The Pastor's Struggle to Address Abortion
I finally emailed my church at 2:07AM on Saturday. No one pressured me into this, but I knew that if I remained silent, social media would pick up the mantle to disciple my church on how to think, feel, and react to the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding abortion.
But I was reluctant to hit send. This is strange considering that I have never been shy about addressing racism, injustice, politics, or elections in the past. What was I running from? Were my conservative friends right? They are exasperated by pastors that speak against injustice that aligns with liberal ideologies but are silent when it aligns with conservative ones. They conclude that these pastors care less about injustice and more about being an ally to their liberal friends.
I had to seriously consider this charge, not as a concession, but as an act of worship. After all, I am called to fear God alone. This requires me to revere and regard him as the most important person in every decision and circumstance and stand in the strength of his approval even if it requires me to lose the approval of others.
I know I am not the only pastor who finds this challenging. According to a recent study by Barna, 38% of pastors who consider quitting ministry cite political division as a reason why. Making disciples in a hostile political climate is now a part of our calling. I understood this as I typed my email, that people would be offended, and possibly leave. But here are three things we can do to overcome the struggle to address the Court’s decision regarding abortion.
FIND JESUS IN THE CIRCLE OF SWORDS
In most political divisions within the church, there are those who want to defend Christianity with strength, and those who want to defend non-Christians from Christians. One of the passages in the Bible that helps us navigate this tension is the story of Jesus healing Malchus.
Jesus gathers himself off the ground in Gethsemane, sees his disciples sleeping, and a mob approaching. His disciples wake up and wonder if this is the moment of their revolution. When Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus, Jesus heals Malchus and rebukes Peter.
He tells his disciples,
“No more of this!”(Luke 22:51)
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54)
In other words, in their attempts to defend Jesus, they not only misrepresent him, but misunderstand his saving purpose.
He then asks the mob,
“Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? (Luke 22:52)
The fact that the mob approaches Jesus with swords reveals that they, too, have misunderstood Jesus.
The task of the pastor is to stand with Jesus in this circle of swords and clarify for those who defend him, as well as those who oppose him, what Jesus is really like. And it is an act of compassion — compassion for Malchus — that confounds them all.
CHOOSE COMPASSION THAT CLARIFIES
Compassion is one of the best ways to bring correction in a circle of swords. But without a severed ear to heal, we must choose a compassionate response that clarifies the heart of Jesus.
Pastors want those who feel threatened by Jesus to know that he has come for them, that they don’t need to be defensive, and can bury their swords. Some even believe that standing in solidarity with those who aggressively defend Jesus obscures him. They heard the about the Supreme Court’s ruling and decided to avoid triumphalism. Instead, their compassion led them to acknowledge the complex circumstances that lead women to consider an abortion, comfort those who experience guilt, and make space for people who grieve the Court’s decision.
But this can be frustrating for people in our congregation who received the Court’s decision as an answer to decades of prayer. Their pastor’s muted response confuses them. “Why is he making space for grief in this moment? Is this not an occasion to rejoice? Why doesn’t my pastor share my joy?”
This is the tension that pastors feel: the same compassionate response that they hope will clarify Jesus’s heart for some ends up confusing others. Therefore, compassion alone is not enough. When appropriate, we must show compassion while naming the darkness.
LOVE YET NAME THE DARKNESS
Jesus showed compassion but acknowledged the darkness at work:
“Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.” (Luke 22:53)
In our eagerness to show compassion to those who misunderstand the heart of Jesus, we must also have the courage to name and expose the darkness. In our current cultural moment, self-actualization and self-expression are society’s highest values. If Roe legitimized aborting children as an acceptable practice, not merely when the mother's life is at risk, but also when these values are at risk, then the work of discipleship is to show compassion, while naming the darkness that idolizes these values above life.
If abortions are accepted because we view ourselves as individual non-contingent beings whose satisfaction resides in being rid of all constraints that inhibit our self-expression and fulfillment, then we should show compassion but expose this lie too. We are not independent non-contingent beings. In fact, whenever we qualify the personhood of a fetus by its ability to exist without others, we perpetuate the myth that we believe about ourselves. There has never been a moment when we did not rely upon another for our existence. There is only one non-contingent being in the Universe. And it is in him that we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28).
However, not everyone shares this conviction. Therefore, one of the best ways to name the darkness is to demonstrate that we have not succumbed to it.
And what better way to do this than personally care for mothers and unwanted children when it conflicts with our own desires for self-fulfillment? To defy the spirit of the age by seeking and supporting the vulnerable when doing so requires us to be vulnerable too? For our religion is true if we become a family to those who have no family — when we care for widows and orphans (James 1:27).
But there is another darkness to be named too. It is the darkness that opposes the way of Jesus in favor of political domination. While Jesus didn’t refer to this darkness in Gethsemane, on another occasion, he exposed Peter’s resistance toward his saving purpose as the influence of Satan. After Jesus described his willingness to suffer and die,
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Matthew 16:22-23)
To be clear, the disciples loved Jesus. But his willingness to suffer and his compassion for Malchus exposed their misconceptions about the kind of king he is and the sacrificial love by which he conquers. In that sense, our compassion to those who feel threatened by Jesus can be a stumbling block to those who would rather aggressively defend him. But we love anyway.
My church is filled with people of diverse political opinions and backgrounds. And I knew that in emailing them I ran the risk of alienating some of them. I didn’t fear the loss of people’s approval, but only that something I said or left unsaid would prevent them from knowing the heart of Jesus. For what else do we want in these moments but for people to find him? And I suppose if that is going to happen through our leadership, we must enter the circle of swords, find Jesus’s hand, and respond with confounding love amid the darkness.