Social Justice

Proverbs 24:10-12 says:

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

On the 33rd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade supreme court decision, this passage of Scripture has increased significance. God is a God who wants his children to rescue those who are being taken away to death, he wants for us to hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Therefore, our family did something we have never done before. All six of us, along with about 300 people from our church, and about 6,000 people from the Twin Cities, marched on the Minnesota state capital today in protest of the current laws that allow legalized abortion.

When we arrived at 2:00 PM today it was 25 degrees. It dropped to 23 degrees by the time we left. We marched around the capital lawns for about a half hour to the sound of "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes. At 2:30, we gathered on the courthouse steps, sang Amazing Grace (6,000 people!) and then heard speeches from various officials. The suprise speaker was the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty. It is a good thing to know that our Governor is very much pro-life, and cares deeply for the un-born.

It is our prayer, as parents, that our kids can see what is truly important. In the last two years, we have tried to show them that money and houses and cars and jewelry and stuff is not what matters. Only Jesus Christ matters. And as followers of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to love others.

When Jesus was asked by a lawyer who was his neighbor, Jesus told a famous parable. The lawyer was trying to test Jesus. Jesus turned the tables on the lawyer and never answered his question. Instead Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" The lawyer answered, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise" (Luke 10:25-37).

The question then is whether we, as 21st Century Christians, can apply this to a 21st Century problem. The question is not whether unborn babies are our neighbors. Jesus refused to answer that question. The answer is obviously yes. Of course unborn babies are our neighbors, just as much as the man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road was.

The question that is of utmost importance is, "Who proved to BE a neighbor?" With 33 years gone by and 46 million babies murdered, who has proved to be a neighbor? Unfortunately, the answer is not me. Until today's miniscule step, I have never been a vocal neighbor to unborn children. Certainly we have given to our local Crisis Pregnancy Center, but anyone can give money. We can also march. Maybe marching isn't for you. Fine. But can you pray? Can you pray that the sovereign God of the Universe would so move that the legal right to abortion is abolished? And then pray how you can be a neighbor in a more bold way.

For, as Proverbs says, "Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?"