By Zach Goodrow
After the supposed Supreme Court leak about the decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, two realizations came to me.
1. Though it is good if it were overturned on the federal level, it is not good to have “leaks” in a court decision. That type of leak runs straight to the foundation of our legal system and can crack even the strongest of rocks. The legitimate courts should be independent of the court of public opinion. That is foundational to our country. The other is this:
2. The world has done a better job discipling Christians than the church has.
The second realization actually came from a dear friend of mine. But we was kind enough to share it with me, so I will be kind enough to share it with you. The rest of these thoughts are mine, however, so bear with me.
The church has done a piss poor job of discipling her members about the sanctity of life. People who claim Christianity don’t see a problem with bending over backwards while doing the splits and a front flip in their understanding of God’s Word to justify abortion. Every reason for supporting abortion is unbiblical. All of them. Not only are they unbiblical, they are also illogical. But Christians must not forget the natural depravity of man has lead us to always readily sacrificed our kids. The difference is the child sacrificers of the past would at least have the decency to say it was for some god. They were polite enough to say it was their faith in Molech causing them to cut their kids throats. Now, we just say we should have the choice to kill them if we want.
I am also mentioning this observation in a general sense. Not all of my brothers and sisters have been blinded by the wolves. But many have. Many who call themselves believers acquiesce to the murder of innocents. Some even celebrate it. But let me assure you, the only innocent death we should celebrate is the death of Jesus on the cross 2,000 to save his enemies. We should not celebrate killing our children. Below I have put some common arguments Christians make for abortion, and their refutations, so that you may not be blindsided by a pithy Facebook one-liner.
“Christians can’t enforce their morality on other people”
That’s bogus. Sure, Christians shouldn’t drag people kicking and screaming to church on Sundays. But the unbeliever who doesn’t want to involve themselves in biblical community is guilty of another kind of rebellion than the unbeliever who kills their child. One is much more severe. The Bible also forbids stealing. Are we going to legally allow our neighbors to steal because we “can’t be pushy” about Christian morality? No, clearly not. So why on earth would we pretend that we can’t legislate morality into law? That is THE POINT of the law. People are immoral, the law and its enforcement keep immorality at bay.
“If Christians really cared about abortion, then they would have already solved the x,y,z problem”
Ah, the classic red herring. It’s good to see you again my weak, argumentative friend. Not only is this stupid, it’s also wrong. I will go through both categorically.
Imagine, for a moment, that a doctor somehow comes out with the cure for cancer. He gives his solution out across the world to stop this terrible plague on our kind. But then activists come against him and say, “If you really cared about curing cancer you would’ve eliminated the use of tobacco all together instead of finding a cure!” That is exactly the argument pro-choice Christians make when they say the above pre-recorded response. “It’s not enough that you want babies to stop being killed, now you have to raise and support all the kids I didn’t want but you’re forcing me to have anyway.” Here’s an idea; why don’t we stop killing babies and then we can talk about how to better raise them?
Imagine the ancient Israelite response to their brothers and sisters if the pagan worshippers would have said “Oh you’re tearing down the child sacrificial altar? Now you have to raise the kid I was trying to kill anyways, you terrible person.” This outcome might be better for the child anyways.
And here’s why the above clichéd response is wrong. Christians have been the forefront of adoption, foster agencies, and even healthcare for CENTURIES. That’s right, with an S. Rome got flipped upside down because Christians would go and adopt babies the Roman families were trying to throw away or leave in the woods. St. Jude, Baptist Memorial Hospital, Methodist, St. Luke’s, all have very strong Christian roots (imagine that with ). It would take me counting on both hands and feet to count the couples in my church who have adopted, fostered, or both. So quit with the baseless argument that Christians aren’t really pro-life because they don’t care about adoption. It’s ignorant and arrogant and devoid of history.
“Jesus never said anything about abortion”
Sure. There’s plenty of things Jesus didn’t talk about. Like spousal abuse. Are we going to pretend that just because Jesus didn’t talk about it, the issue is all of a sudden morally right? Clearly not. Because we know better. We know that a husband who beats his wife (or vice versa in Johnny Depp’s case) should be punished because we know it’s wrong. It’s almost like Jesus didn’t have to talk about it.
“It’s about a woman’s right to choose”
Christians should be pro-choice. Christians should be for people choosing what type of food they eat, what movies they want to watch, and where to go on vacation. But to argue that someone else has the right to choose to kill is ridiculous and untenable. You don’t get to choose to legally take someone else’s life. I don’t get to choose to cave in your skull. We don’t get to choose to do that to our kids.
“If we make it illegal that will just push women into back alleys with coat hangers.”
So the argument is, since it’s going to happen anyway, why don’t we create a safer space for it to happen. Make it as easy as possible on the perpetrator. Sure. But would we say the same thing for bank robbers? “If we made bank robbing legal, it would be much safer for people robbing banks. The amount of bank robbers who would be hurt would drastically decrease.” Just because a desperate person commits a heinous crime doesn’t mean that we should make the crime not a crime.
“I wouldn’t get an abortion, but I can’t stop people who do want one.”
What a pathetic and spineless copout. Can you imagine someone saying “I wouldn’t rape anyone, but I can’t stop people who do want to rape people”? If a situation is extreme enough, like someone violating someone else, liberties of the individual violator go out the window. You get to give a woman a high five without outside interference. You don’t get to rape her. And in case the analogy isn’t clear. The liberties being violated on behalf of the child are the right to life. Surely that is cause to intervene.
“Rape or incest”
This topic deserves the most grace. In this instance, the mother had no fault. Any inflammatory or evocative rhetoric stops here. The church must come alongside these women. But we also must not punish the child for the sin of the father. We must help women who have been raped and conceived, and those who have been raped and have not conceived. We must seek justice for the crime and help bring her to the One who can and will heal all wounds. But the violating of the innocent must stop with the rape of the woman. We do not punish innocent people for the crimes of others, and we do not kill sons for the sins of their fathers.
We must support her and the kid, all the while pointing her to the only One who will make all things right in the end. Help her through therapy. Hell, maybe even pay for it. Help her provide and show her the truth of biblical womanhood and restoration, but do not harm the child because the father sinned.
Final Remarks
I cannot make up for years of poor discipleship. I can’t restore the ground we’ve handed to the enemy. But I can help hold the line.
My intention in writing this is for believers who may have fallen for any of the fallacious arguments above to wake up and stop being complicit in the murder of the innocent. If I stepped on toes, I did so in order to wake people up from the slumber they’re in when it comes to the slaughter of the innocent. The people of Israel were judged because they allowed child sacrifice in their time. They knew better and allowed it anyway. Do not be so haughty to think that we will avoid the same fate.
It breaks my heart to see so many who I have called brother and sister in the past join the enemy on this issue. My prayer is that those who haven’t landed on either side would press into Scripture and see that the only biblical response is the one that protects the right to life. Do not let pseudo-witty one liners on Twitter form your theology of human life. Let Scripture do that. Keep your ground on the rock of the Word. Not in the sinking and damning sand of sacrificing our children on the altar of convenience.
Soli Deo Gloria
Sword and Script 