Our Tawdry Little Secret

“Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

“In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.’ And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, ‘When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?” then you shall say, “Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”’

“So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, ‘The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ David said to the messenger, ‘Thus shall you say to Joab, “Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.” And encourage him.’

“When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.”

On January 22, 1973, the learned justices seated on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States established a right for a woman to murder her unborn child. The learned jurors found that a “right of privacy” earlier discovered, was “broad enough to encompass” a right to abortion. A state could only regulate abortion for the purpose of protecting maternal “health.” Doe v. Bolton, issued the same day, defined “health” to mean “all factors” that affect the woman, including “physical, emotional, psychological, [and] familial [health], and the woman’s age.”

The United States Supreme Court essentially decided that a woman “owned” her unborn child, much as a slave-owner once “owned” slaves. Since the woman was the “owner” of the unborn child, she had a right enshrined in law either to keep or to dispose of that child. Since that time, tens of millions of unborn children have been slaughtered in utero. The churches of North America have roused themselves occasionally to condemn the ruling and to slam those women who choose to deal with their desperation through choosing abortion over birth.

Each year, on the Sunday in January nearest the anniversary of that ruling, churches throughout North America observe a Sunday which has become known as Sanctity of Life Sunday to teach the congregations of the fundamental right to life. Many Christians will form what are called “life-chains”—lines of people protesting the evil of abortion. Multiplied sermons are preached condemning the practise of abortion. As result of these sermons and activities, no doubt there will arise other activities designed in an attempt to reverse the general social acceptance of abortion on demand.

I cannot approve of abortion. Nevertheless, I am deeply disturbed by the reaction of many, if not most, of my fellow evangelical Christians. First, I am concerned at the tendency to harness the churches in an attempt to legislate against specific moral evils. The Faith of Christ the Lord should never be reduced to a mere political institution. The message of life is delivered in order to change hearts; and we are convinced that that changed hearts will result in transformed lives.