Of Christians and Abortion

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in awhile and that I should maybe pick it up again, so here goes. This election season, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the various issues at play, as is always the case when facing an election. I am always struck by the commitment of evangelicals to anti-abortion laws and have always believed this to be quite commendable. However, I was wondering yesterday morning on my way to work if our commitment to life actually stops far short of a truly Biblical ideal.

Pro-choicers have made an excellent point that these kids will probably not be facing much of a life with the parents they have, nor will they fare much better in foster care, as many of my friends who work with that population can attest. I couldn't really argue with their logic, yet it seemed a little extreme to assume the powers of life and death for that reason. At the same time, it really got me thinking that Christians very often take the easy way out on the abortion issue. We make grand pronouncements about the sanctity of human life, which salves our consciences; but we don't do a whole lot to offer those kids the fullness of life Christ offers in the gospel. How much good does it really do to fight for someone's right to exist if we intend, whether actively or by default, for that existence to be a miserable one. How often do we see kids in the foster care system or from a rough home, whose parents chose life for their kid, and shake our heads and cluck our tongues and throw up our hands at how horrible they are? Yet we are not willing to lift a finger or inconvenience ourselves in any way in order to make it better.

I have been in many different churches in my life, and I can easily count the number families from all of them who had adopted children. I can count on one hand the number of people who had adopted children from within the United States. And I can think of only one family who were foster parents. Now it's possible there were more that I wasn't aware of, but I'm sure not many more. Why is this? Why are we so passionate about letting babies be born yet completely uninterested in giving them life?

I think we have been sold on a dream of family that falls far short of God's version of family. To us, family means blood ties and the fruit of our own loins. To God, family is the people He brings close to Himself, people from diverse backgrounds who were completely lost, people He chose to love because it is in His nature to do so. We are created in God's image, designed to bear that image to the world. What image of God does the world around us see when we will fight to the death for babies to be born yet refuse to sacrifice our comfort or "ideal" family to make sure they're cared for, protected, and loved during their lives?

I suppose, in the end, I'm wondering why we seem to think these responsibilities should fall to someone else. That we're really saving them a lot of trouble because we would be horrible at that anyway. So? Of course, you're not going to be very good at it; it's completely unnatural for our sinful hearts. Does that mean it's not your responsibility? No. Did God lie when He said His strength is made perfect in our weakness? Absolutely not. So what is it that really holds us back from reaching out to these kids who have been granted existence but little else? Why is our compassion limited to an all-to-brief emotional response that never comes close to expressing itself in action? Is it possible that we have failed to recognize this opportunity to be like Christ, who saw the needs of the people, had compassion on them, and moved to help them?