1-22-18<\/p>\n
There is a verse in James that admonished us to be \u201cdoers of the Word, and not hearers only.\u201d The Bible reminds us often that God sees all we do; and so do the \u201cHeavenly cloud of witness\u201d of Hebrews 11. Often we might be tempted to wear two hats \u2013 the secular (when we argue about politics) and the sacred (when we forgive all, forget all). <\/p>\n
That is shameful. We all live at the intersection of Sacred and Secular. There is no forwarding address. <\/p>\n
I offer this on Celebration of Life week, Sanctity of Life Sunday. <\/p>\n
When the mists, or smoke, of current controversies are swept away, I believe the world will see abortion \u2013 the act, the arguments, the very concept \u2013 in a different light. Most likely the \u201cold\u201d light, history\u2019s traditional attitude. I pray.<\/p>\n
Of course, the attitudes of various societies have been mutable, little different than any stands on any controversy. Honestly, there has not been a straight line in manners and morals on monogamous marriage, infant sacrifice, slavery, the role of women, personal freedom and liberty, democracy, even monotheism until the Revealed God revealed Himself fully.<\/p>\n
Despite infant sacrifice, with its essentially different set of foundations, abortion is an act that mostly has been regarded as anathema at all times and in all places. By whole societies and by single women. Its sanction, and its approval, have always been exceptions. Mostly it is regarded as something to be discouraged because of the implicit recognition that it is horrible, contrary to human impulses. <\/p>\n
Until our generation.<\/p>\n
The anguish and severe challenges presented by unplanned, unwanted pregnancies are significant. They represent dilemmas that are endemic to the human family, and \u2013 no matter how much abortion might be outlawed \u2013 they will take place. To recognize this fact is not to approve of it. But to accept it as the price of a community, a society, maintaining consistent standards and trying to codify a moral code, is, well, the price to pay.<\/p>\n
A lot of the world preceded the US, or closely followed us, in the legalization of abortion. Today, we have been reminded this week, we \u201csurpass\u201d most of the world in providing free abortion services\u2026 and we are among the few human-rights garden spots like North Korea and China that allow late-term abortions, killing babies otherwise viable outside the womb.<\/p>\n
We should not need numbers like almost 60-million American abortions since Roe vs Wade\u2026 nor photos of aborted babies\u2026 nor facts like the bigoted Margaret Sanger (Planned Parenthood founder) encouraging abortions in the black and brown communities especially\u2026 to come face-to-face with the horror of abortion.<\/p>\n
Fifteen years ago I interviewed Norma McCorvey, the \u201cRoe\u201d of Roe vs Wade, who had regretted her manipulation, reversed her views, and became a Christian. Pro-Life. Her testimony confirmed my views, but did not change them. That happened earlier; for a long time I was indifferent to the issue, and saw it as more a matter of convenience than morality. I even took that point of view in public, and now am conscious of blood on my hands. <\/p>\n
But one does not have to trade Pragmatism for Christianity to realize that abortion is murder.<\/p>\n
Why is America so militant, now, about abortion? Why is it a litmus test in broad swaths of society \u2013 why does the Democrat Party, for instance, forbid convention speakers and candidate endorsements to \u201cpro-life\u201d people? <\/p>\n
I return to looking forward to the mists parting. Whether we go deeper into self-indulgence, or return to traditional values, abortion WILL be the litmus test. One does not have to abandon feminism, or denigrate women, to oppose abortion. The Big Lie that women are pro-choice and men want disposable women and babies, is belied by the profile of marchers at Pro-Life rallies; by fervent advocates I have met; by counselors (like Pam Stenzel, a friend from Grand Rapids MI) who speaks to kids about pre-marital sex \u2013 herself a product of a rape, whose mother decided against aborting her at the last moment.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t like being a woman who is \u201cwired\u201d to bear babies, don\u2019t conceive. You cannot reverse nature. A lot of times it stinks to be a man, but, whatever. People have intimidated the culture to an extent; but they cannot reverse nature. They can tinker with the plumbing, but we still are men and women. Period; no pun intended.<\/p>\n
Therefore, abortion, as a litmus-test, is a symbol. It is the result, not a cause, of America having become a Culture of Death. Abortion, homosexuality, the decline of marriage, all are symptoms of impulses that resist life and the advancement of the species \u2013 which of course sounds clinical and impersonal. But the truth is VERY personal. We respect life, or we don\u2019t. <\/p>\n
And the debate continues, often distracted by questions of a once-in-a-decade death sentence, or war in faraway places. Those arguments are healthy; but in the meantime, many of us CAN do something about the Culture of Death in our midst.<\/p>\n
When we have become desensitized to death, we have become desensitized to life.<\/p>\n
There is a common impulse behind the totalitarian lockstep attitude some people have toward abortion. It is common to militant homosexuality, to gender-bending, to newfound \u201crights,\u201d to sex-change operations. To the redefinition of \u201cmarriage,\u201d not to welcome legal precision, but to make it socially meaningless. To the ubiquity of Political Correctness. The apparent anarchy of PC attitudes is really the New Religion \u2013 the replacement of God.<\/p>\n
We are witnessing \u2013 and, God help us, enabling \u2013 the slow death of God… in the way that Nietzsche really meant his phrase: when God become irrelevant in a society, He IS dead to its people. God is not really dead, of course: if you listen quietly you can hear Him weeping.<\/p>\n
And those other sounds, if you listen closer, whether from unmarked graves or hospital dumpsters, are the cries of millions and millions of babies.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n