What's Your Plan

From LifeDate - Winter 2004.

What’s Your Plan?

by Linda D. Bartlett

It was as if the journalist from Reuters News Service was speaking directly to me. “What’s your plan,” he pointedly and bluntly asked, “for parenting and educating all the unwanted children you people want to bring into the world? Who will pay for policing our streets and maintaining the prisons needed to contain them when you, their parents, and the system fail them?” (Breakpoint with Charles Colson, 9/8/04)

Wow! This journalist, with brutal honesty, asked the question which may be in the minds of many people who defend abortion as a solution to difficult problems of life. At the same time, however, he reveals his own pessimism, lack of creativity, and hopelessness.

How do you and I respond?

We respond by being a part of Lutherans For Life (LFL). It really takes my breath away when I think of all the opportunities that are within arm’s reach of this educational and pan-Lutheran ministry. I’ve stayed involved with LFL all these years because this is a ministry that doesn’t just talk about being pro-life. We try to live pro-life. We don’t just tell other people not to choose abortion. We try to help people choose life. We don’t consider desperate situations to be hopeless. We look for creative solutions that inspire people to hope.

We respond by helping to build a culture of life. But what does such a culture look like? A culture of life is the opposite of what happened at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. A culture of life does not teach young people to shoot their fellow students or feel so unloved and worthless that they would end their own lives.
A culture of life is the opposite of what happened in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania on 9/11. A culture of life does not sacrifice innocent human life in order to accomplish a political, religious, economic, or personal agenda.

A culture of life is the opposite of what happens every day in abortion mills across the country. A culture of life does not offer death as a choice to women who find themselves carrying a child who may momentarily be viewed as “inconvenient” and then abandon those women to suffer the loss of that child.

“What’s your plan for parenting and educating all the unwanted children you people want to bring into the world?” asked the journalist for Reuters News Service.
The answer offered by Lutherans who love life is based on the generational and hopeful plan of the Almighty God.

First, we do not consider any child to be unwanted. God creates every child; therefore, He wants every child. He loves children of all sizes—embryonic or full-grown. To God, no child is an accident or mistake. It is because we live in a sinful world that life becomes difficult. It is because human fathers and mothers are tempted to think first of their own needs or desires that children are considered inconvenient. It is because fathers and mothers fail to trust God and instead fear the future that unborn children are not welcomed into the human family.

This is why you see Lutherans who love life volunteering at caring pregnancy centers, befriending unwed mothers, helping with adoption plans, or giving support to parents whose child has a physical or mental challenge.

Second, we have a plan for parenting and educating children. It is God’s plan. It is called faithful marriage (Genesis 2:24), family, and caring community. It is a father who works hard to protect and provide for his wife and children. It is a mother who tries hard to make a home where children are raised with loving discipline and taught how to respect themselves and others. It is a community that recognizes desperate situations and personally provides hopeful solutions.

This is why you see Lutherans who love life teaching purity and holy living in the home and school, preaching about the sanctity of human life and the sacredness of Biblical marriage from the pulpit, mentoring a troubled and lonely teen, or building a network of caring individuals who step in when the going gets tough.

Third, we see the choice of abortion as uncreative. Satan, the evil one, hates the life that God creates. He knows that each new human life is a creation of God and has the potential to make a positive difference in the world. A so-called “imperfect” baby challenges us to higher virtues, and our love for the “least of these” makes the world a safer place for everyone. Satan, however, wants us to be overwhelmed by the difficulties of life so he whispers in a woman’s ear, “Did God really say that abortion, just this once, would be so bad?” Satan wants to snatch away any opportunity to be creative with God. He is always working to steal away hope and then laughs when any of us sinners sink into despair. But, God loves life! His great love for life includes the procreative act between a husband and wife. “Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). Because God is the Giver of life, He also promises to provide all that is necessary to care for that life.

This is why you see Lutherans who love life stepping into the voting booth to vote for leaders who promise to build a culture of life as opposed to promoting the death culture of Roe v. Wade, equipping teens to respect themselves and others, explaining the consequences of unmarried sex which include incurable sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teenage pregnancy, encouraging young men and women to practice “saved sex” and offering them support in doing so, and challenging men and women to raise the standard of behavior.

Fourth, we believe there is hope after abortion and every other sin. Satan tempts a woman to think that abortion is her only choice. But, after the choice to kill her child has been made, Satan heaps on the guilt by hissing, “How could God ever forgive you?” Satan wants all people involved in the abortion decision—the woman who failed to welcome her child, the doctor who performed the risky surgical procedure, the man who paid for it, the family who encouraged it, the church who failed to offer options of life, and the community who defended “a woman’s right to choose”—to become weighted down with the burden of their guilt. But God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the burden of every sin. As so poignantly illustrated in the movie, The Passion of the Christ, Jesus suffered and died for our sins. But, He did not stay in the grave! Jesus conquered Satan, sin, and death! Jesus is alive today and stands with open arms beside every man, woman, and child. He invites us all to follow His path of life. His love warns us away from trouble and gives us strength to endure. His forgiveness is new every morning!

This is why you see forgiven Lutherans who love life excitedly sharing the message of hope through LFL’s abortion healing ministry called Word of Hope (888-217-8679), transforming the culture by mentoring across the generations through Titus 2 for Life (www.titus2-4life.org), helping congregations and communities welcome people with abortion in their past, and faithfully working to make the reasons for abortion and infanticide disappear into the darkness from which these ideas came.

The journalist for Reuters News Service asked, “What’s your plan?” You and I have an answer! It is a plan of action. It is a plan that respects the sanctity of each human life – soon to be born or already born. It is a plan that leads away from despair toward hope. It is a plan that involves rolling up our own sleeves to help. It is a plan of faithfulness even on the dangerous detours and bumpy roads of life.

The journalist for Reuters News Service appears pessimistic, uncreative, fearful, and hopeless. But, I am not bound to choices of death. I have a God of life! In Jesus Christ, I am optimistic, creative, trusting, and filled with hope!
In Jesus Christ, you are, too!

(Linda Bartlett was President of LFL from 1995 to February of 2004.)