According to Planned Parenthood, “Abortions
are very common. In fact, 3 out of 10 women have had an abortion by the time
they are 45 years old.”[1] Of
course, this is not just a woman’s issue. While women most often carry the
weight and burden of abortion (it goes against their God given maternal
instinct to kill their children), there is always a man involved, too. So I lie
in my bed and start doing math problems, which is an issue because I’m not
really good at doing math in my head, and there’s something weird about a man
getting out of bed to do calculations.
For every abortion there is a mother
and a father involved. Generally speaking, I know each family is different, but
there is an average of four grandparents involved. Some will have less, but
then there are others who will have both parents and step-parents pushing the
numbers back up. Depending on the age of the mother there might also be 8 great
grandparents involved. That’s fourteen people directly related to the abortion
of one child. That’s not including brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
co-workers, or best friends. That is also not including the abortionists and
clinic workers who have God given consciences and souls. I have heard that
every abortion affects as many as 40 people, but for the sake of this blog, let’s
lowball the number and go with 6.
In the United States there are
approximately 4,000 surgical abortions performed each day. Going with our low
ball number of 6 people affected by abortion, that means 24,000 people are
affected by abortion each and every day (FYI: the higher number is 160,000). According
to the Guttmacher Institute, the research wing of Planned Parenthood and
generally regarded as an accurate accounting of abortion statistics by both sides
of the aisle, stated that 65% of the women who have had an abortion identified
themselves as Christians, (37% Protestants, 28% Catholic).[2]
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| The Mayor |
This means that of the 4,000 women
who have an abortion each day, 2,600 of them are coming from our churches. Now
before you jump down my throat on that issue, I understand that not everyone claiming
to be a Christian ever does anything remotely Christian like going to church
once in a while. And even if they do go to church, it doesn’t make them a
Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. But still,
that is 2,600 women every single day, every single week, every single year who
have had at least some knowledge and upbringing into the Christian faith. That
is a lot.
Let’s extrapolate. 4,000 women +
4,000 men + 16,000 grandparents = 24,000 people directly affected by abortion
every single day. Sixty-five percent of 24,000 people is 15,600 people who “identify”
themselves as Christians in some capacity are being affected by abortion today.
15,600 were affected by abortion yesterday. 15,600 will be affected by abortion
tomorrow. And our churches remain silent.
Why?
I heard that question asked on one
of Josh Brahm’s archived podcasts on www.prolifepodcast.net.
I don’t remember who answered the question, but I remember the answer. The man
being interviewed said “the reasons churches are silent on abortion is
ignorance, fear, and apathy.
Ignorance, because let’s face it,
pastors are busy doing a lot of important things—very important things. It
takes a lot of effort to research and study such a lighthearted topic like
abortion. Unfortunately, I believe many pastors busy themselves with less
important things. I think if I had to rank priorities I would say 1) Salvation;
2) the legal killing of human beings right under our noses; 3) human trafficking.
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| My last pastor |
And finally, there’s apathy. I don’t
know how 53 million Americans can be killed in 41 years of legalized abortion
and we still don’t care. If while the pastor was preaching Sunday morning a
deacon ran in and said “There’s a crazy man in the nursery with a knife!” we
would expect everyone to get up and run to the nursery. Unfortunately, we can
say “There’s a man who will fly in from New Jersey this week and perform 30-40
abortions before flying home. We need everyone to stand outside of his clinic.”
How many people will show up? I suspect very few.
Our churches are the last places
that need to be silent on this issue. For one thing, 65% of all abortive
mothers are coming from our churches. Secondly, we’re the only ones who have a
solution. Abortion is a sin, no doubt about it, but it is not unforgivable.
Jesus died for all sins, from lying to murder, from stealing time to rape. If
we come to Him begging for mercy He will forgive our sins and begin cleansing
us of all of our unrighteousness.
Right now there are 8,000
post-abortive mothers and fathers, 5,200 in our churches, who are groping
around in the dark, while we, as Christians in general and pastors specifically,
are afraid to bring it up for fear of re-hashing bad memories. In so doing we
deny them any help whatsoever. Guilt that has been covered up and not dealt
with, must continue to bubble up to the surface. This is God’s plan for us to
live in a right relationship with Him. Sin separates us from God. He wants you
to remember your sin, deal with it properly, and then move on. You can’t do
step 3 without first attending to step 2.
Let’s do some more math. Since 1973,
there have been 53 million legal abortions in America (In the same time period
there have been 1.5 billion legal abortions worldwide which is 6 times the
population of earth when Jesus was a man). If 65% of all abortive mothers
identified themselves as Christians, that means there are 34,450,000 post
abortive women in our churches. Using our same lowball figure of 6 people
affected by every abortion and we have 206,700,000 people who are in some way
linked to our churches.
Wanna be relevant to our culture?
Wanna help society? Our churches should be and need to be riddled with
post-abortive support groups like The IRMA Network, Rachel’s Vineyard, and
Silent No More. Personally, I can’t think of a church that hosts any
post-abortive support group.
Its something to think about.
[1] http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.asp
Accessed on 2/25/14
[2] http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
Accessd on 2/25/14
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