Abortion and the American Church
Copyright 2003 by Shea Oakley
All Rights Reserved.
The Evangelical Church in America recently observed an unpleasant anniversary. It has been thirty years since the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Roe vs. Wade and legalized abortion in our nation. Since 1973 a passionate and sometimes deadly war has raged between those who believe the procedure involves nothing more than the removal of unwanted tissue from the womb of a woman rightfully in control of her own body and those who believe it is the coldblooded murder of a defenseless child.
39 million abortions have been performed during this time. If, indeed the "fetus" is a human being than the past three decades have seen a holocaust in America that makes Hitler’s pale by comparison. Even the institutional blood sacrifices of children by the pagan nations condemned by God in the Old Testament did not begin to reach the level of what we, as a nation, have done in this period of time. The vast majority of Christians in the U.S. believe that God sees no "if" in the debate over the personhood of the fetus. Yet if we American believers really hold that the term "genocide" is applicable here why are we not making the fight against abortion the fundamental priority of the Evangelical Church?
One answer might be that, deep down, we do not believe that the ruling can be overturned. The sad fact of the matter is that the majority of our countrymen are in favor of keeping abortion legal. In a pluralistic democracy the only way to get anything done (or undone) is to have a majority in favor of the change. In a theocracy this would not be the case but America is not ancient Israel. Our culture has embraced a concept of absolute human rights that seems to tell us almost any abridgement of "personal freedom" is, by nature, evil. Radical individualism is both our cultural and political religion and it is not easily dislodged, especially by a Church that has bought into much of its creed.
Another reason for the seeming inevitability of Roe vs. Wade being upheld for the foreseeable future is that American believers are not willing to endanger their comfortable lives to sacrifice for the cause of the unborn. For instance mass civil disobedience in the pursuit of the repeal of legalized abortion could perhaps have the same power that it had during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s in changing hearts and minds. Unfortunately that would probably mean mass jailings of Christians and what if that endangers our ability to live the "respectable" lives that allow us to partake in the material bounty, the affluence of American life? American Christians come across as "fat and happy" to our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world for a reason: we are fat and happy…and none too ready to forfeit our bucolic existence.
Finally there is another challenge in this fight that has also fallen prey to our sloth in this area. We loudly declare the immorality of abortion and than fail to provide an alternative for woman with unwanted pregnancies. While it is true that the number of ministries devoted to helping in this area has increased we evangelicals still are not willing to open up our churches and our homes to take care of unwed mothers and others who often seek an abortion out of desperation. Perhaps it is time for us to "put our money where our mouth is" and sacrifice the next vacation or new car purchase to provide for these woman who, by the way, are also often in need of salvation.
In the final analysis some of these barriers to spearheading the fight to save children truly are beyond our control. But some, perhaps most, most definitely are not and one has to wonder if God will hold us in the Church more accountable than most for the river of blood that has run since Roe vs. Wade made America unsafe for the unborn.