Christians, Being Anti-Abortion Doesn’t Make You Pro-Life

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a blood-filled gap between what the church believes and what the church does. Unfortunately, this inconsistency isn’t exclusive to abortion. Because of the church’s lethargy in effecting culture, it has lost much of its moral high ground in just about every politically charged topic of our time.

As a result, spectator Christianity (if that’s even a thing) has found a snuggly nest where an active, participant faith once lived. Many churches who formerly preached unmovable truths coupled with the expectation of action are now being lead by men and women of passivity who are calling for “love” and “acceptance” on issues that God does not love or accept.

In addition, the conscience of America is being seared with the iron of individualism and self-actualization. Morality has become self-interpreted and millions have creatively sanitized their sin into a mere choice, legal right, and in the instance of abortion, liberty to “health.”

But more than that, the reach of the culture, whether it’s the pro-choice movement or the LGBT campaign, has made its way to the door handles of the Church and has caused a lockdown form of paralysis through intimidation. Consequently, church members and even church leaders have opted to skip the bold proclamation and public preaching of the truth and simply stick to their pews in fear.

“But the Bible says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

However, somehow, big things always forget the power of their size. The Church is no different. Instead of being the great protector of morality in our world, we so easily elect to be the passive giant.

However, statistics say the Church is not apathetic toward the fight for life. Nearly 80% of American Christians believe butchering a baby is morally wrong (the other 20% is another topic). Even so, only 12% of Christian churches have an active pro-life initiative. Sadly, when it comes to abortion, much of the Christian population are slacktivists. We are kings of Christian cowardice hating evil with our hearts while doing nothing to prevent it with our mouths, hands, and feet.

Edmund Burke’s words from the eighteenth century are a timely rebuke for many of today’s inactive churches, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Having said that, we can’t expect sheep to do what shepherds won’t. Many pastors today have become masters of avoidance when it comes to abortion. They are escape artists of costly conversations. Ambassadors of God not willing to present their King’s position on the slaughtering of babies. To me, it’s simple. It’s problematic for an influential pastor to preach on something when his popularity depends on him not preaching it.

But again, the pastoral silence isn’t because of the church’s disinterest in the issue. In another study, abortion was the number one political topic Christians desire to hear more about from the pulpit of their church.

But since much of the Church’s leadership has opted for dormancy and side-stepping, many bold believers are leaving audience Christianity to walk-out instead of talk-out the teachings of Jesus. For example, meet Love Life Charlotte—a non-profit ministry founded by a group of guys hated by liberals, despised by feminists, and loved by God. These men (and women) have formed a pro-life movement in their city that’s saving babies and shutting down murder facilities across their community. Ultimately, they’re shepherding what most pastor’s won’t and showing up where most churches don’t.

But their presence isn’t what you might expect. While some religious groups have opted for aggression toward those mothers who are pursuing an abortion, this group has opted for buying them groceries, offering struggling couples marital counseling, and getting unstable families a safe vehicle and proper living situation.

The simplicity of their solution reminds me that we’ve made Christianity far more difficult than it should be. There’s something intrinsically persuasive when you combine God’s truth about a baby with tangible heart-cracking love. It’s like turning up the volume of Heaven and giving people a glimpse of divine hope.

Ultimately, the anti-abortion camp is the disease of inaction in our churches. A friend once told me, “It is not enough to merely hate evil or even help hurting people, we must also stop the things that hurt them.” Pro-life is for those who actively stop the practices and places of abortion. Pro-life is boots on the ground and hearts on the table in the lives of struggling expectant mothers. Pro-life is fighting not only with prayer but with presence in the circumstances of those who are in need.

Church, we must remember that God isn’t calling us to just hate abortion. He’s calling us to value the life of a baby. God isn’t calling us to simply make abortion illegal, He’s calling us to make abortion unthinkable in the culture around us.

The church often forgets that politics follow the culture. It is our job to change hearts. When we change hearts we will change the culture which will result in a change of politics.

It’s clear, we can’t wait for the megachurch pastors and popular voices of churchianity to lead us to the doorsteps of abortion clinics and to the hearts of pregnant mothers. The Bible says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Christianity isn’t a costless enterprise. We are entering a time of divine militancy. Not of striking or of bloodshed but of an unyielding defense of the Truth. The culture is content with us being anti-abortion. They are satisfied with our motionless hatred. However, they are terrified of the spiritual army that the Church can become. We must simply decide if we prefer to fight or to sleep.