The God of Life Versus a Culture of Death

Sanctity of Life Sunday
© 2010 Rev. Matthew L. Whitehead

In our diocese, the third Sunday of January is set apart as “Sanctity of Life Sunday”.1 Other churches are observing it, as well, either this week or next. It is a day set apart to grieve for the millions of innocent children who have died prematurely due to abortion. We preach out against this national atrocity not because we are against it as a political issue, although it certainly is that; We preach out against abortion because it is primarily a moral issue. Abortion is nurturing a culture of death, but our God is the God of life.

Scripture is full of statements showing how much God values human life. We see it in the act of creation; He ordered the earth so that it could sustain life, and then He filled it with all manner of plants and animals. We see how He values life in the creation of people; He made Mankind in His own image, He breathed His very breath into us. When He gave Moses the Law, He protected Human life, even babies in their mothers’ wombs.2 If life itself is valuable to God, then Human life is valuable to Him beyond measure.

There is no greater example of how much God values Human life than the concept of resurrection – which happens to be one of the lynch-pins of our Faith. God values Human life so much that He will overturn Death in order to renew our lives. I think of the well-known story of our Lord raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. He missed the funeral, and showed up four days after Lazarus had died and been buried. Mary and Martha were grieving; Martha was upset with Jesus for not coming sooner, so that he might have saved Lazarus from death. Jesus said something to Martha in her grief that is profound. His response to her encapsulates why the Church concerns itself with the sticky wicket of abortion: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

What we hear in those words is that God is the God of life; and by the power of God, life will triumph over death. The raising of Lazarus was not a mere favor to a friend; it was a proclamation to all people that God is the God of life; God is the source of life; God values Human life; God will restore life by overcoming death, through the power of the resurrection. This is why Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” If our God places so high a value on Human life, then it logically follows that we, too, should value Human life.

The average person in our society does not seem to think a great deal about abortion. When it does come up it is generally rationalized based on a woman’s individual rights; or that because it may sometimes be medically necessary in certain rare situations, so should therefore be permitted carte blanche. The average Joe does not consider the abortion debate based on what God has revealed about the sanctity of Human life.

I could quote statistics about abortion that would make your stomach churn. But we have all heard the statistics before, how nearly one-point-two million babies are willfully aborted each year, roughly one quarter of all pregnancies.3 But the thing about statistics is that they lose their shocking impact, and we become numb to the magnitude of what is going on right in front of us.
I could quote facts about the abortion industry, describing how most abortion agencies downplay the severity of abortion and its various consequences.

The emotional trauma of abortion upon the mother is often ignored. It is treated like a routine medical procedure, akin to having a wart removed. But many would-be-mothers who have had abortions report nightmares and deep depression for years, even decades, after their “procedure”. The fact is that abortion is bad for a woman’s emotional and spiritual well-being.

The physical risks to the would-be-mother’s bodily health are often ignored. An abortion can cause irreparable damage to a woman’s reproductive organs4 and can complicate future pregnancies.5 There is an undeniable link between abortion and a dramatically increased risk of breast cancer.6 The fact is that abortion is bad for a woman’s physical well-being.

The largest abortion agency consistently fails to report sexual abuse of minors when it performs their abortions. Victims are coached in how to get around the law, to conceal the identity of the man who violated them. In effect, this elevates the status of pedophiles above the dignity of the innocent child, and above the welfare of the teenage victim. The child dies for his father’s sins, the mother gets no justice, and the pedophile remains free to attack again.7 The fact is that abortion is bad for the stability and well-being our society.

But the greatest fact we must consider is that abortion is a direct defiance of the value which God places on Human life. When God says that He has formed each and every child in the mother’s womb,8 Abortion says “I will destroy that child”. When God says that He has a plan for each child’s life even before they are born,9 Abortion says, “I will prevent God’s plan”. When God says that Human life is precious, Abortion says “Personal convenience and individual rights are more important”.

The facts are these: God values Human life, and Abortion does not.

As we lament the toll abortion is taking on our society, there are three things we need to remember; three tasks for the Church and for all Christians:10

First, We must engage society in the debate over abortion. The Church cannot keep silent on moral issues; it must be a witness in society. We are to be lights in the darkness of this sinful world; we are to be witnesses of God’s holiness, pointing out the sin of the world, and directing all people to God’s mercy and grace.

As individuals we can take specific actions. We can exercise our democratic responsibility to vote; the Reformed Episcopal Church encourages all its members to consider a political candidate’s stance on the sanctity of human life as the most important criteria of voting.11 We can demonstrate peacefully at events such as the annual ‘March for Life’ in Washington, DC. We can petition our civil leaders to uphold the sanctity of Human life. The Church must engage society.

Second, We must extend God’s mercy to society. There are many organizations that need our support: Adoption services, Crisis pregnancy counseling centers and hotlines, Homes for unwed mothers. These organizations need our time as volunteers, they need our money to operate, and they need our prayers. The young women who contemplate abortion need God’s love. Most of them identify themselves as Christians, and consider abortion to be wrong;12 but when they find themselves in an embarrassing moral bind, quite often the only counsel they receive is from abortion agencies. They need to hear from the Church about God’s mercy. And if she has already followed through with an abortion, she must know that God still loves her and can restore her. The Church must extend God’s mercy.

And finally, We must preach the Gospel. The only thing that can truly change our society and root out abortion is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will transform the hearts of the doctors and clinic workers who push abortions on ill-informed, scared, young women. The Gospel will bring comfort to those young women who have made a mistake, and show them that there is a positive way forward.

The war against abortion is a war for the hearts and minds of people. If, in our day, we want to see an end to the atrocity of abortion, We must preach the Gospel. Knowing the facts and statistics is good, but they will not transform people. Political action might be effective in the legal realm, but it cannot transform people. The sanctity of human life is rooted in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only the Gospel has the power transform the hearts and minds of people, so that they see the love God has for each and every person He creates. The culture of death can only be stopped by the God of life, and by His grace it can be done. Amen.

1 “[Recommendation:] That until the heinous practice of Abortion on demand is abolished in this Country that the 3rd Sunday in January, or the Sunday closest to Holy Innocents, be designated Sanctity of Life Sunday and observed in all our Parishes. Furthermore, that our Clergy be instructed to prepare and deliver a sermon on that theme at the Worship services on that day.” Report of the Rt. Rev. Royal U. Grote, Jr., Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of Mid-America, To the One Hundred Second Synod of the Diocese of Mid-America of the Reformed Episcopal Church, October 21, 2008; p.7. This recommendation is repeated annually.
2 Exo 21:22-25.
3 “Abortion Facts” in Sanctity of Life Resource Packet. Electronic resource, available at http://www.abortionessay.com. Accessed 14 Jan 2009.
4 http://abort73.com/HTML/I-G-1a-uterine.html.
5 http://abort73.com/HTML/I-G-1b-complications.html.
6 http://www.anglicansforlife.org/resources/readfacts.asp?number=49&topic=&display=.
7 “Reasons to Avoid Planned Parenthood” in Sanctity of Life Resource Packet.
8 Job 10:8-12; 31:15; Ps 139:13-16; Isa 44:2, 24; Jer 1:5.
9 Gal 1:15; Eph 1:3-4.
10 Adapted from Rev. Geoffrey W. Chapman, “The Value of Life”. Electronic resource, available from Anglicans for Life website at http://www.anglicansforlife.org/clergy/sermons.asp?p=Clergy%20Sermons. Accessed 14 Jan 2009.
11 “Forasmuch as the Reformed Episcopal Church has affirmed the teaching of God’s Word that abortion is the taking of an unborn human life, and inasmuch as we have recognized the duty of all faithful Christians to work to protect the unborn and restrain the sin of abortion on demand, we hereby move that the General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church direct the clergy and laity of the Reformed Episcopal Church to make a political candidate’s position on the Sanctity of Human Life the highest priority in discerning for whom to vote regardless of political party represented or office being sought.” Resolution approved by the 52nd General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, October 2008.
12 Letter from Rev. Dr. Sonny Foraker to the Houston Area Pastor Council. Part of Sanctity of Life Resource Packet.