Whenever the topic of abortion comes up in “Living Faith,” strong emotions in every direction follow. Most recently, the subject emerged from this letter to the editor and my response .
The morning my column ran, I received an email from an individual who expounded on my having revealed that a woman who had recently scheduled an appointment for an abortion later emerged from the local abortion facility, sharing that she had decided to keep her child.
Often when we witness what we prolife advocates call a “save” in the form of a mother backing out of her abortion decision, another common action follows. Many of these mothers seem to have a need to speak the words aloud: “I kept my baby.” They are indeed beautiful words for us to hear, and them to say. We rejoice every time!
Reacting to this, and other parts of my column, the email writer expressed that no one should have influenced this mother; not advocates pushing for other life-giving alternatives nor the abortion escorts. Specifically: “Her decision shouldn’t involve self-entitled blowhards, like yourself, and other political hacks being anywhere near her for her decision.”
The email continued by saying that the story, “if even true, just shows you are only interested in your personal beliefs, how you can use that patient to make money with this article” and “to press YOUR beliefs on other people.”
It concluded with calling me a narcissist and conveying hope that I would never experience someone telling me what medical treatment is right for me: “Your opinions are complete trash and will time and again just result in you spinning things to fit your self-serving, ego-inflating view that ‘I do everything right.’”
My heart. Yes, my heart! I have been ministering in the pro-life arena long enough to see through the rage here. I have no idea what is going on in the soul of this person, but my heart does go out. I don’t take personal offense. The grief causing the roiling emotions begs release.
This is where faith in God comes in, and why I do expend ink on the topic here. While I don’t know the specific wounds lurking in the heart of the email writer, I do see the unhealed hurt oozing. The person has believed the cultural lie that abortion is merely a medical procedure like any other, and so the wound festers, because until we receive a proper diagnosis, no doctor can produce the right salve.
Only the Great Healer, God himself, can penetrate and heal this wound. But first, it must be acknowledged. The letter writer taking time to speak this hurt is a hopeful beginning.
We all have wounds. And now, as Lent wraps up, I pray we all—I included—can be brave enough to expose our deepest hurts and failings to accept the healing Jesus wishes to give. Don’t be afraid to go to the Cross and speak those hurts out loud. Our Lord is ready with the remedy.
[For the sake of having a repository for my newspaper columns and articles, I reprint them here, with permission, a week after their run date. The preceding ran in The Forum newspaper on March 17, 2024.]
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