Abortion and Generation Next
As Senator Hilary Clinton come to town to campaign in the historic Wigwam, it brings to mind the upcoming election. While choosing a candidate may be difficult in this election, Russ Moore recently called attention to a shift in young evangelicals concern about the issue of Abortion. He called it Fetus Fatigue and quoted from a philosopher by the name of Douglas Groothuis.
“It appears that millions of evangelicals, especially younger ones, are experiencing fetus fatigue. They are tired
of the abortion issue taking center stage; it is time to move on to newer, hipper things–the sort of issues that excite Bono: aid to Africa, the environment, and cool tattoos. Abortion has been legal since they were born; it is the old guard that gets exercised about millions of abortions over the years. So, let’s not worry that Barak Obama and Hillary are pro-choice. That is a secondary issue. After all, neither could do that much damage regarding this issue.
“Evangelicals (if that word has any meaning), for God’s sake, please wake up and remember the acres of tiny corpses you cannot see. Yes, the Christian social vision is holistic. We should endeavor to restore shalom to this beleaguered planet. That includes helping Africa, preserving the environment, and much more. However, the leading domestic moral issue remains the value of helpless human life. Since Roe v. Wade, approximately 50 million unborn humans have been killed through abortion. Stalin said, ‘One death is a tragedy. A million dead is a statistic.’ Too many are now Stalinists on abortion. The numbers mean nothing, apparently.
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March 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Andy,
I will have to find the exact location of this statistic but it was sobering to see that under President Bush, abortion has actually increased than when President Clinton was in office. I am not implying that a pro-life stance is wrong or automatically leads to increased abortions….just thought it was interesting that under a pro-choice president abortions went down, and under a pro-life president the statistics are saying that abortions went up.
The problem seems that getting back to pre-1973 will never happen. Instead of just fighting the battle on the terms of abortion is wrong and it is murder we need, it seems, to be putting effort into actually helping these young women (and their partners) who, sometimes, feel backed into this corner and feel there is no other legitimate option for them.
Just saying that abortion is wrong, it is murder and to make it “illegal” is not the solution. In fact, that is really no solution at all.
Thoughts?
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Tom,
I am not one that hangs my hopes upon politicians, but am thankful for the right to vote. Ultimately change needs to come through the gospel and through the church or body of Christ. This is the only true way I see to getting back to anything pre-1973 and it is fully possible if the fear of God is restored.
I am slow to blame one man for the shift of a culture, particularly in a rights based society like we live in. While Bush may be Pro-life, the decline of society has increased. That being said, I would not doubt your statistics, but would not put the blame on Bush’s view of Abortion. I think you are right that it is necessary to help young women understand the truth and find a place where are nurtured. However, I fail to see in anyway how stopping to fight against what is wrong, sin, and what is killing human beings is a good idea. Saying abortions is wrong is part of the solution, not the whole solution. Just because it is not the whole solution does not mean we stop doing what is right to defend those who cannot defend themselves.
March 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Andy,
Thanks for your generous reply. Please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying that speaking out against the killing of human life is wrong or bad or shouldn’t be done. My point was that when all we do is speak out and say that abortion is wrong or murder or sin we really haven’t accomplished much. Yes, people will know where we stand but if we are failing to provide real, workable solutions/alternatives to this problem we can ’say’ all we want….but it won’t go very far, be very meaningful or very helpful. I think that where Christ-followers have failed is that we have gotten real good at part of the solution (saying that abortion is wrong, etc., perhaps because this part is the “easy” part - it separates ‘us’ from ‘them’) but have neglected other parts of the solution (that may in fact be bigger, more powerful pieces).
I think what was troubling to me in the article was that line that said that younger evangelicals are moving on to “newer, hipper things…”. I would challenge that language. He comes back to the idea in the second paragraph but only as somewhat of a forced attachment and that is these “newer, hipper” things that younger evangelicals seem to be embracing are, in reality, biblically “ancient, timeless” issues that haven’t played a predominate role in conservative (religious right) politics. Care for the environment is not new…it has been in effect since Genesis…it is new in the sense that only recently have large portions of evangelicals woken up to our responsibility to it.
Again, thanks for your reply. Thoughts?
March 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Tom,
I may be misunderstanding the nature of your comments and/or your position in general, but with all due respect what is your solution to the abortion issue? How would you change what is being done? And what about about the gospel is not “real” or “workable”?
I believe, as Andy stated, the power is in the gospel. Maybe we’re just too intellectual to truly believe that anymore? Maybe we put too much emphasis on what “we” can accomplish. At any rate we cannot stop sharing the gospel, stop praying for the women (and the abortionist), or stop telling lost sinners of the utter lostness of unrepentant sin.
You say: “instead of just fighting the battle on the terms of abortion is wrong and it is murder we need, it seems, to be putting effort into actually helping these young women…”. To that I would say, confronting a sinner with the law (i.e. murder is sin) is sufficient to bring conviction of sin, and hopefully repentance, to whom God chooses to bring conviction and repentance. I am not saying that we should not do our best to care for these women in a more immediately tangible way too (i.e. shelter, clothing, food, education, etc.), but I am saying that the most powerful thing I can do, in most cases, and the one that is going to have the most lasting affect, is to share the truth in hopes of stirring conviction/repentance and then bring them to the cross of Christ.
If I’ve misunderstood your position please forgive me.
In Christ,
Rob
March 25th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Tom,
First, thanks to Rob for his comment. I do think we tend to forget how powerful the gospel is.
As far as Tom’s comments on the article and not liking the wording about the younger generation moving on to “hipper, and newer things”. I would agree with the article on this basis. What is more critical in terms of the gospel, recycling and global warming or the killing of millions of unborn babies? In that context, I think we need to be woken up to make sure we have priorities right. It is not that the other issues are not biblically based, but the severity of the issues that makes the issue of abortion so important. There are places and centers to help women and aid support. We have had church members heavily involved with these centers through the years. But the fight to stop the taking of human life still should remain central on a political level. If a politician wants to stop global warming, but wants to make it easier to take a young human life, what should the response of a Christian be?