These two issues have grabbed hold of me and tear at my heart. The first came upon me through my own personal experience with abortion. Oh, how a frightened girl will swallow lies that “it will be easy and you can just go on with your life”. Maybe for some. It took me years of living with guilt and shame before I sought counseling through a local pregnancy counseling center. The second issue of human trafficking came upon me through sessions at a missions conference that made me shockingly aware that slavery isn’t limited to distant countries, but still is happening in our own country, our own hometown, maybe even in one of the houses on the block where we live.
In my mind, the two issues are a product of a growing mind-set in our nation comparable to the Biblical time of Judges: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” There is no right or wrong, only what is right for me (whoever me happens to be). That’s what they say.
It’s dangerous when a government strives to override the consciences of God-fearing people who hold life dear and force them to pay for contraception and abortion on demand for others. Where does such government control end? Read How Do You Kill Eleven Million People? Pro-choice sounds so much nicer than “abortion” which is no less than the premeditated murder of an unborn child. Planned Parenthood is an oxymoron.
We are taught (by the media and trained spokesmen and women) to believe that abortion clinics have women’s health as uppermost concern, rather than profit. Read Unplanned by Abby Johnson who knows the inside story of Planned Parenthood clinics, having directed one of the largest in Texas.
In human trafficking, men and women are lured by promises of a better life. When relocated, their documents are taken and they are controlled through debt bondage, physical abuse, and fear. Sex traffickers prey on the young and most vulnerable; 12-14 year old girls most often in dysfunctional families, already victims of abuse, easy prey to a predatory manipulator who pretends to love them in order to steal their lives and line their own pockets with bloody lucre. An Amber Alert goes out quickly for a pretty blonde white girl like Elizabeth Smart, but what about Alexis Patterson, Teekah Lewis, and Jahi Turner, and other missing children of color who were taken and never found?
Life is precious in God’s sight. All life; black, brown, yellow, red, and white from the womb to the grave and beyond. He loves us! He designed and created us. He formed our inner parts and wove us in our mother’s wombs. His eyes saw our unformed substances. He wrote our DNA. He knew each of us before we could speak a word. He loves us so much He counts the hairs on our heads and knows the number of days we will live on this earth – and made a way for us to live forever in His loving Presence through faith in His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay the price for our sins – all of our sins.
What is precious to God should be precious to us. We need to be aware of what is happening around us in our neighborhoods and communities. We must stand up and speak for those who cannot – or dare not — speak for themselves.