Abortion: The Modern Holocaust

Fr. Dale Matson
01-20-11
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you.” (Jeremiah 1:5a, NASB)

I was at my weekly old guy’s breakfast meeting today. We usually go for a bike ride following breakfast. One of our group members escaped the Nazis in Germany and we frequently talk about the horrors of the holocaust. I mentioned a Washington Post news article from yesterday about the modern holocaust of the murder of live birth babies in an abortion clinic (not including the abortion of unborn babies) and it suddenly became silent. The next comment was, “Well, we should get going on our ride.” What is this all about? I cannot believe there could be such indifference to this. This is not an unwillingness to discuss the unpleasant in general just the unpleasantness of abortion. Maybe it is because the group is all men and they have been told that it is not their business. Mainly I believe that talking about it would make it real.

A portion of the article stated, “Dr. Kermit Gosnell, whose abortion clinic was described as a filthy, foul-smelling ‘house of horrors’ that was overlooked by regulators for years was charged Wednesday with murder, accused of delivering seven babies alive and then using scissors to kill them.”

My undergraduate university experiences (interrupted by two years in the Army) included the awakenings of the ecological movement, "God is dead" and Paul Erlich’s “The Population Bomb”. His dire predictions ultimately led to a decision by my wife and I to only have two children (called Zero Population Growth) and a mindset that abortion was a reasonable approach to include in population control. At that time I had fallen away from church and was no longer a Christian.

When I returned to the church and rededicated my life to Christ, it was as if a light switch had been turned on and changed my thinking about human life in general and abortion in particular (It would take a few more years to conclude that capital punishment was also wrong and not consistent with being prolife in general). After my rededication I didn’t need a graphic exposure to the procedures or educational material. Abortion was wrong for me unless the life of the mother was in danger. At the same time, as a crisis intervention worker I offered comfort to many women who suffered from depression on the anniversaries of their abortion.

The church needs to speak out boldly against the murder of newly born and unborn children. Any church that allows one of its leaders to call abortion a “blessing” simply because a woman has a legal right to make that choice is no longer a Christian church. A woman’s right to choose does not supersede the unborn child’s right to life. Scott Peterson was convicted of double homicide in the murder of his wife Laci who was pregnant. This is because she had a human being living inside of her.

The unconverted mind may resist the truth about the sacredness of life. The mission of the church is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that people can be saved. Saved people see things differently than before they were saved. A converted heart leads to a converted mind.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, NASB). Amen