Who Cares About Apathy

I watched the TV monitor as the pastor of a church in West Virginia invited his congregation of 600 to join him, as he held a sign saying that abortion was wrong. He said that he stood on the side of the road for one hour the previous year, and asked who would join him this time. Twenty people raised their hands. I could sense his disappointment at their apathy. He then introduced me as the morning’s guest speaker.

I told the congregation that I felt passionate about the subject of abortion, for a good reason. Many years ago someone told me that a new Christian (named Fran) was about to take the life of her child through the procedure. I was horrified, and found out that she was due to have it done within a couple of hours. I sped to the hospital, praying all the way that God would give me the words to change her mind. I rushed in, ran up to the second floor and into her room. She was sitting on the bed, and had already had her preoperational medication. I pleaded, "Please don’t do this!"

To my surprise, she just looked at me, and smiled. Then she said, "It’s okay. I’m not going to have it. I just prayed 'God, if you don’t want me to have an abortion, make Ray Comfort come up and see me.'"

Two years later, I was at a church picnic when I saw a beautiful little girl playing in the grass. It was Fran’s child. As I knelt down by the cute toddler, it hammered home the issue that we are dealing with when it comes to abortion.

I told the congregation (with some passion), that I would never, ever, vote for a man who advocated the murder of a child in the womb. I don't care about his fiscal policies, because the blood of the innocents is on his hands. I also encouraged them to follow the wonderful example of their faithful pastor. I heard later that afternoon that between 400 and 500 turned out. God bless them.

However, the answer to the issue of abortion isn’t just to protest, although that's a start. A nation that kills 50 million of its citizens through abortion with no qualms of conscience needs more than a voice of protest. We are no different than Nazi Germany. We have given ourselves to the wickedest of sins, and that will eventually have terrible national consequences. We desperately need God’s forgiveness, and we need a new heart that can only come with conversion. Only the gospel can take a self-righteous, blaspheming, idolatrous, hypocritical, baby-killing nation, forgive it, and make it brand new:

"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" (Ezekiel 36:25-27).