The unconstitutional decision of Roe vs Wade has now been consigned to the dust bin of history. But not before over 60 million children have been aborted. And that’s just in the United States alone. Significantly, when Donald Trump was asked if he thought he played a role in the legislation’s reversal—especially after having appointed three conservative justices to the high court—the former president is reported to have told Fox News: “God made the decision.”
It wasn’t that long ago when in the midst of a violent demonstration, President Trump stood outside St John’s Church in Washington—historically referred to as ‘The President’s Church’—holding a Bible and denouncing the actions of the protestors. Many evangelical Christians even declared how ‘offended’ they were at such actions.
Well, approximately two years later, here we are witnessing Joe Biden, a self-confessed Roman Catholic, saying that he’s going to do everything in his power to enshrine the right of a woman to be able to kill her unborn child. Whether she needs to access the abortive drugs through the mail, or travel interstate to do so. According to Joe Biden, being able to have an abortion is a woman’s constitutional right.
And yet, what is the response? Outrage at the blatant religious hypocrisy of someone who claims to belong to the Church? Indignation at the undermining of basic Biblical ethics? Possibly even being offended at not properly representing all people of faith? Maybe even a social media campaign complete with the hashtag #NotMyPresident?
Well, at least now everyone seems to be able to agree—without doing a degree in biology—on the definition as to what a ‘woman’ is! But that sound you’re hearing right now is the chirping of crickets. Because self-appointed cultural watchdogs are now noticeably silent.
Just in case you might have missed it—and you’re not sure what his unequivocal support of abortion looks like—President Biden said to the media:
Make no mistake, this decision is a culmination of a deliberate effort, over decades, to upset balance of our law.
It’s a realisation of an extreme ideology and tragic error of the Supreme Court in my view…
It’s a sad day for the country in my view. But it doesn’t mean that the fight’s over.
Let me be very clear and unambiguous. The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose—and the balance that existed—is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe vs. Wade as federal law. No executive action from the President can do that.
And if congress, as it appears, lacks the votes to do that now, voters need to make their voices heard. This Fall you must elect more senators and representatives who will codify into law a woman’s right to choose into Federal law…
This Fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty and equality. They’re all on the ballot.
Until then I will do all in my power to protect a women’s right in states who will face the consequences of today’s decision.
One of the passages I was scheduled to read in my yearly Bible reading plan—I follow the one by Robert Murray McCheyne—is Isaiah 56 and 57. It’s where God’s prophet says:
“Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark.” (Isa. 56:10)
And then in the very next chapter we read:
“Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars? You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging rocks.” (Isa. 57:4-5)
The problem with the watchmen of Israel is that they were silent. They were like dogs who refused to bark. What were the kind of things they should have been making a noise about? Well, the perennial pagan problem involved with the idolatry surrounding lust and child sacrifice. It’s that their children were being routinely and ritualistically slaughtered.
But, once again, the problem with the watchmen of Israel is that they were silent. For one reason or another, they refused to speak. Maybe it’s because they didn’t want to be hated (see John 15:18-20). Maybe because it’s they didn’t want to cause further division (see Matthew 10:34-39). Or maybe because it’s that they just didn’t want to suffer (see 2 Tim. 3:12). Whatever their reason was, it’s good to remember the warning of Jesus in Luke 6:26:
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”
Think of Trump what you will. But history will record that when others remained silent, one US President had the courage to still bark.
