Second Sunday after Epiphany, 2010

Sanctity of Life Sunday

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“How Pro-life are We?”

This past October in Katy, Texas, the 103^rd Synod of our diocese – the Diocese of Mid-America of the Reformed Episcopal Church – once again unanimously voted to approve Bp. Grote’s annual recommendation “That until the heinous practice of Abortion on demand is abolished in this Country that the 3^rd Sunday in January, or the Sunday closest to Holy Innocents, be designated Sanctity of Life Sunday and observed in our Parishes. Furthermore, that our Clergy be instructed to prepare and deliver a sermon on that theme at the Worship service on that day.”

So here we are this morning seeking to be faithful to that resolution.

I think the question we ought to ponder this morning, in light of our observance of Sanctity of Life Sunday, is: How pro-life are we, really? Our church – the Reformed Episcopal Church in concert with the larger Anglican Church in North America – is officially pro-life. The canons clearly spell out our commitment to upholding life as sacred. And St. Stephen’s is a pro-life congregation. But do we sort of restrict our thinking on the sanctity of life to this one issue of abortion, however important it may be? Or do we see it as touching on the sacredness of all of human life at whatever age or at whatever stage? I take slight issue with the resolution that it’s only until abortion on demand is abolished that we would observe Sanctity of Life Sunday (not that that will be happening any time soon, barring a great miracle of God). But if we are going to be consistent in our belief that all human life is truly sacred, then we must equally stand against the myriad of other heinous crimes such as human trafficking, child prostitution, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, the brutality of rogue regimes, and the list could go on and on; as well as standing for the relief of such evils as hunger and poverty and disease throughout our world. How pro-life are we really?

And again, if we are truly pro-life, is this just a philosophical position we hold? Do we simply confess that all life is sacred, or is that confession something that moves us to action? Are we pro-life merely in doctrine, or are we pro-life in deed? I think that may be one of the most important questions of our times for us as Christians.

You see, there’s a great deal of criticism being thrown around and given a lot air-time these days by radical political pundits and pop atheist writers that Christians aren’t quite as pro-life as they like to make themselves out to be. As a matter of fact, such atheistic wind-bags as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris (the unholy trinity, as I like to call them) basically say that it’s religion, and Christianity more specifically, that has done some of the worst harm to society down through the ages. You’ve heard the criticism: that Christianity has been responsible for the deaths of millions of people in crusades and inquisitions and witch-trials, etc., etc., and therefore wouldn’t the world just be better off without it? As in John Lennon’s utopian vision: “Imagine… nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too.” Richard Dawkins actually produced a TV documentary called “The Root of All Evil,” in which he argues that humanity would be much better off without religion or belief in God.”

Now this is interesting criticism indeed, coming from these atheists, who always seem to forget that it was atheism in the form of Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia that was responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20^th century alone, as a conservative estimate. The lack of religion in those countries doesn’t seem to have to done them any good. Imagine that!

Some have argued that these regimes didn’t kill so many millions because they were atheists; they just happened to be atheists and did some pretty bad things! Then explain why Stalin, who followed Marx and Lenin, in his belief that religion was the opiate of the people, tried therefore systematically to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church. The number of parishes was reduced from 54, 000 in 1917 to the low hundreds by 1939. Many churches were simply leveled to the ground, and tens of thousands of priests, monks and nuns were persecuted and killed. Over 100,000 of them were shot during the purges of 1937-1938. But atheism wasn’t to blame! Forgive me if I’m just a tad bit skeptical.

Now this isn’t to suggest that we Christians are at least no worse than fascists or Nazi’s or Communists, as Hitchens twists our words to say. It is to say that the criticism is just flat wrong: that religion, and Christianity most especially, has been responsible for far more good to society, and the saving of millions upon millions of more lives, than ever it has been responsible for evil and death.

I agree with what Dr. Peter Hammond wrote in an article titled “Do Christians Care?” He said,

“The pervasive tendency of academics and Hollywood film producers to either ignore the Christian contributions to our world, or to stress the negative failings in church history, has obscured the massive positive impact that Christianity has had upon civilization. We need to set the historical record straight” (Dr. Peter Hammond “Do Christians Care?” Christian Action for Reformation & Revival).

We do need to set the record straight!

From its inception Christianity has been a beacon of light for life in the midst of a dark world. It was born into a culture of death. The culture of the Roman Empire was a culture of death, from its blood-spectacles in the arenas, to its rampant infanticide by means of exposure, to its mass enslavement of its conquered victims, to its perfection of crucifixion to an art-form. And into that culture of death, Christianity came as a new and renewing force not only for the preservation of life, but for the reviving the of great truth of our creation that all human life has inherent dignity and beauty.

As a matter of fact, Christians upset the political order and were strongly criticized for doing such terrible things as condemning the gladiatorial games, and other evils, that were seen as morally acceptable in that time, just like abortion is today.

But the Christians of that time didn’t just stand against the Roman culture of death by what they said and taught; they promoted a positive cultural of life by what they did. Deeds do speak loader than words.

They first gave a positive example in their own home life. In a 2^nd Century letter called “The Epistle to Diognetus” the anonymous Christian writer writes about the differences between how Christians lived versus their pagan counterparts. “[Christians],” he says, “marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring.”

But they went beyond that. Early Christian writings are full of examples of Christians saving and adopting children who’d been thrown away as so much garbage. St. Callistus, the bishop of Rome himself, gave refuge to abandoned children by placing them in Christian homes.

It was the Christian emperor Valerian, by the counsel of St. Basil, the great bishop of Caesarea, who finally formally outlawed the horror infanticide in 374 – only fifty years after Christianity became a legal religion.

Some of us might recall for our study last year of Charles Colson’s book The Faith, how that at onset of the many, many plagues that ravaged Roman cities, wealthy pagans fled to their country estates to save themselves, while Christians stayed in the cities to tend to the sick, often at the cost of their own lives. Not that their compassion depleted their ranks in the long term. As a matter of fact, it was quite the opposite. “Tending to the sick increased the disease survival rate by as much as two-thirds,” and this witness to the care and compassion of Christianity for all life actually attracted many new converts. As Colson writes, “The unprecedented teaching of Christianity gave people a reason to care for the sick and destitute. Only Jesus taught that His followers could find Him in their neighbor. ‘For I was hungry and your gave me something to eat, and I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:35, 40)” (Colson, p. 17).

“The world before Christianity,” writes Dr. Hammond, “was a world without hospitals, charity or respect for the sanctity of life. Hospitals were an innovation of Christianity (hence the universal healing symbol of a cross to represent hospitals). The nursing profession was founded by Christians such as Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton out of devotion for Christ. One of histories greatest humanitarian movements, the International Red Cross, was founded by Christians in response to the Scriptural injunction to care for the sick and the suffering. Christians such as Dr. Louis Pasteur have fuelled some of the greatest practical advances in medicine. Pasteur,” Hammond points out, “probably saved more lives than any other individual in history by his inventions.”

We could go on and on to demonstrate the impact Christians have had for the welfare of society, and for the preservation and respect of life, because of their Christian faith, not simply because they happened to be Christians. How, for example, the immoral practice of slavery in Britain and the U.S. was finally eradicated as a result of the tireless efforts of Christians such as Williams Wilberforce and David Livingstone. And how some of the greatest advance in science and medicine were made by Christians such as Joseph Lister, who developed antiseptic surgery, and James Simpson, who became the founder or anesthetics because he was inspired by the passage in Genesis where God made Adam fall into a deep sleep before taking out the rib.

And of course we’ve seen how Christianity’s culture of life has continued to make its impact in our day with, for example, the response of Christians to such natural disasters as Hurricane Katrina. By many accounts the response of charitable organizations to that terrible disaster was tangibly felt by the victims as more effective than that of federal, state, or local government agencies. 9000 Southern Baptist alone from 41 states volunteered 120, 000 days labor during which they served 10 million meals and pushed forward the cleanup and recovery efforts. Ronnie Harris, mayor of the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, said unequivocally that, “Church workers were the first volunteers on the ground. It is churches,” he said, “that have made the difference in Hurricane Katrina recovery.” (Marvin Olasky, “Katrina and Christmas,” World Magazine, Dec. 24, 2005). The New York Times itself – not always a friend of Christians – reported how that “from sprawling mega churches to tiny congregations, churches across the country have mobilized in response to Hurricane Katrina, offering shelter, conducting clothing drives and serving hot meals to evacuees, many of whom have had difficulty getting help from inundated government agencies.” (Michael Luo and Campbell Robertson, “A New Meaning for ‘Organized Religion’: It Helps the Needy Quickly”). You see, Christians made the difference in Hurricane Katrina.

After Katrina an atheist asked in the British Guardian weekly somewhat dumfoundedly, why Christians “are the people most likely to take the risk and make the sacrifices involved in helping others?” He didn’t have an answer.

Well here’s the answer. The answer is that we Christians believe that every individual person, at whatever stage or at whatever age, in whatever station and in every nation, was created uniquely and loving in the very image and likeness of God Himself, and therefore has inherent dignity and beauty, and an inherent right to life. But that’s no mere philosophical opinion. For we also believe that God expects of all his people that they love their neighbors just as they love themselves – and even more than that: that they love their neighbors as Christ Himself, for as we’ve done it to one of the least of His brethren, we’ve done it unto Him.”

So how should these truths impact our lives? Number one, we ought to be proud of our proud history of preserving and promoting the sanctity of life, and not take if from these buffoons who try to twist the historical record to make it sound like Christianity is the problem. Christianity is not the problem. The real problem exists when Christianity is oppressed to the point that no longer has the ability to act as salt and light and to curtail society’s natural depraved tendency to devolve into a culture of death. That’s the problem. And we ought to be bold enough to say that that’s the real problem.

Second, we need to recognize that our own culture – Western culture in general, and American culture specifically – is itself fast becoming a culture of death. Abortion, as it has been described, is just the nose of the camel under the tent. The philosophy that justifies it will bring with it other heinous crimes against life, including human cloning for the harvesting of spare body parts, and the forced euthanasia of those judged as not possessing any value to society, such as the handicapped and the elderly. And if you don’t believe me, just read the bioethics texts your future doctors are reading in medical school.

So we need to continue to stand strong against the evils of abortion and not give an inch on the sanctity of all of human life, because we ought to know what happens when we give an inch. We always end up giving a mile. And so by the canons of our church, “all members and clergy are called to promote and respect the sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death.”

But, third and most importantly, we must promote a culture of life not only in our words, but in our deeds - not just with our votes, but with our wallets; not just with our prayers, but with our sweat; not just by opposing things like abortion, but by helping women and children in their need; not just by saying we like the idea of a culture of life, but by not contributing to things that promote a culture of death, such as scientific research that involves the destruction of human embryos, or sports or video games that glorify extreme violence.“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).

So let us be true to our religion that calls us to promote a positive culture of life by word and deed. Then we will truly be pro-life. +