WILL THE CHURCH TRY TO SAVE THE LEAST OF THESE?

By Rev. Brent Tysinger

The November Saturday morning was achingly cold - the biting kind of cold that burns the skin and makes hands search for pockets and chins dip down into collars. Even as the morning waxed on and sunlight peeked out from time to time through the gray sky, it was tough to stand outside on that morning just before Thanksgiving.

Making the temperature bearable was the fact that no one stood there alone that day. Dotting the sidewalks on both sides of Randleman Road in Greensboro , North Carolina , were a handful of believers in Christ. Our denominational tags meant nothing to us. One couple was Baptist. Others were non-denominational. My wife and I, part of the Wesleyan Church . All, the Body of Christ.

We hugged the front of the sidewalks with our feet. We had been warned by the Greensboro Police Department that to step on the grass behind the sidewalks would be considered trespassing and could lead to our arrest. Different members of the Police Department had been by several Saturdays in a row, first to move us out of a nearby parking lot and up onto the sidewalk, and then to make sure we were keeping their definitions of city codes and ordinances. 

We spoke to the passersby on the sidewalk. We received encouragement from honking motorists and homeless men on bicycles.  One lady in our group handed the homeless men gift cards to the McDonald’s, which sat a couple of blocks away, so they could get some hot food and a drink. We spoke to a man and his daughter. One man in our group talked for about an hour with an Islamic woman about grace. Mostly, though, we just stood and held signs.

We were not protesting. There were no chants. Not a lot of movement. No angry rhetoric. Though gentle and non-violent, members of our group had, on earlier days, been frisked and threatened by taser.  Friends of our group had been intimidated into believing we were nothing but troublemakers - and for good reason. Several murders were about to be committed not a stone’s throw away from where we stood.

Abortion has killed over 50 million babies in the United States since January 22, 1973. For each victim, there is a mother and a father and a doctor and nurses who have innocent blood on their hands. Many of the mothers of these unborn children will suffer life-long episodes of depression, and many will end their own lives because of the guilt of destroying God’s gift. We have a responsibility to them and their children.

Near every abortion mill in the United States , there is a Christian church or churches that have the Christian duty to try to stop the carnage - as much a duty as one would have to stop child abuse or molestation if you knew for certain it was happening.  But most churches are turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to the problem.

Every church has their own reason not to be on the front lines of the abortion battle. Some give money to anti-abortion agencies and believe that is enough. I can tell you that it is not. Some vote for anti-abortion candidates and believe that is enough. I can tell you it is most definitely not enough. Some churches don’t want to be seen as controversial. They are afraid they might lose attendance. But our Lord was so controversial that many left because they couldn’t stand His tough teachings and, in the end, they nailed Him to the cross. What is His example, and the example of Christian men and women who were willing to do battle for Christ, and for others, in the midst of our great national and global controversies such as slavery, segregation, and the Holocaust? Are we too good to enter the fray when they were not?

Some churches don’t want to be on the front lines of the abortion battle because they don’t want to be seen as political. I can tell you for certain this issue has been fought out in the political arena for far too long. Neither the right nor the left will solve this atrocity. If it ever is solved in America , God will solve this problem through His bride - His church. I’m afraid, though, as Keith Green said, the church just can’t fight because we are asleep in the light! 

I address this to all Christians, but especially my Wesleyan brothers and sisters because we have a heritage of taking our faith to the streets: isn’t it time that we went to the place of slaughter and sought to rescue those who are perishing?

That cold November morning did not have a happy ending like some mornings at the clinic do. Several teenage girls, most of whom were being driven to the clinic by older men, decided to take the life of their precious little babies. I called out to one who had a “Jesus fish” emblem on her bumper. “Do you believe in Jesus? He can help you. Please come talk to us.” My wife called out, “Just give us five minutes. We want to help you.” The girl started towards us, then stopped. She went inside the clinic with the others. The doctor arrived and stepped out of her BMW - her hair perfect, dressed in jewelry and fine clothes. She had even smiled at us as she drove past. She would murder seven children that morning, not all that far from where some of us live, while many were still sleeping.

Our little sidewalk band prayed together, packed up our signs, and left the clinic. Hundreds of babies have been saved all across North Carolina and the United States by Christians doing just what we did that morning . . . show up. But none were that morning.  We drove home, past churches of all types and sizes. Churches where the following day, songs would be sung, sermons would be preached, prayers would be prayed. Churches where people of all ages, stations of life, and backgrounds would proclaim how they loved Jesus. The same Jesus who said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” and “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Selah.