Every generation and culture has its ‘great’ sins which threaten to erode it from within. A good case can be made that the three great sins of our age are racism, the radical assault on sexuality and the family, and abortion.

This past week has given us ample reason to reflect more deeply on the abortion holocaust in our country (which has taken more than 60 million lives since the 1973 Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.) In a strategic move designed to sneer in the face of pro-life Americans, the New York state assembly passed a sweeping expansion of its abortion laws last Tuesday, the 46th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. And then to compound the insult, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered that several statewide sites – including the One World Trade Center – be lit in pink to commemorate the passage of its Reproductive Health Act (a name for which the word Orwellian was coined.)

Think of it – a tower constructed in tribute to more than 3,000 lives lost on 9/11 was used to “celebrate” a practice that ended 119,940 New Yorker lives in the womb in 2014 (based on the last available data), which is a fifth of all abortions nationwide (anywhere from 650,000 to 800,000 annually depending on the source.)

In a state that already performs abortions at twice the national average, political leaders felt it necessary to double-down on the carnage by legislating the right to unrestricted abortion through 24 weeks, and then through full-term of the baby “to protect the patient’s life or health” (a phrase so broad to include any reason a mother can conjure up to end the pregnancy.) Additionally, the law no longer requires doctors to perform the abortion. Any variety of health practitioners can now carry it out.

Two things make the scourge of abortion a challenge to keep front and center in our thoughts: its invisibility (we don’t see the growing fetus with our eyes, nor do we see the abortion, it’s hidden away in the bowels of a non-descript building.)

And its viability. There’s a belief circulating that the tide has turned. More Americans than ever believe that severe restrictions should be placed on abortion. The number of abortions is dropping. The Supreme Court is shifting. Serious challenges to Roe v. Wade may be on their way.

But what happened in New York should be a jarring reminder to us all that this is very much part of the all-out culture war that is being fought around us. And against us. And for a follower of Christ to not feel to their core the offense this is to God and the harm this does to us as humans is unconscionable.

For those who don’t feel a proper sense of alarm about abortion-on-demand because of its invisibility, you can do a couple of things. Find videos (widely available online) and educate yourself on what happens when an abortion takes place. Give yourself 5 minutes and watch this video of a doctor giving testimony before the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing about Planned Parenthood. Listen to him describe medically what takes place. (Not to worry. You won’t see anything. Just listen.) Click here.

For those who think that there’s no need to get concerned or involved with this issue because it’s not really a viable threat any longer, think again. Go to this website – numberofabortions.com – and just hang out there for awhile, and study what you find there, as the daily tally of aborted babies in our country and around the world grows right before your eyes. (If you’re a person of color, you should really pay attention.)

Or listen to this interview with actress Ashley Bratcher who will star in the new movie Unplanned, the true life story of how Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood director who became a passionate advocate for unborn children because of what she experienced in the clinic. Click here. (The movie is scheduled to come out in March.)

And remember what took place in New York this week. This is hardly happening in isolation either. Progressive zealotry has never been as fierce, at least in my lifetime. And if you’re a follower of Christ, or a church that speaks up for historic, biblical, time-tested values, then you’re in their cross-hairs.

 

Bear Clifton is a pastor, writer and screenwriter. His blogs and devotionals can be enjoyed at his ministry website: trainyourselfministry.com and his writing website: blclifton.com. Bear is the author of “Train Yourself To Be Godly: A 40 Day Journey Toward Sexual Wholeness”, “Ben-Hur: The Odyssey”, and “A Sparrow Could Fall”, all available through Amazon.

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