Season of Giving 2024
Outreach
By Scott McKee
On November 8, Michigan voters approved Proposal 3 amending the Michigan Constitution to make abortion legal and accessible to all. Many are celebrating the decision as a victory in women’s health. Others are lamenting the decision as a societal stamp of approval for the murder of unborn children. This is a divisive and polarizing moment.
I have argued before that Christians ought to be consistently and comprehensively pro-all-of-life. We must reject the false dichotomy of our culture that we can either support only women or only children. If we really believe that ALL PEOPLE are made in the image of God regardless of a person’s age, gender, ethnicity, economic status, or any other variables, then we will find ways to advocate for life at every stage.
So let’s keep doing that.
Let’s keep loving our neighbor, advocating for the marginalized, healing the broken, serving the poor, seeking the lost, counseling the confused, welcoming the wanderer, and worshiping our sovereign God. Let’s keep growing, reaching, confessing, giving, forgiving, and praying.
There are at least three things we should not do.
- Don’t put all hope in legislation.
The battle was never solely a legal issue. Making abortion illegal wouldn’t eliminate abortions. Neither does making abortion legal inhibit its decline. Abortion rates in the United States have fallen precipitously since their peak in the 1980s even though abortion was legal the entire time. Through education, support, and prayer, we can expect the abortion rate to continue to decline. Let’s continue to foster and adopt children. Let’s continue to teach the beauty, power, and boundaries of sexual union. Let’s continue to support pregnancy resource centers. Let’s continue to pray that one day abortions will be no more, not because they are illegal, but because they are no longer desired and no longer necessary. Pray for a day when crime against women is no more and a day when every child grows up wanted and loved. Our hope was never in the legal system. Our hope is in Christ Jesus and in His coming kingdom.
- Don’t hate those who voted differently.
Your family members and friends who voted differently than you voted are not your enemy. In fact, most people on both sides cast their vote motivated by compassion. Continue to love your neighbor and assume the best. Even if you decide that people who voted differently than you voted are, in fact, your enemy, you’re still not off the hook. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
- Don’t stop loving and supporting women.
One of the accusations levied against those who advocate for the protection of children in the womb is that a pro-life stand is a stand against women. As followers of Jesus, we must overturn this way of thinking not through stronger rhetoric, but through radical acts of compassion as we lovingly care for at-risk mothers as well as those who are post-abortive. The church should be the safest and most supportive place for a woman to be. We must stand against intimidation, abuse, and judgement and instead, be people of empathy, humility, and self-sacrificing love.
If you are disappointed by the outcome of Proposal 3, take time to grieve. Lament. Cry out to God. But then pick yourself up and continue “your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). God is at work!
