Living Dangerously

There seems to be one issue that divides right down party lines.  Whether a person is Republican or Democrat there is no issue more controversial than abortion. Even within the church Christians are divided on this issue. Should this be? Should Christians debate with each other whether abortion is a woman’s right to choose or the right to give life to the unborn?

In 1973 in a case that changed the course of history, Roe v Wade the Supreme Court made a decision to overturn the state and federal laws prohibiting abortion.  The central holding to this case was that abortions are permissible for any reason a woman chooses up to the point that the fetus becomes viable. Should I care which “side” of the issue a person holds? Should abortion be a defining issue for Christians?

Abortion is about God. The very fact that abortions are done leads me to see how it connects to the Creator of the universe. Anyone who has talked with a person on the opposite “side” of the issue realizes that the conversation can quickly turn into a shouting match with nothing accomplished. As a Christian, I do not believe we have any luxuries of shouting with someone, using any kind of cliché or allowing the issue to continue to go on without any mention of the reason abortion is about God.

So we need (must) to remember that abortion is not about a “woman’s right to choose” or a “right to life” slogan it is and has always been about God. John Piper correctly writes,

Abortion is about God, the Creator of the universe, the Giver and Sustainer of all life, the Judge of the living and the dead, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Redeemer and Forgiver of all who trust him. Abortion is about God.  To leave God out of the picture of abortion is to trivialize it. All things are trivial without God. God is the ultimate reality over the universe. All other reality is derivative and dependent and has no ultimate meaning at all without reference to God the ultimate reality. In him we live and move and have our being. If we leave him out of account, we know nothing of any lasting significance about ourselves or the world. (John Piper, “Where Does Child Killing Come From?”)

All I am asking is that the real issue of abortion be understood and realize that it is not confusing and Christian people should comprehend this. There is no debate once God is properly placed within the issue. Abortion is an assault of the person forming work of the Creator of the universe. Children are a delighted gift from God and to reject them through abortion is to reject their Creator, the Almighty God Himself.

(See Psalm 139; Gen. 1-2; Job 31:13-15)