Some Anniversaries are great. Marriage anniversaries. Birthdays. The start of the college football season. Some anniversaries are not so good. The death of a loved one. 9/11 or December 7th. Today.
Roe vs. Wade turns 41 today.
I have two kinda random thoughts on abortion, one concluding thought, and a number of good links to clarify your thinking.
- I think history will look back on this period of time, with Roe vs. Wade intact, as the greatest moral failing in the history of our nation. There is no way to deny the humanity of a fetus. It is a person. And we are killing him or her. John Piper penned an excellent article last year, arguing this point. A baby in the womb is undeniably that – a baby. Only ideological blindness dares to argue that point. Sadly though, I remember an article I read a few years ago in which a pro-choice columnist argued that abortion is killing, but that abortion is a cause worth killing for. This is a syndicated columnist at the second largest newspaper (at that time) in England. Her final line was chilling. “If you are willing to die for a cause, you must be willing to kill for it, too.” You can read it yourself here. We know we are killing children. The progress of science has greatly aided the arguments of pro-life advocates, showing conception to be a miracle bringing forth human life. Technological advances are shining light into the darkness of a mother’s womb, but through it we are discovering the darkness of our hearts.
- I think Roe vs. Wade will be struck down within twenty years. Abortion, as an action, has been a closed topic of conversation for a long time. People would talk about abortion as a cause, an idea, a right, a necessary evil, a key in protecting women, and more, but rarely would those same people talk about abortion as a process. Conversation always sidestepped talk of scissors and spinal cords, shears and limbs, brains and suction hoses. Then the internet came along. And just as governments everywhere are realizing, the internet makes it hard to keep certain doors closed and certain conversations silenced. My generation has seen youtube videos of aborted children. We have seen pictures of tiny hands and fingernails separated from the rest of the body. We have seen the horror and greed of inner city abortion mills, making millions off of the desperate women they are supposed to be protecting. We are waking up to the reality behind the lie of safe, legal, and rare. Once people in my generation learn that overturning Roe vs. Wade is not the equivalent of outlawing abortion, I think Roe vs. Wade will be cast aside in favor of state by state autonomy in the protection of both women and children.
My concluding thought deals with the horrifying truth that our nation approves of the wholesale slaughter of children and the guilt that comes from that truth. My thoughts are pushed forward by a strange source. I think of Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheistic philosopher who famously claimed “God is dead.” Nietzsche made that claim in a work of fiction called Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In that book, a madman, the protagonist, came down from a mountain claiming that God was dead. “He is dead, and we have killed him.” He went on to ask an interesting question: if we have the blood of God on our hands, to whom can we turn for forgiveness. Who is worthy of washing our hands of this blood? How can we make amends for an evil so great as this?
Those are the questions haunting me over the issue of abortion. 55 million dead at the hands of our doctors, given license by our silence. Who can cleanse us from the weight of so much wanton death? What can we do to absolve ourselves of this guilt?
Thankfully, that question was answered by another man who lived in the wilderness 2,000 years ago. His name was John, and he came to bear witness to the light, the light which was the life of all men, coming into the darkness. As he stood waist deep in the muddy waters of a dirty river, he looked at Jesus, the Christ, and declared exactly what I declare today – “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
Behold the lamb, and release your guilt. This is the power of the gospel over our culture of death.
Some links about Roe vs. Wade:
9 Things You Should Know About Roe vs. Wade
9 (More) Things You Should Know About Roe vs. Wade
A letter to those women who have had an abortion:
Just Thinking 