One Youth Pastor’s Opinion (OYPO) – Vol. 40
ABORTION? PLEASE, NO. LIFE IS MEANT TO GLORIFY GOD.
I preached last Sunday in
The content, though, was pretty simple. The main question is: “When does life start?” And the answer has biological, logical, and theological answers to it. I took a 30-minute stab at the following concepts:
BIOLOGICAL
Since New York ruled to legalize abortions up to the point of birth, I wanted to look at the medical beginnings of life. Several doctors have posted their observations, and the biological facts are that:
- The child’s DNA is immediately separate from the mother’s
- As soon as the seed reaches the egg, the child’s sex is determined
- Growth begins
as the cells rapidly duplicate - Within a month, all the common signs of life are present, including developing nerve, respiratory, and blood circulation systems.
LOGICAL
If people are unsure of when life begins, they should reconsider their lines of when to abort. The recent NY laws make it legal to kill the baby right up to the time of labor. One lawmaker was asked, “So, presumably a mother goes into labor and starts to dilate, she can then decide to kill the baby?” The answer was, “Yes. Theoretically, that falls within the third trimester, and there is no limitation on this bill.”
So, logically, life begins… after the “magical” birth canal? I am not sure why a 10-inch passage somehow conveys personhood. If the baby is born, but 5 years, or 5 days, or 5 minutes, or 5 seconds later, the mom decides she no longer wants the baby, can she kill it? For some reason, no, that’s murder. But 5 minutes before birth? No problem… let’s pierce that skull and inject some poison. Sure, the mom will go through the delivery anyway, but at least she won’t have to raise that “pregnancy.”
How sick and evil.
We call a wall immoral, yet rips limbs out of wombs and call it
We are told, “It’s just a sea cucumber; a lump of cells; a normal surgery, like removing a kidney.” Strange. I know people who have lost both kidneys and never grieved over them. Yet Buddhist temples in China are cashing in on the guilt of mothers, charging $140 per statue to relieve the guilt of dead babies. Only $40 for repeat abortions. In one temple, there are over 10,000 statues. No mental side effects? Tell that to the grieving mothers.
If the logic of evolution is true, we’re just bags of biological dust, anyway. Why is killing babies bad? Or killing each other, for that matter? But why are humans any better than trees? Why is it okay to kill a spider and not a cow? Why is it okay to trim your grass but not eat chicken? After all, both are living things. One set of cells evolved into an animal that you like; the other evolved into a bug.
Should we stop using pesticides? Should we apologize to the grass for stepping on it, as if we’re unconsciously privileged?
My wife overheard two moms talking about Veganism, and one mom was a pescatarian (eats fish). Their logic was: “I don’t know… I just feel bad about killing cows. But not fish. My guide is if I can HUG it. I can’t hug a fish, so…” Hm… I guess that HUG-check checks out. You have to draw the line somewhere, right?
The ultra-extreme are guilt-ridden for stepping on
It’s an unsustainable proposition to write God out of life. Our lives are to glorify God, and we can only do so by building on his foundation (the Word of God). With an anchor, we won’t be led astray by the “Is it huggable” logic.
BIBLICAL
Okay, so how do Christians respond? First, with love. The language in the paragraphs above can feel
However, several Christians ache with the guilt of past abortions, and I am not insensitive to that. The point of talking about abortion this way is to 1) Encourage Christians to raise their voices for the value of life, and 2) challenge the unbiblical mindset that life is arbitrary and therefore meaningless.
Life has value, and God is the giver of life. We are made in God’s image and carry that unique burden of stewardship. God saw me and you, and pre-ordained the best path that we could take. He lives outside of time and has already been to your funeral, and Paul pretty well summed up our purpose on this earth in Romans 11:36, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Psalm 136 shows
“Why does this matter for me? I’m already alive!” Well, lest we
