I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the relationship the church has with abortion. Relationship may be the wrong word… War is a better term for the versus the church and abortion carries against each other. Before I write what has been on my mind, I want you to know that I am against abortion and in no way support it.
You may agree with me and you may not; I like that. The church has been very open about their hatred against abortion. Everyone knows how little the church can tolerate abortion. And I don’t think we should tolerate it. We should be against it. It is ungodly and it is without a doubt, against God and His creation. We protest abortion and we advocate all pro-life advocates. We cry out to God to change the country that has turned its back on Him and has gone their selfish and sinful way. But here is what I have been thinking: If they know we hate abortion, have we offered them anything else? Have we offered those thinking about having an abortion or have even had an abortion any hope? The church has been called to reflect Christ’s light. We have been commanded to love our neighbors out of our love for God. My concern is that in our hatred towards abortion, we have painted a picture of hatred towards those who are involved with abortion. We are quick to spew our hate for abortion like we spew something sour, but we should be quicker to offer help, healing, and hope in Jesus’ name to those who are involved in issues like this. I fear we haven’t done our part. It’s clear the church is against abortion, that much is sure. The church is outspoken about their hate for abortion. They are, however, too silent about the grace and hope in Christ for those who’ve had abortion. Have we offered open arms to the girls who made a poor decision and instead of dealing with it, chose to abort the consequence? Have we been too quick to anger and not quick enough to offer hope? Christ is love and in the Gospel is found true hope and grace. In our repulsion of all things abortion, we have missed the beauty of the Gospel. The Gospel offers hope, grace, and forgiveness through God; love, yet it is missed in our message. Our cheesy posters and guilt-deploying anti-abortion tactics do not offer the Gospel for the lost.
I am calling the church to offer open arms to those involved in abortion. To love those who support and have done what we are against goes against our nature, making it radical. We have been offered radical love by Christ and, in turn, must offer the same radical love and forgiveness to those in need of it. In case you missed it, we are all in need of it.
Let us give the girls who have had abortions a second chance. It’s what Christ has done and will continue to do. We must reflect Him.
The Next Generation. 
You’ve made such a great point in this. If you’re against abortion, fine. What are you going to do to help people who are contemplating going through with it? What other options are you giving them? We’re supposed to be the body. We can’t just tell people that abortion is wrong and not do anything to help them. We’re all so quick to pass judgment and chastise others for doing things we’re not in agreeance with, but we stop there. We don’t pour out that love they need to bring them closer to Christ and make the right decisions on their own. We (the Church) have a long way to go.
Great post, brother. Write more.
Great post Adam! Showing the love of Christ to the women who have had abortions is something we fail at. Tonya and I know some people who have made that “choice” in the past. Every year when the opportunity come to gather in town to “pray”, Tonya and I pass. We don’t go because we ask ourselves how the people we know would be effected if they saw us out there “praying”. We believe it would hurt them deeply. These women are not happy about their “choice”. They have many regrets, and wish things would have been different. We can and do pray for them, and we don’t need to “pray” in public with a sign to help them see they made a mistake, or relive the guilt they may have. I believe that it would honor God more for we (the church) would instead of building such monuments and empires to God, we invest in God’s kingdom by building opportunities for women to make better choices. For financial support, housing, education opportunities, making adoption easier in the world, and matching up women who are pregnant with couples looking to adopt long before the baby arrives. All of this to be done in the name of Jesus. In God’s eye, the sin of abortion is no less or greater than what I have done, and I certainly don’t want to see a day when I drive down a road and see a multitude “praying” for me for what I have done. Thank God I don’t carry that any more. May we reach out and be Christ to others, instead of reminding others how ugly we all really are… I am proud of you Adam.
Well written article, man, but I want to push back a little bit on something you said at the end of this article. First, though, I will tell you that I agree with the majority of this article. I can really resinate with this, “My concern is that in our hatred towards abortion, we have painted a picture of hatred towards those who are involved with abortion. We are quick to spew our hate for abortion like we spew something sour, but we should be quicker to offer help, healing, and hope in Jesus’ name to those who are involved in issues like this. I fear we haven’t done our part.” These are concerns and fears that I share with you. And it hurts to think about how misunderstood we can be sometimes; people acting against the commands of scripture have interpreted our dislike for specific actions as a dislike for them, this just isn’t the truth! And now I will begin to disagree a little. You said “In our repulsion of all things abortion, we have missed the beauty of the Gospel.” I fear that is a very broad statement to make, assuming a repulsion for something means not seeing the gospel. I personally would say that abortion is an evil act (I think you would agree based on your article), and according to Romans 12.9 we are called to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. The verse also open by directing us to let our love be genuine. So, I push back against what you said because I think that our repulsion for something evil should not necessarily mean that we have missed the “beauty of the gospel” but rather may mean we have seen it. We can have a genuine love, seeing the beauty of the gospel, and still have a repulsion for abortion, abhorring what is evil.