GraceWay Baptist Church Serving Kiowa-Serving Christ

Remembering Sanctity of Life Sunday Sunday, January 21 was Sanctity of Life Sunday and once again this controversy strikes a cord deep within me as it does with many on both side of the life issue.... Remembering Sanctity of Life Sunday Sunday, January 21 was Sanctity of Life Sunday and once again this controversy strikes a cord deep within me as it does with many on both side of the life issue....

Remembering Sanctity of Life Sunday

Sunday, January 21 was Sanctity of Life Sunday and once again this controversy strikes a cord deep within me as it does with many on both side of the life issue. In the final analysis the question I am always stuck with is, “what would this world be without you?”

I am still haunted today by a girl I fathered as a teenager, whom I have never met. My life is richer today for the out-of-wedlock granddaughter whom my wife and I are raising. I can empathize with the enormous challenge that raising an unplanned child brings, but as a Christian I value life, we must value life.

On average there are 46 million abortions performed each year worldwide. In 2002 there were 1.29 million abortions performed in the United States, down from 1.61 million in 1996. The statistics that are most discouraging are for women of faith. Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the US. Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as "Born-again or Evangelical Christians. Although the trend for abortion is down since the late ‘90’s, 1.29 million is still a lot of people.

I use to think that changing laws was enough to change the culture, but you can’t legislate morality. You can’t change people from the outside; you can only change them from the inside. It’s not a political reality; it is a heart reality. Changing culture takes time and energy and it starts with each one of us. It starts with what we model as valuable, not what we say is valuable. It starts with valuing our families, our spouses and children over work and self-interest. It starts my loving our children even when they make bad choices.

For many of us supporting our children may mean raising children when we thought we were done raising children. Based upon the 2000 US Census 6.3% or 4.5 million children under the age of 18 are being raised by grandparents. Choosing to raise a grandchild or grandchildren is challenging for many folk’s in their 40’s and 50’s. Many baby boomers haven’t planned effectively for retirement, especially households headed by a single adult.

The deal is that we have to make loving and ministering to our families a top priority. We are called to love others no matter who they are or what they do. It’s about hating sin, not the people who commit the sin. The only way this can happen is by depending on God, for He is the only one who can give us the strength and courage to do what is hard to do, to do what is right.

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[All abortion numbers are derived from pro-abortion sources courtesy of The Alan Guttmacher Institute and were taken from The Bio-Center for Ethical Reform Web site, “Abortion Facts”.]