Abortion: 'The Power And Curse Of The Lie'

So this happened earlier today...

Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Access Law 

Washington (CNN) In a dramatic ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday threw out a Texas abortion access law in a victory to supporters of abortion rights who argued it would have shuttered all but a handful of clinics in the state. The 5-3 ruling is the most significant decision from the Supreme Court on abortion in two decades and could serve to deter other states from passing so-called "clinic shutdown" laws. In joining with the liberal justices, perennial swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy helped deliver a victory to abortion rights activists and signaled the court's majority in their favor could continue regardless of the presidential election and the filling of the empty seat on the bench left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Simply put, today the Supreme Court issued a ruling forbidding Texas from enacting health and safety regulations for facilities that end the lives of unborn children.

Lovely, huh? Even that was "too much" of an "infringement" upon women's right, apparently.

Then, right on cue, we have to see things that make our stomach turn even more.

Everyone, liberal and conservative agree, this is disgusting. https://t.co/NekeBWR4O2

— Jonesy (@OlJonesy1976) June 27, 2016

Unfortunately, we've been here before.

Managing Editor for The Lutheran Witness, Adriane Heins, shared a recent experience she had that definitely relates to watch we've seen today.

I won't soon forget standing on the steps of the Supreme Court the day the justices ruled on the HHS contraception mandate. I wasn't expecting the anger and hate aimed at those supporting life and religious liberty. But it was there, and it was real. The women on those steps were mad. They screamed at us. They yelled. They were red in the face. The vitriol was almost tangible. I imagine it wasn't much different today, especially hearing that they played Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and "We Are the Champions." So tonight, Chris and Georgia and I will pray, as we do every night, for those who hearts are hardened and bitter, for all children yet unborn and for their mothers, because the Lord really does hear, and He really is good and His steadfast love really does endure forever.

As Rev. Alan Kornacki Jr. keenly observed, "It's ironic and sad that what has been called a 'living document' has been used as a tool in the brutal murder of over 50 million people since 1973."

As if that weren't enough to make our blood boil, Mollie Hemmingway reported on the Washington Post's Kermit Gosnell denialism, which is equally disgusting .

We Christians should already know that this is nothing but a modern day "Cult of Molech" we're witnessing before our very eyes. I mean, the parallels are indeed quite striking (Ecclesiastes 1:9)!

Isaiah 5:20 (ESV) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

This is most certainly true.

This isn't the first time I've written about this subject either (I wish it were!).

In fact, if you're looking for a comprehensive Christian (and distinctly Lutheran) commentary on the topic, then I strongly encourage you to check out "The LCMS Response To Planned Parenthood (And How We Lutherans Should Respond To Abortion)" and all the links I embedded throughout that one.

Bottom line, as despicable and sad a decision as this is by the SCOTUS (as is the concerted response from the pro-abortion/pro-choice crowd), all hope is not lost.

I like what Rev. Hans Fiene pointed out several months ago when he observed that we've seen the end of the abortion moderates, and that's actually a good thing in the long-run.

Or, to put it another way...

If You Don’t Celebrate Abortion... 

If abortion is not something to celebrate, the objective presupposition that leads people to celebrate abortion is proven false. If we cringe as people boast of preserving bodily autonomy by ending human life, this shows we know and believe that the right to life is, in fact, the ace of spades, that it should trump all other factors in addressing an unwanted pregnancy. 

If we cringe as people boast of preserving bodily autonomy by ending human life, this shows we know and believe that the right to life should trump all other factors. 

Quite simply, you can’t remain an abortion moderate. You have to join one card game or the other. If you’re sickened by people speaking of dismembering their offspring as though they’d been liberated from slavery, you’ve already chosen your side. 

So come join your fellow radicals who believe that precious, God-given life begins at conception, regardless of how conception occurred. Come join the throng of lunatics who would give up their plans for a vacation home to help raise an unexpected grandchild because they told their teenage daughter she didn’t need to accept the quick, easy, and deadly fix offered by Planned Parenthood. 

Come join the raging extremists who would tell a woman who has been raped, “Your child deserves to be protected from violence, just as you did, and that’s why we’ll love you both, feed you both, clothe you both, and welcome both of you into our homes.” Come align yourself with the war-on-womeneering priests and pastors who will hear the tearful confessions of women who can no longer shout away their guilt over their abortions, and hear those anti-choice zealots say in response, “You don’t need to cry any more because, in His dying words, Jesus shouted your abortion into the grave and shouted His forgiveness onto you.”

Perhaps this is as good a time as any to share the prayer that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) issued today in response to this ruling.

Officially, however, this was LCMS President Rev. Matthew C. Harrison's response...

 

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison issued the following comment today on the Supreme Court’s striking down Texas regulations protecting the health and safety of expectant mothers and their unborn babies. 

'The Power and Curse of the Lie' 

The United States Supreme Court ruled today that 58 million aborted babies is not enough. Our national sin of abortion now dwarfs the atrocities of the genocide of 6 million Jews by the Nazis, and the extermination of 20 million Christians by the Soviet Union. I can find no other words to describe this disgrace than those of Hermann Sasse directed at the Nazi regime: 

"The lie is the death of man, his temporal and his eternal death. The lie kills nations. Through their lies, the most powerful empires of the world were laid waste. History knows of no more unsettling spectacle than the judgment which comes to pass when the men of an advanced culture have rejected the truth, and are now swallowed up in a sea of lies. As was the case with fading pagan antiquity, where this happened, religion and law, poetry and philosophy, life in marriage and family, in the state and society, in short, one sphere of life after another, fell sacrifice to the power and curse of the lie. Where man can no longer bear the truth, he cannot live without the lie. Where man, even when dying, lies to himself and others, the terrible dissolution of his culture is held up as a glorious ascent, and decline is viewed as an advance, the like of which has never been experienced." Union and Confession, 1936. 

O Lord Jesus, author and source of life, cast us not away because of our sins. Change the minds and hearts of the people of this nation, waning under moral ambiguity. Uphold your Church wherever it stands for life. Give us repentance where Christians have failed to speak and act and vote for life. Help us to continue to care for the least, the last, the needy, the downtrodden, and especially those who have succumbed to the lie. We plead it for your sake. Amen.

Friends, despite what you may have heard (or what you might even think), God's grace is certainly available to the Abortionist, the Planned Parenthood Employee, and the Woman Who Has Had An Abortion.

His forgiveness is freely available to them all (to all of mankind!) through repentance of their sins and faith in His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection covers all sin, even murder.

In a Lutheran layman's terms, let's pray that our Lord would bring an end to abortion and help us to always make a good confession of the truth that's always pro-life.



NOTE: Please understand that I'm not a called and ordained minister of God's Word and Sacraments. I'm a layman or just a regular Christian, Corporate Recruiter, Husband, Father, Friend who lives in the "City of Good Neighbors" here on the East Coast. As another Christian Blogger once wrote, "Please do not see this blog as me attempting to 'publicly teach' the faith, but view it as an informal Public Journal of sorts about my own experiences and journey, and if any of my notes here help you in any way at all, then I say, 'Praise the Lord!' but please do double check them against the Word of God and with your own Pastor." To be more specific, and relevant to the point I want to make with this disclaimer/note, please understand that I'm a relatively new convert to Confessional Lutheran who recently escaped American Evangelicalism a little more than 3 years ago now. That being said, please contact me ASAP if you believe that any of my "old beliefs" seem to have crept their way into any of the material you see published here, and especially if any of the content is inconsistent with our Confessions and Lutheran doctrine (in other words, if it's not consistent with God's Word, which our Confessions merely summarize and repeatedly point us back to over and over again) so that I can correct those errors immediately and not lead any of His little ones astray (James 3:1). Also, please be aware that you might also discover that some of the earlier/older pieces I wrote for this blog back in 2013 definitely fall into that "Old Evangelical Adam" category (and they don't have a disclaimer like this) since I was a "Lutheran-In-Name-Only" at the time and was completely oblivious to the fact that a Christian "Book of Concord" even existed (Small/Large Catechism? What's that!?!). This knowledge of the Lutheran basics was completely foreign to me even though I was baptized, confirmed, and married in an LCMS church! So, there are some entries that are a little "out there" so-to-speak since the subject matter was also heavy influenced by those old beliefs of mine. I know that now and I'm still learning. Anyway, I decided to leave those published posts up on this website and in cyberspace only because they are not blasphemous/heretical, because I now have this disclaimer, and only to demonstrate the continuing work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in my life (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6). Most importantly, please know that any time I engage in commenting on and/or interpreting a specific portion of the holy Scriptures, it will always closely follow the verse-by-verse footnotes from my Lutheran Study Bible and/or include references to the Book of Concord unless otherwise noted. Typically, I defer to what other Lutheran Pastors both past and present have already preached and taught about such passages since they are the called and ordained under-shepherds of our souls here on earth. Finally, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the length of most entries (this disclaimer/note is a perfect example of what I mean! haha). I'm well aware that blogs should be short, sweet, and to the point, but I've never been one to follow the rules when it comes to writing. Besides, this website is more like a "Christian Dude's Diary" in the sense that everything I write about and share publicly isn't always what's "popular" or "#trending" at the time, but is instead all the things that I'm studying myself at the moment. For better or for worse, these posts tend to be much longer than most blog entries you'll find elsewhere only because I try to pack as much info as possible into a single piece so that I can refer to it again and again over time if I need to (and so that it can be a valuable resource for others -- if possible, a "One-Stop-Shop" of sorts). Thank you for stopping by and thank you in advance for your time, help, and understanding. Feel free to comment/email me at any time. Grace and peace to you and yours!

Share|