I’ve been thinking a lot about the Planned Parenthood sting video that’s been all over the internet.
It’s awful. And sad and horrifying and gut-turning. And every response I’ve seen has been appropriately revolted. Of course, I have limited circles, so maybe there are people out there (besides PP) saying that it’s just fine and no big deal and actually quite lovely. If there are, they are staying comparatively quiet.
As a stay-home mom, what can I do to play a part in stopping this great evil? It’s easy to feel insignificant. When I first saw the video, I kept thinking–we’ve got to DO something. We’ve got to get this out there; people must know! Surely someone, somewhere, can order this stopped! And then I saw this. And I remembered that we already do know. Everyone knows.
The difference is simply, does the dead baby’s body get dropped, bloody, into a garbage bag or some other container, and taken out to the trash to slowly decompose without a name or a grave or a stuffed animal or a blanket OR does he or she get “harvested”, pulled apart and shipped to whatever lab deals in this kind of deathly desecration.
We moms know what it’s like to see our baby on ultrasound for the first time. We know the utter astonishment and miracle of seeing another person’s heart beating inside your womb. We know the amazement that such a thing is possible and the profound sense of otherness that that little person has from us. They are not us. They are not our body. They are unique and they have a God-given right to a protected residence inside of us for nine months.
These are old arguments. The same simple truths we’ve been saying for years. But part of what we can do is keep saying them. The fight for the unborn is not something we can get on a bandwagon for when popular opinion isn’t too opposed to it. It’s something we say, even when it’s an old story. It’s something we say when the chips of public opinion are down and when they’re not. And if we’re faithful, it’s something we’ve been saying when the babies were taken out to the trash, like they have been for the past decades, and now, when the world wakes up to be astonished that they’re also being taken apart and harvested for the damning benefit of others. Can you really say that one is worse than the other? Are our consciences only pricked when shocked with some new evil?
So, I’ll tell you my resolves in regard to this battle for the dead and dying, and ask for you to consider how God might stir you respond.
-I shared the video of PP’s horror and will continue to expose the evil when given an opportunity. I let myself be re-ignited in my horror and resolve.
-I resolve to be unafraid to say that babies are being murdered by their doctors and their mothers and their fathers, no matter who it offends. And to offer the forgiveness of the cross freely, just as it was offered to me.
-I resolve to continue supporting local crisis pregnancy centers.
-I resolve to be willing to engage in relationships and conversations with people who agree and disagree with me and to ask God to help me be persuasive, loving and fearless.
-I resolve to fear God and remember that, in the end, I will give an account, and that cowards have no business in God’s kingdom.
-I resolve to fight back the darkness by loving the children God has given me and not using them; to remember that although they are not in my womb, they are still dependent in many ways and will require more and more of my sacrifices for their good, not less, as time goes on.
-I resolve, in as much as God gives us this grace, to be a family that points to a deeper reality of family–that is, God’s family. To love each other well and remember that God puts children in families, with a mother and father, because it tells them something about Him. And God makes men and women into moms and dads, because it tells them something about Him. And that when a family lacks a dad or a mom, it is still saying something profound about God–that he cares, that he’s there, and that he can make all grace abound to them because He Himself is willing to be their Father because of his Son’s death on the cross.
-I resolve to meditate and act on the Scriptures and to pray for sleepers, who are more dead than the babies they kill, to awake.
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:6-17 ESV)
Let’s resolve to push back the darkness, moms, and let’s start at home.