"How could they DO such a thing?"

Posted in , , By Patty Kennedy 0 comments



Proverbs 12:18: "Wreckless words pierce like a 
sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

Words. We can so easily be ensnared by them. Whether we ourselves speak carelessly, or we hear someone else do so and are hurt, we all know that words are powerful. Proverbs 18:21 even says that the power of life and death are in the tongue.

A couple of years ago at this time of year, in honor of the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, some people thought it appropriate to post graphic photos of aborted fetuses on Facebook.

People who post things like this don’t exhibit the love and compassion of Jesus. It never occurs to them that perhaps a woman who has experienced an abortion might see that photo and be completely undone. And I don’t mean a non-Christian woman. Statistics on abortion are nearly the same for Christians as non-Christians. I even know of Christian parents who insisted their daughter have an abortion, because they didn’t want the embarrassment of people knowing their daughter had sex.

At any rate, as if a photo of an aborted fetus weren’t bad enough, people who commented said things that were far from redemptive. One guy quoted Scripture entirely out of context. Referring to women who have experienced abortion, he quoted Luke 17:2, saying “it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck.”

I have never experienced abortion myself, but facilitated an abortion recovery group for several years. Aborted women are broken enough without having to deal with the hateful words of those who call themselves Christ followers. Those who say, "I just don’t understand how anybody could do such a thing” have not examined their own sinful hearts. Of course you don’t understand it, if you’ve never been in that position.

Far too often we Christians like to categorize sins. Abortion and homosexuality are monstrous, yet we ignore our own sins, like being mean-spirited or gossiping or ignoring the poor and the widows. If we ourselves have not been enslaved by a particular sin, we just can’t imagine how anyone else could be – and that is the height of arrogant hypocrisy.

Would Jesus have walked up to a woman and held such a picture up to her face to condemn her? Certainly not. And neither should we, if we claim to follow Him.