What It Really Means, To Be Pro Life

I abhor abortion.

You should too, in light of continuing trends.  For as the Guttmacher Institution recently concluded, abortion is a common experience for U.S. women, in spite of a dramatic decline in abortion rates. 

"...Nearly one in four women in the United States (23.7%) will have an abortion by age 45, according to a new analysis by Guttmacher Institute...just published in the American Journal of Public Health. By age 20, 4.6% of women will have had an abortion, and 19% will have done so by age 30.  Despite recent declines in abortion, it is still a common procedure..."https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abortion-common-experience-us-women-despite-dramatic-declines-rates

Thus, I celebrate the witness of the recent March for Life in Washington, D.C. in which over 100,000 persons trumpeted that the time has long passed, to adequately protect innocent, unborn life.  

On a personal note:  the abortion issue is even more of a problem for me, since the birth of our first grandchild, John Dorsey.  Why, Christmas a year ago, our daughter, and son-in-law gave us a sonogram of John in a Christmas stocking, when John was about 2 months old. Why John appeared to be little more than a 'caterpillar.'  But we knew in our soul that John was a soul, much more than a 'caterpillar.'  John, of course, is now in full view; but I still have John's sonogram in mind, giving us a glimpse of the John we see today.  And so to think that anyone would abort 'a John' at any stage of his development is unconscionable.  For developmental scientists concur, that even at 2 months, 

"...[a] baby's facial features continue to develop. Each ear begins as a little fold of skin at the side of the head. Tiny buds that eventually grow into arms and legs are forming. Fingers, toes, and eyes are also forming in the second month of pregnancy.  The neural tube (brain, spinal cord, and other neural tissue of the central nervous system) is well formed. The digestive tract and sensory organs begin to develop. Bone starts to replace cartilage. The embryo begins to move...and a third of baby is now made up of its head.  https://www.webmd.com/baby/1to3-months

Well, enough on taking life, before birth.  My passion, I pray, has registered.

But I am equally passionate, I am equally pro-life, about other expressions of violence and death.  For life can be aborted not only before birth -- life can be aborted after birth.  For example:

• We abort life after birth  --  when we commit capital punishment.
• We abort life after birth  --  when we are silent about permissive gun laws.
• We abort life after birth  --  when we advocate war as a means to settle conflict.
• We abort life after birth  --  when we participate in racism, sexism, ageism.
• We abort life after birth  --  when we sneer at immigrants, especially those who are poor.    
• We abort life after birth  --  when we gossip and inflict other sharp outlays of our tongue. 
• We abort life after birth  --  when we pollute the ecosystem and 'poo-poo' creation care.
• We abort life after birth  --  when we look away from thirsty, starving faces, care-less that food and water aren't available for all.
• We abort life after birth  --  when we are more committed to just-us -- than -- justice for all.  

                               [inspired by Shane Claiborne:  January 18, 2018, tweet -- https://twitter.com/ShaneClaiborne] 

Being equally passion about aborting life after birth, as aborting life before birth, is wildly controversial.  For it will appear we have no 'home' -- belonging nowhere -- as we identify with neither of the popular ideological camps, not opting for either a 'leftist-liberal' - or -- a 'rightest-conservative' approach.  Instead, we opt for the third way of Jesus, expressed best in the Sermon On the Mount...

"...letting the Author of Life set our agenda [in the words of Ron Sider].  It means saying no to right-wing ideological agendas that make freedom, family, and the crusade against abortion more important than justice and nuclear disarmament. It means saying no to left-wing ideological agendas that do the reverse. It means letting the balance of biblical concerns set the priorities... Championing a completely pro-life agenda will likely produce harsh attack from both the left and the right. One side will attack us for our stance on the poor and capital punishment, and the other side for our defense of the unborn. Being willing to be the target for both left-wing and right-wing ideological attack is the price Christians must pay for biblical faithfulness today..."  http://www.evangelicalsforsocialaction.org/sanctity-of-life/completely-pro-life-sermon/

I've struggled with this approach my entire career.  Once as I lamented the attack I received from both conservative and progressive folk, I tried to have a 'pity party' with a counselor.  But he was of no consolation or empathy.  Rather he 'got in my face' and declared:  "What do you really expect?  Jesus predicted your 'lonely,' 'stand-apart,' counter-cultural predicament."  And then he read the following verse: 

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.   (Matthew 7:13-14).

Let that last phrase 'sink in':  only a few find it.  Translated:  don't expect the majority of persons to be fully pro-life.  Expect the majority to choose sides, e.g. either working only against abortion before birth or against abortion after birth.

But don't let that 'trend line' discourage you. Choose life -- in all its fullness -- nevertheless.  Moses 'nets this out,' categorically:

“…See, I set before you today life and prosperity -- death and destruction…Love the Lord your God…walk in obedience to him…keep his commands…then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you…But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient…you will certainly be destroyed…Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…”  (Deuteronomy 30:15-19, emphasis added).

It's interesting, in Moses' context, life was not defined by a single issue.  Rather, life was a fully-orbed encompassing all of one's individual -- and -- societal commitments, with the aim, that all of those commitments would come under the reign of God, thus producing, God's shalom.

Shalom was a penetrating Hebrew world-view, advocating that the life of God was to touch and transform every aspect of our personal and corporate being.  As Ron Sider clarifies:

"...The opening chapters of Genesis sketch a glorious picture of the fullness of life intended for humanity by the Creator. A harmony of right relationships prevails everywhere—with God, with one another, and with the earth. Although it is not used here, the Hebrew word shalom is perhaps the best word to signify this fullness of life...Sin, however, shattered this shalom...But God refused to abandon us. Beginning with Abraham, God called out a special people to be instruments of revelation and salvation for all. Through Moses and the prophets, the judges and the writers of wisdom, God patiently showed this chosen people how to live the abundant life. As in the garden, God said that shalom starts with a right relationship with God. But it also includes right relationships with the neighbor: economic justice, respect for all persons including a special concern for the poor and weak, faithful family life, fair courts, and, of course, an end to war. Starkly, Moses clarified the options at the end of Deuteronomy. Life in every sense would follow if Israel obeyed God’s commands, death and evil if they disobeyed. And so, “...I have set before you life And death…Choose life...” (Deut. 30:19). http://www.evangelicalsforsocialaction.org/being-completely-pro-life/

Yes, choose life.  But life in all it's fullness -- choosing not to abort life before birth or after death.  But choosing to champion life -- being pro-life -- in a comprehensive, full-orbed -- shalom-like way.  

For all of life is precious -- whether its a developing life at 2 months -- or an aged life at 92 years.  Picture both in your 'mind's eye' -- reaffirming that all of life has soul.  Thus, all of life must be advocated for -- passionately -- in a pro-active -- pro-life -- pro-God -- way.