Planned Parenthood, Ashley Madison, and the Gospel

Unless you have been on an extremely strict media fast for the last month, undoubtedly you have been confronted with two very heart-wrenching commentaries on our culture.

Planned Parenthood has made headlines in videos, released by the Center for Medical Progress, detailing the grotesque realities of harvesting unborn babies for research and stem cells. These videos have exposed the moral depravity of our world as babies, made in the image of God, are reduced to a choice and an economic commodity. What had been knit together with care in their mothers’ wombs is plundered amidst hearty laughs and jokes.

However, these videos don’t just indict the secular; it ultimately shows how stagnant and apathetic the bride of Christ has become. We, the church, cry out in outrage at these videos but how soon we forget that this holocaust on human life has been legally protected since 1973. We cry out; we tweet; we fuss; we protest; we post; and we even “tag” Planned Parenthood within our bile statements.

But, Church, where are our actions?

Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” James 2:17 “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Church, we have become impotent and lethargic. Our words are cutting and strong, but our actions are weak and feeble. We are pro-birth, but we have failed to be pro-LIFE. We have categorized the women who are preyed on by Planned Parenthood as villains instead of victims—victims both of self and sin. They don’t need our condemning words or our rhetoric; they need our Savior, and they need our presence.

Instead of being present and mentoring women and men in crisis; instead of opening up our homes to help, even when adoption may not be an option; instead of modeling our marriages and our homes to a world that needs Gospel-saturated families and marriages, we prostitute ourselves like Gomer (wife of Hosea) and indulge secretly in the pleasures of the world.

Beloved, our indifference and lethargy does nothing more than fuel hurt, pain, violence, and abandonment of children.

The headlines testify and the statistics prove that men of the Church are more interested in pornography and Ashley Madison affairs than loving their wives.

Ann Voscamp wrote in her latest blog, you know they’re laughing at us, right? (a must read), “They’re laughing at us because we make the Gospel a comedy with our hypocrisy, and our lack of monogamy, and our puffed up religiosity and dishonesty and our self-righteous animosity. They’re laughing at us because we trivialize the Gospel because we monetize it, because we cheapen it and we sell it, because we make ourselves comfortable with it – instead of dying for it.”

Brothers, we are called to love our wives like Christ loves the church. That means loving this precious, image-bearer of God even when the dailiness of life seems boring, even when her sin makes her unlovable, even when she wounds our ego, even when she fails to respect our leadership or rebels against our love. ‘Til death do us part.

And we do this because our marriages are a picture of the Gospel. This is a picture the world needs more than our rhetoric. Our wives and our children need our presence and our dependence on God.

So Brothers, put down the smartphone and pick up a Bible. Stop looking at porn; stop fueling human trafficking; and stop throwing stones at Planned Parenthood while your actions on Ashley Madison’s website keeps them in business. Life is short. Pray more. Read your Bible. Love your wife.

We don’t need the U.S. government to defund Planned Parenthood: we need our hearts changed and our deeds altered so that our lives defund Planned Parenthood.

Church, what would happen if we got to know the family next door? What would happen if we stopped running our kids to endless activities and freed our schedules to get involved in the lives of pregnant women, foster children and their families, and orphans and their families?

Stop wasting your life on Facebook and social media and invest your life in Gospel transformation and discipleship.

Beloved, what if tomorrow the Supreme Court of the United States of America made abortion illegal? Are we really ready for that? Are our churches ready not to just promote birth, but to help women raise their children for LIFE? Will we be willing and ready to stand in the gap? Will we open up our homes to adoption and foster care? Will we use our time to be mentors and disciple makers?

Beloved, are we really willing to let the Gospel reclaim our families?

May the Gospel restore our homes! May our lives not be wasted but be spent for the Gospel! And may the Gospel displayed in our lives show the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus, that while we were still sinners, Christ came and became our sacrifice.

Gomer, Hosea’s wife, was a prostitute, but the Lord called Hosea to pursue her with unending love and unlimited grace. This pursuit is a picture of what the Lord does for us. May the words of Hosea 11:10 ring true:

“They shall go after the Lord; He will roar like a lion; when He roars, His children shall come trembling from the west; they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.”

Beloved, are you ready to stand in the gap? If so, Lifeline Children’s Services stands ready to put you to action.

Are you called to adopt or be a foster parent? Apply today. Has the Lord burdened you for pregnant women and broken families? We need mentors. Is your heart burdened for the scores of orphans around the world? Get engaged from your home or on a trip with (un)adopted. The battle lines are forming and we need your help.

Partner with Lifeline today. Visit LifelineChild.org to donate to the cause; to apply to adopt; to sign up for a trip to visit orphans in need through our (un)adopted ministry; to apply to be a foster parent for a child in U.S. foster care; to volunteer in one of many ways for the sake of orphans; and ultimately to partner with us as we seek to take the Gospel to the fatherless.

O, Beloved, will you allow God to use the Gospel through you to impact the life of a child? Please do not hesitate to give Lifeline a call because we are here . . .

. . . to defend the fatherless.

Herbie Newell, Executive Director