Wise as Serpents, Innocent as Doves

Involved in the prolife movement since the 1980's, only in the last few years since I've dedicated daily to seek the Lord what to do on the abortion issue and law have I seen some really difficult - yet simple - concepts become clear to me that have been right in front of us all along.

When I was in fourth grade I remember two very strange questions from my teacher. The first, "If you were on a raft that could only hold four people and you had ten people, which people should you save?" The teacher was asking fourth graders to play god by choosing who would live and die (I remember the teacher telling us that the farmer was one of the people who should be saved - my husband can be happy about that!) That was a false scenario. It assumed that people would have to die just because the raft could only hold four people. I remember thinking at the time, why didn't some people take turns holding onto the side of the raft? Did the teacher really expect us to drown people?

The second scenario I remember from fourth grade was that our grandmother was sick and would die without medicine, so would it be alright if the pharmacy was closed to break into the pharmacy to steal the medicine to save our grandmother's life? Only two of us said no, a little boy who also attended church and myself. Not only would that break the commandment not to steal, but it set up another false scenario. Even as a fourth grader, I knew that because there is a God, if He wanted her to live, He could keep my grandmother alive. He could also provide anything needed so we wouldn't have to break His command. What happened to problem solving? What about driving to the pharmacist's home and knocking on the door? Calling the sheriff for help? Making a phone call to the emergency room or local hospital a town away? How could it possibly be assumed that one must break into the pharmacy to steal a drug or the grandmother would die?

These kinds of false scenarios feed a false narrative in our current culture. We are being conditioned to think that we must allow mothers to take away the lives of their own children or a mother could die. That is simply not true. Or that if we make the immoral act of electively aborting children illegal, the threat of legal action that could deter such behavior could be worse than letting mothers choose to kill their children and live with the psychological, spiritual, and physical consequences the rest of their lives. Mothers recovering from the trauma and grief of abortion say they wish abortion had been illegal so they never would have made that choice. Women who have had abortions say the threat of breaking a law is better than the aftermath of an abortion. Making abortion illegal protects children and their mothers.

Students are taught that "always" and "never" cannot be true statements which implies moral relativism. Because in a universe where God makes the rules, always and never can be true statements. It is never true that we have to be able to intentionally kill a preborn child to save a mother's life. We can attempt to save all lives. That does not mean we will always be successful, but we can always try. Triage is a normal part of emergency situations in the medical field.

With the discovery of cesarean section (c-section), attempts can be made to save mothers and their children. Abortion was invented for "unwanted" pregnancies. That's why the cry for years was for "choice". Induced abortion is a choice. It is not medically indicated for anything. Children can be delivered early or by c-section and attempted to be saved without intentionally causing their death. Every abortion has as its purpose to cause the child's death. Always.

What these false scenarios set up is moral relativism. Exceptions to the laws of God. They don't take into account that God promises with "every temptation" God will provide a way out. We just need to look for it.

Moral relativism is not effective in efforts to protect children. When we lose the moral high ground, we lose. For example, it seemed too difficult to save all children, so we tried to save some children while keeping it legal for other children to die, usually the younger ones, or as Jesus might say, "the least of these". Our culture has been taught the myth of 'survival of the fittest' rather than how we treat 'the least of these' that matters. We took the bait of what appeared to be an easier way, only to find we had forfeited the argument.

Most people don't want unlimited abortion like we have now, so we tried to limit aborting children during the third trimester. That's moral relativism. A law allowing the deaths of children during the first two trimesters may be moving toward better law, or moving toward worse law, but it is the same law allowing children to die. Allowing one child to die is too many. It is an unjust law that shows partiality which is a law God hates and will not bless. We need to take the moral high ground to be effective, and exert energy where God can bless.

We need to stop legitimizing false narratives. Stop answering the binary questions as if those are the only two options. Stop playing 'god' of who lives and who dies. It's dishonest to say it's about parental notification or healthcare regulations or even women's health, although all of those are violated through elective abortion. Is it alright to take away the life of a child as long as the grandparents are notified? As long as certain safety standards or informed consent are met? If we're arguing that abortion should be rare, that was the argument of abortionists two decades ago. That is moral relativism.

Instead, what if we obey God? What if we take a Biblical approach? What if we apply what we know from the instructions of Scripture to the political and governmental parts of our lives? What if we take what God says seriously like He means what He says, "thou shalt not murder" and look for the way out of the temptation to kill these children? Why are we trying to find the path of least resistance? Why would we expect the right thing to do to be the easy way? Most worthwhile endeavors require effort, and great endeavors require great effort. Can we stop looking for the easiest way? I keep hearing from attorneys, "that's a heavy lift". So what? The God I know is used to heavy lifting! All He asks us to do is be faithful and obedient. As my daughter's friend says, "God is capable of handling the consequences of my obedience."

We can have a million reasons to do the wrong thing. But I have found in almost sixty years of living that usually there is only one reason to do the right thing - because it is the right thing to do. It is always wise to obey God. God very clearly tells us to rescue those being dragged to slaughter. God very clearly tells us that intentionally killing innocent human beings is murder and God commands us not to murder. God even tells His own people that He is not listening to their prayers because their hands are stained with the blood of the innocent. If we want God to be among us as we say He is, God tells us to repent of the evil and learn how to do good. First, we have to stop the evil. Then, we will find the ways that we can do good. (Isaiah 1:15-23)

For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another, if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’? Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 7:5-11)

Women are moral agents with reasoning abilities. If we don't know what we are doing in taking the life of a child, there are laws protecting those who are truly coerced or don't know what they are doing. But I can guarantee you that if God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus prayed that it would, we would stop killing the most vulnerable among us. Because those children just wanting to be born are victims. And by our silence, we are the perpetrators. Abortion will not be illegal until we make it illegal for everyone to take away the life of a child, regardless their relationship to that child, their gender, or their age. A just and fair law is one that protects everyone and applies to everyone. Anything less is moral relativism. That's not Biblical.

God defines good and evil. We are evil when we disobey God's laws and we are foolish when we disregard His precepts. Through our disobedience, we are either calling into question God's good character by calling Him a liar, or we are questioning His intelligence that He doesn't really know what He's talking about. The Creator of humans and our universe knows more than we do, and when He speaks, He speaks what is right. Always. He is also clear what He demands of us. As the church, as the body of Christ followers, we have an obligation to approach every false scenario in our lives by seeking the Lord and His wisdom.

While we are instructed to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves," the reason behind that statement is given within the context of Scripture that we are infiltrated by wolves in sheep's clothing and we need to be able to tell the difference. Just because they are doing something wrong, we still need to be innocent. And we should be wise enough to know the difference between truth and error. We can only know that by knowing the One who is Himself "the way, the truth, and the life". Apart from Him, we can do nothing. For fifty years, we have tried to win against the evil of abortion with human reasoning and political strategies that could never defeat evil.

We must change the paradigm. It's not just abortion we are against. It's any means that is used to sacrifice our children - a scalpel, a chemical, a hormone blocker, a license to experiment with sex to destroy their lives. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, regardless if they are born, yet, regardless how old they are or how confused and uncomfortable they are with transitioning from childhood to manhood. We have to reject these false paradigms that we are either for the woman or the child - we are for both! Or that holding pregnant mothers accountable for protecting their own children is somehow not merciful toward women. Or that castrating or sterilizing a child is somehow "gender affirming". Christ died for these pregnant mothers and these preborn children and these confused adolescents, so they can come to Christ in all their filthiness and become clean. So they can find "life and life abundantly".

We can talk about all that is wrong with abortion law in Colorado - it denies parental rights, it denies informed consent, it prevents basic health standards, it causes unnecessary pain and suffering to pregnant mothers, it violates our moral consciences to be unreasonably taxed for elective invasive surgery that kills children, .... But at the core, at the root of the problem, it kills an innocent human being (innocent in the sense that no preborn child has ever committed a crime). And if we cannot get that right, nothing else matters. We can limit abortion or regulate abortion to make life better for women getting an abortion, but at the end of the day we are evil for doing it. These are clearly living human beings we are killing - as proven by both science and Scripture - and because of that, we have an obligation before God to protect them. If we say we did not know, the God who holds our life in His hands knows. And He is not mocked. We will reap what we sow. So what are we sowing?

Are we speaking the truth in love? Or are we just manipulating voters based on what they already believe? Are we addressing this current holocaust Biblically? Because if I'm going to spend my life storming the banks of Normandy, I'm freeing everyone from the concentration camp, not just some of them. God's raft is big enough for all of us. And when abortion ends, God has better things for each of us to do. But first, we have to get this right. We have to live our lives and make decisions on the knowledge that there is a God in heaven to whom each of us will give an account.

Just as in pregnancy center ministry, where we practice unconditional love rather than manipulation through active listening, asking good questions, providing helpful resources, and speaking the truth in love about the development of her baby and harm of abortion procedures, so we appeal to the public, who like that pregnant mother, is now faced with the decision whether to abort these children or save them. She has maybe one child hanging in the balance. We as voters have thousands of children's lives hanging in the balance.

We are at a turning point in our nation right now. Roe has been overturned by the Dobbs decision. We have perhaps one of the most prolife Presidents taking office. We have the ability to make abortion illegal across the nation based on the United States Constitution 14th Amendment and Preamble to the Constitution applying the same rights we enjoy to our Posterity. The only evidence we need is that the preborn child is a living human being, and we have that biological evidence.

While politicians manipulate the vote based on what people already believe, we are called to speak the truth in love that sets people free. We are called to that whether we are in church or the public square. We are not expected to defeat evil with our cleverness, but rather to overcome evil with good, as God instructs. God defines for us what is evil and what is good. Choosing death for a child is evil. Providing justice for them God calls good. No one said it would be easy. But it is the right thing to do. There is enough room on this earth raft for all of us. We just need to stop drowning people who would like to hold on to the only life they have.