Friday, June 05, 2009

Religion is no protection for the unborn

It is said your character is defined NOT by what you do in public, but what you do when alone with no one watching. Most of us put on a mask of righteousness and morality in church, at school, at work, and when out and about. But what happens when no one is watching.

A new study suggests despite much noise amongst religious folks against abortion, when alone with their decision, religious women decide to abort their babies as often as non-religious ones. Church affiliation - even overt practice - appears to provide no protection to the unborn.

"This research suggests that young, unmarried women are confronted with a number of social, financial and health-related factors that can make it difficult for them to act according to religious values when deciding whether to keep or abort a pregnancy," she said.

The results of the study did not reveal a significant link between a young woman’s reported decision to have an abortion and her personal religiosity, as defined by her religious involvement, frequency of prayer and perception of the importance of religion.
Is it any surprise that Pro-Abortion groups call Pro-Life groups hypocrites? We need more groups like Hopeline who provide alternatives to abortion, while maintaining absolute confidentiality for those ashamed to bring a baby to term. And we need to make a greater effort to teach our children that a baby is a bless - even though it makes life very difficult - even outside of wedlock.

3 comments:

AK said...

Perhaps this is a ridiculous attempt at seeing the glass half full...but let me give it a shot.

The numbers of abortions have been falling. Obviously, I hope that continues. But that fact leads me to believe that there is an innate understanding of the realness of the human life a woman carries within her, whether that woman has a relationship with God or not.

In other words, it may simply be that non-Christians are "just as aware" of the moral implications of abortion as Christians are.

Of course, we'd like to think that 100% of professing Christians carry that moral awareness.

But this is a great reminder that we are all sinners saved by the amazing grace and extravagant love of Jesus Christ. Christians are not immune from sin.

That being said, your prescription for the problem is dead on: the church must be active in teaching that it doesn't matter if life is represented as an unborn child, an elderly person, or a doctor in Kansas who has done unspeakable evil: God alone decides when human life comes to an end.

Thanks for sharing.

shadowmom1 said...

And, as humans, we all have the tendency to think that we are (or can be) the exception to the rule when we hurt.
I also wonder if Christian young women are sometimes more afraid to tell and disappoint their parents.

CRCHAIR said...

Unfortunately, this study is similar to other statistics which show that "Christians" often have the same tendency to things like divorce as those who are not Christians.

To me, this is the real reason that "the Church" struggles to keep its young people. We as christians need to show our young people that we are different from the world. (In good ways.)