There are over 50 million living victims of abortion in America today. By "living victims", I'm referring to the estimated 1 in 4 men and women who have been party to at least one abortion. This purposefully compassionate reference to those who chose to terminate a pregnancy in no way diminishes the gravity of the choice they made. Nor does it diminish the fatal fact that the ultimate abortion victims are the unborn children.
However, those who exercised their legal right to choose deserve something beyond the condemnation so incessantly heaped upon them by far too many within the pro-life movement. They deserve what anyone else deserves whose ever made a life-changing decision with oft times unbearable unintended consequences. They deserve compassion.
What they get instead, is heaping helpings of guilt and shame served up by self-appointed, pro-life judges. Jesus Himself saved His most excoriating critiques for such Pharisees who twist the Scriptures, while cloaking themselves in cliches like, "love the sinner, but hate the sin". You won't find this in the Bible. But, as Tony Campolo points out towards the end of this video, what you will find are numerous passages exhorting us to love the sinner, but hate the sin in ourselves.
It's no surprise then that most living victims of abortion have gone underground with their abortion secret. Amongst party-goers and church-goers alike, abortion is the ultimate taboo topic of conversation. It's also one of the last secrets to be shared between even the most intimate of friends. Therein lies the rub --a procedure performed in secret within a culture hell-bent on keeping it that way.
If you have no regrets about your role in a past abortion, this post is not for you. No need to gnash your teeth over the "living victim" moniker. It's not about you. It's about those who just can't seem to shake the memory of that fateful day. To the woman who senses that she not only lost the life within her, but also a part of her very heart and soul. To the man who wonders if anything less than begging his woman NOT to get an abortion then should prompt him to beg her forgiveness now. I'm reaching out to such men and women because I believe they represent the vast majority of all living abortion participants. As such, they also represent the key to ending abortion on demand in America.
Forty years is long enough for America to wander through the abortion wilderness. Nearly sixty million pure and innocent voices shout this truth from the halls of heaven. They're saying it's time for the living victims to come out of their bunkers and hear the “Good News” that God has for them.
You are not alone. God is with you and the 25% of the American adult population who believed the "right to choose" lie. No one has to convince you of the guilt of your abortion sin, but neither does anyone have the right to condemn you. Knowing your own burden, imagine the devastating toll being exacted upon our nation by the combined burdens of your fellow living victims. But, don't stop there. Imagine being free of that horrible burden once and for all. You can be...you need to be...our country desperately needs you to be.
But you say, “I don’t deserve forgiveness. I deserve to suffer for the rest of my life.” While it IS true that none of us deserves the forgiveness that God so freely gives, it is also true that without it, we can never be the person God intended us to be. Could it be that God wants to set you free, so that you can help others avoid the same mistake? Could it be that God could use you, yes YOU, to end abortion in America in your lifetime? Could it be that God led you to read this so He could tell you how much He loves you and how much He wants to have a personal relationship with you? Could it be...?
Yes, it could be...and it could be today. His name is Jesus, God's one and only son who died for you. He died to set you free from the guilt of all sin, including the sin of abortion. He proved His power to do so by raising from the dead after three days and then appearing to hundreds of people before ascending into heaven where He anxiously awaits you. He's the Savior of the world and He can be your personal Savior.
Jesus made it abundantly clear that His death and resurrection covered all sins past, present and future for all people. He did so as he hung dying on the cross, looking down on those who put him there and saying, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)". Today, Jesus stands between you and God the Father saying, "Father forgive <your name> for their abortion sin. She/He knew not what she/he was doing."
Once you meet Jesus face-to-face, His focus is not on your past sins, but upon the sin free possibilities of your future. So how can you meet this wonderful Savior? For me, someone shared the truths within a little booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws when I was clearly ready to receive it. I literally prayed the prayer on page 10 on April 13, 1975 and haven't been the same since. I invite you to do the same. After all, isn't it time to lay that burden down and be truly free?
