{"id":1923,"date":"2009-08-31T20:23:38","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T20:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2009-08-31T20:23:38","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T20:23:38","slug":"newsweek-on-abortion-the-culture-of-death-and-societal-progression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/08\/newsweek-on-abortion-the-culture-of-death-and-societal-progression\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek on Abortion: The Culture of Death and Societal “Progression”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"fetus\"Newsweek<\/em>\u2018s Eleanor Clift just wrote a column on how the battle over national health care now includes significant debate<\/a> over the role of abortion within public health plans.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to engage the question of universal health care or the matter of publicly funded abortions.\u00a0 I do not support either of these matters.\u00a0 What peaked my interest in reading the piece was this paragraph:<\/p>\n

All the familiar protest figures are suiting up for their first big battle since the family feud over Terri Schiavo\u2019s right to die devolved into a national debate over what\u2019s euphemistically termed \u201cthe culture of life.\u201d Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry and a band of noisy supporters disrupted a town-hall meeting this week in Virginia, shouting down featured speaker Howard Dean, a physician, and calling him a baby-killer. The Rev. Pat Mahoney, who led the protests at Schiavo\u2019s Florida hospice, showed up in Martha\u2019s Vineyard looking for some media action. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine we\u2019ve progressed as a nation,\u201d says Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. \u201cI hope we\u2019re just seeing the bitter end of this thing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s the whole piece.<\/a><\/p>\n

What particularly caught my attention was this last quotation in which the president of Planned Parenthood speaks of her hope that America has reached \u201cthe bitter end\u201d of the abortion divide.\u00a0 She expresses weariness in this statement.\u00a0 She yearns for a day when the nation will have reached the end of its internal battle, when \u201cprogress\u201d will sweep away division over what she would call \u201ca woman\u2019s right to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is much to discuss in this piece, but this last sentiment struck me as one evangelicals need to watch out for.\u00a0 Everywhere, an emotive populace couches the terms of debate in terms of emotion and physicality.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re just tired of the arguing,\u201d we hear.\u00a0 \u201cCan\u2019t we stop this infighting?\u201d\u00a0 A younger generation expresses their desire to transcend bitterness and division: \u201cWe\u2019re tired of fighting over stuff\u2013I want to follow leaders who focus on hope, not arguments over truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

This all sounds right on target.\u00a0 But it\u2019s really an open invitation to evangelicals and others who represent the \u201cculture of life\u201d to stand down.\u00a0 If one looks at this kind of language and thought carefully, one sees that it is a devil\u2019s bargain.\u00a0 We\u2019re all tired, says the common wisdom.\u00a0 Just tired of this fighting and this division and this needless bickering.\u00a0 That\u2019s all very premodern.\u00a0 We\u2019re modern now.\u00a0 We don\u2019t fight about stuff.\u00a0 We work together, partnering on common causes, charting a new way forward.<\/p>\n

Young evangelicals: be very careful about buying this line.\u00a0 Many of us accept it as an entree to progressive culture.\u00a0 We opt out of the evangelical ghetto in search of broader cultural acceptance and collaboration.\u00a0 Where our elders fought turf wars over hard issues, we seek for common ground in social justice.\u00a0 This can be good, if it leads to genuine justice and improved welfare.\u00a0 But in many areas, it does not.\u00a0 In the area of abortion, it does not.<\/p>\n

It is the height of folly to disregard the fetus in pursuit of the approval of the ambient culture.\u00a0 We may all feel weary and tired, and we may dislike division, but we need to sober up when it comes to the ideological divides before us.\u00a0 There is a war, a spiritual war, that is unfolding all around us.\u00a0 It\u2019s between light and dark.\u00a0 Culture of life vs. culture of death (see Al Mohler on this point<\/a>\u2013he\u2019s shaped my own thinking).\u00a0 God vs. Satan.\u00a0 On the particular issue before us, this means that some people in this world want to murder babies.\u00a0 Others do not want to do so.\u00a0 Where we cannot agree that it is in the best interest of women and children to avoid abortions, we have no common ground.\u00a0 There is no room to give here.\u00a0 There is no compromise to be reached.\u00a0 However much we may want to find peace and common cause in this world, Christians cannot link arms with agents of death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Christian life is never called easy or lightweight in Scripture.\u00a0 It is brutal in some respects.\u00a0 It involves shouldering a spiritual cross, with all of the attendant pain that carrying a 100-lb piece of splintered wood would involve (Matthew 16:24).\u00a0 Righteousness does not advance in an evil world by weak hearts and accommodating minds.\u00a0 It goes forward by the power of God\u2019s Spirit (Acts 1:8).\u00a0 It does not advance when Christians give in to the culture of death and its ploys.<\/p>\n

Next time you\u2019re tempted to speak of \u201cbeing weary\u201d about division and disagreement, next time you want to \u201cwork for common causes,\u201d remember the fetus.\u00a0 Pray hard on this matter\u2013let articles like this<\/a> move you from just anger to focused, believing prayer.\u00a0 Give time and money to crisis pregnacy centers.\u00a0 Remember what\u2019s at stake.\u00a0 The lives of babies.\u00a0 That, and the sheer weight of the fact that you represent the living God in a world of death and sin, should be sufficient to push you onward in the long, difficult fight for righteousness and true justice.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newsweek\u2018s Eleanor Clift just wrote a column on how the battle over national health care now includes significant debate over the role of abortion within public health plans. I\u2019m not going to engage the question of universal health care or the matter of publicly funded abortions.\u00a0 I do not support either of these matters.\u00a0 What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13038,1560,2337,2795,2986],"class_list":["post-1923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-howard-dean","tag-planned-parenthood","tag-terri-schiavo","tag-universal-health-care"],"yoast_head":"\nNewsweek on Abortion: The Culture of Death and Societal "Progression"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Newsweek's Eleanor Clift just wrote a column on how the battle over national health care now includes significant debate over the role of abortion within\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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