In America many preachers will not speak about “abortion” for fear they might “offend” someone. As one pastor told me several years ago, “If I spoke about abortion, half of my people would leave.”
Let’s think through that response.
What is abortion?
Every abortion takes the life of the youngest, most innocent, defenseless and vulnerable human being, while living in his or her mother’s womb, meant to be the safest place on earth.
Death by abortion is an inhumane death. It is gruesomely violent, indescribably painful, and brutally barbaric.
If you have never seen an abortion or the result of an abortion you will never understand what abortion really is. Go to www.abort73.com. What you see will anger you, perhaps sicken you. You might weep, you might mourn, even repent of your ambivalence. But you’ll never be the same.
Abortion is repulsive. Abortion is offensive! Abortion should “offend” us!
Will silence remove the "offense" of abortion? Not likely, because every abortion is meant to kill an unborn human being.
A silent pulpit does not mitigate the horror nor does it empower the righteous.
And tragically, a silent pulpit does not extend hope and help to the post-abortive, most of whom suffer a deep, dark, haunting, life long battle with shame and guilt.
In fact the silent pulpit takes the risk of communicating heresy: “Your sin is too horrible to speak about - it is beyond the reach of the Gospel!” In other words, "I am silent because there is no hope for you!"
As one who has spoken many, many times to church audiences about abortion, I suggest that there is no sin more appropriate to wrap the Gospel around, than abortion. The burden of killing your own offspring, when seen for what it is, carries with it the deepest kind of shame. And only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ can the post-abortive find forgiveness, healing and restoration.
Could our hesitancy to speak of abortion reflect a failure to appreciate the power of the Gospel? If we are relying on the personality, popularity or “cultural relevance” of the preacher to help the post-abortive, perhaps it would be better to remain silent. But if we believe that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, then boldly and graciously wrap abortion in the Gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to heal wounded hearts.
But, apparently, the fear of man overpowers the fear of God. As a result millions of post-abortive languish in unresolved guilt which manifests itself in virtually every emotional and behavioral problem a pastor could face in the counseling room. Some estimate that as many as forty percent of women in the Church are post-abortive. Whether that figure is high or low, the killing of 55+ million unborn since 1973, has left millions of post-abortive parents sitting in Church pews each Sunday.
The silent pulpit coarsens the conscience of the culture, empowers the abortionist and soothes the moral sensibilities of the politician as the domestication of abortion continues.
Michael Spielman (abort73.com) points out that abortion has become so commonplace that “...we seem to have lost our ability to be outraged by it.” He goes on to ask, “How is it that even we who oppose abortion are not more overwhelmed by the fact that it is legal in the United States of America, to tear apart the tiny bodies of helpless unborn children?”
We should be concerned about who abortion offends. Fear of man might prompt silence, but I fear the silence that offends God. Our closed lips obscure the heart of God for the unborn and deny His mercy to those who have harmed the unborn.
Every unborn child killed by abortion is the casualty of a war between Heaven and Hell. The battle lines were drawn early in human history. After Adam and Eve were lured into sin by the Serpent, God responded,
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:15 ESV)
This is the spiritual backdrop of abortion. It’s about good versus evil. It’s about life and death. It is ultimately about the Gospel.
Pastor Randy Alcorn, "…there are demonic forces behind child killing. Abortion is Satan's attempt to kill God in effigy by destroying the little ones created in God's image. We are not dealing here with 'one more social issue,' but a unique and focused evil in which Satan has deep vested interests…"
The silence of the pulpit obscures that truth, denying justice to the unborn, withholding God’s grace to the post-abortive, and ultimately, dishonoring God and the Gospel.
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