40 Days For Life of Centralia Rally – Mike Spencer's Summary Notes
October 29, 2017
Winslow was the class punching bag in my middle school
growing up in Detroit in 1975. I was in the 7th grade and Winslow
was in the 8th grade so I didn’t get to know Winslow very well but I
knew him to be an unassuming, gentle-spirited kid, but naively trusting. As a
result, he spent his middle school years stuck in the crosshairs of heartless bullies.
I liked Winslow and felt sorry for him.
One spring day I ambled out of the cafeteria and onto the
playground to find Winslow pinned by two 8th grade boys to the
cyclone fence that served as the baseball diamond backstop. They were holding
him against the fence with his arms spread out in crucifixion style, while
several others circled around the back of the fence and kicked it into
Winslow’s back. He felt every blow and begged for mercy but received none from
his torturers. Nor did he receive any from me.
This was the first time in
my young life I’d witnessed such violence firsthand. A warm, sick feeling
washed over me and my heart began to race. My conscience elbowed me to do
something, but I was the runt of my 7th grade class. I didn’t stand a
chance. I considered telling a teacher but feared retribution, and so I did
nothing. Winslow took his beating alone.
In that moment I’d joined
the ranks of thousands of cowards before me who’d assumed their unremarkable
place in history as so-called “innocent” by-standers. To my knowledge Winslow
never knew I stood by and watched as he was treated so ruthlessly. But I knew, and
I was ashamed. Christ has forgiven me, but at 55, I still regret doing nothing
to help Winslow that spring day. I don’t
pretend to be a man of great courage, but I wish I could travel back to 7th
grade again to my middle school ball field. I’d do things differently. I don’t think
I could stop those boys from hurting Winslow, but I’d love to try. I’d just like
Winslow to know someone cared enough to share his beating.
Legalized
abortion is our “Winslow Moment”, confronting us with the greatest moral
character test of our time. And like me on my middle school ball field, scores
of professing Christians have turned a blind eye to the plight of the preborn who
find themselves stuck in the crosshairs of “choice”.
Most pulpits are silent when
it comes to speaking up for the “least of these.” Most bible colleges and
seminaries have eloquent pro-life positional statements in their student
handbooks, but do absolutely nothing to equip or inspire the next generation of
Christian leaders to give voice to those threatened by abortion.
This evening I want to address
the question, “What Is The Duty Of The
Church In An Abortion Culture?” by defending two propositions crucial to
understanding and accepting our moral responsibility to the preborn targeted by
abortion.
I. Speaking up for and sacrificing for the
preborn is a gospel issue.
To be clear, pro-life ministry is not the gospel, but it is a gospel issue -
a “loving your neighbor as yourself” issue. There is no ambiguity in the Bible regarding
our moral duty to love our fellow man. In Genesis 4 God confronts Cain for murdering
his brother, Abel, with the question, “Where is your brother?” Cain retorts
with, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God never answers Cain’s question directly
which speaks to just how obvious the answer is; yes, we are indeed our
brother’s keeper! This truth is sprinkled generously throughout both the Old &
New Testaments. Proverbs 24:11 says, “Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing
about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?” In John 15:13,
Jesus tells us, “Greater love has no one than this; to lay down his life for
his friends.” But it’s not just our friends
we’re to love. The lesson of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is
that we have a moral duty even to strangers.
The question Jesus answers in this parable is the same question at the heart of
the abortion debate today: “Who is my neighbor?” The question for Christians living
in an abortion culture, “Is the
preborn child my neighbor?”
We simplify
the abortion debate by answering this question, what are the preborn? As Greg Koukl has said, "If the unborn are not human, no justification for abortion is
necessary. But if the preborn are human, no justification for abortion is
adequate." The science of human embryology answers this for
us. From conception, the preborn is a distinct, living and whole human being. The
early embryo is a distinct person from the mother, with his or her own DNA and
a blood type, race & gender all potentially different than the mother’s. The
embryo is also alive & growing, metabolizing food for energy, growing through cellular reproduction and responding
to stimuli. The embryo is also whole: not mature, but genetically
complete.
Living organisms, like the embryo, have inner natures that work as an
integrated, coordinated whole to order their capacities & development. As Randy Alcorn points out, “Something nonhuman doesn’t become human by getting older & bigger;
whatever is human is human from the beginning.”
A second, and crucial question pro-life ambassadors
must be able to answer with clarity is, what
makes humans valuable? Are we valuable because of what we
can do, or simply because of the kind of thing we are? These are the only two
ways of viewing or valuing human beings. The pro-life view holds that “all men
are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”,
most notably the right to life. Each individual has intrinsic moral worth
independent of one’s utility or function. This view is inclusive and tolerant
and serves as the only unshakable foundation for human equality. Every
individual, regardless of skin color, gender or any other superficial
distinction has inherent moral worth simply by virtue of being created in God’s
image. This provides the only unshakable foundation for human equality.
Conversely,
the so-called “pro-choice” view divorces “humanness” from “personhood”,
claiming inclusion in the human community isn’t enough to merit legal protection.
Instead, the preborn must meet other arbitrarily chosen “tests” established by
the powerful, such as self-awareness, heartbeat, or “wantedness.” If the
preborn doesn’t measure up, they’re treated like vermin.
This view
is intolerant and elitist and obliterates the foundation for human equality.
The minute you divide the room or the womb based on subjectively chosen
“standards” to determine who lives and who dies you have destroyed the
foundation for human equality. This is bigotry.
There
are only 4 differences between adults and embryos. Just remember the acronym,
S.L.E.D. - size, level of development,
environment (location) & degree of dependency. None of these justify
killing you at your earlier stage but not now. The pro-life position is rooted in the belief that we are more than our
parts or our functions - that we are defined by something inside. We have a nature or essence about us that makes us human.
Same person now as then. We are not “human doings”, we are human beings.
Clinton Wilcox rightly points
out that, “The question of when human
life begins is not a difficult one. It only becomes difficult if you want to
justify killing people.”
Abortion is the intentional
and unjust killing of innocent human beings at the most vulnerable stage of
development in the most barbaric manner imaginable. Abortion dismembers,
decapitates, disembowels and burns children to death in mothers’ wombs, robbing
them of their most fundamental right, the right to life, & robbing them of
every other right. Clearly, legalized abortion is the defining moral issue of
our time! This is our Goliath!
Have you ever noticed that
the world views mankind as basically good, but worth nothing? (As a result we
may abort her, part her out like a junk car and sell her organs to the highest
bidder) Christianity, on the other hand, views mankind as basically evil but
worth everything (we are morally obligated to her)! Both a love for Christ and the love of Christ compel us to love others. We
have a moral duty to rescue our neighbor, whether he’s been beaten and
abandoned in a ditch, or denied legal protection and abandoned in the womb.
As we consider the plight of
2,700 children who are aborted every day in the United States we must ask
ourselves, is our gospel for all people, or only those conveniently loved and
protected? This leads me to the second proposition that I want to defend…
II. Speaking up for and sacrificing for the preborn presents
us with a gospel opportunity.
Jesus told His followers, “go and make disciples of all nations.”
For over 20 centuries the church has done just that, investing millions of
dollars to send missionaries with the gospel to every corner of the earth. Yet the
overwhelming majority of churches ignore the largest unreached people group
living & dying under their very
noses: the preborn.
When the church goes silent
babies die and mothers and fathers are saddled with a lifetime of guilt and
regret. Surrendering the little ones from our own churches to the abortionist’s
knife without a fight calls into question the truthfulness of our gospel before
a watching world. It reinforces in their minds that the preborn are indeed disposable
- unworthy of our love or of our gospel. What else are non-Christians to think
when those who worship the Lover of Children refuse to love the very ones He
loves so tenderly?
In Jesus’ parable of the Good
Samaritan the priest and the Levite walked by man in the ditch in order to
avoid moral responsibility. And although they are fictional characters, we
despise them for it. If there is one common refrain from those outside the
church, it is that the church is “filled w/hypocrites.’ This is a wildly
exaggerated accusation, but one the church substantiates when it ignores the “least
of these.”
I
am grateful for pastors who champion the cause of the preborn. But most shepherds
have abandoned their moral duty and have become tongue-tied when it comes to
speaking up for the preborn. Could the heroes
of Hebrews 11 whose faith compelled them to shut the mouths of lions, to quench
the fury of flames, and to “administer justice”, have imagined a day when
shepherds who are called by God to protect the flock would instead surrender
precious children from their own flock to the abortionist’s knife without so much
as a whimper from their pulpit?
Many church leaders argue, “Speaking up for the preborn will distract
from the gospel.” Notice that no one in the Body of Christ ever argues this
way with respect to speaking out against sex trafficking or homelessness? Only
the preborn are treated with such contempt. And only in hell could one view
rescuing precious children from the abortionist’s knife a “distraction” from the gospel.
Jesus rebuked his disciples for this kind of pernicious thinking when he said,
“Suffer the children to come to me.” Far from a “distraction,” rescuing children
from abortion is the gospel in action.
Other church leaders spiritualize
their cold indifference toward the preborn by arguing that speaking out against
abortion will only inflict greater harm on those who’ve had abortions. We must approach
the subject of abortion with sensitivity & grace, but as Scott Klusendorf points
out, “Silence does not spare hurt from
women who’ve had abortion; it spares them healing.” I’ll add, when pastors
go silent they communicate one of two messages – both regrettable; either
abortion is not so bad, or the gospel is not so good. We can do better than
this. John 8:36, says, “If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.” There
is no sin that is so great, including the sin of abortion, that God’s grace is
not greater still. How dare we hide this message!
Being
bound to Jesus Christ and His gospel doesn’t provide us refuge from the conflict over abortion; it demands our engagement. Love compels us to enter the battle. If
we ever hope to see an end to legalized abortion in our land we must follow the
example of former slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, who wrote of the
evil of slavery, “For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is
not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the
earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the
nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the
hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man
must be proclaimed and denounced.”
When
the church’s opposition to abortion equals that of Frederick Douglass’s
opposition to slavery, we will make
abortion unthinkable in our churches, our communities and our nation. Then we will
also lead those hurt by abortion to forgiveness and healing through Jesus
Christ and will give unbelievers a reason to take our gospel seriously.
