Stroud Pastor: stand and be counted on abolishing abortion

An op-ed by Pastor Tim Gillespie of First Free Will Baptist (Stroud, OK)

There’s a story about a German man who, while growing up, attended a church that sat alongside a railroad track used to transport Jews to the concentration camps.  To make a long story short, the people in the church decided that the best way to make sure they didn’t hear the screams and cries of the Jews being taken to slaughter was to sing when the train went by every week.  If they still heard the screams, they would simply sing a little louder.

As Christians in modern-day America, we have been singing through the silent screams of millions of innocent babies as they have been led to slaughter in America’s abortion mills.  When the topic comes up, we simply sing a little louder.  Our singing has been in the form of feel-good, piecemeal, incrementalism that has done nothing to curb abortion.  Pro-lifers contend that abortion numbers are going down.  Surgical abortions are decreasing.  However, chemical abortions are increasing.  Abortion is the murder of an innocent life regardless of method.  Are we to demand that a few be saved or that all be saved?  How it must sadden God’s heart that there could even be debate over this issue within the body of Christ.

It is time for the church in America to rise up and stop singing over the cries of the helpless.  God loves our worship.  But if we refuse to stand steadfastly against injustice and evil in society, it is hollow worship.

Last spring, the Oklahoma Association of Free Will Baptists adopted possibly the strongest abolitionist resolution of any denomination (the text of the resolution is below).  The resolution passed with no debate or questions and by a unanimous vote.  As a Free Will Baptist pastor, I am pleased to see our state body take such a strong stand.

I want to encourage and challenge other pastors from every denomination to preach abolition from the pulpit and to press your denominational leaders to stand and be counted.  I challenge you to put your worship into action.  We have an opportunity on February 11 at the State Capitol to make our will – God’s will – known to our elected leaders.  The Abolition Day Rally begins at 10 am on the south steps of the State Capitol.  Be there.  Bring others with you.  Call your legislators regularly to remind them you are watching what they do with this issue.

Will you stand and speak for those who can’t speak for themselves or will you just sing a little louder?

Abolition resolution passed by the Oklahoma Association of Free Will Baptists state meeting in May, 2019:

WHEREAS, God’s Word clearly declares that all human life is a sacred gift from our sovereign God and that His Law is supreme over mankind and man’s law, and therefore that all abortion is wrong and usurps God’s sovereignty; and,
WHEREAS, since Roe v. Wade, 60 million innocent unborn babies have been legally murdered in the United States and approximately 5,000 innocent unborn babies are legally murdered in Oklahoma every year; and,
WHEREAS, government is not instituted to grant rights but to protect our unalienable, God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as recognized in the Declaration of Independence and Article 2, Section 2 of the Oklahoma Constitution; and,
WHEREAS, traditional pro-life laws do nothing to abolish abortion and, in fact, merely establish regulatory guidelines for how to obtain a legal abortion and, in so doing, simply facilitate the murder of innocent unborn children; and,
WHEREAS, Roe v. Wade will never be overturned unless a state enacts a law abolishing human abortion; therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Oklahoma Association of Free Will Baptists, call upon the Legislature, Governor, and Attorney General of Oklahoma to pass, sign, and enforce legislation abolishing the practice of human abortion at all gestational stages and for all reasons in Oklahoma.