Saturday, January 19, 2008

A Plea For Life

This week will see the 35th anniversary of the legaliazation of abortion on demand in this country. On January 22, 1973, in the now infamous case of Roe vs. Wade, the Unites States Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that it was a woman's right to kill her unborn child. Since that insane decision was handed down, approximately 50 million American children have been senseslessly slaughtered in the very wombs of their mothers. Can anyone think of another case in which that many people could be annihilated and no one would blink an eye? Why is it that we think abortion is something other than what it is- MURDER?

The word abortion means to bring to a sudden halt to a process that is already in progress. Thus we use the term "abort a mission". To abort a child is to immediately terminate the process of life. This is common science as well as common sense. The only controversy to this topic is because it means that we must ignore our conscience so we can be morally irresponsible.

Four years ago, most Christians believed the Republican party was serious about the pro-life agenda and handed them the White House as well as control of congress. With the appointment of two Supreme Court judges that appear to be more amenable to the pro-life cause, the stage was set to finally undo the greatest outrage in our country's history by overturning Roe. But the Republicans did nothing!

Now they do not even think the pro-life plank is that important. The only significant voice for it comes from Mike Huckabee. While Mitt Romney says he is pro-life, his previous record indicates otherwise. How can we trust him now? Meanwhile, Guiliani is anti-life and McCain says whatever he thinks will win him votes.

On the Democratic side, there is really nothing to talk about. The Democrats have made themselves the party of the perverse and promiscuous at least since the previous Clinton era, and probably before that.

So where do we turn? Who will be for life? And as if it isn't already pretty bleak, we should remember that to be truly and completely pro-life means to safeguard life from conception to natural death. A truly consistent pro-life ethic opposes contraception, abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem- cell research, capital punishment, and war (at least in most cases). Where do we turn to find those who will stand for life in all of those cases?

I am not naive enough to believe we can find such a person in the political arena. Still, the cause of justice demands that we raise our voices and insist that people be confronted with moral responsibility even if they're unwilling to accept it (think John the Baptist and Herod). So I plead with all those aspiring to public office to soberly consider the claims of life. I urge them to fight for these principles.

If I could find someone of demonstrated character and integrity who would take such a stand, I would cast my vote for that person in a heartbeat. Until then, I am left to wonder what is the least of all evils and to pray that God have mercy on us when this is all the choice we have!

1 comment:

Heidi Grether said...

It was the issue of the Church's teachings on life as it pertains to procreation that "finished me off" as a Protestant.

My husband made the observation, "No wonder we (as Protestants) have been so powerless in stopping abortion, because we all use birth control, which the spirit of that is basically the same as abortion. It tells God that we are not interested in having babies."

My agony of heart is TT and I never had children together. We came into the marriage with one daughter each from our first marriages. We thought that was enough.

We never considered asking God.

At our 18th anniversery celebration, I reminded him how many hundreds of sermons we had heard about the tithe, and not ONE about procreation and how the Lord had longed to fill our lives with the blessing of children.

It was in that moment, I knew I could no longer be Protestant.

If we did not have a divided Church, we would have so much more political power. "A house divided will not stand."

Oh, God, send Your Spirit to unite Your body into the Church.