Time for a Change!

On January 23, 1973, the media spotlight became diverted. The previous day, January 22, 1973, former U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson had passed away – on the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion through the nine months of a pregnancy.  In less than a month, the nation would bury its second former president (Harry S. Truman had died the previous December). So, in preparation of the burial of another former president, the abortion story became lost – relegated to a sidebar.

Yet abortion has left an indelible mark on America:

• Economic Impact: The aging of America nags us with ways to cover the increasing health costs of our aging citizens.  Having 50 million extra taxpayers might have been helpful – if they had not been aborted.
• Educational Impact: We have smaller families, smaller classes, fewer students and even less financial resources than desired for education.  Education once postured for growth has been slowly imploding.
• Communication Impact: Abortion has become one of the most common surgical procedures in America (about 3,000 performed daily), and yet today we hide its reality with euphemisms.  Focusing on the right rather than the reality, the mantra for abortion rights has centered on “choice.”  It is a “choice” that means “death” for one party in every abortion choice that is made.
• Eugenics Impact: At one time Jesse Jackson referred to abortion as “black genocide.”  Today I think the world is much more color-blind.  What marks one for termination is not as objective as race or color but rather the potential of being less productive or being unwanted.  That is eugenics – as repulsive as it was in Nazi Germany – sanitized by abortion!

Today leading abortion-rights advocates acknowledge that abortion is murder – the taking of a human life.  They now call it “a sad but necessary evil” in order for a woman to retain the right to control her own body.

The abortion mentality has permeated society.  “My body, my choice” has transformed the psyche of our culture into selfish entitlement at the highest cost.  Today we stand on the precipice of a new era without absolute standards of right and wrong in which any life lacking a subjective level of quality or desirability is at risk.

Most alarming is the apathy of Christians who should know better.  When abortion advocates now openly admit life is taken; when abortion is the most common solution in dealing with in-womb disabilities; and the abortion count is far beyond 50 million, why do a majority of Christians remain silent, unmoved and uninvolved?

Christians bring to the table consistent values, a culture of self-sacrifice, and unequaled motivation:

• Consistent Values: God’s will reflects values that have historically crossed all religious boundaries.  It has been called the Judeo-Christian ethic and is simply what Scripture alludes to as the law written on our hearts – a natural sense of right and wrong that, though clouded by increased sinfulness, is nevertheless still present.
• Culture of Self-Sacrifice: God’s Word teaches us to think more of others than ourselves.  While abortion is a ghastly act of extermination of the defenseless by the empowered, it behooves Christians to help mothers live with the choice rather than kill their unborn baby.  It is not enough to say abortion is wrong.  Christians ought to stand with mothers in helping them after they make the right decision.
• Unequalled Motivation: We have the greatest motivation in the universe – God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.  Christians know what it means to be lost, useless, powerless, etc.  Our sinfulness would guarantee a pointless existence concluding in an eternity of suffering.  It is God’s solution to that problem in our lives that motivates us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.  When God sent Jesus to die for our sins; to take on our punishment and to pay our price He brought us eternal life.  Even death has no sting!

I like life-affirming judicial decisions and electing pro-life candidates.  The enduring solution to abortion, however, is found in hearts that are changed by knowing Christ and hearts that are moved by knowing Christ.  It permeates our culture with an ethic of modesty and chastity in a world hell-bent in moving in the other direction.  It practices forgiveness for those who do wrong and partners with them in turning their lives around.

These past 39 years have brought more than 50 million deaths.  It has eroded who we are as humans – the centerpiece of God’s creation –different from all else that was created.  It has been long enough.  It is time for us to recognize what abortion advocates now recognize – that in abortion a child dies.  Killing is not an entitlement given to us.  Christians must do their Christian thing and share the message of Christ as our Savior and practice His love in their dealings with all others.