SPECIAL The Immutable God: God always cared about women, babies equally
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In June, 2013, Wendy Davis delivered her famous filibuster on the floor of the Texas Senate chamber to prevent a new law restricting abortion access from passing. It seemed everyone with a stake in the abortion issue flocked to Austin to protest, but not Sandra Franke.
Sandra is the director of the Pregnancy Help Center.
I have never appreciated the term, “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” Whenever there is an argument between two different sides, I tend to find myself not so much in the middle as in a different category altogether. When asked, as pastors often are, if I am a Calvinist or an Armenian, I typically respond, “Do I have to choose one?” Over and over again I find Scripture rejects dichotomies like this and many, many others.
Another place I see a false dichotomy is in the abortion debate. Should we give every option to a woman in a hard situation who would severely struggle to support and raise a child? Or should we pass laws to protect a child’s right to be born? Again, I don’t think we have to choose between the two. But how do you have your cake and eat it, too?
Instead of protesting outside the state capitol with the legions of committed pro-life and pro-choice activists, Sandra sat in the breakroom at the Pregnancy Help Center 200 miles away eating Dragonlicious for lunch. I asked her why she wasn’t in Austin. Her response was one of the wisest I’ve ever heard.
She pointed out that in the previous year, the Pregnancy Help Center convinced 597 women not to have an abortion and helped those and 2,669 more mothers with the essentials of delivering and caring for a baby with the law just as it was. As much as she wished the law would change, a new law would not help women with unexpected pregnancies. Only people like the volunteers and staff at the Pregnancy Help Center could do that. Only loving and supporting the woman and the baby individually could do that.
I’ve been writing about how God is the same in the New Testament as he is in the Old Testament. The Pregnancy Help Center is having a fundraiser Jan. 28. It’s called the Concert for Life. There will be music, a silent auction, a raffle and the “Chili When It’s Chilly” snack bar. So here’s another dichotomy: Do I continue my theme, or do I promote the Pregnancy Help Center? I think I’ll do both.
In both the Old and New Testaments, God consistently reveals the human value of unborn children, commands a cultural concern for the difficulties women face and works to change human hearts through grace instead of law.
In the Old Testament, the first time the famous phrase “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” was ever uttered by God was in reference to a pregnant woman. In Exodus 21:22-25, God demands punishment for people who accidentally harm a pregnant woman or her baby. David recognized the development of a child as an active work of God in Psalm 139 when he said, “you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
In the New Testament, John the Baptist’s mother was about six months pregnant with him when Mary, who was maybe two weeks’ pregnant with Jesus, came to visit. The Bible says he “leaped for joy” when Mary entered (Luke 1:44). While he could have legally been aborted in some states, a 6-month-old “fetus” recognized a less than 6-week-old “fetus” because of the latter’s spiritual significance. God ascribes not only consciousness, but spiritual awareness of the unborn in the New Testament.
Pro-choice activists rightly charge their opponents with caring for unwanted babies and the needs of their mothers. So does the Bible. In the Old Testament, one of God’s repeated and main charges against the leaders of Israel is that “they do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them” (Isaiah 1:23). James repeats the imperative in the New Testament, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). Orphan or fatherless refers to any unwanted child, not just ones whose parents were dead. This is the case in most of the orphanages of the world today, too. “Widows” similarly were women left without the support of a nuclear family. Today we call them single mothers. Given this, the application seems clear.
Finally, the Bible is clear that people do not change through laws. After Israel rejected God’s covenant and law, he promised, “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel … I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). They needed a heart change. The New Testament reveals that the law only exposes the problem as an instructor (Galatians 3:24, Romans 7:7). It is the Holy Spirit, through God’s grace, that changes hearts (Galatians 5:22-23).
And that is the rare quality of the Pregnancy Help Center of the Concho Valley. They recognize the value and need for help of both the baby and the mother. They work individually with mothers to demonstrate God’s love and grace to them. They put that love into action with free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, free counseling, free classes, free baby clothes and a thousand other ways. They are faithful to share the gospel so that mothers have the chance at true heart change.
And “they” should be “we.” We, the church in San Angelo, owe them our support because they are doing our work. Come to the Concert for Life on Jan. 28 at Angelo Bible Church, 3506 Sherwood Way, to support the Pregnancy Help Center.