Roe v. Wade: What Is Next for the Church?

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Recently, I came home from an errand to the news that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade ending the constitutional right to an abortion. This means states will now regulate the legality of abortion. Some states will continue as if nothing happened, others will essentially make abortion, in different forms, illegal.

With this news, many good, kind, and fair people are crestfallen by the decision, believing the rights of women have been curtailed. Other good, kind, and fair people are ecstatic, believing hundreds of thousands of innocent babies won’t be killed.¹

It won’t be surprising to know I fall in the latter group.

I believe abortion, generally speaking, is a moral evil. As a follower of Jesus, I find Scripture to overwhelmingly uphold a strong ethic of life as well as give special care to the vulnerable and needy, of whom I believe unborn infants qualify. I know others will vehemently disagree and want to make emotionally-charged rebuttals among other things.

But my aim here isn’t to convince anyone. It’s simply to say the following.

Christians who believe this is a great week for the unborn should also be prepared to trumpet how committed the church needs to be to protecting, supporting, and caring for women who find themselves in crisis pregnancies. The church should be holistically pro-life and not merely pro-birth.

That means we care not only for a child coming into the world but also what kind of world that child comes into.

For example, statistics show abortion in America is overwhelmingly slanted to those in poverty, so wherever the gospel can speak to economic and structural injustices that tempt distressed women into terminating their pregnancies, followers of Jesus should be just as engaged.

To that end, I am grateful that Clear Creek Community Church for years has been committed to this work with their active support of ministries like:

Anchor Point crisis pregnancy center
Orphan care that seeks to help with fostering, adopting
Pregnancy and Parenting Support Center with pregnancy counseling
The Center for Pregnancy which assists unexpected pregnancies

In light of this Supreme Court decision, there will be many Christian leaders rightfully calling for the church to roll up its sleeves by working on creating a better culture of life instead of merely arguing against abortion. This is right and true. And while Clear Creek is far from perfect, the truth is that we have been putting our money (and people, time, and talents) where our mouth is when it comes to supporting and valuing a more holistic view of life.

However, none of those things will come into play when your pro-choice friend is upset by this week’s news. As a gospel measure, I would call you to show them empathy, sensitivity, and kindness. Our history at Clear Creek has been to show compassion for those who struggle with abortion as well as those who’ve had abortions. We should also extend that compassion to those who believe it to be an unalienable right. Yes, we might disagree with our neighbor, but Jesus also calls us to love them.

I urge you to heed the words Bruce Wesley preached a week or so ago when he said, “May our love be louder than our disagreements.”

I pray this would be true of us today, tomorrow, and every day God has us here.

Love well, for the world will know we are Christians by our love.

 

Footnotes

  1. Studies show there were 930,160 abortions in 2020.
Yancey Arrington
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