I was invited to serve my time on the picket line a few
weeks ago. Two ladies stopped in my
office to discuss the possibility of my church joining in the protest of a
local practitioner who performs the only private abortions in the state. I listened politely and accepted their
literature, but then respectfully told them, ‘No.’
I don’t like abortion.
Let’s be clear about that. I
think it is a positively awful and generally selfish choice that almost always
arises out of poor life decisions.
Though the debate often moves to questions like, “What if the pregnancy
is because of incest or rape,” I believe this is the exception and not the
rule. With more forethought and more focus
personal responsibility instead of demanding personal rights, there would be
less need for abortions in this country.
Please understand, if you are a woman who has had an abortion, I do not
condemn you for it, but my heart breaks for the situation. I would never turn away someone who has chosen
or is considering abortion, especially in those exception cases.
I also do not like abortion protests. By and large, they are obnoxious and so
focused on this one issue, that they lose sight of all other humanity. It doesn’t take much of a leap to go from
charges of murder to feeling obligated to do anything in your power to prevent
the murder. Thus we get shootings of
abortion doctors and bombings of their centers.
Even those who do not turn to violence, often turn to violent language,
graphic pictures, and intimidating tactics. Violence, hatred, and intimidation are NOT worthy of Jesus and are completely unacceptable from anyone who claims to follow him. I just cannot picture Jesus yelling epithets through a megaphone at a scared young girl.
During college, members of my class were assigned to visit a
Planned Parenthood and ask questions. To
enter the center nearest me, I had to go through a heavy steel door with an
armored peephole that looked like it was out of a bank vault. The inside lobby was small and the
receptionist window had that thick bulletproof glass that you see in
check-cashing businesses. The interior
door to the counselors and patient rooms was also armored and you had to
present I.D. and wait to be buzzed through.
I was saddened that those doctors, nurses, and counselors were in an
armed camp, predominantly out of fear of people who call themselves
Christians. That’s not how it should be.
The ladies who invited our church to join them in this current
protest promised me that the signs would be about love and would, in fact, say,
“We Love You, Choose Life.” They told me the protest would be all about letting
the doctor and patients know that we loved them and that there would be no
graphic pictures of aborted fetuses. I
still am concerned. Who controls what
goes on these signs? Who controls who
gets to be there protesting? Even the
most peaceful protests tend to draw the fringe elements, and that brings
danger.
I believe that the Christian response to abortion is not
protest, but Adoption. My challenge to
any and every protestor who would walk in front of an abortion doctor’s office,
is this: “How many children have you adopted?”
For every pastor, teacher, or blogger who has written and spoken on the
subject of abortion, I would ask, “How many young girls have you provided for
so they can have a baby and put it up for adoption?”
I don’t know that holding a sign has ever changed a single
person’s mind. I do know that a loving
offer to adopt has. I do know that
giving a woman information can make an incredible difference (yet Planned
Parenthood consistently stands against any requirement for this). I also know that groups like Crisis Pregnancy
Centers do an incredible job offering counseling, connecting women with
adoption agencies, offering financial assistance, and walking with a pregnant
woman through a tough time. They even
offer post-abortion counseling for free, if a woman chooses that route.
I am a believer in putting your money and your action where
your mouth is. Period. If you cannot stand up, please shut up.
Here are the stats.
· According to the National Abortion Federation’s
website (a pro-choice group), there are approximately 1.3million unwanted pregnancies in
the United States each year.
· According
to Religion Facts, there are approximately 159 million Christians in the United
States.
· There are already as many as a half a million
people seeking to adopt children at any given time in the United States and as
many as 1.58 million who have taken steps to look into adoption according to
Adoption.com.
· There are around 127,000 children awaiting
adoption in foster care right now, according to the Adoption Institute.
· Fertility Treatments can cost upward of $12,000
per cycle with the average spent on In Vitro Fertilization in the U.S. of
$100,000 per baby born! $4 billion
dollars a year is spent on assisted reproduction in the U.S.
· The average cost of a foster adoption is $5,000
with domestic adoptions costing around $10,000 and international adoptions
running from $25,000 - $35,000 according to the Adoption Guide. Note – there are tax credits and grants for
adoption that alleviate some of this.
The simple truth here is, if every church in the U.S. took
this idea seriously, there would be little or nothing left to protest
about. There are just over 12 times as
many Christians as there are abortions.
There should be enough families to adopt every available baby. If churches and families took the calling to
adoption seriously, there would be millions of families available to adopt and
millions of others available to support the families in those adoptions. Imagine if the money spent on fertility
treatments were spent towards adopting unwanted babies and children. Imagine if churches stepped up and committed
to adopting every child available AND supporting those families that went
through with adoptions.
A pastor friend of mine and his wife* shared how they
adopted a little baby girl and then ten months later had the opportunity to
adopt twin newborn boys. It took little
thought for them to say, ‘Yes.’ They
said it was so hard taking care of three little babies, two of whom were
preemies, that they remembered little about that first year. What they did share was that the women of their
church brought them dinners every night for six months and then continued to
regularly drop off food for months after that.
They also had church members who came over and watched the babies
periodically so they could get a break.
Now, that’s how it should work!
When we adopted my oldest daughter, we experienced the same
thing. Church members organized meals
for us. They dropped off gifts of baby
clothing, formula, food for the family, and many other things. I don’t think we bought a single diaper for
the first year! They helped us with
babysitting, and even just coming to visit.
That’s how it’s supposed to work. Christian community is an amazing thing; it's much more powerful than any sign.
I am not suggesting that this would stop all abortions, but
I do suggest that it could be an amazing, life-changing experience for everyone
involved: the woman facing an unwanted pregnancy, the precious child, the
adoptive family, and the church as a whole.
I know so many adoptive families and in every single case, the
experience has been a hard one, but a healthy one. The love these families and children
experience overflows on those around them.
My wife and I have had a wonderful experience with adoption
and intend to adopt more children in the future. I invite every Christian family to step up
and either open your lives up to adopt a child, or open your pocket book up to
support adoption.
Love is a powerful thing. I believe it is infinitely more powerful when
it is taken off of signs and put into action.
* Note: My Pastor friend does
participate in the protest at that site, holding a sign that says, ‘We love
you, choose life.’ He has adopted
several children; he has earned the right to hold a sign.
If you are a family
looking to adopt, may I recommend Christian Family Care Agency at www.cfcare.org ((602) 234-1935 or Arizona Baptist
Children’s Services at www.abcs.org (623)
349-2227
If you can contribute
to adoption, please consider making a donation to http://www.cfcare.org/donate/ or to http://www.choicesaz.org/.
If you are a woman who
has had an abortion and would like to talk to someone, they also offer free
counseling.
Other services offered
by Crisis Pregnancy Centers include:
·
Pregnancy
testing
·
STD
Testing
·
Physician
or Nurse Consultation
·
Crisis
counseling
·
Counseling
for parents, boyfriends, and husbands
·
Adoption
counseling
·
Adoption
referral
·
Housing
referrals
·
Childbirth
classes
·
Parenting
classes
·
Abortion
recovery
·
Ultrasounds
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