An ideologically diverse group of Christian leaders came together this past week to support a new ad campaign calling for policies that will reduce abortions.
The Christian radio ad campaign began airing in 10 swing states on Wednesday and will run until Election Day on Nov. 4. The states the ad is airing in are Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri.
“We must move beyond the spiritually damaging culture war era,” said the Rev. Rich Cizik, the National Association of Evangelicals’ vice president for governmental affairs, in support of the ad campaign.
“Deeply felt moral issues must no longer be leveraged for partisan gain. Let’s all join together to be part of a positive strategy to reduce abortions in America that puts problem-solving above political posturing,” he said.
Christian leaders supporting the ad are calling for Democrat and Republican politicians to find common ground solutions to reduce the number of abortions in America by tackling the root causes of abortion, including preventing unintended pregnancies and poverty.
“For decades now we’ve been stuck in a cycle of polarized legal debates that repeat ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ mantras from either side while the number of abortions has remained mostly unchanged,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners.
“What we need now is a new national commitment to pursuing practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the abortion rate in America.”
The ad highlights statistics such as 1 in 5 pregnancies in America end in abortion and the number of abortions remains unchanged from 32 years ago to urge an end to “political posturing” and for people on both sides of the abortion rights lines to “get serious about protecting life.”
Another idea highlighted in the ad is that while 2,400 late-term abortions a year is tragic, little is often said about the infants that die each year in America largely because of inadequate healthcare – a number 10 times that of late-term abortions a year.
“We need to ask ourselves what it really means to be pro-life and help move the conversation beyond bumper sticker slogans,” the ad reads.
It praises lawmakers who are already working on solutions that will drastically reduce abortions by expanding programs that encourage adoption, increasing pre- and post-natal healthcare, preventing unintended pregnancies, and helping young mothers choose life.
“It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to come together around solutions based on results, not rhetoric,” the ad concludes.
Christian leaders that endorse the abortion reduction ad campaign include, among others, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Dr. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of the 12,000-member Northland, A Church Distributed in Florida; and Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
Meanwhile, Christian right organizations such as Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are making their last pitch against Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s record on abortion.
FRC Action PAC announced on Friday its new TV ad in Virginia that targets Obama’s effort to overturn bans on partial-birth abortion.
The FOTF Action’s CitizenLink Web site, meanwhile, features as its top “Special Alerts” headline a broadcast titled “Obama’s Abortion Extremism” and a video with the summary “Obama voted No 4 times on the Illinois Born-Alive Infant Defined Act.”
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This is all a smokescreen. Wallis has been trying to hammer this down our throats for some time now. His point is that we should broaden the definition of pro-life to include other social issues that have "equal weight." He is wrong. There is no other social cause that we are dealing with in America that is on par with the murder of innocent life.
Look, the only ones who are actually doing anything to raise awareness and protest the great injustice of our time, the murder of unborn children, are Christians. There are people that have devoted their entire lives to this cause, much like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr did for the cause of civil rights. Now Wallis soothes us with words of gentle understanding, while also calling us to give up the fight for the greater good. I ask, what greater cause is there than protecting innocent human life?
I want to be clear here that if we abandon this cause as the primary injustice in our nation, we will find ourselves in a place we've not been since the passing of Roe v. Wade. We will have completely lost the battle.
Make no mistake, Wallis is not pro-life. Do not accept his new definition. Mark my words, this issue will become the dividing issue in the body of Christ for the coming years.
there are two views here that may never come together.
First, those who view the issue about themselves (have a right to do with MY body how I want to), and those who view the issue about others (there is a living human being in that womb that is in early stages of development).
Whose side is Christ on?
It is pretty clear, "do not stop the children from coming to me".
On the other hand, if we can get them to agree to reduce abortion, it is a recognition that there is something wrong here. It is a step in the right direction.
The " Root cause " of abortion is sin.
Is this a joke? "An ideologically diverse group of Christian leaders came together this past week to support a new ad campaign calling for policies that will reduce abortions. "
Christian coming only to "reduce" abortions. So let's allow some certain death of preborn babies. No wonder. It a Bipartisan coalition. How sicking. So the Democrats get to continue some abortions.
No the Christian (Christ led, molded in Christian image) should not allow any abortions. And life of the mother is a lame excuse. What about precious baby Emilia?
If Christians mix with this evil, God will vomit us out of his mouth. Woe to this compromise!
Danny
where does one get the Idea that a womans body is hers to do with as she pleases.?
1-Cor 6:19 says in part, " ye are not your own, Forr you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body."
Now thia quote is only a portion of that passage of Scripture, but you get the point.
A woman's body, Especially a Christian woman's body is not her own.
And I believe the same could be said for the body of the unsaved woman. but even if not, the Bible is clear on murder.
bc, excellent point about our world prior to Roe vs. Wade. And most if not all hospitals would give a woman and her family an option if indeed her life was physically in danger as a result of giving birth to her child.
ls, I hate to be the one to tell you but you are not pro-life you are pro-choice. Plus there are options other than abortion that mom who cannot afford to raise another child can take. Adoption is a very viable option, plus maybe she should have considered abstaining from sex or using birth control in the first place.
lordshepard, it is that type of thinking that keeps abortion legal and promotes abortion. Before abortion was made legal, what other laws were in force that denied a woman a right to make decisions about her body. There were none.
The question to be answered is what is the beginning point of life? The only non arbitrary point is conception (conception=beginning). If then at conception the child is person, they have certain "unalienable" rights, life being chief among them. As a person, then you cannot punish them for the crimes of the father. This violates due process and the biblical principle that it was based upon.
I think that if we really want abortion to end, the fight begins in the heart of Americans. If we evangelize, and those evangelized hunger for the word of God, it will become self evident that this is no less than murder. For those who think that the Bible is silent on abortion, I recommend the following verses: Psalm 51:5; Psalm 139:13-16; Job 31:15; Isaiah 46:3; and Isaiah 44:2 & 24, to name a few. As far as punishing the child for the crimes of the father: Deuteronomy 24:16, which is quoted in 2 Kings 14:6 & 2 Chronicles 25:4 and Ezekiel 18:1-4.
And P.S. Please don't tell me you are pro-life, and at the sametime vote into office those who will do everything in their power to not only further abortion, but who also support the worse kind of abortion, " Particle birth abortion.
Where they insert a long tube into the base of the babies skull and suck out it's brain.
God help us.
The Bible says that, " In the last days, some shall depart from the Faith."
Yea, Lets " Reduce " the number of abortions in America everyday. Lets bring it down from " four thousand " to " half of that.
I mean, we can live with a mere " Two thousand " killed a day.
Give me a break. I don't want to " reduce " the number of abortions in America, I want to completly wipe out the murder of Babies in America.
If the " so called " church would really come together based on the Word of God, It could be done.
But because, much of what calls itself the church has departed from the Word of God, They are ok with " reducing " abortion in America.
And please, don't tell me it can's be done, Don't tell that it is Impossible to stop abortion completly.
Do you think that God will be satisified with just " reducing " abortion.?
Much of the church is backslidden, and away from God. They no longer think or act according to the Word of God.
Praise the Lord! Finally we have a movement coming from a truly Christian heart instead of the black and white, partisan ignorance that fuels the drive to illegalize all abortions. I am completely pro-life but dare not support anti-abortion laws for fear of what that would do to a womanâ