This is such a big issue that it can literally be the deciding factor as to whether or not a person would vote for a candidate for political office or not. Indeed in the current US election, for me, it was the largest reason, though I had several other reasons, that I voted for Donald Trump and not Hillary Clinton even though there are many things that I don’t like about Donald.
There are so many other issues to be concerned about varying in scope from immigration to poverty to the environment to discrimination all the way to police brutality. Why is abortion so important… even more important than those to me and to millions of others? Right up front, here is the most obvious answer. More than 3,000 unborn children are murdered in the United States every day. If you add up all of the other issues, even all together, the devastation from them doesn’t even come close to the loss that is happening just from abortion. More babies are murdered in our country every day than the number of people who were murdered by Jihad in the Twin Towers.
I’ll back up now and be candid about my previous mind-set on this. Even though I grew up in a Pentecostal home with missionary parents, I personally did not feel that abortion was a big issue. I can only attribute this to one thing since it was not from my upbringing. It has to be that my heart simply was not very sensitive to God since I had not yet better developed my relationship with Him. Even when I had friends in High School who used abortion to erase the evidence of their wild behavior, I thought that should I have been in their shoes, I might have done the same thing. I felt for them and thought they did the right thing. Though it made me sad that an unborn baby would be murdered and though I did always view abortion as literal murder, in the back of my heart, I didn't really care about it deeply. The reasons I had were that after all, the babies all go straight to heaven, had they lived, they might have had a bad life and they might not have become saved believers. I thought that maybe they were better off. So when a preacher or evangelist or a band like Delirious would start preaching or singing about it, I would sort of mentally check out and wonder why we were spending so much time talking about something that doesn't matter that much. I can barely even write these words now… I can’t believe how blind I used to be! Maybe I'm not alone in this. Maybe, just maybe, there are other Christians, millions of them who also minimize or dismiss this issue in their thinking.
I’m not going to insert the scriptures about taking the life of an unborn child in this blog since this one is more about my personal metamorphosis. If you want scriptures, feel free to google them or contact me directly and I will be happy to provide you with many of them. There are literally hundreds of pro-life web-sites out there that do a good job presenting the biblical truth about abortion.
Here is how my thinking changed. Slowly but surely as I began to become a more sincere and devout follower of Christ, my view about the unborn began to change. I wondered why there were scriptures in the Bible that spoke to the issue of premature deaths of the unborn. I realized that God inspired the writing of all of those scriptures dealing with these kinds of deaths not only for then, but for now. As I surrendered other parts of my life, selfish and prideful areas, I noticed that now when I heard someone addressing the murder of unborn children, my eyes would water and I began to care. Not just feel bad, but really care that the destiny of each child was cut short and God’s heart was hurt by it. I also began to care about the devastating after-affect for each mother who in desperation chose to go through with it.
It happened slowly but surely and I can attest that as my heart became more devoted to God, I became more sensitive to this and to other things that are dear to God's heart. Caring about what God cares about changed me. It made me more sensitive in other areas as well and it made me a better man and a better Christian.
So what is at the root of not caring about or even condoning abortion that would cause it to sear a conscience and make a heart less pliable towards God? It is that abortion is a sin that is a selfish quick fix of another sin or of an inconvenience (in the case of married women who get one). So selfish, that murder becomes preferable to facing humiliation or having to take care of a child. It’s the epitome of selfishness and not taking responsibility for ones’ actions.
When I was a young Pastor in my first role as an Associate, I discovered in the youth group that one of our teen-agers was pregnant and was scheduled for an abortion the next day. I immediately went to her and discovered that her mother knew nothing about it and that it was two wives of Elders in our Church who had made the appointment for her and were funding the murderous procedure. Even worse, I found out that they had successfully accomplished abortions with two of our girls previously. Murder was happening right in our Church and those participating didn't even blink. It was all for the sake of convenience and getting a better start in life, etc. The happiness, respectability and financial well being of those families was more important than a life. Tragically, I was not able to stop the process because as it turned out, the mother, once informed also decided to go through with it.
These wives of our elders and their husbands ended up having many other problems in their lives and causing many other problems in the Church. The willingness to enable abortions was just the tip of the iceberg.
Selfishness is the key word to what I'm saying in this piece. The only reason that a Christian would vote for a pro-abortion candidate is if they feel they will somehow benefit in a way that justifies voting for abortion. There is something important to them that they feel the other candidate who is anti-abortion will not achieve for them. And so these folks have fallen into selfishness to the point that they are willing to condone the murder of literally millions of babies so that their pet agenda can be advanced.
My prayer is that I, along with all of my fellow believers will get closer to God to the point that He can use this one important measurement to change us into the unselfish and trusting people of His that He desires us be. If we will put God first in this area of our thinking, many other great results will follow.
If you have discovered that your heart is calloused in this area as mine previously was, I encourage you to understand that it is not the way your heart is supposed to be and that God can help you to change it. Seek Him, pray, worship, get close to Him, value His Word and read it daily… not just at random, but research this issue and others that you need to in order to grasp the heart of God and His nature. If you will seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him!
