January 21, 2009
I am so proud of Fleming and Karen Saunders. They made a courageous choice for life. They chose life over death, the hard road over the easy one. I believe their reward is great, on earth and in heaven. I pray that their story will inspire others to choose life.
Sanctity of Life from Immanuel Videos on Vimeo.
January 20, 2009
I am not the first to make the comparison between abortion and slavery. But since we just elected the first African-American President of the United States, something all Americans can and should celebrate, it seems fitting to revisit this historical juxtaposition.
I believe the moral consequences of abortion threaten the soul of our nation as slavery did before and during the Civil War period. If the sort of arguments favoring abortion and a woman’s right to choose won the day during Lincoln’s Presidency, we might never have elected the first African-American President. For every rationalization you hear in favor of abortion, try inserting slavery. For example,
“Let’s keep slavery safe, legal and rare.”
“I’m not pro-slavery, but I do want to preserve a slave owner’s right to choose how he runs his plantation.”
“I am personally opposed to slavery, but I don’t want to impose my values on somebody else.”
“Slavery is a privacy matter protected by our Constitution.”
“The slave is really not a person.”
Oh my! Chills run up and down my spine just typing those sentences. The final outcome of the Civil War means we rejected these and other barbaric rationalizations about slavery once and for all, doesn’t it? But we all know how history repeats itself. Frankly, we didn’t learn as much from the Civil War as we think we did.
I experience déjà vu all over again when comparing the Dred Scott decision made by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1857 and Roe vs. Wade in 1973. In a landmark case, the Supreme Court handed down the dreadful 7-2 ruling that said black people were not legal “persons” according to the U. S. Constitution. No person of African ancestry, including a black slave living in a free state, could claim U.S. citizenship.
At that time in our nation’s history a slave was the property of its owner and could be bought, sold, used and discarded however the owner decided. You’ve got to be kidding me! Yes, that was the law of the land, in the same place known as the land of the free and the home of the brave. Today we are embarrassed and ashamed about this dark chapter in American history, and rightly so.
Eventually, Americans rejected and overturned the flawed Dred Scott decision made by the Supreme Court. We have yet to come to the same sense with regard to Roe vs. Wade, but stay tuned. Hope, I hear, is on its way.
Consider Lincoln’s own logic about slavery,
You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.”
You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.”
But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.
The Obama image-makers are working hard to draw comparisons between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. On his final road to the White House, the President-Elect boarded a train at the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and began a whistle-stop tour in the likeness of Lincoln who passed through America’s birthplace and first capital on his way to his inauguration in 1861.
President-Elect Obama is also using Lincoln’s Bible as he takes the oath of office, a first among U.S. Presidents since the great emancipator. Afterwards, he and his family move into the house that slaves built. I can only raise my voice, hope and pray that our new President adopts Lincoln’s values with regard to justice for all, including the unborn.
January 18, 2009
It’s hours before the inauguration and I still find it morally incongruent for Barack Obama, the man soon to be sworn in as the leader of the free world, to hold the position on abortion that he does. My neighbor expressed his dissonance best in her thoughtful response to my open letter to the President-Elect. Read her words slowly and carefully,
Thanks for forwarding your letter to President-Elect Obama.
However trite it may seem, if Ann Dunham, a white female, walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic in 1960, and told her story of meeting a black Kenyan man while they both attended the University of Hawaii, resulting in an unplanned pregnancy, one often wonders what advice she would have received from those individuals working at Planned Parenthood.
How amazing that an individual born in these circumstances who later moved to Indonesia with his newly remarried mom and stepdad and later returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents in a small apartment where his granddad worked as a furniture salesman and his grandmother worked in a bank, could ultimately become President of the United States.
As you said in your letter, “Think of what the world has missed – a gifted teacher, a doting father, a dedicated missionary, a talented artist or entrepreneur, a future President.” Keep up the good work!
This week the President-Elect wrote his own open letter to his daughters. The letter was published in Parade magazine. Did you read it?
I give Mr. Obama credit for loving his family the way he does. He appears to be a faithful husband and a good father to his two daughters. In the letter he speaks of his girls with great pride and tells them how much he loves them. His inspiration for running for President, he says, came from them. But again I find his words disturbing if not incongruent.
“I realized that my own life would not count for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness and fulfillment in yours,” writes Obama. “In the end, girls, that’s why I ran for President: because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation.”
Every child? Does Obama’s dream for his children and “every child” include unborn children? It seems to me that as President of all Americans, Mr. Obama should work to create “every opportunity for happiness and fulfillment” for every unborn child as much as for his own two girls. Do you agree?
January 14, 2009
January 14, 2009
The Honorable Barack Obama
President-Elect of the United States
Hay-Adams Hotel
800 16th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
As the leader of a church with more than 5,000 attendees located just a short drive from the White House, I join millions of Americans in honoring your inauguration as our forty-fourth President.
All Americans celebrate the arrival of a new President and the peaceful transfer of power as more evidence of our great democracy. This occasion also marks a monumental civil rights achievement for our nation. I rejoice in the fact that an African-American has been elected, a true affirmation of our nation’s fundamental premise that all persons are created equal by the hand of God.
Holy Scripture exhorts us to pray for kings and all those who are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Please know, we the people of Immanuel Bible Church pledge to pray for you, your family and your Administration. These are difficult times to lead our nation. No President has ever done so without acknowledging the need for divine guidance.
We will pray that God will grant you Solomon-like wisdom in all of the decisions you make, knowing that King Solomon himself wrote, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1).
You assume the Presidency on Tuesday during a time of economic crisis at home and conflict abroad. Yet as these great challenges loom ahead, I ask you to “defend the cause of the weak” and “maintain the rights of the oppressed” (Psalm 82:3-4).
In 2005, America aborted 1.2 million unborn children who are precious to their Creator. Since the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 legalized abortion, the total number of dead has exceeded 45 million. That’s more than seven times the number of Jews killed during the Nazi Holocaust. Abortion is a human tragedy, and it is something we believe breaks our Lord’s heart as He created each of these unborn children in His image.
Mr. President-Elect, you talked a great deal in your campaign about “the little guy,” who is often mistreated in our society. Surely you understand that the smallest and most vulnerable Americans in 2009 are those in the womb, whose lives are unprotected by the law, and thus dependent upon the decisions of others. Surely America is better than this.
Fundamentally, does the unborn child have value independent of his mother? Clearly, the answer from science is yes. From the moment of conception, the life forming within the womb has all the same DNA as a fully-matured adult person. And the answer from biblical revelation is equally compelling. John the baptizer leapt in his mother’s womb when she met her pregnant cousin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Even so our hearts respond to the sanctity of unborn life.
I pray that you will reconsider your views on this moral issue. I raise my voice on behalf of the voiceless, pleading with you to take the lead in building an America where all of our children, whatever their race or family income, are welcomed into the world, protected by the law and have a seat at the table with the rest of the American family.
These precious unborn children have been deprived of life without due process of law. More than 3,300 abortions per day, or 138 per hour, happen in clear violation of the Constitution and the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which makes it plain that our liberty comes straight from God and that our first right is the sacred right to life.
Furthermore, think of what those parents have missed because of abortion – a baby’s smile, a child’s first steps. Think of what the world has missed – a gifted teacher, a doting father, a dedicated missionary, a talented artist or entrepreneur, a future President.
During your campaign you spoke much about hope. You inspired a nation. You have written about The Audacity of Hope. And yet, your past support for abortion is a hope-stealer. Abortion robs our nation of a tiny bit of tomorrow’s hope found in every unborn child.
Specifically, it is my hope and prayer that you will reconsider your support for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), even though you promised Planned Parenthood that signing the FOCA is “the first thing I’d do as President.” FOCA is by far the most radical piece of abortion legislation ever introduced into the Congress. My concerns with the bill are many, but chiefly they are:
According to pro-choice advocates, FOCA would overturn the ban on partial-birth abortion, again allowing this barbaric procedure described as “near infanticide” by pro-choice senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
FOCA may invalidate scores of pro-life laws passed by dozens of states.
According to the pro-choice National Organization for Women, FOCA would eliminate existing laws against taxpayer-funded abortions.
The Freedom of Choice Act is inconsistent with the Christian ethic of compassion for the least among us. King David’s heartfelt lyrics in Psalm 139 remind us that God is the author of life: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
It is my sincere hope that you will join us in a celebration of God’s gift of life, and resist those who would allow another generation of Americans to disappear.
I welcome you and your family to join us for worship at Immanuel. You can learn more about the church at www.immanuelbible.net. May God bless you, your family and our great country.
With sincere respect in Christ,
Dr. Ron Jones
Senior Pastor of Immanuel Bible Church
Ron Jones serves as the fifth Senior Pastor of Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Virginia, where thousands of people worship each weekend from the Washington D.C. area. His passion is to lead people into the presence of God through anointed biblical preaching that aims to transform lives.
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