The previous posts in this series are here, here, and here, and are essential background for understanding what follows.
The first three posts in this series were to set the table, so to speak, for the videos posted over the last few days from the Manhattan Declaration website and the Planned Parenthood videos, showing Planned Parenthood employees essentially enabling human trafficking, sex crimes, and underage prostitution. If you missed them, they immediately precede this post, or you can click the links above.
It seems that human trafficking, especially for sexual exploitation, has eclipsed abortion as a major concern of some Christian non-profits and churches, especially some Christian colleges and universities, and some churches that are busy moving or staying left, whether they are “emerging” or were simply left/liberal to start with.
As demonstrated by the videos referenced above, there is considerable irony in this, since the easy availability of abortion is one of the enabling factors for human-trafficking pimps.
Should your Christian organization that is justifiably concerned about human trafficking also be just as concerned and visible in its opposition to legal abortion-on-demand? But you see, there’s a small problem with this. In the modern media and academic environment, it’s not popular to take a strong stand about legal abortion-on-demand, because it is very clear that one political party is essentially for it, while the other is essentially against it. That is simply an uncomfortable fact, an “inconvenient truth,” if you will. Uncomfortable, that is, for those who want to court the left, for those who want to say that while they are “pro-life”, abortion-on-demand is really a political issue, and not an appropriate focus for Christian non-profits with other fish to fry.
Does your church or para-church organization pride itself on its commitment to “justice,” or even “social justice,” with annual workshops, conferences, presentations, etc., which focus on human trafficking? Does your organization expend as much effort on reducing abortion, by educating people about its realities, by providing support for women in “crisis” pregnancy (and after birth of a child), and also working to change the laws that allow abortion for essentially any reason at any time in the pregnancy?
Have the leaders of your organization signed the Manhattan Declaration, surely one of the most ecumenical of documents? If not, why not? Ask yourself, with what public policy initiatives does your organization ally itself? What is different about those public policy aims and the aims of the Manhattan Declaration?
If, upon closer examination, you notice that those aims seem to be identifiable with the left, you have your answer.
Which leads to even bigger questions, doesn’t it?
