SBC and abortion 2022
“Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils.” (Psalm 106:37) This is very telling of the state of God’s people who cheapened life. They devalued their children and used them as a means to an end. Machiavellian thought prevailed then as it does now, the ends justify the means, whatever it takes to accomplish the goal of getting what is desired from their deity they worship. Is this not what is done even today? Are not the unborn in the womb, sacrificed through abortion on the altar of convenience? Abortion is the killer of many all for the sake of rights so that man could be their own God and choose life or death for others.
So, people sacrifice their children unto devils, other gods, and ideas that are against God. Rights trump life. Now what is meant by rights is perceived rights. There are no rights that individuals have that make it right to kill people whether born or unborn. The “right” to choose abortion is not a right for it is murder. Travis McNeely put it this way, “It isn’t a right to kill a baby through abortion no matter how much they repeat it.” He further said, “fighting for the state-sanctioned murder of their child which God abhors.” “And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.” The blood of the innocent, the blood of their sons and their daughters was shed. Real life children were snuffed out to idols. The land is tainted due to this travesty of injustice. Though there are no Canaanite idols there are some similarities that need to be addressed.
Canaanites would sacrifice their children to Molech. The Jews were never supposed to be involved in the same practices of the people of Canaan, yet they were. “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.” (Jeremiah 7:31) They turned to sacrificing their wee ones to other gods and this culture of death does the same. God did not command nor allowed that thought to enter his heart. Idols abound in the USA.
Idols of rights, timing, and success. The true idol is sin without consequences. “Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.” (Psalm 106:38) This is the tragic outworking of a disobedient people, whoring and prostituting themselves with their own inventions and worldwide they sacrifice children on altars. In the US alone 64 million have perished for the sake of rights since 1973. Worldwide there have been 1.72 billion slain for the sake of rights. This is seen as a form of reproductive health, but it really means death to the reproduced.
Why is abortion such an important matter that needs to be addressed and ended? Life is precious. “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14) God made each person, knit them together in the womb. Fearfully and wonderfully woven together. Who is man that they can decide who shall live and who shall die? Jeremiah was told by God, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Jeremiah was set apart for God, by God from the womb. He was handcrafted by the creator and so are those who live today. All men were created with purpose and that purpose is to glorify God. Known from the womb are all that were created in Imago Dei, the image of God. Elizabeth proclaimed, “For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.” (Luke 1:44) Life begins in the womb and when Elizabeth heard the voice of Mary, the babe leapt in her womb, John was alive in the womb.
Life begins at conception, from the womb to the tomb, from before the cradle to the grave. Pro-Life since coming to Christ, pro-life has changed and has now become pro-abolition of abortion. How is this you ask? Witnessing an abolition bill HB813 thwarted by the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC) an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) who signed a letter against the abolition of abortion. He realized to be pro-life means that it would be pro-abortion on some level. The incremental approach means that abortion is allowed at certain stages. So, this writer realized that being pro-life made him complicit to a certain extent in abortion.
The SBC during last year’s convention adopted a resolution that was strongly for abolition. “… RESOLVED, that we will not embrace an incremental approach alone to ending abortion because it challenges God’s Lordship over the heart and the conscience, and rejects His call to repent of sin completely and immediately (Gen 3:1; John 8:44; Rom 2:14-15; 2 Corinthians 11:3), and be it further RESOLVED, that we affirm that the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law...”
The ERLC undermined the will of the messengers of the SBC. They stood against HB813 with a letter signed by over eighty different prolife groups. They countered the resolution on abolition of abortion that proclaimed as one convention “must be punished equally under the law...” Equal protection under the law for those who are in the womb and so moving against the abolition of abortion in Louisiana was contrary to the will of the messengers.
Here is what was said by Brent Leatherwood the acting president of the ERLC, “Here’s the reality,” “You’re not going to get me to say that I want to throw mothers behind bars. That’s not the view of this entity. That’s not the view of this convention. It’s not the view of the pro-life movement.” They did not want to prosecute mothers, but a woman who chooses from the point of law passing to have an abortion would not be a mother. He was right, the view of prosecution of women who get an abortion is not the view of the entity but that entity did not reflect the convention, again refer to the resolution produced in part above. If the view of the pro-life movement is not for the abolition of abortion than what is their purpose?
The catch phrase, “Why we aim to make abortion illegal, unthinkable, and unnecessary.” If abortion is illegal, yet without consequences, then there is no power nor strength to the law and the law would just be a request. Unthinkable, the obvious thing here is if it is illegal and punishable it would be less thinkable. Unnecessary gives you the impression that abortion is seen as necessary, but if it was illegal, it would be unnecessary.
It is time to abolish abortion. With the hopeful final defeat of Roe vs. Wade, it is high time His church gets ready to be a tool to care for mothers and their children. May lawmakers make adoption less expensive to those adopting, it should not cost a mint. May His church see that life is precious enough to fight for “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Should not those in the womb be covered by this statement?
Tom Pasquarella
AMS BLBA
