Tim Wildmon
AFA president
March 2003 – My dad was a Methodist minister. At least once a year he would preach on the value and dignity of each human life. Rich, poor, black, brown, white, educated, uneducated – it didn’t matter. In God’s eyes we were all the same. Dad used to say that God cares for the common ditch digger as much as he does the president of the United States. God’s love includes the unborn for they, too, are created in the image of God.
I was 10 years old in 1973 when the Supreme Court made Roe v. Wade the law of the land. Since then, some 42 million unborn babies have had their lives ended by abortion. That’s about the population of Spain. The numbers boggle the mind. We must repent and we must continue to work to end the killing.
If you are like me, you sometimes get weary of fighting the culture war. But we can’t stop defending biblical truth. Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Pat Buchanan defines the culture war and the Christian’s responsibility this way: “Ultimately, our culture war is about one question: Is God dead, or is God king? If God is dead, as the European philosopher Nietzsche wrote, everything is permissible, and eventually, one will logically reach the conclusion of Paris student radicals of 1969: The only thing that is forbidden is to forbid. But if God is king, men have a duty to try, as best they can, to conform their lives to His will and shape society in accordance with His law. Defection and indifference are not options open to us. We are commanded to fight. … For the culture war is at its heart a religious war about whether God or man shall be exalted, whose moral beliefs shall be enshrined in law, and what children shall be taught to value and abhor. With those stakes, to walk away is to abandon your post in time of war.”
Even with all that has taken place in America the past 30 years, there is hope that things might be changing. Recently 1,000 adults were asked whether, in light of medical advances that reveal the unborn child’s body and facial features in detail, “Are you in favor of restoring legal protection for unborn children?” Sixty-eight percent said they favored “restoring legal protection for unborn children.” This is very good news. It means people who are in the mushy middle are changing their minds based on advances in medical science.
The survey also found that 66% of those polled said they favored nominees to the Supreme Court “who would uphold laws that restore legal protection to unborn children.”
Frankly, I am surprised by the results of this poll. But I believe the Lord may be extending hope to the faithful remnant of His people who have been praying, working and speaking out, that America might be turned back to Him.
Thankfully, some things are going our way in the pro-life community. However, the killing goes on. So, here are some steps that we can take toward restoring the rights of the unborn.
1. Support crisis pregnancy centers. If volunteers can sacrifice their time to minister Christ to young pregnant women at their time of greatest need, the least I can do is support these ministries with my prayers and my money.
2. Vote and educate others about pro-life candidates who are running for public office. Often not even 25% of Christians of voting age actually vote. This is a shame and a disgrace. Are we always going to get everything we want from the politicians we elect to office? The answer is no, we are not. Often w¶e will be disappointed. However, if Christians do not participate in the political process, I can guarantee you we are not going to see righteousness exalted.
3. Pray for America – for our president, the Supreme Court justices and that the abortion industry would continue to fall into ill repute with the American people. Pray for the millions of women and men who have been party to abortions. They are carrying heavy loads of guilt. What a joy it is when we can tell these people about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
4. Persevere until we see the end of abortion in America. Keep praying, keep working, keep speaking out. In the words of President Teddy Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts – not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. … Who, at the least knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” 
