Some of you may know that I love wrestling and MMA competitive fighting. I train as an amateur. The serious stuff I enjoy as a fan. One of the most difficult things to watch in competition fighting is to see a man who should be winning the fight losing the fight. There are times where a fighter just simply loses his will and/or does not believe he can win. Maybe he is fatigued. Maybe he is afraid. Maybe his body is just telling him to coast and try to not get hurt. This is a terrible thing to see.
It is especially hard to watch when you see that his opponent is leaving himself very vulnerable to attack. And because the fighter has lost his will or motivation or whatever, he doesn’t attack and win the fight when the fight is there for the taking.
On the other hand, there is the opposite kind of fight that is an inspiration to watch. That is the fight where a man knows he can win and will never stop until he does. He knows his purpose in the cage is to fight and win. The fighter in this case, sees the opportunities to knockout or tap-out his opponent and he seizes upon them. This is a real fighter. One who does not doubt and despite pain, fatigue, or injury he stays in the fight and ultimately wins.
The pro-life news for the past couple of weeks has been covering the story of Kermit Gosnell. And then just recently the pro-life ministry Live Action released a video exposing other late term abortion practices. The videos are shocking and disturbing. The stories from the Kermit Gosnell case are horrifying and difficult to imagine.
In the wake of these stories and videos we are left with the knowledge and even the images etched into our minds of babies being brutally cut to pieces, torn apart, decapitated, suffocated, and chemically poisoned. We are left with the jokes from the abortion doctors about the babies being “old enough to walk me to the bus stop” or “being slow cooked like meat in a crock pot” or that the abortionist uses tools like a “pick axe and chisel”.
Then as the evidence unfolds we see that another piece of news is that there is no news. Surprise, surprise, the media and most of our political leaders have been silent on the matter. Certainly silent relative to other issues in the news.
And as this all goes on, I am left wondering a couple of things:
1. Do we need more evidence that the abortion industry is doing terrible, unimaginable evil? Jill Stanek in a recent statement pointed out that it was 14 years ago when her story came out that the Chicago hospital where she worked as a RN was leaving born babies, who came from botched abortions, to die in laundry room closets or stainless steel tables. It was in the mid 90s that we learned about the “intact D&X” or partial birth abortion procedure in which doctors deliver a live baby out of the womb but leave the head in the birth canal. At which time, the baby’s head is punctured with a pair of scissors and then has her brains sucked out and skull collapsed. Now that procedure was banned later but even worse than this, we all know that there are countless even more brutal procedures the doctors continue to use. It has been no secret that the normal procedure of D&X or D&C or D&E are even more brutal as they tear the baby apart limb for limb. And even the image of first trimester abortion has been readily available on the Internet for all to view and many have viewed it. Of course most would rather not. My point here is that I wonder what is our goal in gathering more and more evidence of what is already an obviously evil industry?
2. Do do we need to shout to the world this evidence who largely doesn’t care or does not have the power to fix the problem? Or should we be presenting the evidence we already have to the people we know should at least possibly care and have the power of Gospel to fix the problem…the people who claim the name of Christ. The people who say they follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The Jesus who said the second most important commandment of all is to love our neighbor as ourselves. The same Jesus who said we shall not murder. The same Jesus who said we should care for the least of these.
3. I am wondering if it is easier for us as Christians to sit back and point our fingers at how terrible the abortion industry is than it is for us to point that finger out ourselves and confess our own complicity and complacency in the abortion industry’s success and continued existence respectively. I think it is a easy way to salve our conscience to just be outraged but not look carefully at what we should actually doing to save these babies. How many churches on Sunday morning are discipling their members to never have an abortion. How many churches on Sunday morning are talking about the importance of repentance of abortion. That Jesus forgives the sin of abortion but unless we confess and repent of our sins we are not forgiven. And how many churches on sunday morning are speaking to rid themselves of the complacency within that church. How many churches are putting an appropriate portion of their creative power toward abolition type of ministries?
If I could summarize all of this. I might say this. I am sort of tired of hearing about news of another evil abortion clinic doing evil. I want to say, “Yeah, no kidding. They do this every day for a living. I mean it is kind of like reporting in the news that a quarterback threw a pass. Or that an engineer designed a bridge.” I am not equating the practice of abortion with playing football or designing a bridge. I just saying that hearing that another abortion clinic has done evil should not be surprising to the PLM. We should not be shocked or surprised any more. How much more evil do we need to see before we are convinced they are evil and will do evil until God’s people come against it in the way God wants His people to do.
I am not putting down the efforts of those groups that gather new evidence of the abortion industries crimes. But what I am saying is that this could ultimately be a distraction from the real problem. The problem isn’t that we need more shocking or new evidence. The problem is there is an army of good people who refuse to do what they are called to do…engage in battle. This army is like that of Saul’s army who thought that the power of a giant was greater than the power of the God of the universe who was on their side.
So my hope is that a year from now or 5 years from now or 10 years from now we are not coming out with some new expose that the abortion industry is doing something bad again. My hope is that the news will be God’s people are engaging in this battle like never before and that they are bringing this giant to an end.