Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday, so proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan on January 13, 1984. It was the 11th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Reagan continued the practice, as did President George H.W. Bush. President Clinton discontinued the practice, but President George W. Bush resumed the practice. President Obama has discontinued the practice during his presidency.
President Reagan explained,
"Since 1973, however, more than 15 million unborn children [that number now stands at more than 50 million] have died in legalized abortions -- a tragedy of stunning dimensions that stands in sad contrast to our belief that each life is sacred. These children, over tenfold [now even more] the number of Americans lost in all our nation's wars, will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love; nor will they strive to heal the sick, or feed the poor, or make peace among nations. Abortion has denied them the first and most basic of human rights, and we are infinitely poorer for their loss.
"We are poorer not simply for lives not led and for contributions not made, but also for the erosion of our sense of the worth and dignity of every individual. To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all. Slavery, which treated Blacks as something less than human, to be bought and sold if convenient, cheapened human life and mocked our dedication to the freedom and equality of all men and women. Can we say that abortion -- which treats the unborn as something less than human, to be destroyed if convenient -- will be less corrosive to the values we hold dear?"
40 years, folks... 40 years since Roe v. Wade. 40 years too many, with over 55 million babies slaughtered in the womb. The Church MUST stand up and be a prophetic beacon, a voice to a nation gone astray, a nation that traded its morality for human relativism when politically convenient. We, as Christians, as Americans, MUST stand up for the most innocent of life, standing with the Church in this battle. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? This shameful hypocrisy must end...
This worldview doesn’t make pregnancies resulting from rape or incest any less emotionally traumatic. It does, however, remind us that the unborn child has infinite value in the eyes of God, and thus it deserves both love and life. It isn’t responsible for the sinful actions or unfortunate circumstances of others, and its value doesn't depend on the circumstances of its conception.
Murdering schoolchildren is obviously wrong; we recognize their potential and their humanity. Why do we not recognize the potential and the humanity of the unborn, and understand that taking their lives is just as wrong? To value them in terms of our own wants and expediency is less than a step from valuing the lives of the physically or mentally challenged in exactly the same way, thus judging them unworthy of life. The old and frail are useless to us and have exhausted their potential, so might they not be undeserving of medical care? This would free up resources for younger lives with more potential, and spare us the crushing burden of end-of-life medical care.
This rational, selective, utilitarian treatment of life lets us think of ourselves as gods, deciding who will live and who will die. In the hands of humans, that power is absolutely corrupting. It has given us the world's greatest mass murderers, men who have decided that human lives are just tools to use in the creation of a great society, eggs to be broken in the making of omelettes, statistics in a great game.
Forty years ago an ignoble Supreme Court made the unborn into nothing more than property. Since then, visual media have played a dominant role in glorifying violence in our society. Though susceptible people may embrace a culture of death, self-serving politicians are even more dangerous when they decide which lives are valuable based on a morally bankrupt worldview.
Life is not a game, and human lives aren't a commodity to be consumed, traded, or disposed of as is convenient to us. To use young children to shield Second Amendment policies from criticism is not just hypocritical; it’s cowardly, manipulative and worthy of contempt.
This righteous fight for life, and thus against the barbarism of abortion, should also not be relegated to only one Sunday a year. It's time for clergy and congregant alike to be bold in standing up for this truth and proclaim it daily.
"Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." ~ Matthew 18:14
h/t: CaffeinatedThoughts
