Pastor Daniel Bramlett
Roe vs Wade has been overturned. This seems like a dream too good to be true. I’ve been a staunch advocate of the pro-life position for years. The argument doesn’t take too much time to be convincing. God creates in the womb. The child in the gestational period is just as viable human life as the one receiving social security or the one graduating High School. Brain waves are active. Organs are working. Children are born halfway through pregnancies and survive! One quick read of some abortion clinic stories and you will be a pro-lifer, too. The mental and emotional harm abortion does to a mother is deep and scarring. It’s not a hard leap to say abortion is wrong.
What has been a big leap is to say that we will be in a world where abortion might possibly be illegal. I never considered this possible. Maybe that made me less of the advocate I should have been. I surely fought for the unborn less than I could have. But the tide has turned. We are now in a world where the loud, sometimes cranky, sometimes judgmental voice of the Church has been heard over the din of the crowd. What happens next? Are we ready for the consequences of what we’ve asked for?
Right now women are lining up in states (18 states have laws in effect banning abortion or plans to enact such laws soon) to have an operation that was legal last week and is now impossible. What will they do? Many will give birth. Some will pursue an illegal route. Others will cross state lines and have abortions where it is legal. In every single life, the Church must have a voice. We do not hold that voice as a place of authority or right. This is not an opportunity for us to say “I told you so” or “Bad choices produce bad consequences.” We offer the voice of love in our nation. And love in every case is best defined by Jesus.
Jesus tells us a story of a man, beaten and abused, who was skirted by the Church. The leaders mocked and despised him as they went on their way, carrying out, I’m sure, much more important business. But one who would have considered himself an enemy approached, cared, bandaged and transported…showed love to the man who was hurt and forgotten. Jesus says the way we love our enemies is the tell tale mark of the way we love everyone in our lives. The way we show love to those who are forgotten is the way we understand and best define love. How will we love these new expectant mothers?
Make no mistake, they are waiting, and so is the world. They want to know how we, the abortion vigilantes, will act. Will we consider the ‘war’ won and move on to the next fight? Will we let them struggle through these unwanted pregnancies alone? Will we have any compassion—gut wrenching feeling—to show them as they tell their stories? Will we help them raise their children? Are we ready to shoulder the burden of this decision for which we have long prayed?
The runoff from this decision will take weeks and months to sort out. What must not take weeks and months to decide is the Church’s position in the newly recognized pro-life world. We are not here as loud, pushy know-it-all’s. Our step forward is not one of arrogance or pride. We have not won a political victory. We’ve witnessed the infantile genocide shift from flood status to a slower, steady flow. Abortion will still happen, but now without federal dollars behind it and not at all in dissenting states. We must be present, but humble; visible, but willing to serve; slow to speak and quick to listen. We are not here to tell our story. We are here to help write a new one.
How will you respond to this landmark decision? Will you become an advocate of foster care? Will you support one of our many pregnancy clinics? Will you take up the task of adoption? Will you advocate for new moms who don’t know where to turn or who to turn to? Will you do any of this in love or any at all? A new generation of children will be waiting on your response.