My pastor shared this message via email this morning and I’d like to share it with you. Too many Christians (including Lutherans) see the abortion issue as a political issue, but they’re wrong. Abortion ends an innocent human life. That’s it, period. No one in this nation, be he Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Republican, Democrat, Conservative, etc., should support state sanctioned murder due to a person’s size, stage of development, location, or degree of dependency. I’ve written about this before (click here), but it never hurts to read what someone else is saying.

Abortion should not be a partisan issue.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ JESUS,

When pastors talk about politics, they tend to lose sight of their calling: to preach JESUS Christ and Him crucified for the redemption of the world. But in the matter of abortion, we are not dealing with the usual political matters such as health insurance costs, taxation rates, gun control, or foreign policy.

Abortion is, quite simply, the taking of a human life. To oppose abortion is not to side with a political party: it is to take your stand with the right of every human being to live. Thus among my favorite signs at the annual March for Life are the ones from Secularists for Life, Atheists for Life, Feminists for Life, and Democrats for Life. These groups demonstrate that whatever disagreements we have about other issues pertaining to religion or the governance of our country, we all stand together under the declaration that every human being has a fundamental right to life.

While a poll of Immanuel would likely reveal more members of one major party than another, I know that we have people of all political stripes in our congregation. And I am not interested, as your pastor, in addressing your politics. My calling is to watch out for your souls – and to speak out for the helpless and defenseless, which the unborn certainly are.

I like to think that if I weren’t a Christian, I would still be pro-life. For while the Word of God informs me that God loves and values every human being, it is a simple matter of science that from the moment of conception a human life has come into being, and human beings have what the 1776 Declaration of Independence affirms as “unalienable Rights.” Among the Founders who agreed to that statement were Christians to be sure, but also Deists. The pro-life position is not a Christian issue or a Republican issue but a civil rights issue – I believe the civil rights issue of our time.

As Christians, however, we have one more thing to offer: the God who gives life also grants forgiveness. Forgiveness to those complicit in abortion, forgiveness for our failure to care for those in need, forgiveness for all the times we have done what was convenient instead of what was right.

And flowing from that forgiveness to us, we Christians will live lives of forgiveness and mercy toward others, people in desperate and hopeless situations. Stand with us for life. Join us for the March for Life. Help us, by your offerings, to help pregnant women in need. Help us, by your offerings, to help abused women find shelter. These are today’s “widows and orphans in affliction” which “religion that is pure and undefiled” (James 1:27) desires to help.

Finally, pray. Pray for an end to abortion. Pray for an end to evil and violence in the world. Pray for those wounded and hurting after abortion. Kyrie, eleison!

Your unworthy undershepherd,
Pastor Esget

Well said, Pastor.