As a Christian, I am pro-life. I believe strongly in the sanctity of human life.
As a realist, I undertand that we cannot focus every message on this topic, and therefore one Sunday per year is set aside to shine light on the issue. Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is January 20 this year.
But honestly, as a woman, I often wish we wouldn't talk about it at all from the pulpit. Because every message I've ever heard has centered on the murder of innocent children at the hands of a pregnant woman or abortion doctors. We are reminded that the fetus is a life, how many of those fetuses are killed each year, and asked to give an offering to a crisis pregnancy center or some other well-deserving ministry that will counter Planned Parenthood's assault on unborn babies.
The reason I am frustrated by these messages is because there is no message of grace; no offer of redemption; no opportunity for healing. I am told that, as a female, it is my desire to participate in the sexual revolution without consequences that feeds the abortion machine. (When Rep. Todd Akin stated that women don't get pregnant if they were legitimately raped, many evangelicals stood by his comments and affirmed his beliefs.) If you get pregnant, you are a woman with loose morals and no responsibility, and if your loose living results in your decision to have an abortion, you are also a murderer. Amen. See you at The Golden Corral.
Here's a creative communication idea for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday: talk about how much God values all human life, including the life of the teenage girls in your community who feel pressure to have sex and don't have the self-confidence to make counter-cultural decisions. And ask women in the congregation to mentor these teenagers in small groups. Tell the young women that God loves them more than any man ever could, and that he wants them to be fully devoted to Him and not dependent on affirmation from whomever they are dating at the time. Tell the divorced woman, the single woman, the widow, that they matter to God. And tell the woman who sits quietly in the pew feeling guilty for her hidden sin that there is healing; that David was a murderer but we remember him in Scripture as a man after God's own heart. That they do not have to be remembered for their sin, because forgiveness, healing, and redemption are right there for the asking, and they too will be known for their heart for God. Demonstrate the sanctity of human life this Sunday by making sure women know that their lives are sacred, too.
There are a lot of great organizations that are in the fight to end abortion (+Paul Tillman is going to write about the March for Life next Monday on his blog: http://www.ingodsway.org/. I encourage you to visit his blog.). I am not discouraging anyone from highlighting these ministries or taking up offerings for them. I just pray that your communcation will be grace-filled and makes every person feel that God sees the sanctity of their own life.
