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As an atheist, I maintain that the societal practice of abortion is ritual mass murder upon the altars dedicated to idolatrous vanities, a collective human sacrifice to pagan idols... |
Dr. Nathanson was unusual in that he was still an atheist for years after he turned against abortion and started his awesome amount of writing, speaking and filmmaking against it. A long religious quest ended in his baptism as a Catholic in 1996.
Abortion as "Shedding Innocent Blood" & Lessons Toward Repentance ...
The "Equal Creation" principles in the Declaration of Independence were the cry of the anti-slavery crusade for 30 years. Today most evangelical leaders and many presidential candidates reference the same document and the Creator's "endowment of unalienable rights" in the fight against big government and abortion rights. What they fail to mention is that this document is also an instrument of judgment. They overlook its "execution" provisions. In its first paragraph, the very existence of the nation is pinned to the "laws of nature and nature's God." For Jefferson's contemporaries, this phrase meant the Romans 2:15 law written on every man's heart, whether Christian or not, as tested by the Christian Bible.
Abortion is the shedding of innocent blood. The blood of an unborn child is separate from that of its mother at 21days gestation and is a person from conception (Luke 1:42-43). As you know, killing such a child violates God's laws in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:13). God hates such killing (Proverbs 6:16-17) and it defiles the land (Numbers35:33). God is personally pledged to avenge the shedding of innocent blood (Deuteronomy 32:43).
For shedding of innocent blood in Israel God brought a series of escalating judgments culminating in the Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C. (Psalm 106:36-43; Jeremiah 33:35,36) and, according to Jesus (Matthew 23:34,35; Luke 11:49-51), the life for life judgment and total destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. To the idolatry of Israel involving child sacrifice to Baal and Molech in exchange for material wealth and to celebrate sexual promiscuity, we have added an idol of convenience.
Dr. George Grant in GRAND ILLUSIONS documented a 1989 discovery of 39,000 patient information forms from 14 Planned Parenthood abortion clinics nationwide indicating that 62% of the women receiving abortions identified themselves as Evangelical Christians, another 20% as Catholic or Orthodox. Of those 82% of Planned Parenthood customers, 76% identified their local church membership and pastor. In the 25 years since abortions were legalized in 1973, Planned Parenthood has performed napproximately 2.5 million abortions. Based upon this sample, as many as 2 million (82%) Christian women have been Planned Parenthood patients.
- The research arm of Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute, reported in surveys of 10,000 abortion patients in 100 clinics, hospitals, and physician offices in all regions of the country that in 1987, 16%, and in 1995, 18% of abortion patients described herself as a "born again" or Evangelical Christian. All Protestants accounted for 37%, Catholics - 31%, Jewish - 1%, and those citing no religion only 23.7%. This means that of the estimated 38 million abortions since 1973, up to 7 million involved Evangelical Christian women. It also means that the total number of abortion victims in Protestant and Catholic churches approaches 26 million women. If the fathers of the aborted children were Christian as well, the number would approach 52 million.
- Most believe that these statistics about the number of abortions is low. The inescapable conclusion of these sources is that for most churches, like the rest of the population, every third woman in the congregation and probably the same number of men have been responsible for an abortion. After 25 years there are millions of these women and men in the church who carry hidden sin and all are in dire need of post-abortion ministry.
An article called "Silence of the Shepherds," published by World Magazine on January 21,1995, offered the following observations on the absence of pastoral leadership in opposing abortion:
a. A study of preaching on abortion by World found that out of 20 well known Christian leaders (from 9 National Association of Evangelical-member denominations, and 2 at-large denominations) only 6 could provide a complete sermon on abortion and only 3 more could provide even an excerpt,
b. A poll by Molly Stone of Last Days Ministries in Tyler, Texas for her master's thesis at Regent University of 104 pastors from evangelical, mainline, and fundamentalist churches in the area surrounding South Hampton, Virginia, found that:
-76% believed that life began at conception, and 69% believed a strong stand on abortion was important, but only 39% ever devoted an entire sermon to abortion. Among evangelicals, the percentage jumped to 58%. -90% mentioned abortion in a sermon, but less than 50% ever announced a pro-life event from the pulpit or church bulletin. -70% said crisis pregnancy centers were the pro-life activity of choice, but 70% did not actually support such a center. -Only 17% endorsed pickets or prayer at clinics, and only 7% encouraged rescues.
World quotes R.C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries: "One of the greatest travesties of the church is its silence on abortion, particularly the evangelical church."
Many in the Pro-Life movement have been a major prophetic voice to the Church and to the nation. Their heroic evangelism outside the clinics has saved many unborn lives and quite a few abortionists. Like the abolitionists during the 19th Century, however, the civil disobedience and other tactics of some activists have contributed to their marginalization by the Church. Many on the front lines of clinic counseling or demonstrators have believed that rescuing is the only effective scriptural response since Proverbs 24:11 tells us to rescue those being led to the slaughter. In addition, these and other pro-life activists have responded to the silence of the pastors and the Church by "lobbying" them to become legally or politically involved.
The message sent and received is that the involvement in the abortion fight means picketing clinics, getting arrested or lobbying the legislature. For most pastors, this message simply reinforces the idea that abortion is a political issue and contributes to the ongoing silence from the pulpits. All of us in this movement need to repent where we have had any part in (1) sustaining the silence from the pulpits, (2) distracting the clergy from their ordained roles of preaching that abortion is sin, and ministering forgiveness and healing, and (3) failing to believe that God can end abortion through repentance and revival regardless of whether abortion is ever made a crime again.