Faith at Work

Why are we here, fighting day in and day out for the lives of unborn children and the dignity of their mothers? Because this is God's fight, His cause. We are on his side in the war that is waging against life. If he is the one who is leading us to action against the attacks on his children, it only makes sense that all those who profess to be his followers are taking his side in this battle. But, sadly, this is often not the case.

There are many ways that we as Christians can fail to respond to his call to stand up and take the straight and narrow road for life, most of which are entirely socially acceptable. The area that I see a particular deficit as I am talking to these girls and hearing all their hopes and fears is in the support from Christian community and family members in their critical situation. Many of the girls are religious in some way, even attending church regularly with their families. To me, that sounds like the perfect situation for a community disposed to gather in support of their sister in need and fight valiently for a precious life. Instead, what I most often hear, is that it is that very Christian community that the girl fears the greatest amount of rejection and isolation from. Her practicing parents? She fully expects them to throw her out of the house when they find out. Either that or they want her to get rid of the child to save face in their church.

What's going on here? For those of us who proudly proclaim our pro-lifeness with bumper stickers and intellectual arguments, how can we then fail to embrace the girl who is facing a life-changing decision and needs nothing more than unconditional love and support in order to save the life of her child? Thankfully, the girls are often wrong about how much support they will receive from their parents. But if they have had such experiences so as to come to expect rejection from those they love and look up to most, it gives us reason to pause and consider our own consistency in faithfulness to God's cause.