Sanctity of Life
Lately, I’ve been extremely disappointed how some churches are dealing with many of the controversial topics of our day. But the big one for me is specifically the Sanctity of Life (i.e. Pro-life issues). I mean, I understand. The Body of Christ wants as many people to come to know Christ as possible. I too want as many people as possible to hear about Jesus! But are we compromising fundamental beliefs for the sake of inclusivity?
Pro-life(ish)
I love and appreciate Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRC’s). They are incredibly important in the Pro-Life movement. And I am so thankful that many, if not most, churches regardless of denomination, support PRC’s. But here’s my controversial opinion: Many churches are pro-life(ish). What I mean by that is that these churches use their support of PRC’s to obfuscate any kind of political associations, since God forbid, we can’t get political. So they never have to fully commit to fighting for the most marginalized and most at risk of our community – the UNBORN.
These churches aren’t fully pro-life, but they aren’t completely pro-baby murder either. They’re just sitting in the gray, mushy middle to not upset anyone in the church. It’s acceptable and encouraged (thankfully) to support mothers in crisis pregnancies. However, I had an epiphany the other day that clarified something I could never put my finger on before. The mothers in crisis pregnancies aren’t the ones that are marginalized and at-risk. It’s the babies in their wombs.
Granted, there are plenty of mothers who need help. And in order to help those at-risk babies, we clearly need to help those mamas! No one, least of all me, is arguing against that. However, there’s still MORE work that needs to be done. And from what I can tell, it’s not being done by altogether way too many churches.
Children out of the womb
I think a good parallel to this are children out of the womb. Sometimes families need help. Obviously, as the Church (not the government, but that topic is for another post), we should be helping families in need. But if a family can’t or won’t take care of that child for any number of reasons, we would never ignore or walk away from the situation. If a child is going to be in danger of being abused or hurt in some way, we wouldn’t turn away from the problem and pretend it’s not there.
I would think most of us would do what we could to stop the abuse from happening and try our best to place that child in a safe environment. And we would do that any way we could, including supporting legislation that would protect those children. Ignoring the murder of those children would obviously be out of the question.
PRC’s
Again, praise God there are babies that are being saved every day by PRC’s. Every one of those babies are precious in the eyes of God. But they’re a drop in the bucket compared to the approximately one million babies being killed annually, just in the United States. We are called to protect the most vulnerable and marginalized. We are the salt in this world to slow the decay of our day (as Matthew Maher often says). But how can we say we are doing all we can when we refuse to talk about the murder of the unborn that happens every day? How can we, in good conscience, say we’re Pro-life, when in reality, we’re just Pro-life(ish) at best?
Of course, the Church needs to spread the gospel of Christ. But additionally we are called to disciple the people of God. And part of that comprises teaching the very basics of our faith (Matthew 28:19-20). That includes the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not murder is a commandment of God that applies to every life, not just the born.
The 3 P’s: Politics, Policies, People
As Allie Beth Stuckey says frequently in her podcast (if you don’t listen to her podcast you need to!!): “Politics matter because Policies matter because People matter.” If we say we care for people, shouldn’t we, as the Church, be doing something to protect and defend the most vulnerable? And what better way than via our vote right now?
Currently, neither candidate is ideal. However, if you look at the policies that each candidate supports, there is no question which one we should be voting for. And just for the sake of clarity, reproductive freedom is a euphemism for baby murder.
The 1916 Project
A great way to start broaching the subject of the Sanctity of Life is by watching The 1916 Project by Seth Gruber. EVERY church should be playing this for their congregants! And please don’t entertain the argument that this may be political or divisive. This is NOT a political issue, but an entirely moral and ethical one. If it divides, so be it. We’re called to stand on Truth above all, not people’s opinions.
Seth Gruber also has a fantastic book by the same name, “The 1916 Project.” It’s sure to be packed with facts and information to stiffen our spines and convict our hearts to do what we are called to for the unborn.
Encourage your church to play this documentary! Get the book and share it with others!
And remember, something to ground us is the fact that one day we will be asked by the LORD, “What did you do to protect my most vulnerable?” How will we respond? LORD give us all more courage and conviction.
