The story of Nazi Germany is really the story of the weakness of human beings, the fallen nature, of how easily—under the exigencies of the moment—we succumb to the worst kinds of evils. I know nobody likes drawing comparisons with the Nazis, and I understand why.…[Yet, y]ou look at the events of the thirties, and you realize that, culturally, we are on a very similar trajectory.
German culture accommodated Hitler. What will we accommodate?
—Chuck Colson1—
Key points: New York’s new abortion law, the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), invites God’s wrath on New York and on America. It is not as though we weren’t inviting God’s wrath by disregarding human life already, but the RHA represents a new low in glorifying abortion, the government sanctioned practice ruthlessly killing our unborn children.
Another aspect of our dire situation is that at the very time our culture most needs the influence of the church, the church is buying into worldly ideas. The church already is “harmless as doves,” but never has there been a more important time for the Christ’s followers, both individually and corporately, also to be “wise as serpents” (Matt. 10:16).
This article originally appeared as a series of four posts at Word Foundations. You can access each of the articles in the series from this page.
Democrats in the New York Legislature, along with Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, used Tuesday, January 22, the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, to enact an expansive new abortion law statewide. It is called the Reproductive Health Act (RHA). Before the vote took place in the New York Senate, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins expressed her joy over the near certainty that the proposed bill would become law:
We have a president who’s made it very, very clear that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. Today, here in New York, we are saying no […] and we’re not just saying no. We’re saying that here in New York, women’s health matters. We’re saying here in New York, women’s lives matter. We’re saying here in New York, women’s decisions matter.
Following the 38-24 vote, the Senate chamber erupted in applause. Here, in this chamber in recent years, a Republican majority had thwarted attempts to pass this legislation. With the 2018 elections, however, Democrats gained control of the chamber and vowed to make passage a top priority.
The vote in the New York Assembly was 92-47, and Governor Cuomo signed the legislation the very same day. Early in the legislative session, Democrats also made it a priority to ban therapy for minors seeking help to overcome unwanted same-sex attraction. That bill was signed into law by the governor on January 25. One is prompted to wonder if the Democrats care at all about the economy, jobs, and other issues that concern their constituents on a day-to-day basis.
Just what does the Reproductive Health Act do?
The Reproductive Health Act states, “Every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse contraception or sterilization.” It continues, “Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry the pregnancy to term, to give birth to a child, or to have an abortion….”
The New York State Right to Life Committee warns that elevating abortion to the level of a “fundamental right” will have ominous implications for pro-life individuals wanting to speak out against the practice. We are naïve not to realize that from such a “fundamental right” easily could flow other rights, such as
- the “right” of a woman not to hear a viewpoint that would encourage her to choose life for her baby,
- a “right” to abortion from any and all medical professionals, even if those professionals find abortion morally objectionable (thus, coercion of pro-life doctors and others), and
- the “right” of society as a whole to hinder pro-life speech and efforts to rescue women and children from abortion.
Life Site News reporter Calvin Freiburger summarizes some of the law’s other provisions (numbers have been added). The RHA
- “erases the state’s recognition of preborn babies older than 24 weeks as potential homicide victims,
- “removes abortion from the penal code entirely, and
- “allows licensed health practitioners other than full doctors to commit abortions.”
With regard to the first point, the law states, “‘Person,’ When referring to the victim of a homicide, means a human being who has been born and is alive.” Really? One has to be born? What about an unborn child at 39½ weeks? What about a baby who has been aborted and is alive? He or she is not a person in New York’s eyes.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update from the Family Research Council emphasizes this point. The RHA counts an individual as a person “[n]ot a second before [birth], and maybe—without infant protections—not few seconds after either.”
The article continues, warning about another provision in the law, one we cited above in item number 3.
Midwives and nurse practitioners can also perform abortions under the law, meaning that this law doesn’t just put unborn lives on the line—but women’s as well. Welcome back to the dark age of unregulated horror houses with rusty equipment and untrained staff who botch abortions and kill mothers. Progress, indeed.
The Mother’s “Health”
Also significantly, the RHA states that an abortion may occur to protect the life or health of the mother. Beware! The term “health” as used in this law is interpreted extremely broadly; in fact, broadly enough to give a green light for an abortion if the mother merely feels a little bit frustrated or stressed out about the prospect of delivering her baby.
Thus, the new law permits abortion through all nine nine months of pregnancy for any reason or no reason. And this is celebrated? Sadly, yes, it is. The euphoria seen on the part of RHA’s supporters prompted the satirical online news site Babylon Bee to publish an article titled “Ultrasound Unable To Detect Heartbeat in New York State Legislators.” So much for the mantra we heard from the left for so many years—Abortion must be kept safe, legal, and rare!
God Will Judge
Here I want to briefly summarize nine reasons why God will hold New York and America accountable for this expansion of abortion “rights,” or, more accurately expressed, the right to kill innocent babies who are mere moments away from birth. We already were inviting God’s wrath on this country through abortion, but we now have hit a new low. We must make a U-turn! Thankfully, if we do, God will welcome our repentance and freely forgive us. Our wickedness is great, but God’s grace is greater!
1. The RHA authorizes the slaughter of innocent children within the borders of a state where convicted murders are shielded from capital punishment.
Blogger Matt Walsh noted the stark irony. Just
in case you haven’t yet grasped how twisted this law is, consider that capital punishment has been ruled unconstitutional in New York. You are not allowed to give a lethal injection to convicted serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, school shooters, or any other species of monster. But you can give a lethal injection to an infant. Indeed, you can only give lethal injections to infants in New York. The crime of child rape will not earn you the needle. The crime of being conceived in the wrong womb might. It is a capital offense, and you may well be made to suffer dearly for it.
Recalling the sins of Israel’s forebears, the inspired writer of Psalm 106 declared,
35 But they mingled with the Gentiles
And learned their works;
36 They served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
And their daughters to demons,
38 And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with blood.
39 Thus they were defiled by their own works,
And played the harlot by their own deeds.
40 Therefore the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people,
So that He abhorred His own inheritance.
41 And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were brought into subjection under their hand (Ps. 106:35-42; context, Ps. 106).
Aren’t the parallels2 between ancient Israel and 21st-century America stunning? Read again from verses 40 and 41 that “[t]herefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people.…And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, And those who hated them ruled over them.”
If God did not spare His own people when responding to their disobedience, He won’t spare America, either.
2. The RHA is built upon and rooted in a racist and even genocidal movement—and it shows.
Seventy-eight percent of the abortions occurring in New York City are performed on black and hispanic children. Sadly, there are more “black babies being killed through abortion than being born in the city. Cuomo’s new abortion law will likely increase those numbers.” Is there really any question?
Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen recently tweeted, “Our core mission is providing, protecting, and expanding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. We will never back down from that fight….”
All of this surely would be a dream-come-true for Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), founder of Planned Parenthood. Not coincidentally, “79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located” in or near minority communities.
Consider each of the following quotes from Ms. Sanger.
- “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
- “I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan…I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses…I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak…In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.”
- “Birth control is nothing more or less than…weeding out the unfit.”
- “I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world.”
Finally, consider this attack on immigrants and the poor—and philanthropic efforts to assist them.
- “They are…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ’spawning… human beings who never should have been born. Organized charity itself is the symptom of a malignant social disease…Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks [of people] that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant.”
Thus, on the one hand, Democrats claim to be champions of minorities and the poor; yet on the other, they embrace efforts and pass laws to eliminate future generations of blacks and other minorities. The truth is that they are obsessed with power, and they are exploiting blacks, minorities, and illegal immigrants to retain, regain, and increase it.
3. God will judge New York and America for this new law because we know intuitively that unborn babies are human beings, and they are human beings of infinite worth.
Not far from One World Trade Center, which Governor Cuomo ordered to be lit in pink in celebration of the RHA’s passage, is the 9/11 Memorial. The memorial bears the names of those who died in the militant Islamist terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Ten of those entries represent twenty individuals. They are
Deanna Lynn Galante and her unborn child
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas and her unborn child
Jennifer L. Howley and her unborn child
Helen Crossin Kittle and her unborn child
Vanessa Lang and her unborn child
Patricia Ann Cimaroli Massari and her unborn child
Renee A. May and her unborn child
Sylvia San Pio Resta and her unborn child
Rahma Salie and her unborn child
Dianne Singer and her unborn child
Also recognized at the memorial are Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child, both of whom perished in February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
When these women died, their loved ones’ grief surely was compounded because their babies also were lost. In an article appearing at www.newsday.com, Emily Ngo writes,
Acknowledging the unborn underscores how deeply the attacks devastated families and their futures, said 9/11 memorial president Joe Daniels.
“It’s a special part of the memorial,” he said. “It reinforces that message about the whole project that the folks were just like us, that they were about to start these lives. . . . It reminds us that they were who we are.”
Thus, point number 3 is multi-layered. We know intuitively that
- the unborn are human,
- they are of infinite worth, and that
- government’s job is to protect and preserve innocent human life, not destroy it.
As Thomas
Jefferson declared, “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”
Supporters of the Reproductive Health Act, as well as those who are content to let it pass and take effect without objecting so they can focus on other things, are promoting bad government, even tyrannical government.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
—Thomas Jefferson—
God notices, and He will judge us if we do not repent and work tirelessly against this. While the Lord is patient and merciful, His patience and mercy are not limitless in the face of raw, relentless depravity.
4. The RHA is built on the lie that abortion has some sort of scientific basis. Science, after all, is supposed to be a source of objective truth. Yet the truth science is uncovering about the baby in the womb is being totally jettisoned.
“It isn’t a baby, but a blob of tissue,” we heard countless times from abortion advocates as they sought to justify the practice of killing children in the womb. This, of course, is patently false, and scientific facts refute it. Pro-choice individuals also will say defending the unborn is purely a religious endeavor. Many religious arguments against abortion exist, but so do many scientific ones.3
- A pre-born baby’s heart starts somewhere between 18 to 21 days after the mother’s egg and the father’s sperm came together.
- Six weeks into the pregnancy brain waves can be detected.
- In an eight-week-old developing and growing preborn baby, all bodily systems are present, as well as toes on the feet and fingers on the hands.
Nancy Pearcey, author of Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions About Life and Sexuality, writes,
In the past, abortion supporters simply denied that the fetus is human: “It’s just a blob of tissue.” Today, however, due to advances in genetics and DNA, virtually no ethicist denies that the fetus is human—biologically, genetically, physiologically human. Even the arch-radical Peter Singer acknowledges that “the life of a human organism begins at conception.”
How do liberals get around that scientific fact? By denying the relevance of science.…
Of course, people are much more than biological organisms. Yet biology gives an objective, empirically detectable marker of human status.
What this means is that pro-choicers have lost the argument on the scientific level—and so they are repudiating science. In the New York Times, Yale professor Paul Bloom informs us that abortion “is not really about life in any biological sense.”…
If pro-abortionists want to commit intellectual suicide and deny scientific facts, that’s their problem. But there’s no reason a civilized society should fund their anti-scientific outlook—or accept its inhumane consequences.
Abortion advocates have adopted a position on life that actually is anti-science.
Medicine, of course, is a branch of science. In a four-minute video he created on January 23 and posted a day later, Dr. Bill Lyle,4 a Board Certified obstetrician and gynecologist, explains why the RHA is nothing to celebrate. Here is a one-and-a-half minute audio clip from Dr. Lyle’s statement. Dr. Lyle speaks authoritatively about the medical evidence that the baby in the womb is a person, a member of the human family that must be protected.
Echoing Dr. Lyle’s pro-life convictions from a medical perspective, Dr. Omar L. Hamada tweeted the following on January 23, 2019:
I want to clear something up so that there is absolutely no doubt.
I’m a Board Certified OB/GYN who has delivered over 2,500 babies.
There’s not a single fetal or maternal condition that requires third trimester abortion. Not one. Delivery, yes. Abortion, no.
So, leftists aren’t interested in science—only in preserving and expanding abortion. And now, since they have revealed their true colors and have passed a law that allows for abortion to the point of birth and even beyond, they actually are proving to us that they have thrown science out the window.
5. The misnamed Reproductive Health Act (emphasis added), will put women at greater risk—emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Emotional scars. An article on the Advice & Aid Pregnancy Centers website explores some of the emotional wounds that are common in women who’ve had abortions, when compared with women who’ve given birth. Post-abortive women have
a significantly higher risk of death from all causes and, most notably, more often from suicide. Higher death rates of women who have had an abortion persist over time and across socioeconomic boundaries. Some of this may be explained by self-destructive tendencies, depression, and other unhealthy behavior brought on by the abortion experience…. Those who have conditions (like depression or other emotional disorders) before the abortion and those who have difficult circumstances surrounding the abortion (for example, being bullied into an abortion) increase the risk for major emotional problems after abortion….
In fact, some post-abortive women experience trauma so severe and so frequently that psychologists have named their condition post-abortion syndrome (PAS). One woman admitted that the sound of a vacuum cleaner or a dentist drill trigged anxiety for her, as did encountering a baby, another woman who was pregnant, a doctor, or other elements associated with abortion, pregnancy, or motherhood. Another woman said, “When asked by the hospital psychiatrist why I wanted to die I told him I was already dead inside and just wanted to finish the job.” Yet another woman suffered from intense anxiety attacks. She later learned that the sudden drop in her hormone levels from terminating her pregnancy could trigger her experiences.
Now, imagine that a woman chose to abort her child in the 39th week, a scenario clearly permitted in the RHA. How much anxiety might be triggered in her by the knowledge that her baby’s life had been snuffed out? Remember, we’re talking about a person that could fully function as a baby outside the womb. In fact, only four differences exist between the preborn and the already born, no matter how old: size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency. Yes, babies are inconvenient, but remember what we said in item 3: We know instinctively that they are human beings with infinite value and worth. We also know instinctively that ending the life of one or more of the youngest and most vulnerable members of the human family is wrong. No wonder post-abortive women feel anxiety! They feel guilt, and this is but one element—though a primary one—in the mix.
Here we should acknowledge that it isn’t uncommon for men who’ve been involved in abortion in some way to have emotional challenges and difficulties as a result. Without question, the RHA will exacerbate these kinds of problems for everyone involved.
Lives at risk. If you’re not familiar with the horrific episodes that occurred at the hands of abortion doctor Kermitt Gosnell in Philadelphia, you need to be. He now is serving a life sentence for murder. He was convicted of murdering three babies who survived their abortions, as well as of involuntary manslaughter of one of his patients during her abortion. Gosnell would deliver live babies in botched abortions and then kill them by taking scissors and snipping their spinal cords at their necks. And as if that weren’t enough,
Gosnell, who is black, made sure that his white “patients” were placed in the cleaner rooms while all others were placed in the filthy rooms. This way, according to the Grand Jury Report, it would be less likely that the white women would report the abortionist or the foul clinic.
A movie was made about Gosnell’s trial, and I believe every adult in America should see it. It is titled Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. Dean Cain, who stared in the movie as Detective James “Woody” Wood, recently appeared on Fox & Friends to warn people about the ominous ramifications of New York’s RHA. Hear this just-under-four-minute audio clip from Cain’s appearance.
The Reproductive Health Act not only removes abortion from the criminal code, it also authorizes certain medical professionals who aren’t doctors, such as midwives and nurse practitioners, to perform abortions. We therefore are justified when we ask, along with others genuinely concerned about not only the baby but also the mother, “How is it considered quality medical care to allow someone who has not received adequate education and training to perform this medical procedure?” The answer is obvious: “It simply is not. Pro-abortion advocates who claim to be ‘for women’ should be for protecting women and ensuring the best quality of medical care. [Instead, t]hey applaud diminishing the quality of medical care for women receiving abortions.”
Director of Public Relations for Human Life International Deborah Piroch said,
Make no mistake, women will die as a result of this law. As a woman and the daughter of an internist with a subspecialty in cardiology, may I ask where the feminist lobby is now? There are already deaths every year from legal abortions at the hands of medical doctors, and New York now permits non-physicians to do this procedure? Every state has an obligation to honor and protect both women and the unborn.
With the Reproductive Health Act, New York leaders just threw their obligations to both mothers and babies in the trash!
Spiritual casualties.As believers, we aren’t only concerned about people’s emotional and spiritual welfare, but also their spiritual well-being. Christians need to know that Satan takes great pleasure in abortion. In fact, abortion has ties to Satan worship. Zachary King, a former Satanist, has said he and other Satan worshipers would make it a point to be present at abortion clinics for abortions. The group would dedicate the baby at each procedure to Satan, then later, the Satanic priests would dedicate the all the dying babies to him during their Black Mass. King also reported that the prayers of Christians who would stand outside clinics and beseech God made a huge difference in what would transpire on any given day. A scheduled abortion would fall through or otherwise not materialize. In one instance, it was apparent to King that the prayers of believers were instrumental in preserving the life of an aborted child! Abortion is many things, but one of the things it is in a primary sense is spiritual warfare!
Fighting for life means being engaged in intense spiritual warfare!
Satan and his minions use abortion, not just to snuff out babies’ lives, but also to ruin women’s (and men’s) lives for many decades after their abortions occur. Abortion is “supposed” to be a choice, but many women who have had abortions report later they really didn’t want them at all. Actually, sixty-five to seventy percent of women who’ve had abortions believe getting one was morally wrong.
As Sue Bohlin points out in her article titled “The Dark Side of Abortion,” Satan hates children and women. As Jesus indicated, “The thief” comes “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” However, Jesus can forgive and give a life that truly is abundant and fulfilling. And yes, those with abortion in their pasts can experience His liberating power!
6. Many in our country have and are demonstrating a callous attitude toward the unborn.
Some are even giddy over the prospect of being able to kill children to, and even now, beyond, the point of birth. Cheers went up in the New York Senate chamber when the vote on the RHA was cast. Also, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered that several New York landmarks be lit in celebration of the passage of the new law. Dr. Bill Lyle, whom we’ve heard from previously, comments on this disgusting attitude in the video he made in response to the RHA. In this one-minute clip, he makes it clear we should be horrified at this response from the lawmakers and governor of New York. (When he mentions Mario Cuomo, Dr. Lyle obviously is referring to Governor Andrew Cuomo.)
Yes, there will be ominous consequences for this—and we as Christians need to realize we will contribute to bringing on these consequences if we do not speak lovingly, yet forcefully against this law.
Further into the Abyss
Tellingly, it was just a few days after the RHA was signed into law that Kathy Tran, a Virginia Democrat in the House of Delegates, defended a bill she had filed that would permit abortion up to and at the point of birth.
We should note that Ms. Tran submitted another bill around the same time that is designed to protect “fall cankerworms” at certain times during the year.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam defended the Ms. Tran’s proposed abortion law. Northam is a former pediatric neurologist.
The warnings of Scripture are unmistakably clear. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God told Judah,
5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
In Leviticus 20:2-5, God warned His people against offering their children to false gods. If anyone committed this terrible deed, that individual was to receive the death penalty. The Lord said to Moses,
2 “Give the people of Israel these instructions, which apply both to native Israelites and to the foreigners living in Israel.
“If any of them offer their children as a sacrifice to Molech, they must be put to death. The people of the community must stone them to death. 3 I myself will turn against them and cut them off from the community, because they have defiled my sanctuary and brought shame on my holy name by offering their children to Molech. 4 And if the people of the community ignore those who offer their children to Molech and refuse to execute them, 5 I myself will turn against them and their families and will cut them off from the community. This will happen to all who commit spiritual prostitution by worshiping Molech” (New Living Translation).
We alluded to the horror of child sacrifice earlier when we quoted from Psalm 106, but we do well to underscore just how serious an issue this is. God hates child sacrifice, and we are guilty. I use the term we because we, the American people as a whole, have engaged in it by practicing it and by allowing it to be practiced.
May God lead us to sorrow and repentance for our sins of both commission and omission—before it is too late.
Why else will God judge America?
7. Americans, including New Yorkers, know better than to snub their noses in God’s face by allowing the killing of full term babies through abortion and infanticide.
Contrary to any and all denials, we know what God expects of us in the moral realm.
Not that Long Ago, America Was a Different Place
I want to take you back in time 62 years. On Wednesday, May 15, 1957, Rev. Billy Graham began preaching a series of evangelistic meetings in New York City that would become historic. The
meetings began in Madison Square Garden and continued for an unprecedented 16 weeks. On what was planned to be the final night of the Crusade (July 20, 1957), 100,000 people jammed Yankee Stadium to hear Billy Graham preach. At that time, it was the largest crowd in the stadium’s history.
Yet this service wasn’t the last. The evangelistic meetings were extended because the response was so overwhelming. As we have affirmed, from start to finish, the Crusade lasted 16 weeks. An estimated 2.4 million people attended, and over 61,000 people responded to Rev. Graham’s call to follow Christ. The final meeting was a rally held in Times Square on the evening of Sunday, September 1.
Ruby Reisdorph and her husband, both of whom later would become missionaries to the Philippines, attended the event at Times Square. In a radio interview in 1979, Ruby recalled the remarkable scenes she had her husband witnessed.
We went out early because my husband wanted to see the effect of a service like that on the throngs. We hardly were prepared for what we saw. Everything was geared with excitement which reigned all over in that area. Where it seemed like all New York City had come. I know there came bold headlines out in the paper: “Coney Island Deserted.” Many, many people flocked to that meeting. It looked like a sea of people in every direction.
Hear a 2-minute clip from the message that Rev. Graham delivered to the thousands who came out to hear him that night. The entire message is available here.
Only a Few Decades Ago, New York Acknowledged God
On October 9, 1960, Rev. Billy Graham made an appearance on What’s My Line? a television game show that was telecast from New York City from 1950 to 1967. You can watch the entire segment here.
An important highlight of the show that evening was the conversation between host John Charles Daly and Rev. Graham. A week earlier, Graham had spoken to a crowd of 100,000 in Berlin, and Daly asked Graham about his trip. These words from Mr. Daly speak volumes: “I’m sure that there’s nothing quite as heartening to us, even, as far away as we are, that when you go to Berlin there is this outpouring and this rededication to the principles of a God and man’s responsibility to God.” The following one-minute clip includes this statement from Mr. Daly.
I’m sure that there’s nothing quite as heartening to us, even, as far away as we are, that when you go to Berlin there is this outpouring and this rededication to the principles of a God and man’s responsibility to God.
—John Charles Daly to Billy Graham during Graham’s appearance on What’s My Line? on October 9, 1960—
A City Acknowledges God
One year prior to Billy Graham’s New York Crusade, on Easter weekend in 1956 (Easter was on April 1), this was what the New York City Skyline looked like in the financial district of Manhattan.
The Same City, a Few Decades Later, Spurns Him
On January 22nd, 2019—63 years later—New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the spire of One World Trade Center lit in pink to commemorate the passage of the RHA. Other landmarks, including the Kosciuszko Bridge, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany, were fitted with special lighting as well. You can images of some of these structures here.
Thus, in less than a lifetime, we Americans have turned our backs on God. To be fair, we readily affirm that not everyone is giving Him the cold shoulder, just as not everyone followed Him in the 1950s. Even so, our national posture toward the Almighty has taken a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn. He will not ignore this! God cares about the preborn, about children, and about life! To disregard our responsibilities to the most helpless among us is tantamount to shaking our fists in God’s face!
In less than a lifetime, we Americans have turned our backs on God.
We Must Humble Ourselves Before God
The words of Abraham Lincoln’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation in 1863 come to mind. Lincoln signed it on March 30. In setting aside Thursday, April 30, as “a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer,” Lincoln declared, in part (emphasis added):
[W]hereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Americans are in an even more desperate situation than were our ancestors 156 years ago. Why? We haven’t forgotten God—we’ve rejected Him!
We haven’t forgotten God—we’ve rejected Him!
Another Civil War?
Consideration of Lincoln’s Proclamation is appropriate on more than one level. Christians leader and statesman Dr. Michael Brown assesses the situation in our country in this important article. Brown explores the question of whether or not Americans’ differences over abortion will result in another civil war. The only way to avoid such a bitter scenario is for God to intervene. If He graciously does, the church must be available for Him to use in the process. Brown writes the following (emphases are in the original),
Our nation is being torn up by abortion. States are polarizing over it. The political parties are splitting over it. And with every positive, pro-life step that is taken, the militant abortionists are crying for more blood.
How does this end, without divine intervention? Will it mean the fracturing of our union, with some states free of legalized abortion and other states havens of baby-killing? Will the overturning of Roe v. Wade lead to a wholesale rebellion, with violence in the streets?
Speaking more broadly, Buck Jacobs stated that, “There is only one possibility that could turn the tide. It won’t be found through politics or politicians, economics or education. National repentance and the restoration of God and His ways as our moral base in Christ is the only hope for our nation.”
He is absolutely right.
And so, while we continue to fight for life on every front—on the streets and in the homes and in politics and in the media and beyond—we must put first things first.
There must be massive repentance and renewal in the church, coupled with massive, effective evangelism in the society, and with that, the changing of hearts and minds about abortion.
- We must pray for spiritual awakening and for spiritual discernment.
- We must repent of our own indifference and inaction.
- We must share our faith in Christ with others, pointing to Him as the creator and giver of life on earth and life eternal. This doesn’t mean we club people over the head with our pro-life position, but it does mean we refuse to separate our allegiance to Christ from our commitment to protect innocent lives.
- We must lovingly yet firmly uphold the principle of the sanctity of life, especially for the preborn and for those who’ve just exited the womb, since these are the arenas where the battle now rages hottest.
Once Again, Consider How Far We Have Fallen!
On the evening of Monday, February 4, 2019, Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb), encouraged the United States Senate to pass by unanimous consent his Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. This proposed law would protect infants who had survived abortions from being killed or being abandoned to die. If any senator objects to a proposal being considered for unanimous consent, the proposal dies.
Senator Patty Murray (D., Wash.), objected by saying that laws against killing infants already exist. Of course, New York’s new abortion law created a loophole that absolutely does allow infanticide, and this is exactly the kind of abuse that Senator Sasse was trying to counter. Unfortunately, with Senator Murray’s objection, Senator Sasse’s bill stalled. We need to stay informed, however; it likely will be back, and next time it will be up for a floor vote.
Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), lamented, “This is the world’s greatest legislate body. There is nothing great, there is nothing moral or even humane, about the discussion that we have before us today. Somehow this conversation has devolved so completely that a bill prohibiting the murder of children who are born alive, a bill that simply prohibits infanticide, has tonight been blocked on the floor of the Senate.”
Somehow this conversation has devolved so completely that a bill prohibiting the murder of children who are born alive, a bill that simply prohibits infanticide, has tonight been blocked on the floor of the Senate.
—Senator Joni Ernst—
Walk in the Good Way
As we have said, dire as our situation is, we are not without hope. May the Lord help us to respond to His call to repent in the same way the Ninevites responded when Jonah delivered God’s warning to them. Let us turn to God in humble repentance and seek His face.
In Jeremiah 6:16, Jeremiah declared,
16 Thus says the Lord:
“Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.”
Note that God was calling on His people to follow the “old paths.” Jettison from your mind the idea that these paths were “old-fashioned” in the sense of being outdated. The Lord was pointing His people to the road He originally had paved for them to travel. This is the “good way,” the right way. It is the way that makes liberty possible.
Jeremiah’s audience refused. The people said, “We will not walk in it.”
I pray we will not be so foolish!
8. The Reproductive Health Act actually is about a matter far more sinister than most issues anyone ever will venture to discuss in public—organ harvesting!
In fact, if you dig to get the truth on this issue, you are in big trouble. Just ask David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, which has exposed some of the under-the-table, covert activity of Planned Parenthood.
Remember that earlier we quoted Dr. Omar L. Hamada, who on January 23, 2019, a day after the RHA passed the New York legislature and was signed into law, tweeted,
I want to clear something up so that there is absolutely no doubt.
I’m a Board Certified OB/GYN who has delivered over 2,500 babies.
There’s not a single fetal or maternal condition that requires third trimester abortion. Not one. Delivery, yes. Abortion, no.
Not long afterward, a friend of mine on Facebook posted Dr. Hamada’s tweet on his feed and refuted his claim. One medical procedure, my friend said, does require abortion. Yes, that “procedure” is organ harvesting! Of course, he wasn’t really refuting Dr. Hamada, because the doctor was saying late-term abortion never is medically necessary for the sake of the mother. Yet…for the sake of maintaining a black market for babies’ body parts, well, abortion is necessary, and the later in the pregnancy, the better!
In an article titled “New York’s Gruesome, ‘To Term’ Abortion Bill Now Will Allow Actual Baby Parts Top Be Sold On Black Market,” Tony Elliott writes about New York’s Reproductive Health Act and the fact that the law will allow a woman to abort her baby through all nine months of pregnancy, even to the moment of birth. He states,
Many question why Cuomo and New York government officials would actually support such a ghoulish bill in the first place, not to mention be so gleeful at it becoming law. On the surface, it appears that Cuomo and NY government officials went to extremes in supporting women’s rights in allowing for what is essentially any woman’s right to have a “to term” abortion in that state.
In reality, however, this law has absolutely nothing to do with women’s rights, or their right to literally kill their babies, but everything to do with the black market sales of fetal and baby parts.
Now that this law has been passed, potentially some additional 300,000 babies will be added to the sales of baby parts via mostly the criminal cartels of South America, Latin America, and Mexico.
This also explains the reasoning behind the US Socialist Left’s desperate push to keep open borders. If the president is allowed to build the wall, it would almost completely stop the black market trade route of various criminal cartels traveling back and forth across the US Mexican border.
A border wall “would almost completely stop the black market trade route of various criminal cartels traveling back and forth across the US Mexican border.”
—Tony Elliott—
The market for babies’ body parts is extremely profitable. The drug industry, the “healthcare” industry, the insurance industry, and chemical companies, my Facebook friend stated, are salivating to get hold of human organ tissue. Research, no matter how unethical, no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process, is that important to them. It’s a scenario even worse than those envisioned by Mary Shelley and Curt Siodmak. You see, here we are speaking, not of fiction, but of barbaric realities that involve conceiving, carrying, killing, and experimenting on the bodies of infants—the most vulnerable members of the human family.
9. Christians are being deceived and misled regarding what it means to be pro-life. Increasingly, evangelical leaders are broadening the definition of “pro-life” to include caring for the poor, helping the disadvantaged, and caring for the sick, to name just a few of many worthy endeavors in which Christians are to engage.
Here’s the rub. While charitable efforts like these are indeed worthwhile causes, evangelical leaders, including Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Russell Moore and the Gospel Coalition’s Timothy Keller, seem to be all too content to lure evangelicals away from supporting the political party that has acted (though admittedly not always with enough force or effectiveness) to curb abortion, and toward the Democrat party, which now is effectively advocating, not just full-term abortions, but also infanticide! This is indefensible! No push to help meet the needs of those already here ever can be authentically pro-life if the same people encouraging “compassion” also are advocating infanticide!
Deriding Trump Supporters
One aspect of Moore’s efforts to accomplish this has been his harsh criticism, not only of Donald Trump, but also of Trump’s supporters. I don’t remember Moore criticizing Barak Obama anywhere near as harshly. Christians need to wake up! I’ll say it again. I would put it in neon lights if I had the technical ability to do so. No one can be pro-life in any authentic sense of the term and be pro-abortion! In fact, advocating helping the poor and assisting the needy makes a mockery of the term pro-life if one is willing to permit life to be snuffed out, for any reason or for no reason, from the start.
No one can be pro-life in any authentic sense of the term and be pro-abortion! In fact, advocating helping the poor and assisting the needy makes a mockery of the term pro-life if one is willing to permit life to be snuffed out, for any reason or for no reason, from the start.
There’s more. Dr. Russell Moore, who was a staff member for Mississippi Democrat Gene Taylor, does not appear to have abandoned his allegiance to the Democrat Party, despite various statements he’s made disagreeing with Democrats on certain policies. Video blogger A. D. Robles made the following observation regarding a statement in a speech that Russell Moore gave at the MLK 50 conference held April 3-4, 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee. You’ll first hear a clip from Moore’s speech, then Robles’s comment.
You can watch A. D.’s video in its entirety here. In it, he affirms his own decision not to vote for either Clinton or Trump; and respectfully, I disagree with him about not voting for Trump. Even so, A. D. is spot on in his assessment regarding Russell Moore and the message he is sending, not only in this speech, but broadly through his work at the ERLC as well.
What Is Justice?
There’s much more to this than I can cover here, but I do need to make the point that a major vehicle through which Moore and other like-minded evangelicals such as Timothy Keller and J. D. Greear are using to promote their left-leaning ideas is an emphasis on “social justice.” This actually is a movement. The Gospel Coalition also is involved in promoting these ideas.
Beware! The “justice” of the social justice movement stands contrary to the biblical definition of the term. Advocates of the social justice movement are issuing a call for government to jump in to eliminate “unfairness” by orchestrating “equality.” This is not the government’s role (also go here). Our Founders understood that true freedom would be a reality only under limited government. Limited government can work to protect equal opportunities for all, but only an invasive and eventually tyrannical government tries to engineer equal outcomes. For more information, please read and study this Word Foundations series.
Our founders understood that true freedom would be a reality only under limited government. Limited government can work to protect equal opportunities for all, but only an invasive and eventually tyrannical government tries to engineer equal outcomes.
A Perilous Path
Many evangelical leaders are taking evangelical Christianity down a dangerous path. I’m simply going to state it directly. If you’re a Christian, support for the Democrat party, and I would say even voting for a Democrat at this juncture, is untenable. Don’t be taken in by social justice rhetoric from Moore, Keller, Greear, and others.
If you’re a Christian, support for the Democrat party, and I would say even voting for a Democrat at this juncture, is untenable.
In response to the passage of New York’s Reproductive Health Act, Dr. Russell Moore stated, “The Empire State’s new abortion bill is alarming in every sense. This bill stripped all possible legal protections for children past 24 weeks in the womb.” He also said,
“The scene in the New York Senate chamber highlighted this horror as the abortion industry applauded lawmakers further codifying the culture of death. The applause in that chamber should remind us of the importance of the work before us as we engage our neighbors with the Gospel. The church will not be deterred from speaking up for those the world wants to silence.
My prayer is that some of those who cheer ghastly injustice as we saw this week might be awakened to the reality of life in the womb and, even more importantly, of the possibility of everlasting life in Christ. Maybe, like the Apostle Paul, some of those now cheering the destruction of the vulnerable may one day be the most powerful witnesses for the sanctity of every human life, born and unborn.
Tim Dukeman, a Master of Divinity student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, did not hesitate to call out Moore for his blatant inconsistencies in a Facebook post. He wrote,
Dear Russell Moore,
When you celebrate the death of cultural Christianity and demonize Christians who vote for the drastically lesser evil
…spare us the phony outrage when the greater evil happens. Don’t act surprised when Cultural Christianity no longer acts as a restraint, and the wicked simply lean into their satanic depravity like New York just did.
You spent the last ten years of your life demanding this. You own it.
To understand what Mr. Dukeman means when he refers to Moore’s celebration of “the death of cultural Christianity,” go here. Also go here, where you will read an open letter to Dr. Moore expressing concern, not only about Moore’s perspective on cultural Christianity, but about his response to the LGBT movement and the people involved in it.
The Church Must Be Harmless and Humble—but also Shrewd
I’ll have more to say about Dr. Russell Moore and other like-minded evangelical leaders in future posts. Please know that from my perspective, this is not personal. It’s about the ideas these leaders are promoting and the “social justice” agenda behind them.
If there is any hope for this nation as the floodgates of a rabid and radical abortion policy appear to be opening, that hope will involve a church surrendered to biblical truth and the God who is the source of truth. And it will involve a church calling on people to repent of their sins, even as we in the church have repented of our own.
May God help us to fear Him and remain faithful to Him. And may He grant us the discernment we so desperately need!
Copyright © 2019 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages have been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
One passage was taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Notes:
1Charles Colson with Ann Morse, My Final Word: Holding Tight to the Issues that Matter Most, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 48. Please see additional quotes relevant to this article here.
3Significantly, the scientific pro-life arguments we’re citing here come from a Catholic web site. The fact the arguments come from a religious source, however, does not diminish in any way their scientific integrity.
4Dr. Lyle recently was a guest on the radio ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute, Dr. James Dobson’s Family talk. Go here and here to hear the programs. Dr. Lyle’s website is www.prolifedoc.org.
Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash
photo credit: Andrew Cuomo at New York City’s Gay Pride event in 2013
photo credit: Dean Cain
photo credit: Andrew Cuomo, pictured in relation to point #8