I believe abortion should be grieved, not celebrated; discouraged not promoted. I was glad to see the recent statement of Democrats for Life urging the Democratic Party to be more welcoming of them. Decades ago, I wrote a book called COMPLETELY PRO-LIFE and I recently published an Op Ed in USA Today criticizing Joe Biden and the Democratic Party's current position on abortion.
Thank you for this! I grew up in the 80s and 90s with parents that were very active in protesting Planned Parenthood locations, amongst other things. But as I watched the impact of their efforts, and listened to their “the sky is falling” rhetoric, It became obvious to me that their efforts were short sided, and inconsistent with the whole of pro-life positions. For 10+ years I’ve felt like politicians just use the pro-life as a trope, a means to use and even manipulate other-wise well meaning Christians for their own political gain. I see the same thing happening with the sudden attention to child sex trafficking. A serious issue being raised mostly for political gain. I’ve been in the trenches serving people who’ve actually been trafficked and raising awareness, funds and getting volunteers for this work is extremely hard, even in the most pro-life churches.
Yes, abortion matters, human trafficking matters, and does poverty, climate change of the earth we are to steward, and all the things you mentioned.
Let us strongly resist any attempts from others to use our Christian mission for their own political gains.
May we walk with humility and integrity, with love and kindness to all.
I get why this advice, opinion, and spin would be appealing and attractive to believe. However, it is subtle and manipulative and it is the exact logic that has taken hold of society and infiltrated hearts and minds into believing that abortion is a "human right" and therefore ok, or not the most important issue. In fact, abortion is the greatest evil in existence. No matter how it is twisted or phrased, there is no denying that abortion is the deliberate taking of an innocent human life. And a society that allows abortion to continue under the guise of social justice, or whatever noble misguided attempt at making it seem normal and necessary, is corrupt and failing its most vulnerable members. "The right to life is a paramount issue because as Pope John Paul II says it is "the first right, on which all the others are based, and which cannot be recuperated once it is lost." If a candidate for office refuses solidarity with the unborn, he has laid the ground for refusing solidarity with anyone." Read this guide on how to vote and you will see there is no gray area when it comes to how one's conscience should direct your choices in the upcoming election. Spoiler alert, it's not for Biden.
So a bunch of so called prolife evangelicals have decided to ignore the barbaric practices of abortion, abandon the most innocent among us. Who do they, and you their followers, think will go to the aid of unborn babies? Babies whose brains are sucked out while fully alive with legs and arms kicking and flailing, babies born alive from failed abortion attempts? Will the fight against racism end this? Efforts to reverse climate change? It amazes me that while they and all of you pretend to care about injustice, all the social ills, but you deny the humanity of the unborn and just born. It’s hypocrisy at its finest. You really don’t care about anyone but yourselves. This group of men and their followers are not prolife in any shape or form. They are evangelicals of another religion, certainly not Christianity.
Lets step back for a second and evaluate what abortion is. For Christians, life from conception to old age has the same intrinsic value. I am sure you would agree with this. This is because we are all made in the image of God. So the life of an unborn baby has the same value as a 24 year old or an elderly lady. I am sure we all can agree on that.
Some this is true, let's change the demographics of the abortion.
Lets say there is a party running for office that advocates the murdering of 5year old girls. They plan to put up several clinics where mothers can bring their 5 year old girls to be torn apart and thrown in the garbage or given to medical institutions for further research. If you dont like that demographic, then lets insert another life, maybe your wife or grandchildren. Or yet lets insert another demographic like Jewish people.
Now Ron and others who hold to this view, do you think a blog like and its arguments that you represent could stand? Does the killing of 5year old girls not trump everything? Could i have said during world war 2, that the killing of Jews does not trump everything. Would your argument stand and blog make sense if it was called the abortion of jews? Surely not!
For some reason, we have gotten too use to the idea and the word abortion. Lets truly take it in its context and for what it is.
I know Ron that you mean well, but your blog is causing others justification for voting for a party that advocates, in their platform, the murdering of innocent life.
So why is it that those who care about "social justice" are happy to see babies murdered by Planned Parenthood? Why don't they care about justice for the unborn? If they embrace this injustice, it seems reasonable to question their motives about fixing what they call unjust. Also, it's wrong to presume that wanting protection for the unborn means that there is no concern for the born. It's just a dodge.
You make some excellent points. However, you need to know that late-term abortions are done to save the mother’s life. The baby is already doomed. They aren’t done because the mother decided she didn’t want the baby. In that case, the baby is given up for adoption.
Nothing in this article is true. God cares for what? John 3:16, Mtt 28...save the world, "make disciples and baptizing. " the avordabke care act is a disaster, Trump is fighting for better health care. Welfare system a disaster, thanks to biden and obama....Trump bringing jobs back and making the best economy weve ever had had done more to help the poor. And if the supreme court did change its position on abortion states would not be allowed to create laws....michelle obama said the dems are the BLM party, that is the party of riots, terror, looting, killing...a chriatian can never vote for a candidate that supports mjrser of hund3of thousands of innocent lives....if you do....your no Christian
The premise here is that one doesn't believe strongly in the value of human life if one doesn't believe that its the governments role to do all these things. Believe in the need to cut federal funding to something does not equal lack of care for an issue.
Ron, you state that the 8 major sections set out by the National Association of Evangelicals are all issues that are part of a 'biblically balanced political agenda'. You then go on to state that there are many things that public policy shapes that kill persons created in the image of God and you list 6 of these public policies that cause or have resulted in people being killed.
I am wondering why you did not include was as one of the biggest (if not THE biggest public policy) that has caused or resulted in millions upon millions of persons created in the image of God being killed. I am also wondering why the National Association of Evangelicals did not state that part of a biblically balanced agenda' would be that no human has the right to kill another human. How can one person kill another person (created in the image of God) and still believe that they keeping the first and second greatest commandments and following Jesus's teaching as set out in chapter 22 of the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus responded to the following question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
How can I say I am keeping these two commandments if I kill another human being, even if my country makes it legal for me to do so by issuing a law instructing me to do so .
This statement is superb! This is the first balanced reasonable approach to abortion I’ve seen! I have always accepted abortion as a temporary fix to a many sided problem and have supported programs to deal with the underlying problems that create the need for them! I am part of the 70% who wants reasonable boundaries set to it’s practice! You’re right, banning it on a federal level won’t end it either.
But the government can lead the way on all these other issues that, in the end, could result in a significant reduction in abortions!
Wouldn’t it be great if we eventually got to a place where:
EVERY CONCEPTION WAS
A WANTED CONCEPTION!
Lord, help us to win these battles!
They are all...
BATTLES FOR BABIES!!
Thanks so much for your blog! It is light in a time of great darkness!
I think there are many reasons for abortion, some I sympathize with and some I don't. (Walk a mile in my shoes...) In the small amount of research I've done it seems the fetus feels pain at about the 8th to 12th week. Maybe an abortion before that time is humane. I cannot sympathize with allowing a baby to be born who is going to suffer physically for a short time on this earth & then dies. Why put a baby through that? Having said that, would you, Ron Sider, speak to all the death God caused in the Old Testament? (Like, killing Achan's whole family when it was Achan who stole the spoil of war.) Sometimes I think God is not all that pro-life.
Thank you for this! I grew up in the 80s and 90s with parents that were very active in protesting Planned Parenthood locations, amongst other things. But as I watched the impact of their efforts, and listened to their “the sky is falling” rhetoric, It became obvious to me that their efforts were short sided, and inconsistent with the whole of pro-life positions. For 10+ years I’ve felt like politicians just use the pro-life as a trope, a means to use and even manipulate other-wise well meaning Christians for their own political gain. I see the same thing happening with the sudden attention to child sex trafficking. A serious issue being raised mostly for political gain. I’ve been in the trenches serving people who’ve actually been trafficked and raising awareness, funds and getting volunteers for this work is extremely hard, even in the most pro-life churches.
Yes, abortion matters, human trafficking matters, and does poverty, climate change of the earth we are to steward, and all the things you mentioned.
Let us strongly resist any attempts from others to use our Christian mission for their own political gains.
May we walk with humility and integrity, with love and kindness to all.
I get why this advice, opinion, and spin would be appealing and attractive to believe. However, it is subtle and manipulative and it is the exact logic that has taken hold of society and infiltrated hearts and minds into believing that abortion is a "human right" and therefore ok, or not the most important issue. In fact, abortion is the greatest evil in existence. No matter how it is twisted or phrased, there is no denying that abortion is the deliberate taking of an innocent human life. And a society that allows abortion to continue under the guise of social justice, or whatever noble misguided attempt at making it seem normal and necessary, is corrupt and failing its most vulnerable members. "The right to life is a paramount issue because as Pope John Paul II says it is "the first right, on which all the others are based, and which cannot be recuperated once it is lost." If a candidate for office refuses solidarity with the unborn, he has laid the ground for refusing solidarity with anyone." Read this guide on how to vote and you will see there is no gray area when it comes to how one's conscience should direct your choices in the upcoming election. Spoiler alert, it's not for Biden.
https://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief-catechism.asp
So a bunch of so called prolife evangelicals have decided to ignore the barbaric practices of abortion, abandon the most innocent among us. Who do they, and you their followers, think will go to the aid of unborn babies? Babies whose brains are sucked out while fully alive with legs and arms kicking and flailing, babies born alive from failed abortion attempts? Will the fight against racism end this? Efforts to reverse climate change? It amazes me that while they and all of you pretend to care about injustice, all the social ills, but you deny the humanity of the unborn and just born. It’s hypocrisy at its finest. You really don’t care about anyone but yourselves. This group of men and their followers are not prolife in any shape or form. They are evangelicals of another religion, certainly not Christianity.
Lets step back for a second and evaluate what abortion is. For Christians, life from conception to old age has the same intrinsic value. I am sure you would agree with this. This is because we are all made in the image of God. So the life of an unborn baby has the same value as a 24 year old or an elderly lady. I am sure we all can agree on that.
Some this is true, let's change the demographics of the abortion.
Lets say there is a party running for office that advocates the murdering of 5year old girls. They plan to put up several clinics where mothers can bring their 5 year old girls to be torn apart and thrown in the garbage or given to medical institutions for further research. If you dont like that demographic, then lets insert another life, maybe your wife or grandchildren. Or yet lets insert another demographic like Jewish people.
Now Ron and others who hold to this view, do you think a blog like and its arguments that you represent could stand? Does the killing of 5year old girls not trump everything? Could i have said during world war 2, that the killing of Jews does not trump everything. Would your argument stand and blog make sense if it was called the abortion of jews? Surely not!
For some reason, we have gotten too use to the idea and the word abortion. Lets truly take it in its context and for what it is.
I know Ron that you mean well, but your blog is causing others justification for voting for a party that advocates, in their platform, the murdering of innocent life.
Kind of a long winded way to say the killing of unborn babies isn’t that important to you!
So why is it that those who care about "social justice" are happy to see babies murdered by Planned Parenthood? Why don't they care about justice for the unborn? If they embrace this injustice, it seems reasonable to question their motives about fixing what they call unjust. Also, it's wrong to presume that wanting protection for the unborn means that there is no concern for the born. It's just a dodge.
Interesting, these are the same arguments Democrat voters used to justify their vote in times of slavery and segregation.
You make some excellent points. However, you need to know that late-term abortions are done to save the mother’s life. The baby is already doomed. They aren’t done because the mother decided she didn’t want the baby. In that case, the baby is given up for adoption.
Nothing in this article is true. God cares for what? John 3:16, Mtt 28...save the world, "make disciples and baptizing. " the avordabke care act is a disaster, Trump is fighting for better health care. Welfare system a disaster, thanks to biden and obama....Trump bringing jobs back and making the best economy weve ever had had done more to help the poor. And if the supreme court did change its position on abortion states would not be allowed to create laws....michelle obama said the dems are the BLM party, that is the party of riots, terror, looting, killing...a chriatian can never vote for a candidate that supports mjrser of hund3of thousands of innocent lives....if you do....your no Christian
The premise here is that one doesn't believe strongly in the value of human life if one doesn't believe that its the governments role to do all these things. Believe in the need to cut federal funding to something does not equal lack of care for an issue.
A balanced perspective. Thank you! May your fount not run dry!
Ron, you state that the 8 major sections set out by the National Association of Evangelicals are all issues that are part of a 'biblically balanced political agenda'. You then go on to state that there are many things that public policy shapes that kill persons created in the image of God and you list 6 of these public policies that cause or have resulted in people being killed.
I am wondering why you did not include was as one of the biggest (if not THE biggest public policy) that has caused or resulted in millions upon millions of persons created in the image of God being killed. I am also wondering why the National Association of Evangelicals did not state that part of a biblically balanced agenda' would be that no human has the right to kill another human. How can one person kill another person (created in the image of God) and still believe that they keeping the first and second greatest commandments and following Jesus's teaching as set out in chapter 22 of the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus responded to the following question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
How can I say I am keeping these two commandments if I kill another human being, even if my country makes it legal for me to do so by issuing a law instructing me to do so .
sorry ... a lot of bs in this article.
This statement is superb! This is the first balanced reasonable approach to abortion I’ve seen! I have always accepted abortion as a temporary fix to a many sided problem and have supported programs to deal with the underlying problems that create the need for them! I am part of the 70% who wants reasonable boundaries set to it’s practice! You’re right, banning it on a federal level won’t end it either.
But the government can lead the way on all these other issues that, in the end, could result in a significant reduction in abortions!
Wouldn’t it be great if we eventually got to a place where:
EVERY CONCEPTION WAS
A WANTED CONCEPTION!
Lord, help us to win these battles!
They are all...
BATTLES FOR BABIES!!
Thanks so much for your blog! It is light in a time of great darkness!
I think there are many reasons for abortion, some I sympathize with and some I don't. (Walk a mile in my shoes...) In the small amount of research I've done it seems the fetus feels pain at about the 8th to 12th week. Maybe an abortion before that time is humane. I cannot sympathize with allowing a baby to be born who is going to suffer physically for a short time on this earth & then dies. Why put a baby through that? Having said that, would you, Ron Sider, speak to all the death God caused in the Old Testament? (Like, killing Achan's whole family when it was Achan who stole the spoil of war.) Sometimes I think God is not all that pro-life.
There is no reasoning for abortion!