Roe v Wade

June 24, 2022 (Friday)

 

Today, the US Supreme court ruling took a baby-step to restoring our country to sanity. Nobody who supports that a baby can legally be killed in a mother’s womb has the moral ground to complain about gun violence. “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want,” warned Mother Teresa (National prayer breakfast, Feb. 5, 1994).

 

The question is why do Christians support the life of those still in their mother’s womb?

 

The base argument is that life begins at conception (fertilization). One of the things we have to acknowledge is that science has created a confusing bog of possibilities that question the concept of conception. While science seeks to explain the physical universe, it is not God. The reality is that what a person thinks about the origin of life is "faith" (a matter of belief). Once science eliminates the fact of a Creator, the world descends into chaos and we lose our unalienable rights. The person in the womb becomes something instead of someone. The oft repeated argument that fertilization does not *always* result in birth due to the loss of the baby is a vicious and hurtful jab at those who have suffered a miscarriage.

 

If we take a tour of the Bible, we see a definite pattern emerge. Job argues against slavery with these words, "Didn’t the one who made me in the belly make them; didn’t the same one fashion us in the womb?" [Job 31:15 CEB] Claiming God’s sovereignty, Isaiah argued, "The Lord your maker, who formed you in the womb…" [Isaiah 44:2a CEB] When Jeremiah was commissioned as a prophet, God told him, "Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations." [Jeremiah 1:5 CEB] Paul identified a calling similar to Jeremiah’s [see Galatians 1:15].

 

Many sermons have been directed from Psalm 139:13 – 16. As David notes, "You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb." [Psalm 139:13 CEB] It’s not just the physical part of us that is created in the womb. David declared of God, "Your eyes saw my embryo, and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened." [Psalm 139:16 CEB] Literally, the word that is translated as "embryo" means "unformed substance."

 

Even before we looked human (which is by 8 weeks of pregnancy), God saw us as a person, a living being, which, according to our Declaration of Independence (and US Constitution), is considered an "unalienable right." We have forgotten history. An unalienable right was something a person was endowed with by "their Creator." They cannot be surrendered, bought, sold, or transferred. In other words, it is not within one person’s right to take another person’s life, no matter the justification.

 

As a fetus in His mother’s womb, Jesus brought joy. As a fetus in his mother’s womb, John the Baptist reacted to the presence of Jesus. “As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.” [Luke 1:44 CEB] Tell me how those are not qualities of living people.