Note from a reader about abortion related posts
I just wanted to share this note I received over on Disciple Dojo’s Facebook page (which you can visit…and “like” *hint hint* 🙂 …HERE). I don’t always know how the articles and posts I share via social media are received by readers, or even if anyone reads them besides those who leave comments. So getting a message like this was incredibly encouraging and gives me motivation whenever I start to question whether or not Disciple Dojo is accomplishing anything worthwhile.
She’s someone I’ve never met in person who lives over 1,000 miles away. I’ve withheld her name for privacy reasons, but she was happy for me to share her note with fellow Dojo readers.
Hi There,
I wanted to thank you for sharing the post that I just read on FB encouraging Christians as a people to support women in unplanned pregnancies. I believe that this support is a huge piece in combating abortion.
Having been a young single mom, I can say first hand that the church is not always forthcoming with love to young, unmarried ladies that choose to carry their children. I committed my son to the Lord when I was pregnant, and he is now 13. My prayers over him and devotion to raising him to know the Lord have never stopped. Since I turned twenty, I have put God first and followed Him in my relationships. Despite these choices, I have experienced judgement, and sometimes exclusion from friendships, within various churches.
I have always struggled a bit watching women in the church be accepted and welcomed who I later find out have had abortions (a fact easily hidden from the congregation in most cases), while I’ve sometimes not felt very accepted. Please don’t get me wrong, I absolutely believe that women who have had abortions need to be welcomed with loving and open arms, and offered every bit of healing and support that the church family can provide. My point is that I think sometimes as Christians, we don’t understand that we can make it easier to enter our congregations and become a part of our “church families” as women hiding abortions than as women carrying or raising children out of wedlock. Sadly, so many men and women today have, at one time or another, participated in a relationship out of wedlock that is not in keeping with God’s plan for marriage. It’s these relationships that turn into unplanned pregnancies, and that are allowed to go to term whether for the purpose of adoption or parenting, that make the situation obvious.
Women facing the proposition of carrying an unplanned child need the love of the church, and children born to these situations need to be embraced and led by the church too. Not as less-thans, not as unequals, but as treasured and precious children of the Most High.
I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for conviction and repentance in this whole picture, but I am saying that the church shouldn’t be withdrawing love and support out of condemnation- that leaves way too much room for abortion to look like a preferable choice.
Thank you for stepping out and recognizing the need to support women in choices other than abortion. I share all of the things in this letter with you, some personal, to encourage you to continue to try to reach people with a message of love and support to women that might otherwise seek to end the life of an unborn baby. There’s so much that we can do as believers by simply offering love.
Be encouraged in your ministry, you’re doing a good job!
I think she is absolutely right and I hope that those of us who are so opposed to abortion-on-demand are able to also devote the same amount of attention to caring for those women who find themselves in situations where they feel their only option is to abort. May we, as followers of Jesus, come alongside to encourage, aid, care for, and most of all LOVE those in such situations, while at the same time continue to expose the evils of the modern equivalent of infanticide that has claimed millions of innocent lives and left deep wounds within the souls of so many others involved.
Blessings from the Dojo,
JM
ps: The posts she’s referring to, which I shared and commented on via Facebook (for those who haven’t read them) are:
A Civil Discussion About Abortion (Yes it can happen!)
Abortion Discussion – My response to Rachel
A Bible Teacher and a Hip Hop Legend Discuss Abortion
Categories: Blog, Ministry, Political/Social issues, Relationships