This is a guest post from our friend Kristi Scott. She lives, works, writes and activist-izes in Los Angeles, Ca.
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Note: I wrote this a week ago. Like most controversial posts I write, I was reluctant to post it. I write what’s on my heart and it scares me to put it out there. Abortion is not something I take lightly because I know it affects lives everyday. Also, Ann Voskamp’s post on abortion is a must read. I read it after I wrote this. She graciously expresses what the Christian response to abortion should be. “Gracious” doesn’t quite describe what I wrote.
You will not shame these women anymore. God is much bigger than your words. He is much bigger than your shallow rules and judgments. He is for Justice and Peace and Love you can’t control.
You know about the Gosnell murder trial by now. It has sparked a lot of discussion on the abortion issue lately. We can all agree that the Gosnell case is a horror story. We can all agree that government regulators need to take responsibility in preventing similar conditions. We don’t all agree on the morality of abortion.
I’m pro-life but not in the way you might think. (No picket signs or red duct tape here.) My beliefs on the issue are conservative, so you may be surprised about what I have to say regarding this emotional topic.
Christians, please stop telling everyone abortion is murder. Pro-choice Americans don’t care because they hold a philosophy that values women’s reproductive choices over a human fetus’ life. They’ve heard your arguments and they don’t think it’s good enough to change abortion law. More importantly, the women most likely to get abortions aren’t going to stop because an evangelical tells them it is murder. We have to move beyond the crying murder default rhetoric; we have to get to the root of why abortions happen in the first place.
If you care about unborn babies, take care of women. Stop telling us to be perfect virgins waiting for a godly husband to turn us into perfect sexy Proverbs 31 women. Instead, tell us what God thinks of us. (Hint: He thinks we’re incredible and worth dying for.) Because abortion doesn’t start at the Planned Parenthood down the street. It starts with a young girl looking for love since she never knew it at home. Or a young woman wanting intimacy that she isn’t getting when she bakes cookies for the church singles lunch. Or a woman who believes her career is more valuable than the Grace she will receive as a mother.
My dear brothers and sisters, I used to think it was simple too. Don’t have sex or deal with the consequences. Raise it or adopt it. It sounds so simple when we’re not one of them. When we choose to tell them our rules instead of show them a God who redeems everything. And, yes, He redeems abortion. (If you think that is an excuse for someone to get an abortion, you don’t understand Redemption.)
He redeems our simple answers too. He redeems the way we judge the doctors and the girls and the women who don’t understand Him. Those people who don’t see His Glory. You, my friend, have seen His Glory and toss judgment at something that doesn’t look like your version of God’s Kingdom.
I was like that too. I’m still like that. I have to seek more than moral rules. I must pray for Freedom to spread. The Freedom that makes being pro-life more than a political position. The Freedom that redeemed this world will redeem us all; the ones who think it’s as simple as saying “murder” and the ones who think murder is freedom.
Abortion isn’t freedom but neither are your rules.
Your rules burn when the Freedom of God hits. Evil men who kill babies and hurt women transform in the face of a God who is Justice and Love and Mercy and Redemption. He comes when all we can do is cry out to Him to redeem us.
And He does. Stop screaming “murder” and start screaming, “Freedom!”
What are your views on abortion? Why are you pro-life? Why are you pro-choice? How does your faith (or lack thereof) affect your views?
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