13. When Creation is in Jeopardy

This week, we are going to do something different. Instead of trying to straighten out science’s conflicts with the Bible record about the Creation of mankind and the universe as a whole, we are going to look at some of the affronts to the ongoing process of creation today. Out of respect of the recent conclusion of the Sanctity of Human Life Week, we are going to take a strong look at abortion. This will not be a list of statistics and trends, but this will be a look at the people and their Redeemer.

A New Perspective

Pro-life bio-ethicist, Wesley J. Smith, was a guest on the Focus on the Family Radio Show this past week. He testified about a protest which occurred at a local abortion clinic. The protest involved evangelical Christians holding signs showing pictures of aborted fetuses, urging people not to go through with it, and reaching out to pray with people. A journalist showed up to do a story on the event. He took over ten pages of notes over the different interviews he had with the protesters he met there, and he was ready to right a first page article jeering the pro-life effort. In order to get both sides of the story, he went into the clinic and began interviews in there as well. One of the doctors approached him and asked, “You want to see what all of the fuss is about?” The journalist agreed and was led to the disposal room. The doctor then opened the lid to the trash and showed the journalist the contents. The doctor explained that the contents were nothing to get worked up about. To him, they were no different than a lump of flesh much like a tumor which needed to be surgically removed. The journalist, not having a completely callous and desensitized heart from performing 30-40 abortions per day, saw something completely different. He saw small dismembered hands and feet. Here he was to slam the pro-life movement, and yet when faced with the undeniable reality of what was going on, it stopped him in his place. His mind tried to understand and justify what he saw, but his heart began to connect with tiny hands and feet.

The Undeniable Reality

Dr. Bernard Nathanson headed the N.A.R.A.L. (National Abortion Rights Action League) which was one of the key organizations that campaigned for abortion rights and instituted abortion clinics as they are today. Dr. Bernard was the leading abortion doctor of his day and was considered the leading expert and defender of this practice. This man pushed the pro-choice spin back in the 1950s and 1960s when it was greatly looked down upon. He was also behind the key claim that without abortion clinics, 5,000 - 10,000 women die per year having illegal abortions done to them. He also confessed that those numbers were padded by tenfold from reality and that the source of the claim was an inaccurate report from the 1930s. As he rose through the ranks of success and began to manage abortions rather than perform them, he suddenly got an idea which he shared with a colleague of his. The idea was to record an ultrasound video of an abortion in progress. The process of an abortion is typically a blind process. A suction tube is entered, it probes, and chunks of meat exit. For the first time, they were going to see it through the grainy screen of an ultrasound monitor what was happening inside. His colleague agreed to the idea in the interest of science and performed anywhere to between 60-80 abortions that weekend all of which he recorded through the ultrasound. Later examination of the recordings changed both of their lives.

WARNING: This next paragraph is going to tell you the undeniable, graphic TRUTH of what these men saw which changed their lives. Reading it may cause you to feel disgust, anger, crying, a desperate motivation to pray and other forms of MORAL OUTRAGE which will change your perspective for the rest of your life.

In the ultrasound, you see a 10-12 week old baby sucking its thumb and showing a healthy heartbeat. When the suction tube enters the womb, the baby becomes agitated and the heartbeat quickens. The baby is extremely uncomfortable showing signs of distress. It begins to kick and squirm in an attempt to swim away from this strange foreign object. The tube is moving side to side probing for where the baby is and then it penetrates the sac of amniotic fluid. The sac begins to shrink as the exit of the fluid acts as a drain that brings the baby in close proximity with the suction tube. The mouth of the baby makes a shape like an “O” exhibiting a painful grimace which becomes known as the Silent Scream. Moments later, the legs are ripped off the body by the powerful force of the suction tube and disappear. The abdomen then splits open and the intestines are sucked out. Soon, the arms follow out as well. The doctor then has to enter forceps to crush the skull so it can be sucked out in several small pieces so that it will fit down the tube. The life of this innocent Image-Bearer of God has been concluded. The doctors have done this process blindly thousands of times, but now they see it for what it truly is and in the face of the TRUTH, they were transformed.

Dr. Bernard left the abortions practice a changed man and used the video tapes to make a pro-life video entitled, The Silent Scream. Segments of this video can even be viewed on Youtube.com. He is now an active pro-life advocate using his experiences and video to undo all the things that he has spent his life doing. As for his colleague who performed and recorded all of the abortions featured in the video, he simply left the abortion industry in immediate disgust to never perform another one again. It is when we open our eyes to the horror that we see will we understand what it is truly all about.

The Burden of Loss

They say that over one-million abortions occur every year in America since the Supreme Court ruled in its favor in 1973’s Roe vs. Wade case. The grand total is in excess of 40 million lives. For perspective, our most heavily populated state, California, only has 36 million people living in it as of 2005. Imagine if we had to remove a star from the American Flag because we lost the entire population of that state. Yet, here we are in the very center of Life, Liberty, and Happiness, and an entire population which exceeds the population of all of our states is shrugged off and denied the right to live. Imagine if Canada with a population of 33 million people was gone and that nation perished from the face of the earth. The United States has always been a leader in civility and a champion for humanity in the world. Yet we are seriously tarnished when a population of the most innocent of human beings is denied the basic right to live because of selfishness, inconvenience, and irresponsibility. For further perspective, Hitler’s Holocaust against the Jews killed 6 million European Jews. In the 1990s, Osama Bin Laden set up the Khartoum Sudanese government to commit genocide against over 2 million Christians living in southern Sudan. Hitler and Osama are villains who committed atrocities against mankind whom we all can see be buried in mass graves. On the other hand, nobody really knows or cares about abortion because most of its victims are hidden underneath trashcan lids in bio-waste containers. Nobody really grasps the reality of it until someone removes the lid so we can see what all the fuss is about. Until we see tiny hands and tiny feet. Or when a pair of doctors see a failing, desperate struggle for life as suction tubes and forceps crush and dismember. Heaven only knows the heroes, artists, engineers, leaders, judges, doctors, scientists, or pastors that we have lost in that 40 million people who were not elite enough to be somehow wanted or considered to be convenient.

What to do Now

Many pro-choice leaders claim, “The Pro-Lifers have the moral victory. Yet in the same way that a woman can use deadly force to fight off an unwanted rapist trying to invade her body, she also has the same right to use deadly force against an unwanted fetus.” Spin will lead to more spin which will lead to more spin, and doing violence against them will only venerate them and inspire others to their cause. The answer is not shooting abortion doctors and blowing up abortion clinics. If we are to represent Christ, we must walk in His ways. Both Christ and His apostles walked in the way of loving their enemies, even when those enemies were trying to kill them all off. We are more than Conquerors because our God fights for us and hears our prayers and intercessions. But, we must walk in His way. We must see this darkness for what it is and believe and pray for people’s redemption. God’s victory does not end with the killing of trespassers. God’s ways are deeper than that. God longs to reach down into a person and open their eyes to a whole new understanding. We must take on the burden of prayer. We must take on the burden of fasting. We must not look away and put a blind eye to what is going on because it is overwhelming or disgusting. When God judges a nation, he judges the nation as a whole. And I guarantee you, God sees through the trashcan lid, and sees into the womb and He knows with more detail than we can ever imagine. Let’s count our blessings that we live in a country that is at least debating the issue and does have a feasible mechanism for change imbedded into it. We must educate those around us and encourage what is right.

In Conclusion

I remember when I was an officer in the Army stationed in Colorado. I went to meet with my wife for lunch when she worked at Focus on the Family. This particular lunch had a guest speaker. I do not know her name, but she was a large black lady who said something I will never forget. She said that today, we know slavery to be an embarrassing time in our nation’s history, but we overcame it. Now, it is a matter of time before the embarrassment of abortion also passes away into history and we overcome it as well. Truth no matter how gruesome and Love no matter how difficult will redeem this travesty. The Scriptures tell us that it all starts with us. When we, God’s people, humble ourselves to pray and seek God, He will restore the hearts of the fathers (and mothers) to their children and the hearts of the children back to their fathers (and mothers). Open your hearts in remembrance of tiny hands, tiny feet, and struggles which go on in the womb. Let it burden you, so that you may pray.