Abortion laws won’t stem the tide of abortions in this country. Rulings by federal judges won’t change the situation. It’s time that Christians woke up to that fact.
Writers like James Davison Hunter (To Change The World) and Gabe Lyons (The Next Christians) have tried to help us see the truth. Lyons has an excellent study of how the homosexual community has successfully promoted their agenda in this country… and it wasn’t through politics (at least not primarily). Now they’re able to make gains through politics, because of the decades of work in the arts, in education and in other fields.
But what about the average Christian who feels passionate about doing something about abortion? Here are a few ideas:
- Talk to young people. Better yet, listen to young people. Let them see you as a person they can trust.
- Make yourself available to young people. Let them know that they can call on you at any time. To talk. To get a ride home from an uncomfortable situation. To have a place to stay should they need one.
- Identify yourself as an agent of God’s grace. I don’t know if that expresses the thought well, but what I mean is that they need to know that God will forgive any sin that they commit… and you will too. Young people need to know that nothing they share with you will make you withdraw in disgust or make you reject them in anger.
- Encourage your church to step up as family to pregnant young women. Should one of your church members become pregnant, the church should surround them with an atmosphere of love and forgiveness (unless, of course, they are unrepentant). They need to know that the church will do everything it can to help them bring this child into the world in a good way. That means help with doctor visits, rides to and from work (or school), babysitting, diapers, the whole works. Everything that a loving physical family would do. And, ideally, the church would be able to extend this love even to non-Christians.
- Consider the children. Adopt a child. Work at a children’s home. Raise money for children’s homes. Let the world know that there are positive alternatives to abortion.
I could go on, but you probably have better ideas than I do how this could play out. Some are probably thinking, “Yes, that’s fine for my community, but what about the nation as a whole?” The nation as a whole will be changed as individual communities are changed. We have to begin with our sphere of influence, and most of us don’t have influence at a national level.
This is much harder and personally involving than the political approach. It’s much easier to forward e-mails, attend rallies and vote for candidates based on a single issue. But you’ll have much more impact for good working with individuals right where you live.
I would also add that Christians/churches can also support a local ministry that provides care and education to unwed mothers and their babies (both prior to and after birth). Who cares if it is a ministry overseen by a different church than our own.
The premise that you can “do something about abortion” by talking to pregnant teens starts waaaaaaaay to late in the cycle. You really need to start at the root of the problem…
Our bodies are ready for sex as young as 12 or 15. God gave us an impossibly strong instinct/urge to have sex. The mother of Jesus was around 13. Check out your genealogical chart, and you’ll find that your grandmother or great grandmother was 14 when she got pregnant. Through out eons of time, pregnancy among young teenage girls has been celebrated as the ultimate proof of God’s blessing.
Soooooo … why does the church of Christ now view pregnancy among teenage girls as a shame and as sinful behavior??? Teaching that it is “God’s Will” for teenagers to abstain from sex is biblically indefensible… and quite ignorant.
There were over 1 million abortions this year because the church you attend is creating millions of “unwanted pregnancies” by shaming teenage girls. God intended for us to celebrate these pregnancies and to create loving homes for these babies, not to kill them because your church makes up a bunch of illogical and un-followable rules about sexual behavior.
Tim,
I think you have made some great points in this series and in past posts concerning Christians, politics, public service, and the Kingdom of God. I’m wondering if one cannot make many of the same points about Christians, physical health, physicians, public policy and the Kingdom of God.
Blessings,
Mark Edge
Mark,
Can you flesh that out a bit? I think I know where you’re going with that comment, but I’m not sure.
Tim
I’m waiting for your reply to cousin Kevin :) I sure hope you don’t disappoint.
In my opinion, one of the hardest things for Christians to do is maintain a balanced view of the human body.
On the one hand, we desire to take care of our bodies. We pay doctors to minister to our bodies. We buy insurance for our bodies. Yet, our bodies are slowly dying. Care for the human body is ultimately a lost cause. There are spiritual issues that transcend those of our physical bodies.
Having said that, I want to buy health insurance. I want to stay well and, when I get sick, get well. I want to honor God as best I can in a physical world… that is dying.
I am grateful for medical doctors, even though ultimately all of their work will end in failure.
I have been blessed in my lifetime by legislation that has addressed the physical body. One example has been the virtual elimination of smoking in public places in the United States. A few years ago, I visited a restaurant in Mexico that allowed smoking. Within 24 hours, I had developed a bad sinus infection. This was no accident, so I am grateful that someone has influenced our medical public policy.
Can we go too far in this? Absolutely. And I think we can NOT go far enough as well.
I see a parallel with politics, government and public service. It is the church through which God saves people. It is the church through which God seeks to unite people of all races and cultures.
Nevertheless, like medical doctors, public servants ideally seek to be healing agents in a sick society. Ultimately, their work will end in failure. Yet, if done well, their work will be a temporary blessing for us all.
Can Christians put too much faith in politicians and government? Absolutely. Yet, the world will be a bad place if they do not consign enough faith in the ability of “society’s doctors” to serve the public good.
ME
Thanks for the explanation, Mark.
OK, just for Laymond, I’ll comment on Kevin’s thoughts:
Ironically, as physical maturity onsets earlier and earlier, emotional maturity is occurring later and later in our society, what sociologists call “prolonged adolescence.” Fact is, teenagers aren’t prepared emotionally to handle marriage or sex, at least in Western society.
We don’t know how old Mary was, though it’s possible that she was as young as 13.
In the context of marriage. During those same eons, girls who got pregnant outside of marriage were subject to shunning or even execution.
The sex instinct is not impossibly strong. It is very strong, but can be controlled, especially with God’s help. We aren’t mere animals who respond blindly to instinct; we have a higher nature. There are many societal factors which place adolescents in situations where temptation is especially strong; we can’t blame God nor the church for that.
The church did not invent the concept of virginity until marriage; that’s a biblical concept.
The church surely shares some of the blame for abortion, but it’s unreasonable to lay all of the blame on any religion. Secular humanism deserves a hefty share of the blame as well.
Grace and peace,
Tim
A quick reply for Layford ;-)
First, an acknowledgement that we live in the time and place and environment that we live in… we cannot wish it away and live as though we are not in a Western/Christian culture of 2012.
Having acknowledge that though….
Saying that teenagers aren’t prepared for sex or marriage and then calling that a “fact”? Just saying things does not create a fact…. that is your opinion… presented without any evidence… please admit that you just made up that “fact”.
We don’t know Mary’s exact age of course, but we do know that Jewish girls of that time were typically “married off” at sexual maturity, commonly 13.
And agreed, yes, sex in the context of marriage. The idea of “dating” 40 different people before “settling down” doesn’t fit with anything found in the bible. Biblical examples of marriage included one man multiple wives and 30 year old men marrying 13 year old girls, but it did not include “dating”.
Agreed that secular humanism is equally responsible for abortion.
Layford…. what are your thoughts or “facts” ?
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Kevin, I am here to listen and learn. I can see both points, Your’s speaks to a past time when women were considered something to be bought and sold and men made the decisions. . Tim speaks of today when women make their own decisions. I suspect human anatomy, and desires are the same but situations are different. as for unwanted pregnancy probably education is the only deterrent . and as Kevin said it is not going to be ” no sex please”.–abstinence.
Thanks Laymond.
To be clear, I am not describing my own thoughts above. I am discussing what the church of Christ bible says. (I personally do not accept the biblical cannon that is used in the churches of Christ.) The church of Christ typically maintains that it’s teachings are based on and concerned with the “word of God as revealed in the bible”. But in reality, most of what the church of Christ teaches is based on current societal and cultural norms and has very little to do with what the bible actually says. Tim’s exhortations are not biblical, they are cultural norms.
If the church of Christ really did accept the teachings of it’s bible, there would be very few marriages (as Paul instructs), and no personal accumulation of wealth.
If, instead, the church’s religious practices are based on cultural norms, then we must accept the fact of abortion. Our society and cultural norms overwhelmingly accept abortion, dating, and personal wealth…. none of which is “biblical”.
I acknowledge being an iconoclast.
I have been accused of that myself :)
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