The following is the monologue from a radio show I hosted on June 17, 2017. The show is entitled, “A Visit to the Pastor’s Study.”
Thank you for joining us today. I’m Pastor Jon Shishko, guest-hosting for Pastor Bill Shishko.
Today we are discussing the uncomfortable topic of abortion. Google for a definition and you’ll get, “abortion – the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy…” Just the word “abortion” and that simple definition of it begin to evoke feelings. As you listen, notice how your emotions start to rise to the surface. Think of a child you love, one of your own or a beloved niece or nephew, grandson or granddaughter. See that boy or girl and their vibrant beautiful personality, full of potential, a unique expression of the miracle of life, a person and a personality more valuable than any opportunity, any amount of money. A person and personality that began before even being born.
And take your thoughts to that point prior to birth. Modern science helps us imagine more of what it’s like. Warmth. Shelter. Sustenance. Safety. Mom isn’t just carrying future life; Mom is caring for life itself. By God’s design, mom is security for her child - a life-giving safe-haven for the first nine months of life. Life within life – safety for the most innocent, helpless, and needy.
Consider now that in the United States, 1 out every 5 little unborn personalities – who know nothing but their mother’s constant nurture & provision – are suddenly killed by abortion, a “deliberate termination.” Consider that the termination is often done by vacuuming the child out of their safe-haven or by the use of narrow forceps which break and pry the child out. As grizzly as these options are, even worse options are available. In Sweden, 80% of 2nd Trimester abortions are “labor induced” abortions in which labor is induced, and the baby is prematurely born – and terminated. The termination of the children is performed through tactics reminiscent of the holocaust: a pre-abortion injection of potassium chloride into the unborn baby softens the baby’s bones – which enables “decompression” – a slightly nicer way to say the crushing of the child’s skull and other bones that get in the way of extraction.
Consider how frequently these abortions happen. Not occasionally. Hundreds of thousands a year in the United States. Millions world-wide. 60 Million reported abortions in the United States since its legalization in 1973. Innocent life, terminated. A decades-long holocaust of the most undeserving & the most innocent.
Finally, consider how plainly Scripture speaks of life before birth. Thousands of years ago, King David the Psalmist wrote, “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works…My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven….Your eyes saw my unformed substance…” [Psalm 139:13-16]. These many years later, all our technology and science continues to reveal the mystery and miracle of life in the womb….and some of that same technology and science is used to destroy it.
And it’s right here that we need to stop to remember something absolutely critical. Most, if not all of us, hear these things and are filled with some combination of horror, grief, and rage. But, then we often take a wrong step. Our next step often reflects nothing but our rage. We denounce in the loudest terms abortion, because its murder. We march, we picket, we protest, - and too often – without even realizing it – us sinners who have been saved by grace have become graceless towards those who most need the grace by which we have been saved. We cease seeing ourselves as sinners and we do it by pointing at those we think have sinned in ways worse than we have. Churches become places where those most in need of forgiveness are ostracized and shamed.
I still haven’t mentioned the most stunning statistic about abortion. The most stunning statistic about abortion is that one quarter of them are had by people that go to church. You see, when churches shame and guilt instead of offering grace and forgiveness –though they denounce, picket, and protest, though they speak ever so loudly, they end up contributing to the atrocity right alongside the rest of the world.
We need to remember that the glory of Jesus Christ is that he was “full of grace and truth” [John 1:14]. Not truth & rage – but truth and grace. We read "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” [John 3:16-17]. We sinners are often quicker to condemn other sinners than the holy God is to do so! Jesus Christ demonstrates this throughout His life. He is the friend of thieves and prostitutes. He speaks with immoral woman and men. He offers eternal life and forgiveness to the worst of sinners. He never compromises the truth, He never alters the law of God – but He comes not in rage and truth but in grace and truth. He doesn’t waste his life otherizing and ostracizing. He denounces sin while loving the sinner. He is known to all as the friend of sinners. And that’s good news because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Listen to the entire show here: “Abortion -
What Should Christians Do About It?.”