"They do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it."- Jeremiah 5:28

 
Royce Dunn is the Founder and President of Life Chain. His home is in Yuba City, California. California? I never dreamed in all of my "California dreamin" that there could be such clarity coming from the left coast, but here it is. Royce has expressed our sentiments for the Lord, His preborn children, and His church far better than we ever have. Enjoy! - Flip

 "They do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it."- Jeremiah 5:28

In America today, the unborn are legally fatherless, due to Supreme Court rulings that have stripped fathers of all authority to protect their unborn children. That leaves only us, the Church, to be their father protector.

Pastors of America,

As threat of war in the Middle East penetrates our thoughts and ancient nations dear to the 'prince of Persia' elevate terror to alarming dimension, America waits-largely unmindful of the terrorism (war) that we ourselves have either waged or tolerated for three decades against the purest segment of our own citizenry. As a result, our proud republic now ranks among history's most willful destroyers of innocent humanity, with over 40 million pre-born Americans perishing as waste children, often within earshot of our worship centers.

For secular government to grant parents the "right" to kill their own children is unconscionable, yet that fact is overshadowed by the enduring lukewarmness of us who call Christ our Lord. For how long will we allow legalized abortion to defile God's holiness and innocent blood to cry out from our land? Must pre-born Americans endure interminably the Church's acquiescence and continue to die by the millions?

Our Slavery-era Mentality

Surely our own words indict us. We eloquently declare pre-borns to be as precious as the little ones in our church nurseries, yet their brutal deaths cause most of us less grief than our sick house pets. Why so? We are victims of an historic spiritual stronghold that feeds on deception and denial. Instead of defending pre-borns at the Auschwitz nearest our church, we marvel that an earlier Auschwitz was permitted to endure in Poland. Of such denial, revered resistance leader Rev. Martin Niemoller noted in 1946: "Christianity in Germany bears a greater responsibility before God than the National Socialists, the SS and the Gestapo." Today, God looks not to secular government for an end to abortion in America. He looks to us the Church.

While we delay, our hypocrisy screams at us and ushers us back to a period in our nation's history when an insufferable civil war eventually stood against an evil that the Church of that era refused to confront. Must the Church experience God's insufferable strategy for ending legalized abortion? Encumbered by our view of Auschwitz and by excuses we trade among ourselves, we are content to be largely spectators to even greater bloodshed today. If we are in the battle at all, we are likely to be in the safe zones, where only opinions and values are at risk instead of flesh and blood boys and girls.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted that no civil law compels the church to defend the defenseless but that a moral law in Holy Scripture surely does. Today that moral law underscores both our freedom and duty in Christ to end legalized mutilations of pre-born children, through nine months of pregnancy. Yes, we deplore partial-birth killings, yet we seem unaware that first and second trimester abortions are more desecrating than partial-birth, and our measured response suggests to the world that we are not easily repulsed by any abortion method.

"Who is My Neighbor?"

Much as the church did not deem the abolition of slavery its calling, many Christians do not find it their duty to help end abortion. God surely assigns callings to His children, but the call to meet a prevailing urgent need applies to each of us. If other 'causes' have 'maxed out' our time, would a military invasion by a foreign power alter our priorities, including our church, job, and social calendars? If so, who can doubt that Satan's invasion of over 40 million wombs, plus all of the collateral damage to our nation, has already fully equaled or surpassed the destruction of a massive military invasion?

"Aren't we already pressing the abortion battle?" one may ask. Indeed for years Christians have defended pre-born life through purposeful outreaches, but we have done so with reserved urgency and have failed to reduce surgical abortions substantially, not to mention the numerous unrecorded abortions from deadly contraceptives, which even pro-life congregations continue to disregard.

Pastors, please lead us!

The war against the unborn is surely winnable. In any year we commit, the Church can end legalized abortion and bury the ominous myth sustaining Roe v. Wade-the myth that abortion is a 'necessary evil.' For victory to be ours, two formidable weapons await our use. In righteous hands, they defeat the mightiest foe. They are weapons of divine origin, fueled by truth, mercy and courage. Their humble names are Integrity and Resolve.

With those weapons available to us, pro-life's most crucial need is leadership that pastors alone can give. We the laity realize that only the Church can end abortion and that only the pastors of our land, our spiritual shepherds, can inspire and guide us to victory.

Of prolife's battlefronts, none is so vital or as neglected as the death centers. Shepherds, please lead us wandering sheep, millions of us, legally and peacefully to our nearest abortuaries, to befriend, counsel, and pray "on site with insight"-and to demand, through our multitudes, protection for those who have no other father protector. Whenever abortuaries open their doors, we must be there until abortion once again offends the conscience of our nation, as does slavery today.

It may seem the Church is currently saying, "No, no, we will not go" to the death centers, but that perception knows not the readiness of the laity to follow bold pastoral leadership. To be certain, Satan and his allies will continue to do all they can do to deter the Body of Christ from the killing facilities, yet if our integrity and resolve are anchored firmly, abortion's curse can be lifted up from our nation in any year that we commit, and the cry of innocent blood can subside. Then our government will restore protection for our youngest citizens, and the Preamble of our Constitution will again speak with undefiled truth.

If we fail to act

The Church will either end legalized abortion, or it will destroy the America we treasure. What else so paralyzes our national conscience, devastates our families, bonds with homosexuality and pornography devours our youth-and, by one analysis, has drained $41 trillion from our economic base.

Will evangelism suffer if we focus on the precious unborn? No, it will strengthen greatly. Is not prayer the answer to abortion? Not according to Proverbs 24 and Matthew 25 or the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. But won't God send another awakening and deliver us? Surely we dare not risk what an awakening from God may involve. And let us recall that He finally withheld deliverance from Israel and Judah-who refused "to plead the case of the fatherless to win it."

Pastors of America, help us the laity hear the plea of innocent blood crying out. Please provide us anointed guidance. May God empower you through firm reliance on Him, and may we follow with humble and grateful hearts.