It's Complicated...Part Two

This past Sunday I preached on politics.  It wasn't what you'd probably normally hear in church.  I'm okay with politics, but I've never considered myself very political.  Namely, I don't think they make that big of a difference.  Let me rephrase that:  they don't make a big enough difference.  My work is the work of the Kingdom, and it's so much bigger than politics.  Deep down, I don't think politics can fix the problems of society.  Politics are about the affairs of the state, and you can't fix the affairs of the soul with the affairs of the state.

Moreover, I think the issues that we have made into hot button political issues are much more difficult to navigate than political agendas let on.  I mentioned some of those on Sunday, and I thought it'd be worth it to flesh them out a little bit more.  I don't have a lot of the answers, which is kind of my point.  I'm so much more interested in getting to know the One who has the answers and leaning on him in my own life rather than forcing my politics on others.  I'd much rather offer them my Jesus then force feed them my politics.  I'm calling this "It's Complicated - Part Two" because I wrote a blog post a few months ago on the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage and named it "It's Complicated."  That was the first issue I mentioned this past Sunday.  Today, I thought I'd tackle the next 'complicated' political issue:  abortion.

Abortion is a sensitive issue -- and emotional.  Right now, there are women reading this that were told they should have had an abortion and chose not to.  Against all odds, they now have a healthy and happy child.  There are people reading this that were THAT baby whose mother was told to have an abortion (or maybe even tried to), but they survived or she decided not to, and you have grown to become an adult live out your purpose on earth.  There are women reading this who got abortions, for whatever reason.  Some regret it and wonder if they can be forgiven (you can).  Some still think it was the right decision.  There are men reading this who told a high school girlfriend to get an abortion and they did, and they wonder what that child would be like today.  And there are men reading this whose high school girlfriend got an abortion but never even told you they were pregnant.  Lastly, there are a lot of people like me.  People who have not been affected personally about abortion but feel something about.  Some of us are very passionate about it.  Some of us are very confused.  Some of us are convicted, but unsure how to express it.  Some of us disagree vehemently yet love the same Jesus.  It's complicated.

I don't think you can look at the Scriptures without recognizing that God is clearly pro-life.  Every child that is conceived is clearly a creation by Almighty God, for whom He has big plans.  God told Jeremiah "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future."  (Jeremiah 29:11).  Psalm 139:13-16 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body."  It's pretty plain that God has a plan for unborn children.  They are people.  They are His creations.  God's not into killing them.  I don't think you can read the Scriptures and say that God is for abortion, no matter how much you believe in the rights of women.  And I believe very strongly in the rights of women.  However, there are two things that have always kept me at bay from getting on my high horse when it comes to abortion.  It's why I cringe at pro-life rallies and never get into many debates about it:

1. I'm not a woman.  I have never been and I am never going to be a 14-year-old girl pregnant with an out-of-wedlock child that I can't afford and virtually no family support.  I have no idea what that feels like.  The guy can bail on the child and leave town.  The girl is stuck with a decision that she'll live with for a lifetime one way or the other.  I don't have a daughter, but if I did we'd never consider abortion.  We'd do whatever we could to bring about God's glory from that situation and raise that child to be all God intended him or her to be.  But I'll never be in those shoes personally.  I'm not a woman.  I always say that you can't judge someone till you walk a mile in their moccasins.  Those are one pair of moccasins I'll never be able to put on.  I have a theory based on what I read in Scripture.  It seems clear to me.  But I've never been 14, broke, abandoned, and pregnant.  And I never will be.  Let me say this, too, because it's an important part of the story.  We always exclude rape and incest, right?  Why?  If a child is conceived in rape or incest, don't we believe that God can bring about good in all things?  Aren't we the people that believe, as Joseph said in Genesis 50:20, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  How do we know that child isn't going to be President or the next Billy Graham?  I've always thought that if we say we're pro-life except for rape and incest, then we're basing that on political agendas and not God's Word.  If you're going to be pro-life, you've got to be pro-life all the way because our God is bigger than rape or incest.  He can overcome the ugliness at conception to bring beauty in birth and redemption in life.  Isn't that the story of the Gospel?  Like I said, it's complicated.
2. We use birth control.  I have 4 kids; I do not want 7.  Or 12.  So what, you say.  Well, I don't actually believe life starts at conception.  You see, that's not really Biblical.  That's what people with political agendas have taught us to try and get our vote or support.  The Bible says something very different.  In Jeremiah 1:5 God tells Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart."  Whoa, whoa, whoa.  BEFORE you were in the womb?!  Yes, before.  I believe God knows us before our mom was the apple of our daddy's eye.  I believe each one of us is an idea in the mind of God, and he knew us long before we were conceived.  Don't you believe that?  It's what the Bible says.  So, here's the question I struggle with:  how many children have I not had that God intended my wife and I to have because we use birth control?  In Genesis 38, Onan refuses to conceive the child with Tamar that he's supposed to by spilling his semen on the ground.  The Bible says what he did was wicked in the Lord's sight.  As Doc Holiday says in Tombstone, "It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds."  It's hard for me to get all high and mighty on those who have abortions for killing children after their conceived when I'm taking active measures to make sure that children aren't conceived, even if God wanted them to be.  And one of the reasons we don't have more children is we can't afford them.  But we can't afford more children because we have chosen a lifestyle that more children wouldn't allow us to continue in, not because we don't have enough money.  It's complicated.

So, maybe the Roman Catholics have it right.  I'd feel really good getting on my pro-life soap box if I didn't practice birth control and took it all the way through rape and incest.  I'm not sure I'm ready for that.  Now, let me say here that I think God gives us good sense, too.  The reason we use birth control is that I think God has given doctors wisdom and insight to provide ethical means to create and foster health.  I'm not sure it's good for women across the planet to be having 10-14 children each.  I think we're using science for good, for the health of my wife, and for what seems to me to be what's best for my family.  But I can't be sure of that.  I'm making a judgment call on that for my own self.  Some folks who believe abortion should be legal would say it's a judgment call to use science in the same way, just at a different stage in the process.  I think God is okay with what I'm doing, but I'm not positive.  We'd never dream of having an abortion, but what if birth control is just as wrong?  I'm banking on it not being wrong, but I know I pray daily for God to have mercy on me in all the ways I sin and don't even know it.  Man, that opens Pandora's Box, doesn't it?  It's complicated.  I'm pro-life...to an extent.  Not to the extent that I have 12 children.  And I think that's okay with God, but it sure is gray in a world of black and white politics.

I don't know what all that means.  For me, it means I've got plenty of planks to get out of my own eye before I start getting on my political soapbox.  It's complicated, but Jesus is simple.  He forgives us when we seek Him.  No matter what you've done in your life, I hope you'll seek Him too.  He's the one that can fix the affairs of the soul.