Before Christ, “In all of history, only one culture had prohibited [abortion and infanticide]–that of the Jews” (42).
I remember my mother telling me where she was and what she was doing when she learned that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. She was sweeping the basement floor and listening to the radio. When the news came, she shut off the radio. Denial is our first response to unfathomable news.
Eventually the event becomes memory. But if we lose our awareness of the past, we neglect the help it offers. Few people alive today remember the horror of hearing that news.
We’ve reached the point in our nation when no school age students remember the events of September 11, 2001. They have only heard about the day 19 terrorists killed more than 3,000 Americans on US soil.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade more than a year ago, however, we realize American’s have not come to terms with legal abortion. We still argue over it. A voice still proclaims the sanctity of human life. A voice still declares the holiness of the traditional family–the community designed to welcome and nurture new sacred lives.
Before Christ, aside from the Jews, every society practiced abortion, infancticide, pedophilia, and adultery without internal controversy. In their book Seven Revolutions: How Christianity Changed the World and Can Change It Again, Mike Aquilina and James L. Papandrea explain that human rights, equality, and compassion for the needy and weak have been nonexistent throughout history except for the influence of the Judeo-Christian God.
In the Roman Empire, charity was unheard of. “A woman had no legal existence apart from the men who controlled her.” Roman fathers could execute their children, if they “judged them guilty of a crime, even into adulthood” (69). Abortion and infanticide, especially of girls, were common. Not rare, but common.
Aquilina and Papandrea cite census reports from Delphi that show that out of 600 families, “only six raised more than one daughter” (authors’ emphasis, 48).
Jewish communities treasured their children. But nobody else in the world thought twice about throwing away girls or disabled boys, any “inconvenient” child, like trash.
Until Christ.
Christ and His messengers changed the world so that human rights and equality became norms in Western Civilization. Most families in societies the Church influenced understood the nature of their holy trust to nurture sacred lives.
Today some of us are like my mother at the moment she learned of tragedy in the South Pacific. We have turned off the radio. Voices still argue. Some children and families survive; some thrive. Many are wounded or worse.
In the decadent world–before and beyond the Roman Empire, Christians spoke.
“To affirm the universal dignity of human life requires the strong to speak up for and defend the weak, those who can’t speak for themselves” (29).
Christians are the voice to renew regard for human life. We hold the revolutionary ideas that changed the world once.
And those ideas can change it again.
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
Psalm 139:16.
An informative and inspiring message, Nancy. Thank you. I pray we Christians can continue to strive to make a difference in the world, just as many before us have done.
My we so strive. Thank you, Katherine. God bless!
Powerful message. Thank you.
Thanks, Melissa. God bless!
Amen, Nancy! Most Christians do not know this history, and our enemy would like to keep everyone ignorant of the facts. Christianity revolutionized every aspect of civilization with God’s grace.
With God’s wonderful grace. Thanks, Annie. God bless!
Amen to this, Nancy! As you say, “Christians are the voice to renew regard for human life. We hold the revolutionary ideas that changed the world once. And those ideas can change it again.” My 15yo daughter and I were talking yesterday because she was in tears after reading about an innocent Black man wrongfully executed in 1910 for murder during a time when the state’s governor was blatantly racist and a member of the KKK. Yet we MUST confront these awful truths and speak up about them (whether abortion or racism or anything else) in order to bring about change.
You’re so right, Jessica. We need to confront the past to move well into the future. Thanks and God bless!
When we consider how much history we would have to explain, teach, and repeat regularly, the idea of the mere task of educating the American mind is daunting.
It has been a much-neglected topic in public classrooms. Effective teaching comes line upon line, precept upon precept as the prophet says. That’s ideally what homeschooling and Christian education have offered. It remains to be seen whether we can redeem the public systems to accurately reflect our founding and history. That would require an awakening of unforeseen dimensions. That’s not beyond God’s abilities. It may be beyond our faith to even ask. Lord, give us faith.
Thank you, Melinda. God bless!
I have visited the memorials of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 but I don’t imagine I will ever see a national monument dedicated to the lives lost to abortion, infanticide, and the like. It’s extremely said to think that these deaths are not tragic enough to memorialize. Thank God for Jesus, His living Word of truth and compassion. May more people understand and receive it.
Amen and amen, Stephen. Thanks and God bless!
We can make a difference in the world and with God’s help it is not hard. Thanks Nancy
We can do all things through Him. Thanks, Yvonne. God bless!
Some shocking stats here that I’ve never heard before, Nancy! Will have to check this book out. Thanks!
It’s a great read, Mitch. Thanks and God bless!
I’m currently reading Eric Metaxas’ book A letter to the American Church. It is certainly a call to wake up and speak. Thank you for doing just that.
Thanks, Debbie. I have that book in my “To Be Read” pile. We definitely need to wake up and speak up. Another resource out there right no is the movie The Sound of Freedom. I hope to see that in the next few days. Thanks again. God bless!
Your words here fired me up, Nancy! I found my spirit almost leaping and thinking “Hallelujah!” at your closing words. Christians can revolutionize the world and change it for the good!
Go forth, Karen! Thanks and God bless!