Cancelling the unborn… and other believers
‘Cancel culture’ is a modern term to describe the growing phenomenon of ‘cancelling out’ those who have opposing views, or who approach life and situations from a different perspective.
However, we also see a kind of ‘cancelling’ of the most vulnerable – the babies subjected to abortion. Their lives are seen as inconvenient, so their future potential as a living, breathing reflection of God’s image is surgically cancelled.
Some of the proponents of this dreadful practice would deny that these tiny victims were human beings at all; just lumps of inconvenient tissue.
Jesus refers to the sin of physical murder; but he correlates this with murderous attitudes of the heart, pointing out that both are worthy of heavy judgement
If the murder of unborn babies is the worst modern crime against God’s heart, then that shedding of innocent blood surely cries out from the ground as a testament against us.
This is clearly a primary issue to be dealt with by the Church; but the wider issue seems to be the Church’s collective apathy in trying to address it.
Multiple acts of heresy, prideful judgement without mercy, gossip and criticism fuelled by jealousy, thwarted agendas and unrepentant pride
In Matthew 5:21-22 Jesus refers to the sin of physical murder; but he correlates this with murderous attitudes of the heart, pointing out that both are worthy of heavy judgement, even hell fire. These heart attitudes, so appalling to God, can, sadly, apply not only to individual believers’ attitudes and behaviour, but also to leaders’ relating to each other. We know that even whole groups have ended up denouncing each other.
So while abortion must be the worst example of ‘cancel culture’, is this same culture also alive and kicking in the Church?
The act of abortion kills a precious human life; but, just as in the natural realm the substance of an unborn child is aborted physically, we in the Church have caused spiritual ‘miscarriages’ of ministries, Christian leaders and. most importantly, younger ‘baby’ Christians. Hoards of young, immature believers have been aborted from the ‘body of Christ’ before the ‘substance’ of their faith could develop sufficiently to enable them to survive the impact of attack.
Multiple acts of heresy, prideful judgement without mercy, gossip and criticism fuelled by jealousy, thwarted agendas and unrepentant pride, coupled with our inability to see beyond our own perspectives, have sometimes consigned not only individuals but whole ministry groups to the trash heap.
The two issues of human and spiritual abortion could be more closely connected than we think.
In conclusion; is the Lord saying that part of our repentance strategy should be examining our own hearts to see if there are any sins of ‘murderous intent’ to be repented of before we can gain a clearer seat of spiritual authority to deal with the issue of nine million aborted babies?
Maggie Samms
Liskeard, Cornwall
Maggie Samms