The Church on Slavery And the Church on Abortion
After a meeting last month with two pastors from a local church,an analogy that came to my mind that I want to share with you. The counseling pastor (who never smiled and was clearly unhappy to be meeting with us) told us we had no idea what they were doing as a church in response to abortion. In my recollection, he only relayed three things he and/or the church is doing:
- he mentioned he had recently attended a fundraising banquet for a local pregnancy help center,
- he also discussed the counseling they offer to women who have aborted in the past, and
- he said the senior pastor occasionally lists abortion as a sin in the course of a sermon.
I suggest that the following should be part of our response when pastors tell us they are doing enough to address the sin of abortion by:
- supporting a Pregnancy Help Center,
- offering counsel to post-abortal women, and/or
- making brief and occasional references to abortion in their sermons.
Ask the pastor: “Suppose in the days of slavery that a pastor in the Northern States thought he was doing enough to respond to the evil of slavery by:
- sending money to an abolitionist,
- offering counsel to ex-slave owners, and/or
- making brief and occasional references to slavery in his sermons.
Would you agree that he was doing enough? Was he acting as God would have him act regarding the sin of slavery? I think any pastor today with an open heart and mind would agree that the Northern States pastor’s response to such an immense evil was woefully inadequate. Then we should ask him: is abortion an evil of any less magnitude than was slavery? Is your church’s response in accordance with what Scripture teaches we must do in response to injustice?
I hope you find this helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions to further expand on this concept.