A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
America
finds itself in a moment where, culturally and historically, we are having
conversations about the value of human life that have serious and long reaching
consequences. I spent several hours recently following the reactions to the
recent events in Ferguson, MO and New York City and I was drawn to a hashtag
being used on social media. It simply said #BlackLivesMatter - and the comments
that it generated ranged from impassioned to angry to hopeful. Soon after, another
hashtag appeared that generated even more conversation - #AllLivesMatter
As
I was reading and praying for our nation at this critical moment, thinking that
truly, all lives should matter, I reflected back on my own life. I just turned
42 years old. I was born in 1972 to a 15 year old girl. She had no husband or
boyfriend, no job or family support, and no real hope of caring for me. But she
valued human life, so she made a decision to give me away to a family that
would also value my life. I was adopted by a humble, hard-working couple who
couldn't have children naturally, one year before abortion was legalized in
America. I count my life as a miracle because it would have been more
convenient for her to have ended my life and gotten on with hers. But she chose
a harder, better path.
Since
the year after I was born, around 50 million human lives have been ended
through abortion. In the media, you will seldom (if ever) hear the argument
made from the perspective of the "child's right to live." It is
always framed from the perspective of the "woman's right to choose."
Yet no one denies that every abortion stops a beating human heart. This is
personal for me; I was a statistic waiting to happen. The numbers say I should have
never made it out of the womb alive. But because one young woman valued life, I
am alive today.
So
the question becomes apparent: Can we really value human life and dignity in a
nation that allows, and in many cases financially subsidizes, the taking of
nearly 50 million lives? Not just any life, but the most helpless, innocent and
vulnerable lives; unborn babies inside the mother's womb. The unspoken subtext
to the past 40 years in American history is that when an unwanted, inconvenient
human life appears in the womb, there are two choices; give life to the baby or
take the baby's life. Is it any wonder that a generation later, after one
seventh of America's population never had a chance to live, we can't seem to
figure out the value of a human life? If the subconscious message is, "A
human life can be ended if that life is unplanned or inconvenient" then we
will inherit a diminishing value of all lives, because at some point every life
becomes inconvenient; people get old, they get sick, they become terminally
ill. If we sow the wind, we will reap the whirlwind.
Followers
of Christ can infuse hope into a confused culture. We can, and must, lead the
way through adoption, compassion, and serving those with tangible needs. We
believe that every human is an image-bearer of God with intrinsic value. So we
fight for justice, we work for racial reconciliation, we stand with victims, we
adopt children, we pray for peace...and we esteem human life regardless of what
color and shape it may take or how much it may inconvenience us. This is our calling.
This is our message. This is the gospel.
Clayton
King
Anderson,
SC
"Founder
of Clayton King Ministries", "Teaching Pastor at NewSpring
Church", "Campus Pastor at Liberty University"
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