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Caroline on abortion

In my recent post, “Abortion - EVERYONE’s talking about it“, Caroline made a comment that was so good I wanted to reproduce it on the front page:

Yes, everyone is writing about it.
But no-one who has had one is ever going to say so because we are all so high-and-mighty and theological about it (me included).
We do need to think correctly about the unborn, we do need to be overwhelmed by the extent of the tragedy, but as I read over all that has been written in Christian blogs about abortion, I just canâ€™t imagine a Christian women owning up to the fact that she has had an abortion, and so she is left to her grief in even greater silence, where she should have received the love and compassion of sisters (and brothers - but more removed) in Christ.
So many had external pressure exerted on them to abort, were fed misinformation by the medical profession, were caught between a financial rock and a hard place with people telling them it was the easy way out - and have discovered the road afterward is anything but easy, the grief is unimaginable and unrecognised; and most knew those cells were a baby. No-one offered to help them look after the baby once it was born, or find housing when their family kicked them out, or paid rent, or….
I recommend everyone who writes about abortion read Melissa Tankard Reistâ€™s book â€œGiving Sorrow Wordsâ€. It is exceptionally well written, not a word out of place. It records some 18 womenâ€™s personal stories (of 200 sent to the author) and a brilliant introduction and insightful afterword which draw together the issues influencing the situation for so many women.
So, Compassion, please, dear brothers and sisters. Letâ€™s try and say the sorts of things about abortion that would help, not hinder, our sisters speak up and find some healing from the burden they silently bear.

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Amen!

Here at the White Horse Inn we thoroughly agree. The people that we need to save our anger for are those that persuade women that it’s ok to abort their children. They are the ones, whether they be employed by abortion businesses or are notables in the Church, who need to repent.

We are also pleased to recommend Melinda Tankard Reist’s book. Those of you who want to buy it should click on the link to the right. Alternatively, the best price we can find is at Biblio.

Posted by on 02/20 at 04:14 PM

That reminds me of something Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together

The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!
...
In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light… In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest… Now the fellowship bears the sin of the brother. He is no longer alone with his evil for he cast off his sin in confession and handed it over to God. It has been taken away from him. Now he stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God in the Cross of Jesus Christ… The sin concealed separated him from the fellowship, made all his apparent fellowship a sham; the sin confessed has helped him to find true fellowship with the brethren in Jesus Christ.

Bonhoeffer goes on, in what I think is one of the greatest books ever written, and describes confession as the breakthrough to the cross, the breakthrough to new life, and the breakthrough to certainty… which is exactly what liberal theology cannot provide.

Posted by on 02/20 at 09:21 PM

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