Be Very Afraid!

Letter to the Editor
Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS  

FROM: Butch Berget, Florence, MS  

August 14, 2006

As one who has been a pro-life activist since 1976, traveled nationally and internationally as a missionary evangelist, and enjoyed the privilege of working on various church staffs as a volunteer and paid employee, I feel I am qualified to comment on the recent flurry of press (good and bad) and opinions (ignorant and informed) of those criticizing the efforts of Operation Save America and others who graphically portrayed the realities of what is taking place within the abortion chamber on North State Street.

Whatever all the controversy and injured egos the pictures created, the bottom line is that babies were saved from a painful and horrible death. And, just as horrible, is the fact that the churches of Jackson are breathing a sigh of relief that all these "troublemakers" have gone back home. Have we become your enemy by telling you the Truth? -Galatians 4:16

While I gratefully enjoyed the temporary use of Making Jesus Real's nice air conditioned building (maybe they should rename the Church "Making Jesus Convenient and Non-Confrontational"), and also enjoyed the sandwiches, chips, and sodas from the several other churches who graciously fed us during the week, I still couldn't help but wonder what might happen IF these churches simply showed up enmasse in front of the abortuary. If a thousand Christians who really believed that these helpless, voiceless, doomed infants were truly their neighbor, would stop easing their consciences with token acts of charity and DO something that resulted in babies being saved, perhaps I would have enjoyed the air conditioning and sandwiches more. Where are the REAL church leaders?

Alas, another chance to close this place of death and sorrow through the unified efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ has failed. Our disunity and shame is exposed before the world (again) and the babies are still dying.

There are many parallels between abortion in America and the Nazi Holocaust. Can you imagine what would have happened to anyone who might have dared to hold up graphic signs of cremated Jews? Rotting piles of emaciated corpses? Yep, hauled off to the very concentration camps and ovens they were exposing!

You see, we don't like to be reminded of our sin. And we definitely don't like those who remind us. For a brief moment, Jacksonians got their noses rubbed in reality. I am sure that Jesus himself caught a lot of flak after overturning the money changer's tables. (And all without a permit, mind you!) Religious leaders all scrambled to make their indignant statements in the Jerusalem Gazette....of how far their efforts had been set back. (Here's a clue ... when babies are being aborted in your city almost daily, your "progress" is a delusion. Wake up!) Local Rabbi's made sure that none of their tithers would be offended and quickly denounced Jesus' mean-spirited tantrum. I mean, how dare He call us vipers, blind guides, and hypocrites? The nerve! And, how dare He declare Himself to be the ONLY way to Heaven! This will surely offend all the other sincere religions!

So, churches of Jackson , once again you have missed a Day of Visitation. Jesus will surely say to you: "In as much as you did it NOT (defend the babies) to the least of these, my brethren, you did it not unto ME!" Do you really think that politics and laws are going to save these children when it was a perversion of the Supreme Court's "law" that legalized child-killing through abortion?

Dr. Martin Luther King understood the necessity of publicly exposing the injustices of his day. (I am sure he is weeping today in seeing the legacy he fought for being exterminated through abortion. The racist's lynchings are no longer necessary.) Dr. King assembled and marched (legally) in the streets. He persevered, and won. We have not, and won't win until God's people show up by the thousands at every abortion clinic across our nation and say:"50 million dead infants are beyond enough! It ends here and now!"

We COULD do this as the Real Church of Jesus but I don't think we have the nerve. Oh, we have everything else ... and this is the problem. We are content and complacent with the things. Too much to risk. Too much to lose. We want to be loved, accepted, admired. Let's pump up the volume and sing louder! Let's not allow church growth to get distracted now!

Oh my! What's that noise? I think I hear a baby crying out in pain. And there's another one! Oh no! 4000 babies crying out in agony every day! My neighbor! May God forgive our cowardice! If you want to be afraid of something, fear this: God may choose NOT to forgive us. Then, America, be very afraid!