February 1, 2012

Guest Post: Rebeka Fry

Standing for Life: Gaining God's Heart for the Unborn

“Mommy, what did Candace do?”


I was six years old. I could sense the disturbance in the home, something startling had happened. Determined to get to the bottom of the unsolved mystery, I asked my mom what was wrong.

“Sweetie,” she started hesitantly, “I don’t know if you’re old enough to understand all this, but your cousin’s wife aborted her baby.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, it means that the baby was killed.”

This was a new concept to my 1st-grade- mind. How could something be killed when it wasn’t even in the world yet? After that scenario, my ears always perked up when talk of this concept was brought up. At age 10, while watching a film on bioethics (I’m homeschooled; we start on this stuff young), I saw an abortion take place through the ultrasound screen. As I grew older, I was horrified to learn of all the various methods of abortion, particularly the partial-birth procedure.

Yet, even though I knew the information, read the statistics, heard about it on the news, it never fazed me. I still carried on through life, occasionally startled when I heard a friend or relative committed the crime or when new legislation passed to make abortion services more readily available, but it didn’t affect me personally. Not to mention, abortion is illegal in the county where I live, which significantly cuts down the exposure to it. The issue is so broad; what’s the use of making a big deal over something I can’t change? However, since Miss Aubry mentioned the possibility of me writing a guest post (by the way, hi, everyone!), I’ve taken some time to research the pervading issue of abortion, both from Biblical and factual standpoints. What I’ve found has appalled me.

In Proverbs, God calls us to stand for those who cannot help themselves, and those who are being mercilessly killed without even a voice to raise in protest.

“Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

~ Proverbs 31:8-9

Who are these speechless ones He is referring to? Who are these helpless victims appointed to die? The answer is, more often than not, so obvious it’s easy to overlook it.

In addition to the countless number of orphans and vulnerable children around the world, from the moment of conception, the life of an unborn baby is immediately put at risk in the Western world. In the United States alone, 23,000 babies were killed just this week at the hands of abortionists. 1.2 million babies are murdered within the womb each year. One in four babies conceived in America is surgically aborted. What’s more, abortions outnumber live births in at least 14 U.S. metropolitan areas. And these horrifying numbers are only growing each year.

Why is this evil allowed to prevail at such a high level? Sin and the effects of living in a fallen world, that’s a given. Government promotion, yes, that too. Another often-overlooked reason is the prevalence of feminism in post-modern culture. In her article “What Women Need,” Frederica Mathewes-Green, a formerly ardent feminist, argues that feminists sought to be equal to men with respect to having a career and having a promiscuous sex-life. The main obstacle to those two goals: the possibility of pregnancy. So abortion became the necessary condition for careerism and promiscuity. Women could not have complete sexual and professional freedom without unfettered access to abortion on demand. She writes:

“Thus these two bad ideas come together, pressing in like the jaws of a vise, and making a woman feel she has no escape but abortion. Feminism sought (1) increased access to public life, and (2) increased sexual freedom. But that participation in public life is significantly complicated by the responsibility for children, and uncommitted sexual activity is the most effective means of producing unwanted pregnancies. This dilemma – simultaneous pursuit of behaviors that cause children and that are hampered by children – inevitably finds its resolution on an abortion table.


Feminists defend abortion with desperate passion because the whole shaky structure of their lives depends upon it . . .


While pro-choice advocates present abortion as an act of autonomy, pregnant women experience it rather as a response to abandonment. Pregnancy is the icon of human connectedness, binding a woman to her child and the father of the child. Abortion shatters those connections and leaves her desolate.”

(You may read the full article here: http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=14-06-020-f)

Abortion in America is not just a disturbing political issue; it’s a silent genocide. It is a crisis of unfathomable, epidemic proportions.

Many of us have wished for a worthy cause to devote our lives to. We read biographies and watch inspiring films of history’s heroes, such as William Wilberforce who poured out his life to the cause of abolition in his day. We long to be part of such noble adventure and calling. But few of us recognize the opportunity we have sitting right in front of us. We do not live in a time of peace and harmony. We live in an era when millions of innocent souls are being slaughtered in mass quantities, and an entire generation of young women’s lives are being ripped apart by the deceit of evil men.

As Christians, we must gain the heart of God for the unborn. Many of us choose to steer clear from the issue because there’s too much political red tape, it’s too emotionally charged, or too confusing. The issue is so huge, we aren’t really sure what to do about it. Many of us don’t feel we can make much of a difference anyways. As a result, we do nothing. We shake our heads at the sadness of it, but we fail to fulfill God’s sacred call to open our mouths for the speechless and stand up for those helpless lives who are appointed to die through tragic ends.

I would like to challenge you to rise up and stand for life, and to become God’s hands and feet to the weak and vulnerable lives that have no voice to bring their plea to light. We are chosen for such a time as this, and no matter how helpless you feel, remember that the God of the Universe stands for life – He is the Author of it, He invented the idea. When we stand for life, we stand for our King. And the strength of Heaven backs us up as we take up God’s burdens and fight His battles.

 
Rebeka Fry authors her blog, Redefining Femininity.  On this blog, she speaks about how girls can take back femininity and use it to the glory of God.  I encourage you to check it out, it's gold!

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