The Evil of Abortion
“You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13
I have been deeply disturbed this week by the political outcome of campaigns run most passionately on a platform of ensuring the “right” to kill unborn children up to the point of full-term pregnancy. Let me remind you of a few very important realities that often are lost in the noise. First, we never have the “right” to do what God has declared is wrong. The taking of innocent life for the sake of personal convenience, shame, career enhancement, or embarrassment is murder – and murder is a basic foundation of morality. This is not a political issue, it is a moral issue. Murder is a condition of corruption in the heart that flows out to destroy others (Example of Cain – Genesis 4).
Second, Christians must never stop bearing witness to the world that life begins at conception. Life is sacred to God. The conceived child is the beginning of a separate life. This process of conception through the sexual joining of a man and a woman, is how God designed new life to come into the world. Through medical technology we can see the tiny formation of a child in the womb, hear the heartbeat, and extensive prenatal care is given to support the health of unborn and prematurely born children. The narrative that an unborn child is a part of the body of a woman is both medically and morally absurd. A growing child is not medically equivalent to a tonsil or appendix or gall bladder, to be removed as the woman may see fit. The child has a heartbeat because it is a distinct human being. The “my body, my choice” narratives have one purpose, which is to dehumanize unborn children. It’s easier, morally, to kill someone you see as less than human.
This past week in Ohio, and for less direct reasons in other states, multitudes flocked to the polls to vote to ensure the right to kill their unborn children up to the point of full-term pregnancy. Various “week” bans were proposed in other states, but the new attitude in America is a sense of panic that laws will be passed that will prevent them from being able to kill their unborn children. Much could be said here. Let me focus on three points:
First, people do not spontaneously become pregnant. Often these narratives begin with a woman who “became” pregnant. What this means in all cases outside of rape, which is the vast majority of all pregnancies, is that the woman chooses to have sex. That sexual encounter led to a pregnancy. Abortion is the final enabler of pure sexual freedom. Abortion is the backstop of people being able to act as they please sexually without the consequence of a child. Sexuality is a moral issue not a political issue, spoken to with abundant clarity in the Bible. Sex was designed by God to produce children, and that design cannot be short-circuited without life altering consequences. Don’t be fooled. People that are passionate about abortion, are first passionate about complete non-Christian sexual freedom.
Second, the birth canal does not make a child become a child. Tens of millions of Americans seem to be at peace living with complete scientific and moral contradiction. In all states where late-term abortion is legal, hospitals exist that have neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that work passionately to save the lives of premature babies, and other locations in the hospital where they intentionally kill pre-term babies. In our current situation, the mother holds this authority of life or death. It is a clear Christian doctrine, held as orthodoxy throughout the ages, that God holds the authority to take life. We are commanded not to murder. The child is a living being from the time of conception, and the intentional dismemberment of a child that could be taken to a different part of the hospital and be born to live a full life – is unquestionably murder. As Christians, we must never equivocate on the reality that the mother is not in place of God to determine life or death over her child. All who murder carry deep emotional and psychological scars. We live in a culture of death in modern America, and we wonder why there is so much deep anxiety and mental illness.
Third, children are a blessing from the Lord. As Christians we must never stop reminding ourselves of this reality. Children are a part of God’s purposes within marriage and work toward our sanctification. Children work powerfully in our lives to teach us patience, kindness, and unselfishness. Children teach us to sacrifice our own desires for the needs of others and to pray! All of this is the opposite of the modern secular American mindset of selfishness, pleasure seeking, immediate gratification, self-focused materialism, personal career building as most important, and self-sufficiency. Children are often seen as a drag to all these things, and such an impediment that by the millions, people make the choice to kill the child rather than submit themselves to God’s will for family and blessing.
In conclusion, we must stay focused on this issue first as an issue of the heart before God – not first as a political issue. Politics reflect the moral heart of the nation. Politics do not shape the heart of the nation. As the church, it is up to us to preach the gospel, teach the Bible, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, seek true heart change. As Christians we must maintain our passion never to kill our unborn children. As Christians we must love our children and embrace the sanctification and self-sacrifice necessary to raise them well. When we are faced with, or encounter others with unplanned pregnancies, we must have faith for the future and choose life. If it is truly not tenable to raise the child, there is no moral wrong in placing a child for adoption. As the church we must be willing to adopt children as needed. We must never let shame or fear of the future cause us to choose evil. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about forgiveness and grace. If you have chosen abortion in the past, do not choose it again. In Christ your shame can be forgiven and healed. By confessing your sin to others, you can come out from under the weight of guilt and walk in Christian freedom, forgiveness, and hope.
Lastly, as Christians we must be personally passionate about sexual purity and raise our children in these ways. We must celebrate and encourage self-control, celebrate and encourage appropriately young marriage, and passionately pursue intergenerational family support of younger generations by older generations. These things flourish in the family and are further strengthened in the local church. Let us not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
May the Lord preserve His church,
Pastor Vic