Faith: Pro-life is more than anti-abortion
I have been thinking about being pro-life in America. It should be the goal of all pro-life people to work for the reversal of Roe v. Wade. We should elect people who will not approve of the killing of babies. We should not expect either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton to act aggressively for pro-life causes. But a person who says he is pro-life should act aggressively. And being pro-life is more than saying, “I’m against abortion.”
If you are pro-life, what does that look like in your life? Certainly, it has to be more than a bumper sticker or the occasional post on Facebook. What do you do to support life, to protect life, to encourage those who have it hard in life? What do you do to help make it possible for a young unmarried mom to carry her baby to term and to either raise the child or give the child up for adoption? How much money do you give to crisis pregnancy centers? Are you involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters or the Boys and Girls Club or providing foster care or senior respite care or working with Operation Christmas Child?
Does your checkbook reflect a pro-life perspective? Would it be obvious to a casual observer that you have a pro-life perspective by what you do and how you live? If you let a friend see your checkbook, would she know you are clearly for life by what you give? Really?
Do you give generously to Prison Fellowship or Samaritan’s Purse or Compassion International or pregnancy centers like those operated by Care Net or to your church’s Helping Hand Fund? Are you willing to take a hard, fair look at your finances and your charitable giving? You may think you are giving like God wants you to, but are you really only tossing scraps and spare change? Is that really a pro-life perspective? And doesn’t God want us to have a pro-life perspective? One indicator that he does is what James says in chapter 1, verse 27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction …”
And in chapter 2, James writes this in verses 15-17: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
There are many biblical indicators that God wants his children to be for life – for protecting it, and preserving it, and enhancing it. If we want our political leaders to be for life, we better be for life. If our country is to be for life, we better be for life. And it is more than just being against abortion.
Here is a very tangible, practical, personal application you could consider. A family from Sturgeon Bay, Jake and Pam Schulz and their three young children, are moving to Cebu City, Philippines, in a month. Jake will work for two years with an orphanage and he and his family will, very literally, visit orphans in their affliction and work to protect and preserve and enhance life. You do well to support such work financially. Contact me if I can help you know more. Or go their very informative, helpful, and fun blog at www.cheesymangos.com
Do you say you are pro-life? What do you do that proves that? How do you give that confirms that? How do you live that shows that? For sure, being pro-life is more than just saying, “I’m against abortion.”
Cory Dahl is pastor of First Baptist Church of Sturgeon Bay. His e-mail is cdahl@sturgeon-bay.com. Bible verses are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV).