Once in my lifetime I was a Christian abortion protester. I held up the sign, you know, the one with the horrible picture of the mutilated baby. I did it to “open people’s eyes” or something like that. Actually, that’s not true. I did it because I was looking for a place to put my faith into action. I associated my faith in God with the fact that babies have the right to live, and therefore I was going to stop the murder of innocent children.
It was really horribly selfish of me. I wanted people to look at me, to pay attention to me and think I was doing something good. And if they didn’t think I was doing something good, at least they were still paying attention to me.
By this point some of you may be asking a few questions. First, am I still a Christian?? Answer- yes, I love my Lord Jesus Christ because He first loved me. The question likely to follow is if I am a Christian, am I pro-life? Answer- yes, I believe God creates us in His image, and to destroy His creation is wrong.
So naturally that leads to the obvious question: If you are a Christian and pro-life, why would you believe your protesting abortion was wrong? That can only be explained with revelations I believe God has given me very recently.
Here is a definition of the word Christian that I recently read:
One who believes, or professes or is assumed to believe, in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by Him; especially, one whose inward and outward life is conformed to the doctrines of Christ.
This is a fairly accurate description of what a Christian should be. I would take out the part about saying “or professes or is assumed to believe”, because a Christian should be a person who does believe in Jesus Christ, and further whose life is being conformed by the relationship he has with Him.
So I’ve been thinking lately, would Jesus have been an abortion protester? If He were on earth today, would He be standing on the corner holding up a sign with a picture of gory, mutilated baby limbs? I don’t think so. Does that mean Jesus wouldn’t be disappointed with what people are doing to His creation? No.
The reason I think Jesus would not be an abortion protester is because Jesus told us the greatest commandment is for us to love God and to love our neighbors. Now I know some of you might say there is tough love, and that’s true. But Jesus never once directed any anger toward the people He came across, regardless of the terrible sins in their lives. He didn’t call the prostitutes names or tell them being a whore was an awful thing to do. He loved them. He didn’t tell the robbers or tax collectors that they were evil. He loved them. Love is what Jesus was all about. Abortion protesting, to me, was more about hate for the people who perform abortions, hate of the women who get abortions, and hate of the men who support them in doing it. To me, there was only hate in being an anti-abortion protester. I justified the anger and hate by saying God hates it too.
I’m sure God does hate it, all the killing. In fact, I know He does. I know God hates all sin, and I know that He says killing a person is a sin. But what is Jesus example of how to combat sin? Love. Wild, passionate, uninhibited love. So much love, He died because of it. Would you die for a bum who hates you? Jesus did (see Paul’s conversion story for one example).
Another thing I notice in the life of Jesus is that in the gospels, He doesn’t get mad at anyone except the Pharisees and sometimes the apostles. In other words- when Jesus is angry it is usually, if not always, at people who ought to know better!
In high school, I had a lot of friends on the fringe. There was the school drug dealer, the skater kids (it wasn’t nearly as popular then), the stoners, the hippies, the grungers (of which I was one, I love Nirvana), even some of the guys who played magic cards in the cafeteria. There were people who had extremely different views then I did. A couple girls I knew even claimed to be witches. But, they were my friends, I loved them.
I tell you all this only to say that my becoming a Christian abortion protester caught some of these people a little of guard. It was hard for them to see me as loving or kind while standing there in front of the high school with the picture of the gruesome baby appendages. I’m not sure some of them ever forgave me. I’m not sure I would have either. I probably killed about 3 years worth of relationship building with one moment of letting anger take control. Just what Satan wanted.
I think Satan and the demons are laughing all the way to the bank because of the way some Christians have narrowed the gospel down to talking points about abortion and homosexuality. The devil himself must love the fact that we are too busy hating the things of this world to actually love people.
It’s sad what the church has become. Jesus really only gave us a few commands, and for the most part, we’re blowing it on all of them. He told us to love Him. Instead we love our churches, make idols of our preachers, sell Jesus name for money and attach His name to things He would never have supported.
He also told us to love our neighbors. I think we fall even further short in this category. We can’t even muster up enough love for someone who is of a different denomination or theological background, let alone love those who don’t know Him. In fact, many of us can’t even love other people in our own church congregation enough to have grace and compassion with them.
I’m not meaning to attack anyone personally. If you are reading this and you really are a loving person who follows Jesus and loves like Jesus then that’s great. I am only writing all this to say that these are things that I have struggled with, and continue to struggle with. I haven’t found the formula or equation to make myself stop struggling with these things. I can’t give you five steps to loving people. All I can say look to Jesus. He came to earth to die for us, but also to show us how we ought to live. He was a friend to all- the poor, the sick, the helpless, the hopeless, prostitutes, tax collectors. Shouldn’t we be too?
