Those Children Have Names

John Knight writes in response to the recent "after-birth abortion" discussion that has been making the rounds lately.

As nearly everyone admits, the authors are not proposing or arguing anything new. They have, in fact, done a great service to the cause of the unborn by openly and clearly connecting the argument for infanticide with abortion.

But let’s not stop there. Let's drag the idea of infanticide and its connection to abortion into the full light of day. Horrific ideas can't live in the light of Jesus — and this is one idea we’ll have to keep killing until Jesus returns.

Here’s one way to do it. Attach a real person to what infanticide does. Don’t allow it to be an abstract idea about an unnamed, unknown child with a specific set of circumstances — circumstances that are usually hard enough to make us recoil at the potential suffering.

Children You Know

Make it children you know: Billy or Mariana or Chua or Narong or Desta or your own. Feel the horror in yourself at the thought of that child’s destruction, and then talk about it openly. You already know and should be teaching your church that this child, no matter his or her circumstances, is a gift from God for God’s glory and for the benefit of his church. If they come with complications because of disability or poverty in the family or any other reason, that child is a call to the church to demonstrate the love and grace and mercy and power of God in Christ.

That child is a call to demonstrate Jesus is a greater treasure than your comfort.

Read the rest.