Murder

I teach the teen girls at Cedar Springs (located in Louisville, Kentucky, where my husband and I moved over a month ago, for those who missed my Facebook updates about it). This past Sunday, all our hearts were heavy due to the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. In our class book, Straddling The Fence by Anita Whitaker, we were ready for the chapter on abortion. Rather than deviating from the book to discuss our feelings and reactions to the shootings, I thought the subject topic all too fitting, considering that brutal murder was the theme on all of our hearts already.

I opened by asking what their feelings were about the shooting, and they were very much ready to talk about it. Their responses, as I expected, ranged from statements like, “I just don’t understand why” to “It’s the most terrible thing I’ve ever heard of.” Their feelings, after all, match the entire world’s right now.

I then slowly asked the question, what is the difference between what happened at Sandy Hook and what happens when a baby is killed through abortion?

They were silent, they glanced at one another, and then unanimously responded, “There’s no difference. It’s the same thing.”

I asked them if they would feel differently about what happened if all the mothers of the children who died approved of what happened. If the mothers KNEW what was going to happen and approved it ahead of time, would the girls feel differently about it?

Naturally, their faces turned white with horror at the thought. “That would be horrible.” They responded.

I then said, “Okay, let’s say that, for some reason, an elementary school shooting like that wasn’t illegal. Let’s say it was just a common, accepted occurrence. Would you feel any differently about it then?”

Their horror increased as one girl replied, “I don’t even want to think about living in a world like that!”

I then asked them why then, do we (the world) all respond so appropriately (with grief and tears and overflowing respect for the dead and their families) to a group of children in an elementary school dying but not to the other children who were murdered in Connecticut that day, who made no national or local news. No celebrity tributes. No mournful Twitter posts.

The children I’m referring to are the babies of Connecticut who were murdered through abortion—around 38 of them.  Each year, approximately 14,000 abortions take place in the state of Connecticut alone. It’s not really our fault that we don’t grieve about that as we should. Abortion has become so accepted and common by the world’s standards that we barely even think about it. Many of us understand the brutality of it, but we feel helpless as individuals and don’t know what to do about it, so we just shut it out of our minds as much as possible.

I took the girls to Luke 1:41 where it mentions that when Elizabeth saw Mary, the babe leaped in her womb. I then took them to Luke 2:12 where it mentions the babe in the manger. What I brought to their attention was that in the original inspired language in which both of these passages were written, the word “babe” is translated the exact same way (“brephos” meaning “baby”). In other words, God sees no difference between life inside the womb and life outside the womb. You see, in God’s eyes, what’s inside your womb when you’re pregnant isn’t a “blob of tissue” or a “fetus,” but a baby, just like a one-year-old being rocked to sleep in his mother’s arms. No difference.

I then had them turn to I John 3:15 where it states (and I’m paraphrasing) that no murderer can go to heaven. I asked them what they believed murder to be. They replied, “Killing someone.”

So I asked, knowing they weren’t thinking this through, “Is all killing murder?”

Some of them nodded. I asked them if they’ve ever eaten a hamburger. They nodded. “Then, according to your definition, you’re all murderers, because someone, sometime, killed that cow for your burger.” They laughed and admitted, “Okay, not ALL killing is murder.”

We then discussed the definition of murder. Murder is the deliberate taking of innocent human life.  We cut that into sections and examined each part. “Deliberate”—Is it murder when you accidentally hit someone walking in the road when you can’t see them? No, that wasn’t deliberate. It was accidental. “Human”—is it murder when you shoot a deer and make venison jerky out of it? Gross maybe, but not murder. Animals are not humans. God intended for us to kill and eat animals. “Innocent”—When people are electrocuted for heinous crimes, is that murder? No, that’s the deliberate taking of life, but not innocent human life.

What about abortion? Does that fit the definition? Let’s look at it again. Murder: The deliberate taking of innocent human life. Is it deliberate? Absolutely. It doesn’t happen without the mother’s consent, and the doctor knows exactly what he’s doing when he takes the life of the baby. Is it innocent? Nothing in the whole world is more innocent and perfect than a baby. Everyone knows that. Is it human? By all means.

There were more massacres that took place in Connecticut than the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School, you see. One just as brutal and heartbreaking and WRONG as the other. The difference is, one was a complete and utter horrific shock and the other was planned, approved, and quiet within the four walls of an abortion clinic white-walled room, or of several such rooms—not just in Connecticut, but all over the world.

My goal wasn’t to cloud those girls’ minds with graphic scenes of doctors ripping off the limbs of living babies, though it was brought to their attention that this is what happens during one type of abortion. My goal was to combat what the world was telling them about abortion. That it’s simply “terminating an inconvenient pregnancy.” That it’s simply “removing the unwanted blob of tissue from the womb.” And the biggest lie of all, that it’s practically “painless.” Nothing could be more physically painful for the baby, and nothing could be more emotionally painful for the mother, for years to come, once she comes to terms with what she has done.

It’s my prayer that these girls, and all of us, will see the devastating truth of abortion (every bit as devastating as an elementary school shooting) for what it is, and that we will not be silent in our efforts to thwart society’s attempt to deceive us into thinking of it as anything but savage, merciless murder.

In the meantime, may we all remember to keep the families of the Sandy Hook victims in our prayers, especially during the holiday season, as they are experiencing unthinkable grief.



7 thoughts on “Murder

  1. Hannah,
    Thank you so much for an excellent article. I am going to share it on my fb page. We need more Christians to speak out against the horrible crimes done to our unborn children.

  2. Beautifully stated. I will be teaching this book as soon as we finish with YOUR book/CD series of Pure on Purpose. I plan to use this article during that class. I would LOVE to have more of your insight shared as you go through the book.

  3. Job 39:13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
    14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground,
    15 forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.
    16 She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
    17 because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.
    18 When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.

    Parts of our society place as little value on children as the ostrich places on hers. On average, there are 3000 abortions per day in the USA. Yet, God says in Psalms 127:3
    Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

    Why is this so difficult??

  4. Dear Hannah,
    Thank you for your article on 12-20-12. You brought the truth of abortion and showed how our society is “accepting” to the law. Even though something is legal, it does NOT make it right or okay or give us a pass on telling the truth. We MUST share the truth about the heinous crime of legal murder. This January 22, 2013 is the 40th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the decision the Supreme Court leagalized abortion in all 50 states. We MUST as Christians stand up for the unborn and NEVER be silent about this horrific daily tragedy of killing.
    God bless you and your class of teen girls! I thank God for you sharing the truth to them. Too many churches and church leaders do not address this issue. The teens need to hear this from loving, truthful people in their lives. They will remember it if they are faced with a decision or a friend of theirs is.
    Blessings,
    Barbara Beute

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