Thursday, May 28, 2009

Three Cultural Shifts Every Christian in America Needs to Watch – Part 3


The Sanctity of ALL Human Life


It is the responsibility of government to protect the most helpless in our society. No one is more helpless than an unborn person. They require the maximum protection in order to grow and mature and to become self-viable. Since January 22, 1973, it has been open season on the unborn in America. The new standard (as of 1973) of whether a life is worth living or not is: Does the mother want the child?


This cultural shift has eroded USAmerica in at least three ways:


1. Any culture is reliant on reproduction. As I blogged about in part 1 of these three cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch, it takes a fertility rate of 2.11 for any culture to sustain itself. If we want America to survive, we must have babies and lots of 'em. Since 1973, we have aborted over 50 million citizens who would have been progenitors of the American way of life. We have aborted 50 million people who would have been working, tax-paying citizens, contributing to a Social Security system that is fast running out of money. In a very real sense, we have aborted our Social Security away.


2. The culture of abortion has led to intellectual chaos.
Scenario: a woman is on her way to an abortion clinic to abort her child. While on the way she is mugged and killed. The perpetrator is caught and charged with DOUBLE murder. Make sense? Not really. More chaos: when can you legally abort your baby? The answer to this simple question is a moving target. There have been times that abortion was only legal early on in the pregnancy (how early depended on which State you lived in, which is a whole other issue). And there have been times when a woman could literally give birth to a full term baby. The birth occurs in such a way as the baby would be turned so that the feet come out first. The head of the baby would stay in the birth canal. The abortionist would then insert an instrument into the birth canal designed to crush the head of the baby. The head would finally be extracted with the rest of the body. It's called partial birth abortion and it is legal because the baby is not a "person" because the mother has decided she doesn't want "it." Now, if something goes wrong and the head accidentally comes out of the birth canal before it is crushed, the law requires that the baby be treated as a human being and given medical care. Make sense? Not really. And America continues down the slippery slope. President Obama, as Senator Obama, supported legislation that allows a baby "accidentally" born during a botched abortion to have medical care withheld. Basically, the child is left on a table, or put in a trash receptacle, to die.


President Obama has said that he is pro-abortion BUT that he wants to see fewer abortions. This is another example of intellectual chaos. Follow with me.


If someone is pro-abortion, then they acknowledge that abortion is morally acceptable, i.e. there's nothing wrong with it.


If there is nothing wrong with abortion, then why do "we" want to see fewer abortions? Let me ask that again: IF THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ABORTION, THEN WHY DO WE WANT TO SEE FEWER OF THEM?


The only reason we would seek fewer abortions is that we acknowledge that on some level, abortion is harmful. And if abortion is harmful how can one be pro-abortion? It is ALL intellectual chaos.


The first two erosions of American culture have led to the third and perhaps the most dangerous.

3. Life is no longer precious. You cannot kill over 50 million people, legally, and NOT become desensitized to death. This will impact how any culture values life. And in America the only life people really value seems to be their own.


We have now entered a debate over nationalized healthcare. The purpose of this post is not to evaluate the pros or cons of a national health system, but as a pastor, theologian, and observer of culture, I am going to tell you where such a system will lead. Since we do not value life on the front end, there is no reason to believe we will value life on the back end. Government has already decided when life can begin and government is about to decide when life, perhaps your life, will end. When the government doles out health care, they have to make decisions based on supply (of both medical resources and financial resources). When either one of these is lacking, a choice will be made. Someone will be left out. Someone will be deemed unworthy of receiving care, of living. Oh, it will be couched in terms such as, "This person has already lived their life," or "We would only be prolonging the inevitable," (by the way, death is inevitable for ALL of us). And that someone could be your father or mother. Your wife or son or…you.


Why would we NOT think this will be the case?


Notice the tone of the dialogue in recent days. The pro-life position has now become the extremist position in America. Pro-choice is now the moderate position. The culture has successfully marginalized those of us who hold to the sanctity of all human life. We are now extremists.


But we extremists are growing in number it appears. The cultural battle over issues of life is far from over. As Dozer correctly pointed out on this blog, "A recent Gallup poll has revealed that, for the first time since it began asking the question, a majority of Americans self-identify as pro-life." See http://www.jodyhice.com/

We will have to stay tuned to see how this cultural shift will play out, but without a doubt there is shifting going on over the issue of life.

Blessings,

Jeff

1 comment:

Dozer said...

"The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern liberalism is that the... general public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd." by Noam Chomsky," early 20th century political activist

If the general public were respected, abortion would never have been legalized. Neither would have homosexual marriage in some states. Nor a host of other issues. While I do see it's good that the Judicial branch has the ability to over-rule the general public, or else we would still have officially sanctioned discrimination against blacks and other minorities, it is a power too frequently exercised and disenfranchising many. People are not motivated to vote for life issues when some judge far away can and probably will effectively silence your voice?

So we (Evengelical Christians) gave up the culture war?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from a Birmingham Jail, "Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?"Only because we don't care. Truth is had it not been for the Mormons, Investing MILLIONS, the recent Prop 8 (Sanctity of Marriage) in California would have been defeated.

Do I believe that we need a unifying political leader like a Dr. Martin Luther King extraordinarilly gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit to rise up and lead the fight for the sanctity of life issues?

Or do we need MANY people who love Jesus enough to actually let it affect their daily life, to share the good news of Christ, to get the word out that abortion stops a beating heart, to tell others our culture is dying, and to do as the early church did, to turn their world upside down for Jesus?