient).
Abortion will not end until we understand all these things.
Thanks, Diane, I couldn’t agree more. Frankly, a massive amount of outreach / inreach / ministry / love / compassion and call to duty can occur in a single minute. To revive the earlier metaphor, a lung-bursting 60-second trumpet blast is likely to rally even the most oppressed, and rouse even the most obdurate.
Dear pastor friends, maybe it’s just a pipe-dream. But can’t we give it a go?
Both Jim Daly (Focus on the Family) and Flip Benham (Operation Save America) have made explicit reference to this article.
http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/blogs/Finding_Home/2012/04/16/how-to-end-abortion-overnight
http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/2012/04/17/we-could-end-abortion-overnight-if-we-really-wanted-to/
weeks each, we named them and and celebrated their short lives with memorial services. Not only did that bring gifts of closure and healing for us, but they spoke volumes to others--that these were, indeed, human beings who had been alive in my womb and who, subsequently, had died.
I firmly believe that if we who believe life begins at conception (it begins at no other time), would treat our miscarried babies like we would our children who died once they were outside the womb, then people would notice and be deeply affected, opening their eyes and hearts to truth.
We knew a minister who performed memorial services for both miscarried and aborted babies. How incredible!
20-50% of pregnancies end in miscarriage--approximately 500,000 babies die in their mommy's wombs each year in the U.S. Think how many people would be touched if even a a fraction of their parents had funeral services for their tiny babies! I truly think reality would set in for those surrounding them.
This is not a a quick, overnight solution, but one that touches one life at a time, one person at at time, slowly changing the culture.
I pray this post helps just one person...and may God be glorified!
Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Thanks, Pam, for your great input and insights. The above caption is one of my favorite phrases, and it certainly dovetails with your wonderful suggestion. Blessings, my friend.