Anyone else ready to throw up your hands and just say “FORGET IT!”? Yeah, me too…almost every day. What are we supposed to do? Why can’t people see how severe the crisis is?! We are killing the next generation at an alarming rate. The “other side” doesn’t even hide it any more…”safe, legal, and RARE” has morphed into “LEGAL & OFTEN, and FREE!” We are ingraining the culture of death deeper and deeper every single day. We give “The Party of Life” majorities at a national level as well as at state houses and governors’ mansions across much of the nation…here in Iowa we have nearly a 2/3 majority in both chambers and a pro-life governor! As a reward for all of our hard work, money, and votes we couldn’t even get life at conception legislation out of committee last year and now they seem to be trying to run out the clock on heartbeat legislation. What more could they honestly ask of us? But before you think this is all about government bashing, we as the Church, are largely apathetic. We say we want abortion to stop, but how are we proving it? I know, I know, we vote “right”, we go to a banquet every couple of years, IF our pastor gives a pro-life message on a Sunday in January we nod , maybe shed a tear, and say something like “somebody should do something.”  Yet, 7 out of 10 women who have an abortion today claim a Christian denomination…4 of them are regular attenders at a church. Why do we even try? 

Let’s take a step back…maybe we shouldn’t just quit fighting just yet. What if we recognized that the “somebody” we suggest should do something is us? What if we remembered that we are the Body, called to be the hands and feet? What if we REALLY took seriously that command to Love our neighbors as ourselves and the call to care for the widows and orphans? What if in addition to voting “right” we dug a little deeper and educated ourselves on the issue of life AND then helped educate, encourage, and correct our elected officials when needed? What if we invested our time, treasure, and talent into making sure we were supporting the front line ministries doing the work of the Church and the advocacy organizations fighting at the statehouse and in the public arena?  

Folks, we must wake up, stand up, and fight! We cannot keep killing a million babies a year and expect that we will remain a blessed nation. We cannot continue to keep telling our society, and our children in particular, that it is OK to take out someone that is inconvenient for you to live your life in the way that you want to…or that they might suffer. We have been literally teaching that very philosophy for almost 45 years. In addition to indoctrinating the culture into the “survival of the fittest” mindset (thank you Mr. Darwin) along with the “we are just higher evolved animals” (watch Animal Planet for about 5 minutes to see how that goes), is it any wonder bullying is so rampant? How can we blame them for listening to what we have been telling them?! 

If you are ready to quit, I will tell you what I tell myself every morning, DON’T! We need you, those that can’t speak for themselves need you, those that are afraid to speak up out of shame and guilt need you too…Please contact me about just how you can get engaged. I know, we are all busy, BUT this is our future we are talking about…and our kids’ and grandkids’ too. We can take the culture back from the jaws of death, we can end the slaughter of innocent babies and the destruction of motherhood and the family.  

I will close with a quick story about just such a reminder for me…I was helping start another group of folks that are already involved in the political arena but wanted to add a life component. We were going to show a pro-life apologetics video to help launch the group, but technology had other plans. Without the ability to play the video I had to wing it…I jumped in to the state of the life movement in Iowa and the Church. There was one woman in the back that was visibly upset; I just assumed that it was the numbers I was sharing or the apathy in the Church. After leaving the room once in tears, she came back in and shared that 30 years ago she had an abortion. I don’t know her name or anything else about her really, but in that moment I knew why we have to keep doing this. We have to stop that pain and shame and anguish from ever happening to anyone we know again! Please join me in NOT quitting. 

Tim Overlin 
5158687562
timo@personhoodiowa.sevenverbs.com