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A Foundational Issue for Every Christian: The Right to Life

Bunni Pounds

By Bunni Pounds

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart.”

Before the prophet Jeremiah was born, God knew him, formed him, and set him apart as a prophet. That is a HUGE statement in the Word of God.

How many future prophets, pastors, scientists, educators, inventors, or entrepreneurs have been killed by the culture of abortion in our land? 

I have been listening to many conversations recently on social media and in churches on the topic of “single issue voters” and many of these conversations are downplaying the importance of the PRO-LIFE issue. Their point - we need to consider the whole platform of a candidate. 

I agree!

I agree that we do need to look at the full picture of the values the candidate promotes and stands for!

We need to look at their record of what they have done and accomplished – either in their position as an elected official or as a citizen and leader. Making the choice to vote or support a candidate is not a simplistic thing – there must be much thought put into it. 

At the same time, we need to understand that as Bible-believing Christians fighting to end the murder of innocent babies in the womb around our nation IS A FOUNDATIONAL issue for followers of Christ.

IF we believe that abortion is murder, this MUST be our top foundational priority for us all. We do not have an option to overlook this issue or relegate it to the bottom of our top voting issues.

I have recently been asking myself if I could vote for a pro-life candidate who was also promoting socialism? 

History lesson: Socialism and Marxism have killed civilizations, communities of faith, and innocent human life all throughout history - so that is an important LIFE question for me to answer; but in truth – communists and socialists support abortion.

In China, they want families to only have one child – to control the population. Little girls have been thrown away for years in China because of this policy – left at orphanages because parents choose to hold out for a boy. In places where socialism has flourished – so have abortion rates. Why? Because the individual lives or families do not matter as much as the security and prosperity of the nation state. 

So, with that question answered - what issue really stands higher in my mind as a follower of Jesus then the protection of human rights – from the womb to the tomb?

My question to us all in this time is – how can we justify voting for a pro-choice candidate? Really? 

How do we live with the 60 million babies that have been murdered by abortion in our nation since Roe v. Wade or the 3,000 babies TODAY that will be killed in this nation?

While I am writing this article – women are making the choice to kill their children and many men are plunking down the money to pay for these “procedures”. 

Yes, God is a redeemer. Yes, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. My heart goes out to everyone who has made this choice or encouraged someone else to make this choice. We have all been touched in one way or another by this. You are not alone.

With that said - our government should not be sanctioning and condoning the killing of little babies in the womb, PERIOD!

How do we vote for State Representatives, State Senators, Members of Congress, Senators, or Presidential candidates that not only think that it is alright to allow babies to be killed in the womb, but also celebrate it? If they don’t have the wisdom in this area - how do we think they will get anything right?

My current concern is that in the Christian community we are having conversations that many times can bring confusion into the younger generation, especially when they are not grounded in sound biblical theology. Many of them don’t know the scriptures or the statistics that I bring up at the end of this article. I have seen it with my own eyes - young people using other people’s words to excuse their pro-choice (pro-death) positions.  They are articulating that standing up for the unborn in the womb should just be one of “many” issues that we care about – so why not vote on these other three or four issues? 

In some Christian communities, they downplay importance of the pro-life issue to justify their vote for someone who does not believe in the sanctity of life. They are in essence – trying to use the Bible to justify their vote the other way. 

I don’t believe we should be single issues voters; BUT I do believe that as a Christian who believes in the inerrant Word of God that we have a foundational and clear moral issue in our generation that we must prioritize in our voting and advocacy. When we make the choice between a pro-life candidate versus a pro-death candidate, we will give an account before God. It is very hard to make the case as a Christian that we should vote against a pro-life candidate FOR a pro-choice candidate. 

I completely understand that voting is just one of the ways we are pro-life. If we aren’t helping our local pregnancy resource center, having hard conversations with people who are struggling with unplanned pregnancies and providing a way forward for them to make other choices, discipling people on the theology behind the pro-life position, building ministries at our local churches, then yes, it might seem that the church is only thinking about this issue when we’re in the polling place. 

BUT there are many believers in the Body of Christ engaged in all of these areas all the time – I call it the LIFE LIFESTYLE. We don’t just vote pro-life, we live pro-life.

In reality, the Catholic Church has done a much better job at living out this LIFE LIFESTYLE then the Protestant church - but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in local evangelical and mainline denominational churches around our nation, and there are many Christian activists who believe God has called them to advocate for the unborn in Austin or Washington DC. 

I can understand the Christian case for abstaining from voting when two people seem completely unpalatable (though I completely disagree with it – see my article on making hard choices between imperfect candidates), but the idea of voting FOR a candidate who actually will be celebrating partial birth abortion as a woman’s right is beyond me.

We now have states like New York, Illinois, and Virginia celebrating infanticide – the killing of babies outside of the womb when an abortion is botched and a baby is born alive. There are no words to describe this injustice. Read about these horrific abortion procedures here on the National Right to Life website.

I recently interviewed State Representative Matt Schaefer and Brian Christensen from Watermark Church Dallas on this topic – How Should the Body of Christ LEAD on the LIFE issue? I highly encourage you to listen to that conversation.  In that conversation, Rep. Schaefer and Brian pointed out the importance of voting for pro-life candidates and what they really could do in our state houses and in Congress – at the same time encouraging us to take ownership of the importance of sound theology, discipleship, care and kindness for those who want to choose LIFE and our responsibility as local churches to lead on this issue. This is not just important talk for our churches around elections – but all the time. 

As we think about who we are voting for not just in this upcoming election but EVERY election – let me leave you with these scriptures and these stats. I believe the protection of human LIFE is one of the most important issues of our generation and how we prioritize it when we vote matters to God.

  • An unborn baby's heart begins to beat 18-21 days after fertilization.

  • Brain waves can be detected as early as 40 days after fertilization.

  • Since 1973, there have been more than 60 million abortions in the United States. 

  • Women have cited "social reasons," not mother's health or rape/incest, as their motivation in approximately 93% of all abortions. 

Psalm 139:15-16 “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; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Proverbs 24:11 “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”

Psalm 119:105-106 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.”

Proverbs 6:16-17 “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood.”

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