Tag: Abortion

American Christianity and the “Martyr Complex”

~ Bob Hayton ~ 14 Comments


A headline from USA Today grabbed my attention this weekend: “Religious family abandons U.S., gets lost at sea.” Yep, you don’t see that one every day. It feeds right into the media frenzy about Christians being crazy freaks. But that isn’t how I was thinking about this news item. Let me quote from the article before I give my thoughts.

A northern Arizona family that was lost at sea for weeks in an ill-fated attempt to leave the U.S. over what they consider government interference in religion will fly back home Sunday.

Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband “decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us” when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny island nation of Kiribati in May….

Hannah Gastonguay said her family was fed up with government control in the U.S. As Christians they don’t believe in “abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church,” she said.

U.S. “churches aren’t their own,” Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence.

Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being “forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don’t agree with.”

The Gastonguays weren’t members of any church, and Hannah Gastonguay said their faith came from reading the Bible and through prayer.

“The Bible is pretty clear,” she said….

Hannah Gastonguay said the family will now “go back to Arizona” and “come up with a new plan.”

This family’s foolish escapade provides the perfect illustration of the “martyr complex” that seems quite prevalent among American Christians.

Christians think we have it so rough in America. It is unjust that the government permits homosexual marriage or allows abortions. The government requires building permits and safety codes, and encroaches on our liberties in other ways, too. What makes this especially difficult is the perception that America was once a truly Christian nation.

Now, I’m not trying to belittle abortion and the marriage issue. These are important concerns. But do you think that Paul and the early Christians might not have chafed at the treatment they received from the hands of Nero? Were there calls for Christians to vacate Rome? Now, in the face of actual persecution with actual deaths and severe punishments being meted out, I definitely think we have to allow for the “get out of Dodge” option. But American Christians today, for the most part, know nothing of that sort of real persecution.

The mention of persecution, however, brings up a great point. Jesus promised us that in the world we would “have tribulation” (John 16:33). He said we would be “hated by all for [His] name’s sake” (Matt. 10:22). Paul promised us that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The word wasn’t to flee for your lives but to stay and “endure to the end.”

It is far easier to set our hopes in a Christian “Geneva,” so to speak. To aim for a “holy huddle till the rapture,” and find solace in a counter-culture society that some might call a cult. It’s easier if everyone you have to interact with thinks like you do, and looks like you do. That’s much nicer than having to deal with the ugly realities of being a light in a dark world. It’s easier to tuck tail and run. But we aren’t called to that. We are called to: “be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom [we are to be shining] as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16).

I don’t have time to more fully develop these thoughts, so I’ll encourage you to read other similar posts on this topic. But while I’m at it, what are your thoughts on this question? Do you feel the urge to hunker down and hide? Is that right or wrong? Am I too harsh on this poor family from Arizona?

On the Eve of Roe v. Wade’s 40th Anniversary: Black Genocide

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

BlackGenocide.orgThis is one of the rare times that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day comes so close to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (Jan. 22). The Desiring God Blog shares a post today entitled “MLK’s Dream and the Nightmare of Black Genocide.” In that post the following points are raised:

One in four African Americans conceived in the last forty years have been cut down by the “black genocide” of legal abortion.

A decade ago [Clenard] Childress founded a website by and for African Americans (blackgenocide.org) “to expose the disproportionate amount of Black babies destroyed by the abortion industry. For every two African American women that get pregnant, one will choose to abort.”

The site laments that “a Black baby is 5 times more likely to be killed in the womb than a White Baby.” Childress says, “The most dangerous place for an African American to be is in the womb of their African American mother.”

For Childress and a growing number, the point is clear: Abortion in America is a race issue….

Again, roughly one in four African Americans, who otherwise might be alive today, have been consumed in the holocaust of legal abortion. Because of the disproportionate number of Blacks who have been aborted, it’s difficult not to make the connection between King’s dream and the nightmare of abortion, and ask, Have not the last 40 years of Roe significantly undermined the cause that King so tirelessly gave himself to until 1968?

…As one Black man says in the 3801 Lancaster documentary, “Everything that was ever gained during the Civil Rights Movement is worth nothing to a dead Black child,” and as one Black woman proclaims, “Make no mistake, abortion is a civil rights issue.”

The article goes on to quote Dr. King’s niece on the severity of this problem, I encourage you to read the whole post by David Mathis on this MLK Day.

Let me be clear, I believe as Christians we should be concerned for both the rights of the black man and the unborn child. I am ashamed of how white America, and specifically white Christian America treated the blacks for so long. I uphold Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a true hero – standing up for the rights of his people and advocating non-violent tactics. He is a gift to our country and we should be proud to celebrate today in his honor. But I also believe we cannot be silent when it comes to abortion. Innocent lives are lost every day and all of us grow calloused by the frequency of the slaughter and blinded by the sanitary-ness of it all. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

But when you see abortion as a civil rights issue, that the very structures which encourage and support abortion are heavily stacked in the favor of doing away with a 25% or more of unborn black children – then abortion should be come even more sinister. Add to this the fact that in other cultures around the world, girls are systematically aborted through fetal selection and the travesty becomes even more alarming.

May we pray today for our country to stop its schizophrenic attitude toward abortion. America is at the forefront of a revolution to protect life and extend it through a variety of avenues: social, scientific, medical, economic, political and militarily. America sacrifices and moves mountains just to save one trapped miner or rescue a displaced people group. Shouldn’t we be equally concerned with the rights of the unborn who are falling so quickly all around us?

Dr. Russell Moore: A Gospel-Centered Response to the Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood

~ Bob Hayton

Dr. Russell Moore struck gold in his comments Friday on the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s reversal of their decision to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. I really appreciated his viewpoint and wanted to share some of his article posted on Christianity Today here.

Some pro-life persons might wish that the Christian churches had as much influence in the public arena as Planned Parenthood, that we were able to mobilize as many callers and threaten as many boycotts. Some might see this as a sign that we need more money and respect. After all, if some Christian foundation had more financial firepower than Planned Parenthood, Komen might have stood firm…

In all of this, though, we can gain an opportunity to see what the abortion culture is all about: cash. Planned Parenthood and their allies use the thoroughly American language of freedom of choice and women’s empowerment, but what’s at stake, as seen here, are billions of dollars…

The answer for those of us who cherish the lives of women and their children, regardless of stage of development, isn’t to long to compete with Planned Parenthood in the influence that comes with massive amounts of wealth. It’s instead to see, first of all, how our own captivity to Mammon devolves us in the same way…

We don’t need a Christian foundation to compete with the merchants of death. We don’t need one more coalition with enough signatures to counter the threatened boycotts of the abortion rights peddlers. And we sure don’t need to sell bumper stickers with a line drawn through a pink ribbon.

What we need, first of all, are churches who recognize that this isn’t all that surprising. Mammon is a jealous god, and he’s armed to the teeth….

And then we need to demonstrate what it means to believe that a person’s life consists in more than the abundance of his possessions.

Let’s stop highlighting how God “blesses” the millionaire who tithes. Let’s stop trumpeting the celebrity football players and beauty queens as evidence of God’s blessing. Let’s show that God has blessed us in a Christ who never had a successful career or a balanced bank account, but who was blessed by God with life, and with children that no one can number, from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language.

Planned Parenthood has won this one. They spent a lot of money, and they’ll make a lot of money. And they’ll do so off the shredded corpses of children and the raped consciences of women. If Jesus’ kingdom were of this world, we’d be fundraising to keep up with them.

But what we have is greater than that. We have a word that tells a pregnant young woman that we believe her Down Syndrome baby is a gift, not a health care burden. And we can offer the kind of gospel that cleanses the conscience and offers what outlasts money and power: life and that to the uttermost.

Let’s work to legally protect women and children. And let’s grieve that old Mammon has won the day, again. But let’s not grieve like the pagans who have no hope. When it comes to the struggle for life, the color of victory isn’t pink like a ribbon. It’s red like a cross. [Read the full article]

R.C. Sproul on Abortion

~ Bob Hayton ~ 6 Comments

Tomorrow is the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In preparation for the celebration of life, Reformation Trust Publishing has published an updated edition of R.C. Sproul’s classic book Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue. Westminster bookstore has a sale running for the next 6 days, where you can get the book for 45% off — only $8.25.

Here’s some more info about that book, and then a video clip of R.C. Sproul discussing the book with his son R.C. Sproul Jr. Over the last 20 years, since the book was first published a lot has changed, and R.C. Sproul Sr. gives his thoughts about those changes. At the end of the video clip, R.C. Sproul Sr. concludes with this powerful statement: “If I know anything at all about God, I know that He hates abortion.”

R.C. Sproul Discusses the Issue of Abortion from Ligonier on Vimeo.

Bob’s Blog Finds: Magic, Polygamy, Abortion, Politics & More

~ Bob Hayton

In my blog finds I highlight some of the best articles I’ve found online recently. You can see all my blog finds in my sidebar, under the Bob’s Blog Finds & Bob’s on Twitter sections.

Magic

Barry Wallace of Who Am I? has an interesting post examining the question “Is All Magic Evil?” It has special reference to reading books about magic such as the Chronicles of Narnia or even Harry Potter. I left my reasons for reading (and enjoying) the Harry Potter series in the comments there.

Polygamy in America

Albert Mohler directed my attention to a fascinating article in National Geographic re: polygamy in America. The profile of the Mormon Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints is shocking, interesting and sad at the same time.

Abortion

Speaking of Al Mohler, he has a good article on a new trend among abortionists. They are leaving the profession largely due to their encounters with ultrasound images of babies and abortions. Read his post entitled, “Mugged by Ultrasound“.

Politics

I didn’t listen to the State of the Union address. And all accounts I’ve seen of it make me glad I didn’t. I don’t like to get mad over politics and I would have been! La Shawn Barber pointed out (via her twitter feed), a good review of the speech at Politics Daily.

Profiles: Tony Dungy & Don Carson

I also found a fascinating write up of Tony Dungy by ESPN. It examines his character and his role as one who helps troubled sports starts gain reconciliation. The article elevated my respect for the man (which was already quite high). It’s worth the read.

Sharper Iron also recently posted a tribute to Don Carson. He truly is the epitome of a Christian Scholar who serves the church. It is good to see fundamentalists learning from people like Carson, and respecting him while disagreeing with his “non-fundamentalist” actions. I appreciated the article and you might to.