How have we fallen so far? The issue was once a legitimate ethical challenge—a “gray area” so to speak. When is it proper to end one life in order to save another, particularly when it involves an unborn child? But, forty years ago, the gray spilled out and covered the black and white, with the result that moral ambiguity festered into moral depravity. Abortion is now the most common medical procedure in America. Over 55 million abortions have been performed in the United States since Roe v. Wade—3,300 daily. The number staggers the mind, equaling about one sixth of the current U.S. population.
Over the years, my own feelings on abortion have moved from shock to outrage to grief. I pray that one day we will look back on this age of legal convenience abortion with the same disdain that we present cast upon the era of legal slave trade.
America isn’t the first nation to tread this terrible ground. In Psalm 106, the author recalls God’s anger toward Israel when it, too, perpetrated such an atrocity.
They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean in their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage. Psalm 106:36-40 (ESV)
In Israel, the sin cycle hit its nadir when the people murdered their own children. The language in the Psalm is vivid, employing terms like “sacrifice,” “demons” “innocent blood,” and “polluted.” The Psalmist looked the issue in the face. We should, too. Websites such as www.Abort73.com show the raw facts without political filters, exposing abortion for what it is: a violent, brutal attack on something unspeakably beautiful, and innocent.
With gruesome reality in view, we must remember that when this sort of thing happened in Israel, it kindled the anger of the Lord. He abhorred them for sacrificing their own children. Generally, a sacrifice happens when one gives up something valuable to get something more valuable in return, perhaps from some deity. Israel sacrificed its children, thinking that, in return, some foreign god would grant them prosperity. In America, abortion may not be an effort to gain something from a pagan deity, but it is still intended to gain something supposedly better than the baby, and that is child sacrifice. The life of a child is being sacrificed for something, and whatever that something is, it is given greater value than the life at stake.
Today, the gods are different, but the pattern is the same. We’ve turned from the one true God and turned to the gods of convenience and choice, and so we will sacrifice anything—even what is most precious—to appease our gods.
We must declare to our culture the dread of child sacrifice.
Dr. Chuck Fuller comes to Anderson University with 13 years of experience in pastoral ministry, serving churches in Kentucky and Indiana. He holds a BA in Christian Studies from Campbellsville University, and an MDiv and PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. His primary field of study for the Ph.D. was in Christian preaching, with additional studies in systematic theology and philosophy. Before arriving at AU, Dr. Fuller was pastor at Bethany Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and adjunct professor of Christian preaching at Boyce College of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Additionally, Dr. Fuller has served on committees and boards of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
Married to Jessie, Dr. Fuller and his wife have two children–Kaylen Marie and Ian Charles. Jessie holds a Bachelor of Bible from Ozark Christian College, with a concentration in deaf ministry. Currently, Jessie works as a stay-at-home mom and brilliant culinary artist.
Homiletical theology comprises Dr. Fuller’s primary research area, as demonstrated in his recent book, The Trouble With “Truth Through Personality”: Phillips Brooks, Incarnation, and the Evangelical Boundaries of Preaching. Dr. Fuller also presented a paper, titled “The Pulpit at the Precipice of Heresy,” at the 2010 meeting of the Evangelical Homiletical Society.