So, I commend to you Al Baker’s latest article. I believe that he is on target as painful as it is to hear his words. I think of that Old Testament verse that says, “Is it nothing to you all ye who pass by?” The vast, vast majority of professing Christians in Muncie will not even take the time to stand on McGalliard Road for one hour out of the year to quietly protest the slaughter of these untold children by holding a placard of reminder for those who drive by. I’ve had a few cuss me but many more honk in support but I’ve not yet had anyone pull over and join us. Is it nothing to you? I pray you are standing in the breach and speaking the truth in love at every opportunity for these little ones have so few to advocate for them. Please ask the Lord to forgive your apathy if such is the case and enable you to get back into the fight for the life of the unborn.

- Pastor Gary R. Cox

America’s Greatest Evil

What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the face of the poor? Declares the Lord God of hosts, Isaiah 3:15.

January 22 marks the thirty-eighth anniversary of our greatest evil, Roe v. Wade, the 7-2 Supreme Court ruling (Justices William Rehnquist and Byron White wrote dissenting opinions, arguing that the Court had over extended its reach and exercised what Justice White called “raw judicial power”) that removed restrictions on states where abortion was legal (California and New York) and legalized it in all fifty states. The Court’s decision was based on the “right to privacy” which it claimed was guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, implied by the Fourth Amendment and the Bill of Rights. Roe v. Wade was the principal decision and it repealed all state laws prohibiting abortion. The companion case, Doe v. Bolton, extended the right to abortion to the entire nine months of pregnancy. No restrictions were placed on the first trimester (until this ruling this was not a medical term). In the second trimester states could pass certain regulations concerning abortions but only to insure the woman’s safety. No restrictions on a woman’s right to choose an abortion were allowed. And in the third trimester the Court conceded that a state could place certain restrictions on abortion to protect the child, but the woman could still have access to an abortion for health reasons; and the World Health Organization defines this as any condition that might impact a woman’s physical, emotional, psychological, or financial well being. Obviously this serves as no constraint at all and the Court in effect opened the door for abortion in all nine months of a pregnancy. Interestingly a full range of legal scholars, including the liberal Alan Dershowitz, have criticized Roe and Doe, saying that advances in medical technology make the personhood of the fetus obvious, that the unborn child’s right to life ought to trump a woman’s right to privacy.

It is also interesting to note that Norma McCorvey (Roe) lied under oath, saying that she had been gang raped, in order to garner sympathy for her desire to an abortion. Her attorney, Sarah Weddington, knew this was a lie but argued it anyway before the Supreme Court. Later McCorvey joined the pro-life movement and confessed to her lie. She also never actually got an abortion. And Sandra Cano (Doe) asked her Georgia attorney, Margie Pitts Hames, to help her in a custody battle for her children. Since Cano was pregnant at the time Hames used this case to seek legalization of abortion in Georgia, something Cano had no intention of doing. Later when the Court ruled in Cano’s favor both Hames and Cano’s family tried to force her to have the abortion and she fled the state to avoid having one. Cano also joined the pro-life movement a few years later.

Abortion— America’s greatest evil is responsible for 1.3 million deaths per year, over fifty million since 1973. White women account for 40.9% of all abortions in the United States while black women account for 31.7% of them. Keep in mind that black people make up only 11 % of our population, meaning that the black race, proportionately more than any other, is killing off their children. And while all abortions are heinous and the greatest scourge of untold evil ever foisted upon our nation, the partial birth abortion is the most reprehensible of all. The cervix is dilated with laminaria and forceps are used to enter the womb and grasp the baby by the legs. The baby is delivered breech while the head remains in the birth canal. A blunt-tipped pair of surgical scissors is used to puncture the base of the skull and a suction catheter extracts the baby’s brain, collapsing the skull, making the full removal of the baby easier.[1][1] Maybe you don’t want to read such macabre details but we need to face the music. Any nation that would do this to her most innocent, defenseless people can be no better than Nazi Germany. With Isaiah, I ask, “What do we mean by crushing the heads of God’s people, of grinding the face of the poor?”

The parallels between America and Nazi Germany are palpable and prevalent. Pre World War II Germany was a “Christian nation”. Everyone was born into the church and Martin Luther was to Germany what George Washington is to America. And when Hitler began rounding up the Jews and sending them off to the gas chambers, when they literally smashed the skulls of Jewish babies against walls[2][2], the church largely stood by and said or did nothing. “It was a political issue,” so they said, “and the church ought not to be engaged in politics. “We want to reach these lost Nazi sympathizers,” they said, “and we cannot do so if we alienate them on secondary issues.” Sound familiar? From Martin Luther, to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller, to Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop—all have said that failure to address the issue of the day is a failure to preach the gospel. In a desire to fill our churches we remain silent on the evil of all evils.

The pro-life issue is not even on the legislative radar anymore. When is the last time you heard substantive debate on the issue between political candidates? As far as I know, there is no impending legislation before Congress to abolish this great evil. We are so far down the road, innocent blood has flowed for so long now, and other issues like the economy, national health care, and the War on Terror garner our attention that we have acquiesced, preferring to get on with our lives. History has always judged civilizations on how they treat “the least of these”.

What then ought we to do? First, get a new zeal for the issue. See it for what it is—profound, far reaching injustice, evil, perversion, and wickedness. Second, weep for our nation. Feel what Jesus feels for those Pharisees who were facing doom and destruction because they had rejected Him. God will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:7). “Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth, for the bridegroom of her youth . . . be ashamed, O farmers . . . gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar . . . consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord,” (Joel 1:8, 11, 13, 14). Third, speak about the innocence of the unborn to anyone who will listen. Appeal to the law of God written on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). People know, deep in their hearts, that this is evil and wicked. Fourth, do something. Yes, by all means pray for the abolition of abortion, but get involved. Support prayerfully, financially, and with your time your local Crisis Pregnancy Center and those like the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC) which lobby before state and federal legislative bodies to slow down or end this great blight on our nation. Maybe you ought to consider adopting a baby whose mother had decided to carry her to full term? But do something!

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut. FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 10, number 3, January 20, 2011