Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters

Amos 5:21-24 (ESV)

“Brian, you are so full of [bleep]. You people are all liars who prey on women.”

“Human Coalition is a bunch of right-wing [bleep]. You shame and mislead women. You’re worthless.”

“You aren’t pro-life. You’re pro-birth. You only care about the baby in the womb. You couldn’t care less about supporting the family once the baby is actually born.”

Each year, Human Coalition develops a theme – an overarching message and tone that guides our internal and external communication for the whole year.

Several months ago, our Communications Team asked me to think about a potential theme for 2018. At the time, I was wrestling with some of the core worldviews and principles that drive the abortion culture in the United States. Abortion can and will be ended in the U.S., but it won’t be ended unless we understand and confront the foundations on which the culture of death is built.

Reread the quotes above. We receive these types of accusations and condemnations daily over the phone, in emails, on Twitter and Facebook. If you look closely, you’ll see evidence of the underlying worldview of the abortion culture.

1. “You are liars.” I’ve learned that guilty people often accuse other people of their own infractions. It justifies their behavior. The abortion industry perpetuates lies – an entire complex system of beliefs built on falsehood after falsehood. This is why the abortion industry so often accuses life-affirming people of lying – it deflects from their own system of false beliefs.
2. “You are right wing.” Part of the reason the abortion industry has been so successful at killing over 60 million children in the womb since 1973 is because they’ve effectively politicized abortion. But abortion is not a political issue. Abortion is, at its root, a spiritual decision. Every time someone decides to abort a baby, they attempt to claim their own divinity. They elevate themselves to a godlike status, giving themselves the “right” to kill another human being. Every abortion is a rebellion against a Holy God who has made each and every person in His image. In most cases this is not some conscious effort – we’ve just trained ourselves to act like gods. And 60 million people have been murdered because of it.

When the abortion machine convinces you and me that abortion is a political issue, they effectively silence millions of people who would otherwise muster the courage to rescue preborn children and their families. After all, it’s not polite to talk about religion and politics, is it? (Ironically, religion and politics are two of the things that impact every person on the planet.)

3. “You are pro-birth.” Yes. In fact, we’d like all preborn children to be born – alive. If you take a few moments to think through this claim, you should be sickened and shocked. The underlying substance of this accusation is this:

“You only care about saving the baby’s life. You don’t care about helping the family afterward. And you right-wingers don’t support government programs that would actually care for the child and family. You are inconsistent in your beliefs. Thus, it’s far better that women have the choice to kill their child than give birth to someone you won’t even help care for.”

Did you catch that? If you don’t hold to our political belief system – that government should be everyone’s nanny – then it’s better to kill a million children a year than let them live.

First, Human Coalition created a program called the Continuum of Care that provides tangible help and support for women, babies, and families for the long term. In order to do this, we coordinate with other agencies, many of which are, in fact, government support services.

Second, this accusation has nothing to do with providing long-term services. It has to do with devaluing life in the womb. Don’t miss the center of the claim: it is better to kill people if you and I aren’t willing to care for them (even though we are).

Let’s summarize some of the core tenants of the abortion machine: built on lies, politicized in order to silence the public, and based on devaluing an entire class of human beings. One people group – preborn children – are perpetually derided, disdained, hated, persecuted, and killed so we can exercise our sexuality however we choose.

Thus, Human Coalition’s theme for 2018 became very clear to me and the rest of the team: Justice.

Justice has two sides. The first is disciplining the oppressor. This is the role of the courts – to determine whether punishment should be handed down to someone who has oppressed someone else.

The second is restoring those who’ve been oppressed. It’s about restoring “equality” in the sense that we recognize human beings have inestimable value, regardless of characteristics such as their age, gender, size, social status, physical ability, etc. Not only do we acknowledge that we have equal value, but we behave accordingly.

At its foundation, Human Coalition is a justice ministry. We exist to restore value to the most persecuted people group in American history (preborn children), by tangibly and compassionately helping families move from dependence to independence in their communities.

We do this work through serving women in impacted communities. We reach out to them and offer to bring them into a system that is focused on transformative care for them and lifesaving care for their children.

We work to restore not only life and basic human rights to preborn children, but also the equality of women in our culture. Women have been lied to, exploited (have you read or heard anything about sexual exploitation in the workplace lately?), used, abused, and abandoned. We see it every single day in our women’s care clinics.

Thus, it is just for us to reach out to these women, provide them truthful counsel, walk alongside them in the midst of their struggles, and be their friends and support system.

Abortion is the worst genocide in American (and world) history, killing over 60 million of our fellow sons and daughters since Roe v. Wade. Abortion has demeaned and destroyed women for decades, and seeds of that destruction have borne evil fruit in divorce, suicide, drug use, and relational brokenness. Abortion has eaten away at the souls of men, as they struggle with the fact that they’ve allowed the murder of their own children. They’ve abandoned their wives, girlfriends, casual sex partners, and friends; while treating their own children as refuse, so they can enjoy sexual liberation that only results in further enslavement.

Friends, rescuing a child from abortion is the most just activity I can think of. Coming alongside a woman who is contemplating abortion and befriending her, supporting her, and caring for her and her baby is both selfless and lifesaving.

I’ll be writing much more on this theme of justice as we move into 2018. So for now, I’d like you to read Amos 5. And when you get to verses 21 through 24, stop and meditate on that passage. God says,

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (ESV)

God rejects Israel’s worship practices: their offerings, their songs, and their services. He rejects them utterly because Israel both oppressed the weak and refused to restore the oppressed.

Let us not make the same mistake. Abortion is the worst evil to plague America. Let 2018 be the year that we, as a massive movement of people who are concerned for true justice, rise up and restore the weak, the downtrodden, and the victimized – all for the glory of our God in whom true justice lives and breathes.