Abortion and the American Conscience
"And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God,
and toward men." Acts 24:16
The conscience is that God-given faculty of man that is sensitive to right and wrong. It is an internal moral compass. By itself it is not sufficient to guide the human being due to our sin but in the case of a believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit the conscience is heightened to a greater level of awareness. However, even the unsaved have this internal moral compass. Paul speaks of this in Romans 2:14 when he says, “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it” Romans 2:14 NLT.
What happens to a person when the conscience is routinely violated over and over again? Paul describes the result when he says, “having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” 1 Timothy 4:2. To sear with a hot iron refers means to deaden the tissue or as we say today, it cauterizes that area of the body causing it to no longer be sensitive to touch or pain. When the conscience is seared it becomes insensitive to right and wrong.
So how has the ending of over 55,000,000 unborn babies lives via abortion since 1973 affected the conscience of our nation? I submit that this has had a searing affect on our social conscience.
Abortion is routine. It happens in America at the rate of 3,452 a day. We’ve grown accustomed to it. In many ways it doesn’t bother us any more.
Abortion is violent. It is part of a culture of death growing in our society where we embrace death as a solution to our social ills.
Abortion is murder. It is the ending of a human life. At last night’s VP debate Vice President Joe Biden said he believes that life begins at conception but he’s not going to impose that belief on others. Excuse me, but if you believe that life begins at conception then you must believe that to terminate that pregnancy would be to terminate a human life! What hypocrisy! It’s like saying, “I personally am opposed to robbing banks but if you want to rob a bank I will fully support your right to do it.”
Abortion cheapens life. To believe that we have the right to end a pregnancy and stop the full development of a human life does something to how we view human life. The abortion rights people promised us that legal abortion would bring a reduction in child abuse. Just the opposite has happened. Child abuse has risen drastically since Roe v. Wade. Why? Because of the effect on the social conscience. If I believe the life in the womb is expendable and I can violently cause its death then its easy to believe I can scream at that child or abuse that child physically outside the womb . When we do evil over and over and over it sears the conscience and the conscience of America has been seared.
I cannot and will not vote for candidates that will use their political influence to support the killing of the unborn and bring further damage to the social conscience of our nation. To me, there is no issue more important than life. What about you?
Pastor Dan