Two sides of the same coin

Abortion, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, you would think it was the only issue of importance facing this country in this election year and the only reason to consider a candidate for office both nationally and locally.

The Pro-Choice, feminist movement states that if Sarah Palin is elected as VP it will set back women’s rights 50 years. They seem to ignore that this woman has been a mayor, governor, and will now be Vice President of the United States, quite an accomplishment for a woman compared to 50 years ago wouldn’t you say.

On the other hand you have the Pro-Life, Christian side that ignores all other issues or voting record of a candidate except one and that is their proposed stance on abortion. These candidates have been in office for several terms off the christian vote, stumping a little old time religion before the crowds on the campaign trail and claiming an evangelical church membership . It doesn’t seem to matter what else they stand for or who they have voted with, it also doesn’t seem to matter that after all these years of promises they have yet to accomplish what they have been elected for, to stop abortion.

I know from experience that anytime you make a comment concerning abortion among fellow believers that doesn’t fall right down the party lines that you are immediately accosted and accused of not being a faithful and concerned Christian or not being obedient to ending this sin of abortion in our country which is bringing down judgement from God. I say Hogwash, when did the Great Commission get changed from “Go into all the world and make disciples,....” to “Go into all the cities of America and protest and elect politicians to stop abortion”? Which of the two do you think is going to be more effective in ceasing abortion or any sin for that matter.? Is abortion a sin?, you bet it is, it is the taking of innocent life just as the propaganda states but the answer is not in protests, and destruction or hate or slander, that is not Christlike behavior. The answer, again, is the call of the Great Commission. Change lives, that’s God’s “operation rescue” of the lost and perishing in this world.

I recently came through a town in central Missouri returning home from a retreat and saw a group of Christian protestors out along the streets with their aborted fetus pictures and pro-life signs smiling and waving at everyone that passed. My thought when I saw this was, “I wonder how many of those same people, who proudly and gladly stand there with their poster boards and pictures, ever get out and share the gospel of the kingdom with a neighbor or friend”? It’s much easier to just stand there with your poster thinking your doing something for God than it is to actually come alongside a perishing soul and help disciple them.

So, you might ask what would you do then? Well, if I were so impassioned as these seem to be then I would do what I see as the true Christian response, the same thing the early Christians did in Rome. Whenever they found an abandoned infant who was left to die they took it in and raised it. My suggestion is why not come alongside a young woman who is pregnant but does not want the child and offer to take care of her during her pregnancy and then adopt her child when it is born. You actually accomplish two things with this approach, you get the opportunity to disciple and love a perishing soul and you save the life of her child. That is the way I believe God would want us to act for it has the possibility of bringing two souls into the kingdom and rescuing all who are perishing.