On Friday and Saturday April 26-27, Georgia Right to Life hosted a “Personhood Symposium.”  It was very encouraging to see  Pro-Life leaders from around the country gathered at First Baptist Church of Atlanta (Dr. Charles Stanley’s Church) to hammer out a true Pro-Life strategy that honored God’s Word.  Dan Becker, the president of Georgia Right to Life, shared with all of us how God brought him to repentance over the use of the “exception clauses” and “incrementalism” as the approach to craft pro-life legislation.  It was a moving time as Dan shared how the Word of God had brought him to his knees and changed his course.

He shared with me personally that he had been studying the life of William Wilberforce and had recently read three excellent biographies of his life.  He found that Wilberforce had been working diligently for twenty-two years attempting to incrementally legislate and regulate an end to the slave trade in England.  It was only after this that he came to the realization that he was actually making matters worse for the slave.  Wilberforce repented of his incremental methodology, albeit well intentioned, and began to stand on the personhood of the slave.  He unsheathed the Sword of the Spirit and God came to his aide.  

Today, Dan Becker has devoted himself and Georgia Right to Life to stand where God stands on this issue – Personhood!  To stand upon the intrinsic worth and dignity of each human life created in the image of God from the moment of fertilization.  To stand where our Founding Fathers stood:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”  To stand with that great cloud of witnesses urging us to run the race marked out and give a voice to those who have no voice. 

The “Personhood Amendment” being worked out in several states, Georgia and Colorado being the states we are most familiar with, symbolically marks the throwing off of the cumbersome and “politically correct” armor of King Saul and the unsheathing of the Sword of the Spirit.  This is the avenue to end all abortion.  It allows us to crush the lie of the devil in all of its evil manifestations with the Word of God.  It is upon this truth we stand we can do no other.    

Joni Erickson Tada addressed the group by video and exhorted us to continue the battle and to not grow weary in well doing.  We are called to protect the weak and those in danger of falling prey to the “frankenscience” and eugenics of our day.  Joni reminded us all of the dignity and worth of every human life God creates and that it is up to us to give a voice to those who have no voice.