OK, here’s my latest beef: Can anyone tell me exactly why it is that so often God’s truth has to be spoken by non-believers? Why is it that Christians so seldom stand up and be counted on some of the key moral issues of our day, leaving it for Joe Pagan to step up to the plate?
More specifically, why is it that one non-Christian blogger will do more to stand up for the rights of the unborn than most pastors and priests in this nation? Why do secular writers do what Christian leaders are supposed to be doing? Where exactly are our leaders at a time like this?
I refer to a news story that has been making the rounds all over cyberspace about a poor Chinese woman who fell afoul of the horrendous Chinese one-child policy. The picture was so horrendous that it meant the Chinese officials had to back down and issue an apology in this case.
And secular writer Andrew Bolt was quite happy to do a major story on this in today’s Herald Sun, as he had done earlier on his own blog site. And this is not the first time the non-Christian columnist has spoken out quite clearly and strongly about abortion.
My guess is that over the years he has taken a strong stand against the culture of death far more often than most church leaders have over their long reigns. That simply ought not to be. It is the people of God – and especially the leadership – who should be at the forefront of these sorts of campaigns.
But far too often our church leaders are absolutely silent on this. But let me here briefly return to this particular story. One write-up puts it this way: “A human rights group has learned that a woman was forcibly aborted at seven months of pregnancy on June 3 in Shanxi Province, China.
“Women’s Rights Without Frontiers informed LifeNews that a new report from the China-based human rights organization 64Tianwang indicates the woman, Feng Jianmei, was beaten and dragged into a vehicle by a group of family planning officials while her husband, Deng Jiyuan, was out working.
“The officials asked for RMB 40,000 in fines from Feng Jianmei’s family and, when they did not receive the money, they forcibly aborted Feng at seven months, laying the body of her aborted baby next to her in the bed. Feng is under medical treatment in Ankang City, Zhenpin County, Zengjia Town, Yupin village.
“Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said, ‘This is an outrage. No legitimate government would commit or tolerate such an act. Those who are responsible should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. WRWF calls on the United States government and the leaders of the free world to strongly condemn forced abortion and all coercive family planning in China’.”
Bolt’s column today also described this appalling situation, and then added: “Within several days it became the most popular topic on Weibo, China’s Twitter. It’s a sign of the power of the internet that even some rural farmer can now force change on one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes.
“Three local family planning officials have been suspended, and the Ankang city government in Shaanxi province has offered ‘deep apologies’ for this ‘illegal action’. We can take a little heart from this crime. China’s dictatorship is fast changing from one that could once murder millions without a pang of conscience, to one whose citizens can shame it into change. But shouldn’t Deng’s picture of his dead daughter also shame us into change?
“Two things about that photograph make it so powerful. One is the terrible story it tells of a child killed by officials to the despair of its helpless parents. The other is that the photograph makes brutally clear that we are indeed talking about a child. A girl. Someone’s daughter. Not something non-human that we often dismiss as a ‘foetus’.
“So what it shows is an abortion of the kind that, without the use of force against the mother, occurs right here. Take the 2000 abortion at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital of baby Jessica, whose distressed mother threatened suicide if made to give birth to what she feared might be a dwarf. But probably wasn’t. That baby was 32 weeks in the womb. Older than the daughter of Feng Jianmei. And that is the difference. No pictures.
“Same with Jessica Jane, aborted in Darwin after her mother chose her career instead. She was evicted from the womb – alive – and left crying in a stainless-steel dish in an empty room until she died, 80 minutes later. Pictures might have made a difference.
“Or maybe not. After all, Australia’s highest honor – a Companion of the Order of Australia – was last week given to philosopher Peter Singer, who sees nothing inherently wrong in the killing of children such as Jessica Jane. In fact, why not kill some babies after birth, too?”
Yes – where are the pictures? And that leads to the second beef I have. Why is it that when the MSM did cover this story, most did not show the gruesome pictures? The actual photos were not even used in the Herald Sun hardcopy version of Bolt’s article, or in the online version of it.
Or if they did use the pictures, why did they use a pixelated version of the photo? This is the very thing that was used in the Bolt blog version of his article. So even in his own articles he could not get the photos clearly shown. And yet the MSM will always show graphic pics of dead seals or dead whales. But not dead babies. (Note: the first link I have below does show the actual graphic images.)
But back to my first beef. It is time for far more pastors, priests and other church leaders to stand up and be counted here. Why must it always be secular folks who demonstrate some moral outrage and intestinal fortitude? When will Christian leaders show some conscience and some guts?
I like what American pastor John Piper has said in this regard. So let me finish my beef with his most appropriate remarks:
“I preach on the horrific sin and injustice of abortion and on the glory of the cause of life at least once a year in our church. . . . I believe pastors should put their lives and ministries on the line in the issue of abortion. The cowardice of some pastors when it comes to preaching against abortion appalls me. . . . The law of our land is immoral and unjust. That should be declared from tens of thousands of pulpits in America.”
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/12/chinese-woman-seven-months-pregnant-becomes-victim-of-forced-abortion/
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/baby-its-a-crying-shame/story-e6frfhqf-1226398054333
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