America is better than abortion. The idea of America, anyway. Our Founding Fathers showed great wisdom and understanding when they declared what we all know to be true, that we are “endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
On that single phrase rests the idea of America. That we are not our own masters, but that there is a God to whom we will ultimately render account for our actions. This worldview sparks in us a desire, not just to do good, but to be good.
Freedom requires great restraint.
This is why the French Historian Alexis de Tocqueville, who came to America to study its extraordinary success, wrote after carefully studying our culture:
“Thus whilst the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust.
“Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all the Americans have a sincere faith in their religion, for who can search the human heart? But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation, and to every rank of society.”
As we have lost those important Christian ideals, we have continued to lose our freedoms in America. As morality and virtue breaks down, more and more laws are needed to deal with our corrupt actions and the less free we are.
The March for Life, being celebrated today, reminds us that loss of respect for human life is perhaps the most strident example of our current blindness. Almost 60 million lives lost to abortion since Roe v. Wade was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. We are talking World War II casualties here.
We must put an end to abortion. We must turn back to those beautiful self-evident truths of our founding. Ronald Reagan articulated the challenge before us:
“This nation fought a terrible war so that black Americans would be guaranteed their God-given rights. Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some could decide whether others should be free or slaves. Well, today another question begs to be asked: How can we survive as a free nation when some decide that others are not fit to live and should be done away with?
“I believe no challenge is more important to the character of America than restoring the right to life to all human beings. Without that right, no other rights have meaning.”
That is the challenge we face. America will not stand as a free nation if this evil continues. That is the urgency that makes thousands of people come march in a forecast blizzard and lift our united voices against this horrible violation of God’s design.
For we were all created. And Scripture tells us we were created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27. As in so many other areas of life, the Biblical view of new life is incredibly helpful for our understanding of this issue. It is counter cultural, and it is for the benefit of all peoples. Listen to Psalm 127:3, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”
Children are a blessing, not a curse. Could you imagine what would happen in our land if our policies reflected that?
I recently came across this reading (below) of Psalm 139 by Reflectors Ministry that I think shows better than I can with words, the sort of people we should become. I believe we still can.
Psalm 139 Reflectors Reading from Faith Church on Vimeo.
Mario Diaz, Esq. is legal counsel at Concerned Women for America (CWA), the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, and the author of “Be Spent: Winning the Fight for Freedom’s Survival.”