“A generation that denies respect to the elderly and protection to its unborn has denied God’s ownership upon human life. Weakness and frailty become the signal to attack.” – Character Matters, Dr. Mark Rutland

Hear me out – I do not support abortion, but I am not about to bash people who believe women should have the right to abortion or who have themselves had an abortion. I understand there are difficult situations that threaten the mother’s life; I’m not here to debate that either. I just have a question for fellow Christians who are still in shock over the legislation passed in New York this week.

What are we going to do about it?

There’s a bigger issue at play than just what was done this week. The legislation has been passed in the name of women’s rights, but so much of the language included in the bill (read it without media bias here) and their words of celebration reveal beliefs that contradict the truth of human value at its core. Instead of calling the problem whatever names you will, though, what is the solution? Will the celebration following this piece of legislation be the heartbreak that compels our feet to move?

Christians – Are we seeing the broken people crying out from behind these decisions that have reduced a treasured, innocent life to nothing more than disposable matter? Are we seeing the new, scared mothers who don’t know how to care for their precious newborn babies? The worried women who already can’t make ends meet? Are we seeing the women so burdened by their pain they don’t know where else to turn?

If we can’t see the pain, we can’t help lead the way to the Healer. And if we do see the pain and do nothing, aren’t we just as guilty as they are? If not more? We allow women to become empty shells of who they dreamed they would be, or rather, who they were created to be, and then beat them down at the evidence of their brokenness. Do we expect the hurting to heal themselves? Or are we confident our cold arguments will help them see God’s love?

In 2 Timothy, Paul writes:

“For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” – 2 Timothy 3:2-7 (NASB)

These verses haunt me. Women who have at any point seen their identity through the lens of how a man was treating (or mistreating) them can feel the hopelessness of that situation. You can feel the confusion, the struggle for freedom, and the defeat as feelings of worthlessness rush over you again. What will it take for us to fight for their freedom? (Please note: those verses are not saying all men are horrible. We need strong Christian men loving God above all else so they can lead healthy marriages and families.)

If this week’s news is going to stir anything in us, let it be a tenderness for the women who believe abortion is their only option. Let it stir a determination to fight, not against the broken and burdened, but for freedom from the lies that have reduced the perceived value of life to nothing. Yes, pray. God answers prayers in mighty ways. But let His love compel your feet to move and your hands to reach out to the people in need right in front of you. Be gentle, love with compassion, stand up for the weak, protect the broken and defenseless.

Let’s learn how to do this together.

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Father,

I pray you stir in us a heart that sees the broken, sees the disheartened, sees the confused, and knows how to love them. I pray we hear the person grasping for hope and not the judgements that so often cloud Christian hearts. I pray the heartbreak so many have felt over recent events compels our feet to move and our hands to heal through Your power and Your truth, not our strength or opinions. Please open our eyes where we have been blind in our own communities and open doors for new conversations to begin. Please, help us understand how to love in a way that heals, and correct any sin-tainted attitudes in us that risk pushing people farther from you. 

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.