Saturday, November 8, 2008

Who Speaks for Those Who Have No Voice?


Sometimes giving business to antichristian organizations is an inevitable part of being in the world but not of the world (Jesus spoke of this concept in John 17:14-15). However, I find that we, the younger Christians in America have the “in the world” part down. We’re so good at this we can do it in our sleep. I wonder how far we could get with this on "America's Got Talent?"


However, it's more the “not of the world” part that we struggle with. We can learn much from Peter’s description of the Christian as a stranger and pilgrim passing through a foreign land (I Peter 2:11). One thing you can know about a foreign refugee is that they aren't the best at blending in to the crowd and obediently conforming to the politically correct, Orwellian “group-think.” It takes more time for them.


It is safe to say that we have taken the “in the world” part of Jesus’ words to the extreme. This is embarrassingly seen in how desensitized we have become to the senseless killing of more than48,500,000 helpless, unborn American citizens since Roe vs. Wade was passed in 1973.

Many estimates show that more than 90% of all unborn infants diagnosed with down syndrome are now aborted. This was brought to the fore when the Gov. of Alaska, Sarah Palin, chose to give birth to her son, in spite of this sad diagnosis. Months before she was ever picked for McCain's VP, many Christian thinkers were praising her for this compassionate decision to have her son in spite of his down syndrome. But once she was tagged by the Rep. Party for VP, it won her no friends from the world. Palin issued the following statement on April 18:


"Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed."


I find her choice to have little Trig Palin as a noble, compassionate move that truly exemplifies the love of Christ. As a fellow believer, I must say, "You go girl." Surely Twenty-first century America is excited about her decision as well. Not so much! Palin was instead mocked, and had her husband suspected of incest on SNL, in spite of their being no evidence whatsoever to support it. In short, she was denied any credit for the love reflected in such a decision. Surprisingly, the price of her shoes received much more attention by most networks than Trig Palen ever did, showing once again how akin they have become to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984. They don't report the truth, they create it in accordance to their own power.


Should we abort children with defects? The world wants to define life in terms of Eugenics (this term literally means “good gene” and is the science of creating a more genetically fit race of people), namely those who have good genes or who can contribute to the greater good. The world now wants to play the role of God, determining who is fit for life, and who is unfit. Because an unborn child is deemed unviable, at least at the time of gestation in the womb, the child is not human and can be shamelessly discarded.


One German doctor named Bernard Moeller was recently denied permanent residence in Australia because his 13 year old son, Lukas, has down syndrome and is deemed too big of a financial burden on the Australian nanny state. This was in spite of the fact that Dr. Moeller moved to Australia to help out the country due to their huge deficit of doctors. Lukas himself was denied Australian citizenship simply because of his physical condition, reflecting the trend towards Eugenics. Oh, by the way, Eugenics is making a huge comeback after it spent years in disrepute. But you might be interested to know that the last big Eugenics experiment was Hitler's Holocaust during WWII, during which time Dr. Mengele, thought of many cutting-edge ways to help Darwin's process of natural selection along. Killing 6,000,000 Jews was the one that received the most attention, but obviously did not succeed in creating Hitler's master race.


We as Christians do not have the luxury of playing the role of God and determining who is fit for life, and who is unfit. We are told in Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:5 and Ephesians 1:4 when life begins. It does not begin at birth, nor does it begin at conception. Instead, we are told that it begins for every one of us before the foundation of the world was laid. We were created by God and are encouraged to know that before we were even formed in the womb of our mother, God not only knew us, but charted out His plan for our lives.


Many Christians will always remember how maligned Sarah Palin was by the mainstream media. We know how powerful they have become at making or breaking someone’s reputation. It is no wonder that many Christians do not take any stand for the unborn because they are scared to death of being lumped in with the handful of misled people in all of history that have committed terrorist acts at abortion clinics.


Many Christians have studied the list of politically correct, convenient untruths and now see global warming as the more pressing issue. Young people are now wearing political agendas as fashion statements. The problem is, the Pro Life cause isn't so trendy with the Hollywood elite, or the Leftist effete, so they shuck it off for something more fashionable. We often put on the superficial façade of standing up for something important when we are really just conforming to the popular culture.


This was clearly seen in a recent poll I saw taken among young "Christian" college students, a high number of whom ranked global warming as a more pressing issue than abortion. The headline praised them in their maturity, having grown beyond the narrow-minded issues of their parents. I however, saw this poll very differently from the liberal media, sadly recognizing it as a declaration that their master is now public opinion, not the Lord Jesus Christ.


Christians have a duty to be on the side of those who have no voice, namely the unborn. Even when we are laughed at by those who claim to have more mature tastes, having matured beyond what they see to be elementary, Christian fairy tales, we must be willing to be mocked and even be counted as fools (Psalm 72:3-5, 146:6-7). God chooses, not the wise men of this world. He instead chooses the foolish to confound the wise, and the weak to confound those who are mighty (I Corinthians 1:25-26).


God is presented as one who delivers the oppressed, the downtrodden, the ones who have no voice to be heard and no vote to cast. Isaiah 58 is a beautiful description of our charitable God, who speaks up for those who are powerless and left out of the circle of power. In fact, he goes a step further, commanding us to do the same. He commands us to give our bread to the hungry, to bring the poor out of the streets and into our homes, to clothe the naked, and not to ignore our own flesh (58:7). This last command has to do with the protection we owe to our own offspring. The word “flesh”, when understood in the Hebrew language can also be translated “blood.” This clearly indicates the importance of embracing our own offspring and not casting them aside just because it is not convenient, or financially feasible. Abortion today would be comparable to what Isaiah calls “ignoring one’s own blood” in the ancient world. In fact, if you read Ezekiel 16, you will relish one of the most breathtaking descriptions of God’s love in choosing Israel. In that passage God is depicted as a man who, by chance, hears the cries of a rejected, newborn infant, wallowing in its own blood and at death’s door. God takes this abandoned child into his very own home and raises it as his own daughter. It symbolizes none other than the nation of Israel, which was rescued by God out of paganism and slavery.
If we do not follow this example by speaking up for the rejected members of the human race, speaking up for those who cannot speak, and calling abortion what it really is, "murder," then we are among those who sugar down the truth because we care more about not being an offense to sensitive ears than we do the offense they will face in Hell.


We are among those priests who were rebuked by God for telling the wicked that they were at peace with God when in reality, they were at war with God because of their sin (read Malachi 2:17).


You may counter with the common assumption that abortion advocates are standing up for the oppressed by encouraging women to have abortions. We are told that these are women whose physical lives are often jeopardized by the prospect of having a child. But this is ironic in light of the facts, which show that 93% of all women who have an abortion list “social reasons” as what drove them to have an abortion, not “health risks.”


It is also ironic when the facts show that more than half of all women who have an abortion suffer from long-term emotional trauma. High numbers also experience ongoing biological and physiological trauma, the risks of which are usually not disclosed by groups pushing abortion, such as Planned Parenthood. This deceit is unconscionable. There is no doubt, that the reasoning behind abortion is social. It is about convenience, not the health of the woman, or the child (statistics taken from http://www.nrlc.org/).


The photo above is of Samuel Alexander Armas, a child who had been in the womb for just twenty-one weeks, and was undergoing a risky surgery to correct spina bifida, a condition that develops while the child is in gestation and usually results in the child being paralyzed for life.
Samuel’s mother, Julie, believed that this child was created in the image of God, and therefore chose life over death. Instead of aborting her child because of the inconvenience he might become, she was determined to honor life and give birth to Samuel. This was a first-time operation performed at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and was risky. Yet, the results were successful. Today, Samuel is a healthy nine year old boy, who can walk with little aid.


You can see Samuel’s hand reaching out of the uterus in the photo. Many have called this the “hand of hope.” When Dr. Joseph Bruner made the incision into Julie’s uterus, Samuel, obviously sensed the opening and out of curiosity, thrust his little hand through the opening and in the process took everyone’s breathe away.


Was this just a blob of inanimate tissue as Planned Parenthood would have us think? Should it be called nothing more than the by-product of conception? I don’t think so! This was a self-aware, human life.


Even if we define life as a beating heart, the average child in the womb has a beating heart within twenty-one days of conception. On new 4D ultrasound technology, it is often seen stretching its legs, sucking its fingers, hiccupping, and even doing somersaults.


Even when the unborn child is determined to be non-human, whenever a child is aborted it always recoils at the intrusion of those metal jaws we call forceps. Aborted children suffering abortions have been filmed twitching, jerking, and fighting for their lives, but to no avail. Tell me that this child fighting for its life really has no life at all and I would like to sell you oceanfront property in Arizona.


The aborted child is a helpless member of God’s creation that was entrusted to our care, and we have shamelessly betrayed that trust.

May God have mercy on this nation and may God bring revival to a church that is lethargically teetering on apostasy.


(There is much more to be said about the loss of shock-value in a culture that celebrates violence and vanity to the point that nothing bothers us anymore. To be shocked at anything is to be thought naïve. Drawing on a message by Francis Schaeffer I would like to examine whether or not this is a healthy trait of our culture and more importantly, what it has done to the church.)

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