Years ago I wrote a blog post addressing what I felt the role of the “church” should be in the pro-life/abortion space. The overall sentiment was if we’re wanting to be the hands and feet of Jesus we should show up for those who are in such turmoil and distress that they would choose an abortion during a crisis pregnancy. We shouldn’t be picketing outside of Planned Parenthood and condemning women who are having to go through tremendous pain, but rather we should be offering them comfort and prayers on their way into and out of the clinic. (Of course, this was under the pretense that the women in this circumstance were non-christians who don’t have knowledge of or a relationship with Jesus.) 

In writing that blog post, I offended some people and then I let the enemy haunt me with that for way longer than I should have. It kept me from speaking up and saying anything because I wouldn’t want to offend anyone. But, to love my neighbor well, it may take offending someone with the Truth. The motive of sharing and bringing to light the truth of the Gospel is LOVE. And without love, we’re just clanging cymbals. (1 Cor. 13:1)

I am exhausted by Christians sitting quietly by and not saying anything about any of the controversial topics being shoved down our throats. Why aren’t we speaking up? Is it because we’re trying to be meek and quiet? (Lest we all forget that time Jesus flipped tables… but I digress.) We don’t want to offend someone? We’ve had abortions/same sex attractions/pornography addictions/racism/etc. in the church and so we let satan shame us into keeping our voices silent? We don’t want to lose friends? We would rather not step on the toes of the lost in an effort to make the gospel more “palatable”? This is just my first draft brainstorm list of what the heck we’re doing as a church.  Certainly there’s loads more of why we’re doing what we’re [not] doing.

In a world that’s screaming that anything goes and everyone gets to take up space and whatever your truth is is right and acceptable, why don’t we Christians get to share our stories? Our ideas and our thoughts? The ACTUAL truth from Scripture in an effort to win lost souls to the kingdom before it’s too late? I don’t get it. So, in the spirit of sharing “our truth” and “taking up space,” here goes:

I believe life begins at conception. I believe God formed our inmost parts and wrote our days in His book before the world was even created. I believe all humans are made in the image of God and consequently are image bearers of God. I believe it is an affront to God as creator for a person to decide that God’s creation is not worthy of remaining alive. So, to summarize, I believe the Bible and I’m “pro birth.” (AND pro life, which I’ll get into shortly.) But I also believe the Bible says that we need to help the sojourner and the oppressed and the poor and the widow and the orphan. (see: all of the Old Testament law) Also, hungry people, thirsty people, strange people, sick people, naked people, people in jail. (Matt. 25:35-36) The church as a whole, sucks at this. There, I said it. We want to scream and shout how horrible a woman is for having an abortion, but we don’t want to help her if she chooses life. There is SO MUCH WORK to be done in this space. Obviously, I’m not going to solve those issues with one post in my little, tiny blog corner of the world wide interwebs. But I do have a story to tell. And so do you. Why don’t we start with just telling our stories?

Because I believe all the aforementioned things, my family and I realized we couldn’t be pro life and do nothing. So in 2018, we got licensed to become respite foster parents. (Foster parents who provide short term relief for foster families who need a break for various reasons.) Up to this point in 2018, I had only served the pro-life mission in a “minor” contribution by volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center when I was first married and had no kids yet. Fostering was a much bigger, harder commitment to serve in the pro life space. Through fostering, my husband and I ended up adopting our daughter in late 2019 and then adopting her twin baby brothers in late 2021. (Lots of opinions on that as well and not something I plan to tackle at this time and in this space.) Our experience with the “system” was eye opening for sure. Proximity tends to do that to us. It sheds light on places we maybe didn’t even pay attention to before. The system is all SO broken. The world is so dark and hard. But if each believer just does something, we can shed light on the dark world. I mean, OUR light. THE light. We’re supposed to be a light like a city on a hill. (Matt. 5:14) So why aren’t we shining? Do we need a new light bulb?? What’s the deal?! 

Am I saying that every single Christian needs to foster and adopt? No. (Although I do believe that all Christians should be doing SOMETHING to help orphans and widows per the command in the Bible, but that could look like dropping off diapers or a meal to a foster family or a million other things that don’t necessarily mean foster or adoption. And it’s worth noting here, that there is LOTS of work to do to help support women in crisis pregnancy and to also provide birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but that’s a debate for another day.) This is just MY pro-life story. I found a way to serve and go beyond yelling and screaming outside of a Planned Parenthood about pro-birth issues. Is this the only way? NO. God can use all of us in a million different ways and in a million different spaces to shine our light and to help save innocent lives in this politically charged space.

Now, what about Christians and people in the church who are pro-choice? This is where things start to get blurry. I am genuinely confused by how a professing Christian who has read the [entire] Bible could choose to promote and advocate for abortion. I’m not meaning that as judge-y and “holier than thou” as it sounds. I’m legitimately confused by this. We see in Psalm 139 that “my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” If we believe that and we believe God is the creator and sustainer of life and that humans are image bearers of Christ, how are some of us proponents of ending the life of unborn image bearers? This is so confusing to me. Are these believers saying that women should have a choice about what happens to the mother’s body but not speaking up for the baby’s body also? Like, I just don’t get it. Is the mother’s life more valuable because she’s alive outside of a womb? And if it’s about “no uterus, no opinion” does this female baby (with a uterus) who is being aborted have a say in the matter or no? Shouldn’t we try and state her opinion on her behalf since she’s voiceless? And is it possible that we’ve made our stance and wanting to be “right,” into idolatry and placed it above worshiping God? There’s an old adage that I teach my kids that says, “Tell me what occupies your mind and I will tell you who your god is.” It goes along with the same idea that how you respond when something is taken away from will show you what place that thing/idea had in your life. I hope that we’re not putting ANYTHING above God in our lives. 

I learned from a pastor once that we should expect unbelievers to behave like pagans. If someone doesn’t follow Christ, then of course they’re going to follow their own desires and not lay down their life daily and pick up their cross or honor God with their thoughts/words/actions. And I think we can all agree that the world is lost and broken and that satan [currently] rules over this earth. And Jesus said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning and that there is no truth in him. (John 8:44) Jesus also said, “but because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me…. He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” John 8: 45. We can’t expect women who don’t know God to make choices that reflect God’s character and commands. So the best advice I can offer to those of us who believe in the sanctity of life (in ALL stages and circumstances), is to trust God and believe He is who He says He is, let our light shine in darkness, change our proximity to difficult situations and get involved in practical ways, and freaking share the Gospel in order to save lost souls from an eternity separated from God. 

So, in conclusion, I’ll go first and share the Gospel here: God LOVES you! No matter what sins you’ve committed He loves you and has made a way for you to be forgiven. God is holy and although He loves you, He is off limits to you unless you are holy and sinless. So He sent His Son, Jesus, to make a way for you to become holy and sinless. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on a cross and took OUR punishment for all of our past, present and future sins. Romans 10:9 tells us “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Upon that confession and repentance, you will receive the GIFT of the Holy Spirit and that’s when things really get lit 😉 The Spirit guides and directs you in the words you use, the choices you make, the causes you support. It is for freedom that Christ has SET US FREE! (Gal. 5:1)