Abortion, Juno, and a Dire Education

Barack Obama was in Omaha the other day and, as I drove past the convention center, I saw a truck that was pulling a mobile billboard bearing large images of aborted fetuses. If there was a message on the billboard I missed it, being fully shocked by the photos. I drove home saddened, not only by the images and the reminder of the reality of abortion, but more so by the damage I felt those protesters were doing to the pro-life cause.

I do not mean that there is no place for protesting at an event or a clinic if it is done in an honest and compassionate manner. However, I am fully convinced that the most effective tactic to combat abortion is not guilt, not fear, not intimidation, but education. Most people I have talked to have put little or no thought into the humanity of the fetus. Their thought process has not passed "women's rights" before they've made up their mind. It is simply too uncomfortable to consider further. Thus, if we haven't proven to them that every abortion ends the life of a living human being, then all the screaming and offending we do only serves to push them further from a pro-life position.

Again, I do not mean there is no place for a photo of an aborted baby, for even that is information about what happens in an abortion. But if that is all we are using and couple it only with screaming tirades, I am certain we will not get the results we are hoping for. The following is at the core of every pro-abortion mindset: the right of a woman not to be pregnant is greater than the right of a baby not to be killed. Of course, the pro-abortion person would substitute the word baby with fetus. And if we are not doing our job of demonstrating that it is, in fact, a baby, we will convince no one. Showing that it is really a baby begins with information.

There is no love lost on my part towards PETA and their causes. I see them as generally angry, crazy, and overly zealous for a less than essential cause. But even as I write these adjectives, I realize that most pro-lifers have the same reputation. Most people have bought into the lie that unborn babies are sub-human (or lower), on par with the animals that PETA is fighting for. So unless we have convinced our audience of the humanity of the unborn, we will be as ineffective as the PETA people throwing red pain on fur coats or brandishing photos of skinned animals.

In Juno, the title character intends to get an abortion when she is approached by a classmate protesting by herself outside the clinic. With timidity and compassion the girl says to Juno, "It has fingernails, you know". Unable to shake the image as she enters the clinic, she watches the people around her use their fingernails to tap, scratch, and pick. Ultimately she leaves and decides to give birth to her baby. In wonderful narrative form (and possibly unintentionally on the part of the writer), the movie shows the value of the unborn human life and the power of information.

http://www.abort73.com/

Does Jesus accept everyone?

Recently, I had a guest on my shuttle (I drive for a hotel) and she noticed I was reading What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza, a defense of Christianity. She told me that she had problems with much of what she saw in Christianity today because she has always heard that "Jesus loved and accepted everyone". Instead, she sees a church today that expects certain behavior and excludes certain lifestyles. Her implied charge was that today's Christians are not following in the footsteps and teaching of Jesus and, while she was fine with Christ, she couldn't get on board with Christianity.

This is not an unusual argument, but it is based on caricature of Jesus that is proven false after even a brief reading of the Gospels. I replied that, yes, Jesus did hang out with tax collectors and sinners. He did forgive the woman caught in adultery. He did draw criticism from the religious leaders of that day for the type of people He hung out with. Jesus loved everyone but Jesus accepted no one living an unchanged life. The rich, young ruler is a perfect example of this, as Jesus saw that his heart had not changed and brought this to the surface in asking of him something he would not give up. Jesus loved everyone but Jesus (as the church today) expected certain behavior and called people away from certain lifestyles. Jesus did not say to the woman caught in adultery, "Your sins are forgiven, go and keep living just as you have been".

Don't let an argument like this derail you in sharing the true Christ. Jesus loved everyone, but not everyone loved Him more than themselves. Jesus accepted everyone that followed Him, but following Jesus meant more than just walking behind Him. Following Jesus meant obeying His teachings and turning away from certain things. While Jesus loves everyone, certain changes in lifestyle and behavior are expected (even demanded) from the true followers.

My Moral Resolve

Today's blog will not likely be a long one, but I wanted to relay a short story that I haven't been able to shake from my mind. I have heard both John MacArthur and Ravi Zacharias tell it, so forgive me if it is not new to you.

A story is told of a very wealthy man who, during a flight, sees a
beautiful woman who arrests his attention. He strikes up a conversation with her and, as the plane is nearing its final approach, he propositions her for five million dollars. She accepts and joins him in a cab back to his hotel.

On the drive, he turns to her and says, "I feel that five million dollars is too much, how does five hundred sound?"
"Five hundred dollars?!!" she cries. "What sort of woman do you think I am?!"
To which he replies, "We've already established that. Now we're just haggling over the price."

Now perhaps I am overly introspective, but I am quite convicted at this story and how much I see myself in that woman. I have my moral standards and stances, but would I abandon some of them for a price? Mind you, I am not talking about gray areas of morality or white lies here. Of course I wouldn't murder anyone or prostitute myself, but why is there a hesitation when I consider lying or stealing? And what does that say of my moral resolve if some of my moral stances are for sale?

This tells me a lot about myself, my fallenness, and how poor my grasp is of the holiness of God. Lying and stealing is as contrary to the nature of God as murder. And for any follower of Christ to be more inclined towards some of these behaviors is only to highlight the residual effect of how bent humankind still is. Of course, murder has greater earthly consequences than lying, but both are an affront to the holiness of God.

I pray that we all, as Christ-followers, may establish what sort of people we are, so that it never comes to haggling over the price.

Thoughts on Capital Punishment

What follows is a letter to the editor printed in the Omaha World Herald and my response printed a couple days later. Certainly the issue cannot be satisfactorily covered in 200 words or less, but I did what I could. Enjoy!

Killing Breeds Killing
An Associated Press story in the Jan. 6 World-Herald discussed the financial benefits of banning the death penalty. But, of course, death-penalty advocates will just say that we should do away with the appeals.
The argument I prefer to make is about setting an example. For instance, a father who smokes has difficulty preventing his children from smoking because he has weakened his own authority on the issue by setting a poor example.
When the government says killing is against the law, except when it does it, the government weakens its own authority with this hypocrisy.
This is why homicide rates can go up during times of war. The atmosphere created in a country at war is inherently more tolerant of killing, just as the atmosphere created by a country with the death penalty is inherently more tolerant of killing. Perhaps this explains the high homicide rate in some states.
When the country stoops to the level of a criminal, it elevates crime to the level of normalcy. There can be no compassionate conservatism in such an atmosphere. A moral government demonstrates moral leadership by example.
Andrew White, Shelton, Neb.

Depends on Authority
A letter from Andrew W. printed on Sunday entitled "Killing breeds killing" stated that any government who uses the death penalty as a punishment for murder "weakens its own authority with this hypocrisy". Is it also hypocrisy for a country to have a prison system and yet consider kidnapping a crime?
White used the illustration of a father who smokes and the difficulty he would have in preventing such behavior in his kids (and his hypocrisy in trying). However, this analogy really only serves to cloud the issue around two differing acts.
Keeping the parent-child imagery, a better analogy would be that of a mother telling her son he cannot punish his sister when he is angry or feels mistreated because he does not have the authority. If he tries to spank her or send her to her room (either out of anger or revenge), he is in the wrong and is deserving of punishment himself. The mother has parental authority to do things the son cannot.
Talking of murder and the death penalty as two identical actions serves only to blur the difference between taking a life for selfish reasons and taking a life as punishment under the proper authority.
Jared Totten, Omaha, Neb.

Is God Fair?

"But that's not fair!" I've heard this protest often in my life, and been the one protesting on more than one occasion. Recently, however, I've heard this charge in response to how the Bible presents God's dealings with us sinners. No matter your views on predestination, election, and God's sovereignty in regards to salvation, the Bible is unequivocally clear that some will go to heaven and others to hell. However, all three of those themes (predestination, election, and sovereignty) are present by name in the Bible, and every fair biblical scholar must have room for them in his or her theology.

So let me give you a definitive answer right now, God is not fair. Erase that category for God in your mind. Fairness is never an attribute that the Bible gives to God. This may surprise a lot of people, but it isn't in there.

However, before you jump to any conclusions, let me clarify something. When I say that God is not fair, I am simply saying that God does not act equally and identically towards all people. It is not the same as saying God is not just or not right in His actions. I am simply saying that God acts differently towards different people.

This is not to say that God acts wrongly. All of us, as fallen and rebellious human beings, deserve God's justice and condemnation to hell. God would be perfectly just in saving no one. This would be the end of every single person if not for the grace and mercy of God. But due to this grace and mercy, God exercised His justice and condemnation upon Jesus on behalf of all those called as saints. In this way, God's justice is not ignored or denied, but rather fully satisfied.

Thus we see that God acts out His justice and judgement on some, and He acts out His grace and mercy on others. However, in both these actions, God does not act unjustly on anyone. Of course, this is where the protest comes into play, "That's not fair!" And I must ask "Who told you God must be fair?" To say that God must be merciful and gracious to everyone equally it to nullify mercy. Mercy is never something that is obligatory, mercy is something that God does freely and voluntarily. Mercy by definition is something that God doesn't have to do. As soon as you say God "owes" us mercy, you aren't talking about mercy anymore.

So we have two categories of humanity, those who receive mercy and those who receive justice. But (and here is my point) nobody receives injustice. No one has ever received injustice at the hands of God. So while God is not fair, it really works in our favor as we receive grace and mercy rather than the justice we have earned. Thus, God is not fair and I thank God for it.

Merry Cliche' Christmas

I don't know about you, but Christmas has always been an exciting season for me. From an early age we are conditioned to equate Christmas with presents, breaks from school and work, good food and lots of it. And in recent years, the holiday also brings the annual battle between the secular and religious entities that some choose to fight to "Keep Christ in Christmas". For myself, that is not a hill I am willing to die on. However, another tag line that has been so often used as to become cliche' is the subject of my blog today. I would like to challenge your response when you are encouraged to "Remember the Reason for the Season".

When I heard this incitement in the past, my thought process was as follows: "Jesus is the reason for the season and I know that. I know that He became a baby and lived a life so that he could die for me and save me from my sins. So remembering the reason for the season means that I should think of the sacrifice He made for me and celebrate the life I have in Him."

Did you notice what I did there? Yes, perhaps I hit a part of the "reason for the season", but it was only the part that revolved around me. If I could come up with the most selfish version of Christmas, that was it. If I may be so blunt and honest, I almost turned such a message into just another present, no different from the rest under the tree. Notice that my thought process did not call me to any change of behavior. Instead, I turned it into an item to enjoy for a bit then put in the closet for a rainy day. I boiled the Nativity down to mere sentiment that just gave me "warm fuzzies" and required nothing of me.

But the Gospel and His advent were for the poor, the needy, the broken, the orphan, the widow, and the outcast. He was born among shepherds, He lived among tax collectors and prostitutes, and He died between thieves. He came for the broken, for "it is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick".

So, yes, Jesus came for me, but He also came for my insufferable, alcoholic neighbor. He came for you, but He also came for those like the boy who took nine lives in my sister's mall last week. He came for the panhandler holding a sign on the street corner. He came for my boss who fears the future. If I may be so bold, Christmas is much more about saving the lost and helping the needy than it is about patting Christians on the back. Don't turn the advent of Christ and Christmas day into just another sentimental thought. Don't turn it into just another superficial
"gift" that you receive and feel "warm fuzzies". Don't be cliche', but rather let the season change how you look at the people around you and how you think about Christmas.

Tragedy Close To Home

Yesterday a young man opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle from the third floor of the Von Maur where my little sister works. He killed eight and wounded five in the Westroads Mall in Omaha before shooting himself as well. This massacre is the worst of its kind in Nebraska history and my sister was there, under the shooter, corralling customers into the backroom of the shoe department. She talked live over the phone with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that afternoon, and appeared on ABC's Good Morning America this morning. People talk about the "six degrees of separation" that exist between any individual and every other person or event in the world, but this is much closer today.

So how do I think about all that's taken place? How should we as a society think about it? Most of the people I have talked to have responded in grief (understandably) but also in anger. My reaction is not anger but a breaking heart at the thought that this was his best escape and way to "go out". People are saying, "I can't believe it happened here", but, frankly, I can. Every community has individuals who are loners, either of their own volition or by the exclusion and negligence of the people around them. A suicide speaks of a life likely void of hope, love, or joy. But murder suggests anger and hatred, and such random victims suggests these violent emotions were directed at society and humanity in general. I heard someone say once, "When a person has no hope, consequences mean nothing".

I would like to think that an event like this will cause us all to be a little less self-absorbed and start looking out a little better for the depressed, angry, and hopeless in our society. I hope that now we'll grow a little introspective and consider who in our own lives needs some love and attention to show that their lives have value. However, this is not the first time something like this has happened, and everyone seems to find a way to get back into rat race without too much life change. Honestly, my expectations are not high.

But for myself and all Christians, I have higher expectations and hopes. How are we any different from the rest of the world if all we say is "When it's your time, it's your time, make sure you're ready"? Frankly, that response is selfish and lazy. Selfish because Jesus calls us to much more than a passive assent of His sovereignty and providence spoken in an air of superiority. Lazy because it requires no change or reaction from the Christian to be more like Christ.

I hope we are daily looking for the outcasts, the depressed, the needy, and the hopeless. I hope we are ready with a caring word, a helping hand, and a saving grace. I expect much more from the Christian lot just as Christ requires much more. Christ came for people such as this, and the Good News of the life and hope in Him can truly change hearts and lives. We have a choice. We can react in mindless anger and hatred and go back to our daily lives in bitterness, or we can allow our hearts to be broken and perhaps prevent the next shooting by giving hope and loving those who need it most.