Picture from ABC News

Overturning Roe v Wade 

Many churches around the country are rejoicing over the reversal of Roe v Wade in triumphal celebration.  But is it really a triumph?  I’m not so sure.     

(Before you start posting comments about my left leaning ways, please read to the end.  Then you can post away.)

I consider myself pro-life.  I’m for the lives of unborn babies and I’m for the lives of their desperate mothers.  And just to be clear, I believe the reversal of Roe v Wade was the right decision.  Mothers should give birth to their babies.  Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself.”  And a fetus is about as close a neighbor as you can get. 

But I have a pastoral question.  Why was the church unable to end the demand for abortion simply by doing what we were commissioned to do? 

The last thing Jesus said to us before his ascension was not, Go and get in bed with the empires of this world so that you can use their power to accomplish my goals.

Jesus said, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded.  Jesus said that his disciples are to make other disciples.  Those who follow Jesus, those who hear his words and obey them, are to invite others to follow Jesus, to hear his words and obey them.

History teaches us that when the church does what Jesus said to do, the church is truly influential in our world.  We make a real difference in the world when we are making disciples.  We exercise real power when we teach people, mostly by example, to obey Jesus.  It’s that simple.

So, why is the church more dependent on Supreme Court legislation than Jesus’ Great Commission?  Why doesn’t the church just make disciples who will do the right thing?  Because, in my opinion, the modern church is not very good at making disciples.  That’s the hard truth. 

And here’s an even harder truth.  The church is not very good at making disciples of Jesus because the church is not very good at being disciples of Jesus.  We are not good at leading people to follow Jesus because we are not good at following Jesus. 

For example, we tell mothers they should love their babies and give them life, but the church has a long track record of failing to love our enemies (as Jesus taught) and giving them life.  We have endorsed and supported our government when it goes to war with our neighbors and kills innocent mothers and children. Can you see how our “opponents” might not be convinced by our pro-life rhetoric?

From the genocide of native Americans to the war in Iraq, the official representatives of the church have endorsed (sometimes even participated in) the systematic extermination of human life.  Maybe instead of taking a victory lap, we should run to the altar to repent of our complicity in these evils. 

More repenting, less rejoicing!  More confessing and less celebrating!  More humility, less hubris!

I’m not saying that Roe v Wade should not have been reversed.  I’m saying that we shouldn’t gloat over it.  I’m saying that the church has once again carefully navigated around the beam that is in our own eye, relentlessly pawing at the speck that is in our brother’s (or sister’s) eye, failing to realize that we’re both still blind.