Fair Warning:  This is not the kind of post I typically write. It is not a personal attack on anyone, it is a plea to the Church. I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I claim absolutely no affiliation or allegiance to a political party. My allegiance is to Christ and His Kingdom. This post may make people mad at me. While that is not my intention, I’m ok with it. 

On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court made abortion legal in this country. Since that time, there have been 8 different Presidents in office, 5 Republicans and 3 Democrats. In every election, abortion has been one of the major hot buttons and for some people, the biggest issue that decides their vote. When President Obama was reelected this month, I read statements similar to this one:  “Well, that’s four more years of unborn babies being killed”. Obviously they believe the President can make abortion illegal. He can’t. Only the Supreme Court can do that, and they can only do it if they have a case come before them to deliberate that would end up overturning Roe vs. Wade.

But none of that is really my point, I just needed something to open this post.

Because abortion is a spiritual issue, which brings it into the front yard of not the White House, but the Church. (And we can substitute Abortion with any other moral issue that permeated the airwaves and social media during this election.) What has the Church done to stop abortion? Not to make it illegal, but to STOP it? (Because surely we are not naive enough to think that if it’s illegal, people won’t do it. We’re Christians, not idiots. Right?)

First, we need to recognize that the United States is not our Kingdom. For some, that could be a long process with God. We are the Church. We cannot cast our allegiance to something as fragile and fickle as an earthly nation. We’ve all heard it, read it, and been taught that this world is not our home, but I think we would have a hard time convincing the world of that, given the way we act, especially in an election year. But just to cover the bases, I will say it again. We are not from here. We are aliens here. Strangers. Passing through. Heading home. We need to be less invested in earthly matters and processes, and fully invested in the work of the Kingdom. And I promise you, the work of the Kingdom is not shaking your fist at the government. It really isn’t.

Time is shorter than we think.

It is time to stop fighting darkness with more darkness. We cannot continue letting fear and anxiety and our political allegiances govern our conduct, or our words. We cannot continue to hate the President and blame this nation’s woes on a political party, all in the name of God. We cannot continue to make God a “cause”. He doesn’t need us to defend Him. (Read the 38th chapter of Job.) He is God. We are His Church. We alone have the Gospel that is so desperately needed by a lost world. He didn’t tell us to defend Him, He told us to imitate Him. By living lives of love, not hatred, no matter how justified we want to make it appear. He also told us to reproduce ourselves. Make disciples. Spread the Good News, which offers hope to the hopeless.

We are in a spiritual war, and what is at stake is not our taxes or the unemployment rate or health insurance. It is the eternal destiny of every person we come into contact with either directly or indirectly. That includes our President, whether he’s pro-choice, liberal, Islam, or plays golf when he shouldn’t. God cares about where he spends eternity. Do we?

If I was not a believer, I don’t know that anything I have seen or heard from many Christians this past year would make me want to be one.

Abortion is not a political issue, or a women’s rights issue. It is a spiritual issue. Only the Church is equipped for such a battle. If we live in a nation that is so turned against God and His ways, a nation that is killing its unborn and falling further and further into moral decay, then it begs the question “what has the Church been doing?”. Because all of this is taking place on our watch.

Women are killing their babies because they are lost, deceived and desperate, not because of who is President.

Abortion should break our hearts and make us angry. It should elicit from us a desire to see justice. I believe it has done all of that, but our response has been to look to the broken systems of man to fix what amounts to spiritual terrorism against the image bearers of God. Again, we, the Church, are the only ones equipped to fight a spiritual battle.

What if we did the research and decided to be missionaries to those women who are most at risk, taking the love of Christ, and His gospel to them? What if that demographic became the Church’s mission field in this country? What if we reached them before they become pregnant? Or after. Or even after they’ve aborted?

Maybe if we will do what we were commissioned to do, less women will get abortions, regardless of how legal it is.

Because Christ changes things by changing hearts, not laws.

Go. Make disciples. Pray. Be humble. Believe. Show mercy. Love. Fight the real enemy.

Or…we could just keep doing what we’re doing.

That’s one way to not end abortion.

[Please know that I dearly love the Church, and firmly believe that she has the power to bring change. But not when she has her eyes fixed on earthly kingdoms, wielding carnal weapons of picket signs, petitions and name calling. It is when her eyes become fixed on Jesus, and she realizes that heaven and hell are real, and that what is at stake is not her comfort, but the eternal destinies of everyone around her. We must learn to put down our sticks and stones and pick up the weapons we have been given by God, weapons that are mighty for bringing down strongholds…love, humility, truth (spoken in love, not arrogance), prayer, faith, the Gospel…all mighty weapons that bring destruction to the darkness that is the root of abortion and every other evil.]

Hebrews 11:13-14; Ephesians 5:1-3; Matthew 28:19; 2Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:11-13; 2Corinthians 10:4