US Senate leaders have revealed a plan that would avert a government shutdown for seven weeks. If such efforts are unsuccessful by Sunday, hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed and a wide range of services will be suspended.

Some airports may experience disruptions and delays, roughly ten thousand children could lose access to childcare starting next month, and disaster relief funds could be depleted. Current members of the military would not receive paychecks. Security at the southern border could be further imperiled. Additional aid to Ukraine could be affected.

Ironically, lawmakers would continue to receive paychecks, but other federal workers would not.

Here we find another example of the fact that what happens in the halls of power affects people far from them. Let’s reflect on this reality in light of the most urgent moral issue of our time.

“It’s time to change the conversation”

Yesterday we discussed the ongoing efforts to normalize unbiblical immorality in our culture. Here is the best (or worst) example I have seen recently: the National Network of Abortion Funds has produced a video titled “Everyone Loves Someone Who Had an Abortion.” It claims:

In order for abortion to be truly an option, it must not only be legal, but actually available, without the shame. It’s time we worked together towards a world where all people have the power and resources to care for and support their bodies, identities, and health—for themselves and their families. We need to take the hassle, hustle, and harassment out of healthcare. It’s time to change the conversation about abortion, to make it a real option, available to all people without shame or judgment. We all love someone who has had an abortion, whether we know it or not.

This strategy and others like it are working: popular support for abortion has risen after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, and abortion rights have won in every election where they have been contested since that time.

The logic of abortion is persuasive for many: no unwanted child should be brought into the world; the state has no right to legislate personal morality; and a woman must be permitted to make pregnancy decisions in light of her health, the circumstances leading to her pregnancy, and her other life challenges.

Here’s the point I’d like you to consider today: each argument works equally well for infanticide.

The change that occurs at birth

If no unwanted child should be brought into the world, should one be allowed to continue to live in it? If the state cannot legislate personal morality, why does it have the right to forbid infanticide? If a woman should be able to make pregnancy decisions in light of her health and life circumstances, why does this right end when she gives birth?

The only change that occurs at birth is that the preborn baby moves a few inches from inside the womb to outside it. Inside the womb, it has its own autonomy, brain, nervous system, and blood circulation. From the moment of conception, it has its own chromosomes and unique genetic blueprint. It is as distinctly a human being as its mother or father.

Some abortion advocates support the right to end the preborn baby’s life prior to “viability,” its ability to live outside the womb (around twenty-three weeks into pregnancy). But is a newborn baby truly viable? How long can it live without the nurture and protection of its caregivers?

In summary: if we oppose infanticide (as we obviously and adamantly should), we should oppose abortion. A mother has no more logical right to kill the preborn baby living in her womb than a homeowner has the logical right to kill a guest living in their house.

“The man who moves a mountain”

Here’s the problem with my reasoning: I am reasoning. I am employing logic in response to a deeply emotional and personal issue. But this can be a “category mistake” like asking how much a circle weighs or the color of the number 7.

While it’s vital that we defend the cause of life in reasoned terms (cf. 1 Peter 3:15–16), it’s also vital that we help women facing unplanned pregnancies deal with the very real pressures they face. The No. 1 reason women choose abortion is that they are “not financially prepared.” “Not a good time” comes in second, followed by “issues with partner,” “need to focus on other children,” “interferes with future plans,” and “not emotionally or mentally prepared.”

The church can help with each of these issues. We can support pregnant women financially, relationally, socially, and personally. We can help them raise their children or choose adoption. We can be pro-life, not just pro-birth.

Where to begin? The artist Agnes Martin noted, “Your path is at your feet, whether you realize it or not.” Confucius advised, “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” Pray for women considering abortion and for those who have chosen it in the past. Encourage your pastor and other faith leaders to be bold, courageous, and compassionate on this issue. Pray for local pro-life ministries and support them financially. Encourage adoption and consider it personally.

“All that borrows life from Thee”

The forces aligned against life—from our nation’s capital to local abortion providers—are powerful and well-funded. But they do not have our Father’s blessing. They do not have access to his omnipotent strength, omniscient wisdom, and omnibenevolent compassion. So long as we are on his side, we are on the winning side.

In the words of Isaac Watts:

There’s not a plant or flower below,
But makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee
Are ever in Thy care;
And everywhere that we can be,
Thou, God, are present there.

Denison Forum

A leaked Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) training video instructs staff to confirm that men can get pregnant and encourages them to refer to a pre-born baby as an “embryo” or “fetus,” to a “fetal heartbeat” as “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity,” and to a “mother” as a “veteran” or “person.”

When I saw the story, I then checked some other taxpayer-funded agencies for similar language. I found this statement on the National Institutes of Health website: “The term chestfeeding or bodyfeeding can be used alongside breastfeeding to be more inclusive” for “nonbinary or trans people.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website similarly includes COVID-19-related information for “pregnant and recently pregnant people” (not “women”). The website later refers to “people who are pregnant,” presumably in deference to pregnant biological women who do not identify as women.

The VA training video correctly states, “Language has a profound impact on what people hear and learn.” Therein lies my point today.

A pervasive four-part strategy

One of my persistent frustrations across decades of cultural engagement has been the degree to which our opponents have weaponized euphemisms in service to their various causes.

Early in the abortion struggle, for example, those of us who are “pro-life” were labeled “anti-abortion” while those who supported abortion were labeled “pro-choice.” Who doesn’t want to be for choice? And who wants to be “anti” anything?

Now our “pro-choice” opponents call themselves advocates for “reproductive justice” or “reproductive freedom” and caricature us as part of a “war on women.” Again, who doesn’t want to be for “justice” or “freedom”? Who wants to be part of a “war” on half the human population?

We can see the same strategy at work all around us. Euthanasia advocates are for “death with dignity.” Those of us who defend biblical sexual morality are labeled “homophobic” or “transphobic.” What started out as “gay pride” is now simply “pride.” The rainbow was co-opted from a biblical symbol of new life to a cultural symbol of “inclusion” that actually endorses and embraces destructive behavior.

As I have warned before, this is all part of a four-part strategy to normalize unbiblical immorality, legalize it, then stigmatize those who disagree and ultimately criminalize their disagreement. Where my warning may be misleading, however, is that these are not stages through which society progresses. We are ever in the normalizing phase as our opponents seek to indoctrinate new generations (thus Pride Month preschool cartoons, Legos and other “affirming” games, children’s books extolling same-sex parents, and so on). It’s not enough in their view to grant LGBTQ persons civil rights—we must agree with their ideology and actively promote their cause or we are dangerous homophobes and worse.

Lessons from pine trees

This theme has been on my mind because of a storm that blew through our area Sunday night. My wife Janet and I woke up Monday morning to shingles blown off our roof and branches scattered across the backyard. That was all repairable. Here’s what was not: a large hardwood tree was snapped over and lay sprawling across our front yard. However, the pine trees surrounding it, though they are much taller, escaped the storm with no damage.

This is for two reasons: they have deep roots, and their trunks are flexible. As a result, they can withstand gale-force winds by staying connected to the ground in which they are planted while bending rather than breaking in the storm. Pine trees are evergreen as well, shedding their needles only when they age and quickly replacing them.

All of this reminds me of the person who is “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3). His secret? “His delight is in the law of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and on his law he mediates day and night” (v. 2). By contrast, “the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4).

To yield “fruit in its season” with a “leaf” that “does not wither,” stay rooted in the word of God. Spend time every day “meditating” on it—the Hebrew word means to “ponder, ruminate, reflect upon.” Do this “day and night,” not just on Sunday and during brief devotional times.

When we do this, we give the Holy Spirit tools he can use in helping us to “understand the time” and know what our nation “ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). The more we immerse our minds in Scripture, the more we are able through the “powers of discernment” to “distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

Lessons from bank tellers

Think biblically, and you will act redemptively. And you will live a life God can bless and use with enduring fruitfulness in this world and the next. Like bank tellers in training who handle so much genuine currency that they can intuitively spot fakes, we are “transformed by the renewal of [our] mind” so that we can “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

In response to Jesus’ question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46), Billy Graham wrote: “Always ask yourself these questions about your plans: ‘Can I ask God’s blessing on it? Can I do this to the glory of God? Or will this be a stumbling block to me or someone else?’

“Are you calling Jesus ‘Lord’ but not doing what he wants?”

How would you answer Dr. Graham’s question today?

Denison Forum