Why I Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
— Sunday, January 18th, 2009 —
Don’t get me wrong, the call to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ is a joy. Yesterday I pronounced a godly young couple husband and wife. This morning I baptized a brother in Christ. Nothing is more thrilling than opening the Word of God to the people of Christ week-by-week. But it provoked my spirit this morning to preach the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday emphasis this morning.
I don’t hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday because I think it, somehow, unbiblical. No, indeed. The entire canon throbs with God’s commitment to the fatherless and to the widows, his wrath at the shedding of innocent blood. I don’t hate it because I think it’s inappropriate. Just as every Lord’s Day should be Easter, with the proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus, and Christmas, with the announcement of the Incarnation, so every Lord’s Day should highlight the worth and dignity of human life.
I hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday because I’m reminded that we have to say things to one another that human beings shouldn’t have to say. Mothers shouldn’t kill their children. Fathers shouldn’t abandon their babies. No human life is worthless, regardless of skin color, age, disability, economic status. The very fact that these things must be proclaimed is a reminder of the horrors of this present darkness.
This morning as I opened the Bible to preach, I looked out and caught the eye of my sons. I prayed that their children wouldn’t have to hear a sermon against abortion and euthanasia. I prayed that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren would grow up in an age when abortion is, as the Feminists for Life organization put is some years ago, not just illegal but unthinkable. I prayed for my (yet to be conceived but not yet to be conceived of) great-grandchildren that a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday would seem as unnecessary to them as a Reality of Gravity Emphasis Sunday.
I hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday because I’m reminded that as I’m preaching there are babies warmly nestled in wombs who won’t be there tomorrow. I’m reminded that there are children, maybe even blocks from my pulpit, who’ll be slapped, punched, and burned with cigarettes before nightfall. I’m reminded that there are elderly men and women languishing away in loneliness, their lives pronounced to be a waste.
But I also love Sanctity of Human Life Sunday when I think about the fact that I serve a congregation with ex-orphans all around, adopted into loving families. I love to reflect on the men and women who serve every week in pregnancy centers for women in crisis. And I love to see men and women who have aborted babies find their sins forgiven, even this sin, and their consciences cleansed by Christ.
We’ll always need Christmas. We’ll always need Easter. But I hope, please Lord, someday soon, that Sanctity of Human Life Day is unnecessary.
37 Responses to “Why I Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday”
Trackbacks
- Sanctity of Life Sunday « Stones Cry Out
- why Russell Moore hates Sanctity of Human Life Sunday « Interstitial
- Russell Moore on “Why I Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday” « Evangelical Village
- « RockStarKevin
- OD Today: 19 January 2009 (early edition) « Online Discernment Today
- SharperIron » Why Does SBTH’s Moore Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday?
- I Think You’ll Agree « To Be A Pilgrim
- Sanctity of Human Life Sunday « who am i?
- » Blog Archive » Why Moore hates ‘Sanctity of Life Sunday’
- Quote for the Day « The Lantern Out of Doors
- When Sanctity of Life Sundays Are Not Needed | Caffeinated Thoughts
- 2009 Sanctity of Human Life Roundup at Ray Fowler .org
- An “un-holy” day « Strengthened by Grace
- Abortion: Our Generations Holocaust « Ad Fontes
I never quite thought about it this way, but I completely agree! As a mother who would love to feel a child growing in my womb, to give birth to a healthy child, and has known the blessings of adoption, I can’t for the life of me conceive why anyone would kill, abuse, or abandon these precious gifts from God!
It is such a scary reminder of a horrible cultural reality. I heard a sermon this morning saying that in many parts of the world a baby pig is now viewed as having more worth than the human fetus. It is indeed very scary to think of the possibility that this is the world we are leaving our children.
The only comment I can make is AMEN well said
I believe you are right! The very fact that we have to set aside a special day to discuss this topic speaks volumes as to where we are as a society. It is very disheartning and disturbing! My prayer is like yours, that some day the need for such discussions will seem irrelevant!
Wonderful, poignant post. I find myself hating and grieving and hoping right along with you.
Wonderful, poignant post. I find myself hating and grieving and hoping right along with you.
Russell, I agree completely. I’ve said over and over that my prayer is that we someday look back on abortion in the same light that we look back on the holocaust, slavery, and the genocide in Sundan… “how could we?”
I found myself feeling a similar way as I began my sermon yesterday. I pray with you to the same end.
Mr. Moore,
Sanctity of Life Sunday, “What is that?” The response I heard when telling people in my community (African-American) about it. I will be glad when the day comes that we have preached about the importance of life so much and the fact that abortion is the leading cause of death more than stroke, heart attack, cancer, and AIDS combined among African-Americans. But for now, we are just getting out of the gate.
Would you give me permission to reprint this article for use in my monthly letter to supporters of Care Net Pregnancy Center in Ellensburg, WA? So brilliant. I think I’ll start a campaign for a Reality of Gravity Sunday.
Well said!
My parents remember a time when there was no Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Maybe that’s why we ended up with abortion today.
It certainly is a sad commentary that we have a national day of mourning for the 4,000 unborn American babies that will be murdered TODAY. But tomorrow, Jan 22, is just such a day. Today my wife and I go to our state capital to join hundreds (hopefully thousands) of other Christians to pray for the abolition of an impoverishing slavery known as abortion. Truly our prayers shall petition God the Father and His Son, Jesus the Christ, to move the Holy Spirit across our planet to reveal the abomination of abortion as unthinkable. The act of sucking or scraping a tiny temple of God out of a uterus and into a sink is a sin that separates us from our Creator in a most violent and reprehensible manner. This separation, to me, must be hell. I want to forever be nearer to my God. Even a moment of isolation from God in the vastness of our universe would cause severe anguish in my heart. That tiny human in his mother’s womb lives because his being was ensouled by our Heavenly Father absolutely no later than the moment of conception. All life springs from the existence and presence of God alone. Nothing is without Him. What would be the point of life if there were no God?
Wow….I must say that when I saw this come up on my google search, I was appalled by the title. Then, I read the article. You are so right on! We shouldn’t have to be reminded only once a year of the preciousness of human life. We shouldn’t have to be reminded only once a year that abortion is murder. We should always be mindful of these facts. I applaud you for bodly making this statement!! God Bless you!!
Thank you for your poignant insight into the great moral issue of our era. I plan to quote you in my message this week. In Christ, Chris
O.K. the title got me. What a pleasant surprise after bracing myself for more abortionist’s diatribe. Thank you! Thank you! And Amen!
I had an abortion when I was 17. I got on a plane to New York city. I took a limo to Dobbs Ferry, walked into an abortion clinic, and allowed my child to be torn from within me. I didn’t know (at the time) that it was murder. My parents, my boyfriends parents and my doctor told me it was just cells multiplying. I was very ill…vomiting 24/7. My doctor told me I could die. As soon as it was over, I felt something was very wrong. I was in a deep depression for years. After getting involved in Right to Life in the 80’s, I finally found out the truth and was devastated. It was only by the blood of Christ that I have been able to forgive myself. Praise God, He has healed me!!! Not only that, but I will someday be in Heaven with my child and finally be able to hold him/her in my arms. Praise His Name!
Dear Mitzi, I am grateful to God for what he has done in your life. I pray for you that you will be able to reach many through your testimony of God’s merciful grace. In Christ, RDM
Whats up with these teans getting out there and getting pregnant and knowing whats going to happen?I mean dude they are shedding inocent blood.Its not right.Why do it when you know you are involved in takeing an inocent life?Dont ruin it for babies that havent even got a chance to live and enjoy life.I say they should give them a chance.
Thanks for the good word…
I must admit when I googled “Sanctity of Life Sunday” and got this article, I was bracing myself for pro abortion antics. So I was very happy to find that it was not what I expected. I wholeheartedly agree with you. And will pray also that one day we will not need to be reminded that life at every stage is precious and a gift from God!
And hardly a word in the US media about this topic - a shameful ommission by people who don’t agree and therefore suppressed it - thus denying their calling to tell the truth.
Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtsmdteJew