For the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light. John Calvin
We are a people that value liberty, who prize the freedom of the individual to exercise his or her own decisions within the boundaries of the laws of our nation. But what do we do when those laws deprive a segment of our population of their inalienable human rights? You might say we defend those people, but...
It has not always been that way. For many decades we condoned the slave trade, as did our English friends before the time of Wilberforce. For nearly a decade we allowed a fascist government in Europe to kill and imprison millions of people on the basis of religion and only became involved when the economic effects on our merchant ships, and the military aggression of Japan prompted our response. For decades after slavery was abolished, we diminished a race in our country through all manner of degrading laws and cultural rules.
I said it has not always been that way. In truth, it is still not that way. In the years of slavery, greed clouded people's moral vision and passivity by the unaffected perpetuated the injustice. In the years preceding WWII, our isolationist views, brought on by the terrible memories of WWI, overrode the need to intervene to protect the Jews and allowed an evil dictator to solidify his power until it was almost too late. Now, we ignore another "nation" of humans who live amongst us, bound not by nationality but by their common residence and their common fate.
We allow their human rights to be trampled; we insure that they are not protected, that their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness never see the light of day. We stand by, numb to their plight just as whites were numb to black slavery, just as common German citizens, free Europe, and the U. S. ignored the development of the holocaust.
Except, in our case, we are not ignorant, just numb, morally dulled and therefore without defense. We know that millions of humans have died and that many more are dying daily. We are abhorred at cruelty to animals, yet a human can be quietly dismembered while otherwise thinking, seemingly morally upright people, stand by and defend the perpetrator's right to murder and applaud the mother's privilege of "choice".
We do not see the expressions of pain, we do not hear the screams, for their lungs are not filled with air. When they inhale, they breathe in the salt water of their world, the ocean of protection intended to help their mother shield them from the early traumas of the world. They cannot defend themselves; there is nowhere to run; the person intended to be their greatest defender has, sometimes coldly, sometimes in ignorance, sometimes in desperation and misguided compassion, and sometimes just inexplicably, decided to end their life--before their eyes can see, before their ears can hear anything beyond muffled sounds, before their sense of smell can be exercised, before their sense of taste can know something besides salt, and before they can touch or be touched in love.
We rightfully condemn the Klan for killing hundreds of African Americans over the course of a century. Yet we are silent as, in each four day period that passes, the number of African-Americans killed legally equals that of all of the Klan's century of evil. Minorities, Black and Hispanic, are disproportionately represented among victims of abortion, yet the civil rights of those lives are not defended. The government sanctions the killing to which the parents have consented.
I am culpable. I have spent the first 61 years of my life, 39 of them after Roe vs. Wade and 34 of them caring for those who are alive but ill at birth , turning a blind eye to the atrocity of abortion, not in favor of it, but, like most folks, too busy with life to focus on what it really means, to really think about the unthinkable of humans being torn apart before they can even see the beauty of the world around us. I have intellectualized, rationalized, sympathized, but I have done nothing.
No more. To the limited extent that this personal record is public, this is a declaration of intent: I intend to do all within my limited abilities, as God provides me with ability and the means, and within the years I have left to turn the tide; to move our culture back towards a culture of life because God is the Author of all life, and if He said "it is good", then who are we to decide to prevent it or end it. Help me; pray for me; pray for your own involvement if you feel moved.
A man trying to push a mountain appears foolish; yet Jesus said if we have the smallest amount of faith we can move mountains. Let us exercise our faith in the protection of the unprotected, and give justice to those who cannot seek it on their own. The task may seem impossible, but our God is the God of the impossible.
Use your imagination to see what abortion really is! Fight against the kind of social stupor that gripped Nazi Germany – the feeling that the problem is so huge and so horrendous and so out of our control that I just can't be wrong to let it be. Use your imagination to see and feel what is really happening behind those sterile clinic doors. If you could see each little handiwork of God and what it looks like when it is being crushed or poisoned or starved, you would say, this can’t be happening. Civilized people do not do this! The children will not be saved and God’s work will not be reverenced without an act of sustained sympathetic imagination. Otherwise it is out of sight out of mind – just like Dachau, Buchenwald, Belsen, and Auschwitz. It just couldn't be happening and so we act as if it isn't. John Piper
Abba, Father. I am committed, with You and whomever reads this as my witness. Thank You for Your love and Your gift of purpose. Amen.
