In the month of January, thousands of people left their homes to attend rallies all across the country at their state capitals, asking local representatives to end abortion in their state. Some travelled for hours to participate. Some stood for hours in sub-zero temperatures once they were there. They had signs and posters to wave and they sang songs. Speeches were made and emotions were elevated.

    Throughout the rest of the year, there are numerous protests outside of abortion clinics nationwide. People often become angry. People from both sides. Sometimes violence has broken out. Injury and even death have resulted.

    Since the Supreme Court upheld the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, abortion in the United States has become a much-politicized issue.

            People who are pro-choice believe that not being able to have an abortion infringes on their rights as a person to be in control of their own body (I could say much on this issue but won’t because Scott Klusendorf says it far better than I ever could).

·              People who are pro-life believe that a person is fully human with every right endowed to humanity from the moment of conception until their natural death and so abortion affects two people, not one.

    Now, why do the two sides have such different opinions since we have the same medical research and information available to both groups? It is because they have different worldviews.

·              Many pro-choice people do not believe that an un-born baby is “human” until it has been born. Some pro-choice people are atheists; they do not believe that God has given each of us a life and a soul, a purpose and a plan. They believe that aborting a baby is no less of a crime than putting down an animal or removing a tumor from someone’s body, so it does not seem wrong to them.

·              Most pro-life people believe in the God of the Bible. They believe that he is holy and sovereign. They believe that he is the giver of life and that he has ordained every life that there is. Most pro-life people believe that God chose to make people in his own image and so human life is sacred and that to destroy something that God himself has ordained and created is one of the most rebellious and heinous crimes.

    This year, Barack Obama became president of the United States and because he is pro-choice (even though he says that he believes in God); I wonder if more people will attend the anti-abortion rallies throughout the coming year. In one sense, my heart is with those at the rallies. They are speaking out boldly against a huge injustice. Many have endured insults, harassment, and even being sent to jail to stand up for what they believe is right, and I thank them for their courage.

    However, here is the problem with the rallies:  after everyone waves their signs, sings their songs, and listens to all the speeches, in the end, they all load back onto their buses and go home. It is an event. After it is over, no one is speaking out until the next event, when everyone will stand outside with their signs, again asking politicians to change the law for us.

    I think that most pro-life people believe that since Roe v. Wade was politicized and legalized that the anti-abortion battle must be fought on a political plane. By politicizing abortion in our hearts, we are actually addressing the issue from a far weaker standpoint. By politicizing abortion in our minds, and by only challenging abortion through political channels (in a country thoroughly saturated by evolutionary teaching that gives no thought to a divine creator), we have created a nearly insurmountable wall for ourselves. Our strength does not lie in well-attended rallies or eloquent speeches. Our strength does not lie in which governor or president is or is not pro-life.

    Our strength in the pro-life movement lies in Christ, and will only succeed when we follow his example.

    My small-group leader told me a story a couple of months ago that I have not been able to get out of my mind. He had read a story about a “Christian” family who lived not too far from our town. This family’s daughter made some mistakes in her life and one of them resulted in pregnancy. Her “Christian” parents were so angry with her, and so prideful that they did not want anyone in their church to know that she was pregnant, so they kicked their sixteen-year old daughter out of their home.

    However, there was a woman who went to their church who found out that the young, pregnant girl was homeless and took her in. The girl was pro-life and wanted to give her child a chance at life. The woman provided the young girl with food, shelter, clothing and most importantly, friendship and support. Some months later, the girl’s baby was born. You would think that the woman who took the girl in was a strong pro-life advocate.

    You would think that she would attend all the rallies.

    However, if you were at your capital on Sanctity of Life Sunday, you did not see her there. 

    She is pro-choice.

    This woman really believed that a woman should have the right to keep or not keep her baby. The girl’s choice was life for her child and this woman supported her in that. The fact that it was a pro-choice woman who took this girl in surprised me. Not because I believe that pro-choice people are heartless, but because there were no pro-life people helping this young girl who wanted to keep her baby. Where were they all?

    I think that they were, metaphorically, down at the capital building holding signs and listening to speeches. I think that it is far easier to attend an event, falsely believing that something has been accomplished and then leave, feeling free to point to politicians and lawmakers when nothing changes. It becomes easy to unload the burden on someone else and then walk away. We have, for the most part, abandoned personal responsibility for the genocide that is abortion. We like to believe that since we are doing something that it is better than doing nothing. But it is not enough! If it were, abortion would no longer exist. 

    Will the Roe v. Wade decision ever be overturned? Personally, I do not think so.

    However, I believe that there is a better way, a more effective way to change the tide in our country. (Please do not hear me wrong here. If, one day, our government repeals Roe v. Wade I will be on my knees thanking God.) That does not mean that we should stop trying to go through political channels, it just means that there is more than one way to win a battle.

    If the tactics that you have been trying do not work, then it is time to change your tactics.

    I propose that corporately, we try mass acts of love, grace and peace. The next time you see a young girl who is pregnant, rather than looking at her disapprovingly and shaking your head, why don’t you ask her what she needs? Does she need maternity cloths? A ride to a doctor’s appointment? Does she need money? A safe place to stay? Maybe she needs friend who will walk with her through this hard time in her life. The next time you stand in front of an abortion clinic, rather than holding a sign or hurling insults, talk to some of the women. Get to know them as people. Ask if there is some way you can help. Maybe the baby is an inconvenience, maybe it is going to be born with a physical defect. Maybe they do not want the baby and do not know of anyone who would.

    Maybe you should offer to adopt it if she will carry it to full term.

    That sounds extreme to you, doesn’t it?

    That is precisely the problem.

    What is stopping us from overturning abortion is not politicians, it is our own selfish hearts. We see the vision, but don’t have the ambition to grasp it.

    What it would take to stop abortion outside of politics would be far more costly than standing outside a building for a couple of hours or signing a petition. It would take personal investment in another human being. It would take us getting our hands a little dirty while keeping our hearts and actions pure and peaceful. It might cost us money. It will cost us time and it will be hard work. It will mean many, many hours spent in prayer and fasting. It might cost us our pride. It might even cost us our lives.

    However, that is the way that Jesus conquered. Changing the world through servant-hood and sacrifice was not the way that the Jewish people expected, was it? He did not come as a king, to overthrow the corrupt government of his day. He did not petition or bargain with the politicians. In fact, he did not even speak with them very much. He did not raise up a mob of followers to do his bidding.

            What he did was wash his disciples’ feet. He fed crowds of people who were hungry. He healed people from their illnesses and freed them from demons. He hung out with poor and diseased people, tax collectors, crooks, fishermen and prostitutes. Christ never expected anyone to be perfect, but was angry when they pretended to be. He came for the lost, the hurting, the sinners, the broken and the dead. When he died, he conquered sin and death and when he rose again, he told his disciples to, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16)

           Jesus told us to bring the good news to sinners, not to ostracize them. He told us to pour our lives out for them in his name, not to look down on them. Not just the convenient or easy people to love, not just the white ones, the pretty ones, the clean ones, the honest, intelligent, healthy, whole ones. He said to love people as you have been loved. You, who were at enmity with God and dead in your sin, you who did not deserve grace but had it given freely anyway. Christ did whatever it cost to overcome sin and to glorify God the Father. It cost him his life and his father looking away from him because he took on our sin. Are you willing to follow Christ’s model, his form of love?

           Reaching out and touching people’s hearts in honest, tangible, Christ centered love is ultimately the only way that the abortion crisis will be stopped. Why? Because, until people see Christ, and his glory rightly, they will never be moved to repentance and faith in him. If we continue down the path that we have been on with the anti-abortion movement, at best we will only see behavior modification in the form of a few less abortions. We will not see eradication of abortion forever because people’s hearts have changed.

           The point of ending abortion often becomes obscured. It is not just about social justice, or racism, or human rights, although all of those things are important. Ending abortion is about God. It is about his glory, and his will. It is about the fact that we were created by him, made in his image and have been bought with a price, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

           My prayer is that souls would be won over by the beauty of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and the sacrifice of his saints in the form of love, grace and peace. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

    Go Do Something.    

Also, see James 1:22-27, 2:14-26.  

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