Abortion

In his comments on the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder,” John Calvin writes, “The purport of this commandment is that since the Lord has bound the whole human race by a kind of unity, the safety of all ought to be considered as entrusted to each.” As creatures made in God’s image, we are called to do whatever is required to “defend the life of our neighbor; to promote whatever tends to his tranquility, to be vigilant in warding off harm, and, when danger comes, to assist in removing it” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.8.39).

Welcome to our Speaking Up for a Faithful Budget series! Want to see other posts? Sign up here to receive them in your inbox and to view previous posts in the series. Next week we’ll be hearing about religious persecution. 

Often when we think about a Lenten spiritual discipline we think of giving up something for that season. But the purpose of a Lenten spiritual discipline—to grow closer to God—also allows us to take this time to intentionally and regularly practice an action that we want to become a discipline in our lives. This year we want to invite you to practice confession, lament, and doing justice during Lent.

There is a lie that our culture continually perpetuates. It is the lie that life is only as valuable as its circumstances. We see it in films or books that romanticize assisted suicide and euthanasia, that reduce abortion to a decision over whether one can afford a child, or that imply that people with disabilities are burdens, or that some people are more violent than others because of their race or ethnicity. These lies are deeply offensive on a variety of levels, but they are also all around us.

It’s been a great year for Do Justice. Thanks for reading and learning along with us, as we wrestled with faith with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth)!

What this pro-life series has taught me is that the CRCNA is deeply, unapologetically pro-life. 

An ancient Chinese proverb states: “Whoever defines the terms wins the argument.” I used to quote this proverb when I was teaching logic courses as a member of the philosophy department at a college in Chicago. The proverb is true. If you let me define the terms of discussion about any hot-button social issue, then I most likely will win the debate.

To me, being pro-life means that you commit to the life, goodness, hope, image-of-God in a person—even when that person can be really, really difficult to be around. Being pro-life means that there’s no such thing as running out of chances. To be pro-life is to learn to see a person’s whole story—not just the front cover.

I want to beg them to put down their signs and instead invest that time in helping vulnerable women and their children. 

When my wife was pregnant with our third daughter, the ultrasound showed a hole in the baby’s heart. We were told there was a high risk the baby will have Down Syndrome. We were stressed out and fearful. We were grieved. We cried and we prayed. Fear of the unknown and the grief that our child might not be “normal” gripped us. But through it all, we relied on God’s strength and grace to carry us through our fears and griefs. We prepared ourselves for the worst. We read pretty much every book from the library on Down Syndrome.