Buddy Smith
AFA senior vice-president
March 2010 – Here at American Family Association, January is recognized annually as Sanctity of Human Life month. We utilize all of our media platforms joining pro-life America in remembering January as the month in which the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Since that tyrannical decision on January 22, 1973, over 50 million children have been killed. Tragically, fully 25% of pregnancies end in abortion, making a mother’s womb the most deadly place in the nation.
Don’t get me wrong, AFA is pleased to be on the front lines of America’s pro-life movement unapologetically proclaiming the sacredness of the lives of innocent unborn children. For example, we were pleased to be a part of the Houston event reported on the facing page. We know that God is inextricably bound as Author and Artist of all human life.
We don’t abhor Sanctity of Human Life month because we think it, somehow, unbiblical. The Bible couldn’t be clearer about God’s mind on the worth and dignity of human life and His wrath at the shedding of innocent blood. We passionately defend Biblical language that does not distinguish between an unborn child and a new born baby – both have personhood in the eyes of God. But it angered my spirit this year to plan for and observe a Sanctity of Human Life month. We don’t abhor it because we think it’s inappropriate.
We agree with Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who wrote: "I hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday because I'm reminded that we have to say things to one another that human beings shouldn't have to say. Mothers shouldn't kill their children. Fathers shouldn't abandon their babies. No human life is worthless, regardless of skin color, age, disability, economic status. The very fact that these things must be proclaimed is a reminder of the horrors of this present darkness."
We abhor Sanctity of Human Life month for those same reasons.
This year as we prepared for Sanctity of Human Life month we prayed that our grandchildren wouldn’t have to read articles against abortion and euthanasia. We prayed that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren would grow up in an age when abortion is illegal and unwanted. We are praying for our great-grandchildren that a Sanctity of Human Life month would seem as unnecessary to them as a Reality of Gravity Emphasis Sunday.
We abhor Sanctity of Human Life month because we’re reminded that we have to say things to one another that human beings shouldn’t have to say. Mothers shouldn’t kill their children. Fathers shouldn’t abandon their babies. No human life is worthless, regardless of color, age, disability or economic status. The very fact that these things must be proclaimed is a reminder of the horrors of this present darkness.
On the other hand, we also love Sanctity of Human Life month when we think about the AFA supporters who are adopting children into their loving families. We love to reflect on the men and women who serve every week in pregnancy centers for women in crisis. And we love to see men and women who have aborted babies find their sins forgiven, even this sin, and their consciences cleansed by Christ.
We’ll always need a Mother’s Day observance. We’ll always need a Father’s Day observance. But we pray and hope, please Lord, someday soon, that Sanctity of Human Life month will be unnecessary. 
