Tuesday, June 10, 2008
On being Pro-life
One of the elists I belong to someone brought up being more or less persecuted for his "pro-life" stand. I wanted to challenge his thinking with a few of the things that have challenge me. Here's what I shared:
I think the overarching principal in all this is remembering the admonition of speaking the truth in love. I am a very pro-life person, my wife and I suffered through two miscarriages and no one on earth can tell me that it is not a baby. Through the grieving process I became a staunch republican because they always seemed to be taking the pro-life stand. But here's the thing. They have been against abortion since there's been legal abortion and little if anything has changed. In becoming a staunch republican, I fell into sin during the Clinton administration because I spent most of my life speaking out against the president rather than praying for him as I was instructed to do by my Father. I have now moved completely out of politics (besides praying for the leaders), because I realize that there is little hope that politics will change the situation. This is an issue that will be changed by hearts that are changed by Jesus so I have placed my focus on being for the Gospel rather than being against anything. Here are some things I have observed.
Much of the pro-life movement in the church is disturbing and to me comes across as hateful, this approach will rarely work. If I see one more Rock for Life Abortion is Homicide t shirt, I am going to vomit. Why, it doesn't help anything. It doesn't save babies and it heaps condemnation on hurting people. Even worse than that are the folks who come to Promise Keepers Rallies and other Christian gatherings and hold up pictures of mutilated babies. Can you say preaching to the choir? Where is the love of Jesus? I can't find it in your signs.
Secondly I never again in my life want to hear a pro-life Christian gripe about welfare. We expect young single women to keep the babies and then want to cry because we have to help feed it. If we are the body and we want to be truly prolife, the church (stop waiting for the government to do it) needs to be helping the women who keep their babies support their babies.
Lastly, we need to invest in our youth and even more importantly our youth leaders in the church. These are the people on the front lines of this battle and too often in churches our youth budgets are a joke. What other group in the church has to do fund raisers to support their ministries? Answer, none! The statistic is that 80% of all people who come to Christ will do it by the age of 18, do our youth ministries get 80% of the church budget, no, but maybe they should? Youth leaders get the questions kids won't ask their parents and they need to be able to answer them scripturally without getting castigated by parents. In one week I was confronted by two parents one who asked when I was going to teach about safe sex (when pigs fly was my answer) and another who said I spent too much time on sex and dating (to which my answer was if they could come to you with their questions, I could cover other stuff). The average youth leader lasts less than 18 months in a church, many are forced out over this very issue, leaving us in a situation where kids don't talk to their parents, can't build a lasting relationship with a trusted adult youth leader, so they learn their values from their peers.
I guess what I am saying is there are a lot of ways to be pro-life and the most effective ones happen long before abortion is even thought of. We wouldn't have to be so desperately pro-life if we were a little more pro-active. We get so tangled up in sexual sin because it can be easy to condemn, especially if we are happily married and our sexual sinning years are behind us, but the truth is when people brought someone to Jesus who was caught in the act, he said let Him without sin cast the first stone. The great part of this is the part rarely examined which is he was without sin and could have cast the stone, (yes I know this was a trap of the Pharisees but I don't have time for the whole sermon) but he didn't, instead he showed her love and grace and said go and sin no more. If we, the church, loved like Him I think our world would look very different.
One of the elists I belong to someone brought up being more or less persecuted for his "pro-life" stand. I wanted to challenge his thinking with a few of the things that have challenge me. Here's what I shared:
I think the overarching principal in all this is remembering the admonition of speaking the truth in love. I am a very pro-life person, my wife and I suffered through two miscarriages and no one on earth can tell me that it is not a baby. Through the grieving process I became a staunch republican because they always seemed to be taking the pro-life stand. But here's the thing. They have been against abortion since there's been legal abortion and little if anything has changed. In becoming a staunch republican, I fell into sin during the Clinton administration because I spent most of my life speaking out against the president rather than praying for him as I was instructed to do by my Father. I have now moved completely out of politics (besides praying for the leaders), because I realize that there is little hope that politics will change the situation. This is an issue that will be changed by hearts that are changed by Jesus so I have placed my focus on being for the Gospel rather than being against anything. Here are some things I have observed.
Much of the pro-life movement in the church is disturbing and to me comes across as hateful, this approach will rarely work. If I see one more Rock for Life Abortion is Homicide t shirt, I am going to vomit. Why, it doesn't help anything. It doesn't save babies and it heaps condemnation on hurting people. Even worse than that are the folks who come to Promise Keepers Rallies and other Christian gatherings and hold up pictures of mutilated babies. Can you say preaching to the choir? Where is the love of Jesus? I can't find it in your signs.
Secondly I never again in my life want to hear a pro-life Christian gripe about welfare. We expect young single women to keep the babies and then want to cry because we have to help feed it. If we are the body and we want to be truly prolife, the church (stop waiting for the government to do it) needs to be helping the women who keep their babies support their babies.
Lastly, we need to invest in our youth and even more importantly our youth leaders in the church. These are the people on the front lines of this battle and too often in churches our youth budgets are a joke. What other group in the church has to do fund raisers to support their ministries? Answer, none! The statistic is that 80% of all people who come to Christ will do it by the age of 18, do our youth ministries get 80% of the church budget, no, but maybe they should? Youth leaders get the questions kids won't ask their parents and they need to be able to answer them scripturally without getting castigated by parents. In one week I was confronted by two parents one who asked when I was going to teach about safe sex (when pigs fly was my answer) and another who said I spent too much time on sex and dating (to which my answer was if they could come to you with their questions, I could cover other stuff). The average youth leader lasts less than 18 months in a church, many are forced out over this very issue, leaving us in a situation where kids don't talk to their parents, can't build a lasting relationship with a trusted adult youth leader, so they learn their values from their peers.
I guess what I am saying is there are a lot of ways to be pro-life and the most effective ones happen long before abortion is even thought of. We wouldn't have to be so desperately pro-life if we were a little more pro-active. We get so tangled up in sexual sin because it can be easy to condemn, especially if we are happily married and our sexual sinning years are behind us, but the truth is when people brought someone to Jesus who was caught in the act, he said let Him without sin cast the first stone. The great part of this is the part rarely examined which is he was without sin and could have cast the stone, (yes I know this was a trap of the Pharisees but I don't have time for the whole sermon) but he didn't, instead he showed her love and grace and said go and sin no more. If we, the church, loved like Him I think our world would look very different.
Comments:
Salutations!
I totally agree with your take against the hateful approach towards those who have or support abortion. Even in comics, I have run across those who make some very hateful comics about that subject. There approach is totally wrong.
I am even considering adding into one of my comic story lines, but with the proper approach. I.E. a main character gets pregnant and has an abortion. Instead of taking the condemnation / hate approach (which we will see some of that too....), another of the Christian main characters approaches the person in love, as Jesus did when he protected the prostitute.
As far as money and the youth group budgets, let me give you my take. The challenge is that many churches, especially larger ones, become more like businesses instead of ministries. Sure, 80% of new converts might be young people, but in all honesty, they probably bring in 10% or less of all revenues (tithes). Even if they give 10% of their income, they do not make nearly as much as their grown up counterparts.
Truth be told, youth programs in some churches are an after-thought... somewhere to put the children / teenagers while the parents go to main church.
I agree with you. Teenagers are the future, period. If we don't invest in them now, the future is quite bleak. In churches in Florida, my wife and I noticed the disturbing result of not putting more focus on the youth. Many of the churches we visited were devoid of anyone under the age of 30. I think we saw two 'young couples' out of hundreds there. The congregation was visibly aging, as a whole, because they had precious little 'new blood.' It's only a matter of time before the congregation begins to shrink, and the church folds. And while I have never been a big fan of organized churches myself, I was saddened by this very visible trend in churches we visited.
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I totally agree with your take against the hateful approach towards those who have or support abortion. Even in comics, I have run across those who make some very hateful comics about that subject. There approach is totally wrong.
I am even considering adding into one of my comic story lines, but with the proper approach. I.E. a main character gets pregnant and has an abortion. Instead of taking the condemnation / hate approach (which we will see some of that too....), another of the Christian main characters approaches the person in love, as Jesus did when he protected the prostitute.
As far as money and the youth group budgets, let me give you my take. The challenge is that many churches, especially larger ones, become more like businesses instead of ministries. Sure, 80% of new converts might be young people, but in all honesty, they probably bring in 10% or less of all revenues (tithes). Even if they give 10% of their income, they do not make nearly as much as their grown up counterparts.
Truth be told, youth programs in some churches are an after-thought... somewhere to put the children / teenagers while the parents go to main church.
I agree with you. Teenagers are the future, period. If we don't invest in them now, the future is quite bleak. In churches in Florida, my wife and I noticed the disturbing result of not putting more focus on the youth. Many of the churches we visited were devoid of anyone under the age of 30. I think we saw two 'young couples' out of hundreds there. The congregation was visibly aging, as a whole, because they had precious little 'new blood.' It's only a matter of time before the congregation begins to shrink, and the church folds. And while I have never been a big fan of organized churches myself, I was saddened by this very visible trend in churches we visited.
