Abortion
ABORTION
BASIC R.C. BELIEF From A GUIDE FOR CONFESSION by Francis Connell, C.Ss.R. Imp Bishop Busch. p. 24. “(A direct abortion) is if the living fetus is removed because the mother is suffering from heart trouble, kidney trouble, pernicious vomiting or tuberculosis. Concerning such an abortion, the Holy Father said, `To save the life of the mother is a most noble end, but the direct killing of the child as a means is not licit.'”
RELIGIOUS JOURNALS From CHRISTIAN NEWS, 10/17/88. “The abortion rate among Roman Catholic women is 30% higher than that of Protestant women, according to a recent survey conducted by The Alan Guttmacher Institute. Evangelical women are half as likely as other Christian women to have abortions. The research also found that unmarried women are four to five times more likely to have abortions than married women, and those living with their partners are nine times more likely to have an abortion.”
SECULAR JOURNALS From ORLANDO SENTINEL, 4/10/90. “Cardinal John J. O’Connor defended the Roman Catholic Church’s hiring of a public relations concern to carry on an anti-abortion campaign.
“O’Connor said last week U.S. Roman Catholic bishops had engaged a public relations concern, Hill & Knowlton, and a polling company, the Wirthlin Group, to do a campaign opposing abortion.
“… some reports have said the bishops are expected to spend $3 million to $5 million.” PRO-ETERNAL LIFE by Dr. Bill Jackson (Available in tract form from C.E.C., Box 99141, Louisville, KY 40269) Every human being that has a true concern for the welfare of all other
human beings is thankful for every pro-life movement that exists. We, as Christians, who know something of the eternal nature of life, are especially thankful to God for every baby that has been saved from a violent murder.
In any emergency situation (and the abortion issue is an emergency situation) we cannot require people who are aiding the cause of right to agree on all points with other crusaders. If a building were burning and a bucket brigade were formed, a Christian would not feel obliged to quiz each person down the line to be sure that all members of the bucket brigade were Christians.
If a Christian were crusading for something he defines as specifically and uniquely Christian, he would only be justified in co-operating with Christians to pursue the course. While the pro-life movement is to many a Christian crusade, it is not uniquely Christian any more than putting out a fire in a Christian church building is a task to which we would call only truly converted people.
If a pro-life organization were formed calling itself CHRISTIANS AGAINST ABORTION, we, as Bible-believing Christians would not be able to join unless the requirement for joining was a biblically-based salvation. Othwerwise we would be severely compromising the person and work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Even though we must feel an obligation to save the lives of the unborn, there are some very definite guidelines for Christians. (1) DO NOT ASSUME THAT YOUR FELLOW ANTI-ABORTION WORKERS ARE CHRISTIANS. Roman Catholics were pioneers in the pro-life movement and much of the
material they produce is excellent. But the Bible plainly tells us that people can be very zealous for God but not saved (Romans 10:1,2). Today, many progressive and charismatic Catholics will employ terminologies that sound very Christian, but with all their profession of being born again, trusting Christ only, being saved by grace or justified by faith, there is still, if they are Roman Catholics, an adherence to a system that denies a completed salvation and the assurance that comes from this infinite work. They might even say the Mass has infinite value for salvation, and then deny this by continuing to participate in this celebration weekly. We have to learn to look beyond what is said to know what is really meant, and thereby be able to discern the need for the Gospel message.
I already hear some of you saying “Judge not.” Yet in the context of this command, we are told we should cast the mote out of our brother’s eye, and to do that we must see clearly. Further, we are told in John 7:24 to judge righteous judgments. A Christian must be able to know the difference between a false gospel and the true (Galatians 1:7-9), and our whole mission in the world of preaching the truth must be based on the ability to discern between truth and error (I John 4:6).
Not because wyou desire to narrowly judge him, but because you are loyal to the Lord Jesus and obedience to His Commission, do not assume they are Christians because they are pro-life. (2) DON’T NEGLECT TO EVANGELIZE THEM. The Great Commission is “to all men” and “to all the world.” We cannot
all go everywhere, but wherever we go we should be proclaiming the Gospel. One of the places we go is to a pro-life meeting, and we should consider that part of the world Jesus spoke of.
The opportunities and methods of bringing the Gospel message will vary from place to place and from time to time. Leaving a tract with your tip may be one way of preaching the Gospel in the restaurant; in some places speaking may be inappropriate, and there will be some situations where you don’t have a relationship that would lend itself to a thorough Gospel message. Your life as a Christian should still be geared to the living out of the Conmmission of ther One you love, the Lord Jesus Christ.
A friend recently told of her previous lack of Gospel witnessing in prolife circles. She stated that pro-life began to crowd out every other motive for living, and even put her witnessing for Christ in second place. What turned her around was realizing that every Christian should long for opportunity to present the Gospel message to people with whom you have a good relationship and therefore are more likely to listen to you. At the pro-life meeting, God had placed her among dozens of folks who needed to hear. She is now determined to witness for Christ at pro-life meetings.
Of course., you might say that you still have qualms about proclaiming the Gospel to these good, sincere people, but unless they hear the Gospel and put their trust in Christ, they will be eternally lost. Are you willing to let them go to Hell because they are so concerned about the rights of the unborn? (3) REALIZE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE CHILD YOU SAVED FROM ABORTION. Is it morally excusable to be responsible for bringing a child into the
world and make no provision for that child’s hearing the Gospel? God proved the fallacy of this lack by providing for man’s salvation before man’s creation. While no one would consider desiring abortion because the aborted baby would go to Heaven and the unaborted chuild might live a full life and spend eternity in Hell, this thought should help us get our priorities straight.
The greatest thing that can happen is for the mother to be evangelized and saved. Recently I met a young lady who, when unsaved, was planning an abortion. She was contacted by Christians who persuaded her to keep her baby and who led her to the Lord. Later, the father was also saved. So instead of three lives – one wrecked, one murdered and one unsaved – we have a Christian family with a positive testimonty of God’s grace.
If you are so pro-life that you don’t realize, as a friend recently said, that the untimate pro-life is pro-eternal-life, you may put saving the baby as your first priority. If you continue along this line, you will become so obsessed with pro-life that evangelism will finally fade out of the picture. Now you are bringing babies into the world that will have even less of a chance of hearing the Gospel. Will they thank us in eternity?
Close relationships develop between mothers who are saved the horrors of aborting their children and pro-life workers, and it should not be difficult to conduct a thorough follow-up program aimed at reaching that mother and family for Christ. We as Christians have so much more than prolife to offer. Are we going to help them receive physical life and not tell them of our blessed Saviour? Perhaps this thorough follow-up will seem to curtail the numbers involved in pro-life ministry, but the first consideration should be to do that which is right to do, and it is very possible our having a more biblically-based pro-life stance will encourage others to join the “PRO-ETERNAL-LIFE” movement.
As a pro-life person, you can have “the best of both worlds.” You can be actively engaged in a ministry to help bewildered, frightened mothers to save the lives of their babies, so that these helpless unborn people will; come, through the ministry of pro-life, into this beautiful world God has created for them.
You can also have the ministry of helping those lost mothers, their still innocent babies and others who have a heart for the humanitarian work of anti-abortion to be brought, through the ministry of pro-eternal-life, to the glorious place Jesus is preparing for His own; a world that will know no sin, no sadness, no murder of the unborn – God’s final home for His redeemed creation.