Will the Church Rise Up and Usher in Abortion’s Demise?

brian-fisherGuest Essay by Brian Fisher

I was rereading some of my recent articles, and it struck me that I always seem to be writing to you from an airplane. Happily, today I’m sitting at my desk in the Online for Life office, which means I have elbowroom, food, and my feet firmly planted on the ground.

I’m home for two weeks and have been intentionally spending time contemplating these undercover Planned Parenthood videos. If you haven’t yet watched them, you need to. Click here to see the ones that have been released so far. Each video that gets released seems to be grittier, more graphic, and more disturbing than the last.

Many are asking me what I think the outcome of all of this undercover work will be. I really don’t know. Planned Parenthood is an enormous, very powerful organization with deep ties to the federal government. For nearly one-hundred years, this giant has done a masterful job of marketing itself as a necessary women’s health provider. It is actually just an enormous baby-killing enterprise.

This is not the first time that Planned Parenthood has been accused of illicit activity. Our friends at Live Action have done a remarkable job of exposing Planned Parenthood permitting sex-selective abortions, covering up sex trafficking and hiding sexual abuse.

What is new is the undercover videos showing what has previously been hidden from the public eye. Will Americans finally have enough of this barbaric nonsense? Will they compel their elected officials to continue the fight to defund Planned Parenthood and treat preborn humans with some dignity?

It depends on our national attention span. We Americans have a nasty habit of moving on from bad news pretty quickly. We needn’t look any further than the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, which after some prodding from pro-life organizations was covered – albeit with a pro-abortion slant – for about one week in 2013. Two years later, both Gosnell and his murderous slaughter of full-term, delivered babies have been long forgotten and our nation lulled back into its apathetic slumber.

The Church’s Watershed Moment

Yet the ultimate outcome of the undercover Planned Parenthood video is dependent on the Church. And as best as I can tell, aside from a few engaged, the Church has been eerily quiet about Planned Parenthood’s horrific, and potentially illegal activities.

I’ve been trying my best to keep up with the news coverage, blogs, and online sources about the videos, and to my dismay – few evangelical leaders are using the videos as an opportunity to decry the abortion holocaust, defend preborn humans, and speak out against this human rights atrocity.

On the other hand, ironically, politicians are speaking out.

When politicians are ahead of the Church on a moral issue, you know we have problems.

The Catholic Church has been and continues to be a vocal opponent to abortion. And the national director of Priests for Life, and our friend, Fr. Frank Pavone has been speaking out against Planned Parenthood and these videos on a regular basis. But not enough Protestant leaders have publicly condemned the activities uncovered by the videos.

The Protestant Church’s profound silence about the evils of abortion is starting to drive me crazy (and I’m Protestant). If there was ever a time in the last 10 years for the Protestant Church to step up, use these videos as an opportunity to educate their congregations, and make enormous headway to cause abortion to become unthinkable and unavailable in our country, now is that time.

“But Brian, abortion is a political issue. Churches shouldn’t talk about it.”

Hogwash. Abortion is a spiritual issue. It’s a decision to kill a precious, innocent human being who was created by God in His own image. The Church should be the primary, vocal, consistent, vehement protector and defender of preborn children. Indeed the Church’s silence regarding the abortion holocaust has undoubtedly contributed to the death of almost 60 million preborn children since 1973.

“But Brian, this just isn’t at the top of the list of issues for my church.”

Then your church’s list of issues is incorrectly prioritized. About one-third of the women in your church have likely had an abortion and are probably still suffering from it. Moreover one-third of the men in your church have actively or passively participated in killing another human being. And as I lay out on pages 116-117 of my recent book Deliver Us from Abortion, many post-abortive men and women struggle with substance abuse, divorce, spousal and child abuse, depression, suicide, and a long list of other human sufferings. Truly, abortion is at the root of many of the problems in your church.

It’s time for the Church to face reality. Abortion is the leading cause of death in America. Abortion tears apart families. Abortion kills preborn children in your own city, your community, and your neighborhood.

“But Brian, our church doesn’t engage in culture.”

Then you should consider finding another church. We are commanded to teach ALL that Jesus taught, and my Bible touches on every facet of human existence. It also deals quite extensively with social justice, life and death, mercy, compassion, and providing for the least of these.

“But Brian, are you suggesting that American churches should be activists?”

Of course that is what I’m suggesting. That doesn’t mean every church should be picketing the local abortion clinic, but it does mean every church is intentionally, deeply, and passionately involved in culture-changing community work. And that work MUST involve intentional, passionate efforts to end abortion.

Read Proverbs 24:11-12 (NIV)…

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who guards your life know it?

In these two verses, there’s a command to protect innocent lives and a warning about what will happen to us if we don’t. Does your church take that warning seriously? Do we?

If we view church as somewhere to go to hear a nice sermon, give to missions, and sing a few songs on Sundays, then we don’t understand true Christianity. True Christianity is an every moment, intimate relationship with Jesus that, by the very nature of that relationship, results in everyday, passionate engagement with the world around us. And that passionate involvement must, because of the demands of our faith, result in our protection of those “being led away to death.”

Now is the time for churches to talk about abortion, social justice, protecting the preborn, and the entirety of the gospel. The Planned Parenthood videos provide context—we are now seeing with our own eyes the atrocities committed against preborn children. The public is more aware of abortion now than they have been since the Kermit Gosnell trial. People who are on the fence about abortion are open to conversations because of what they are seeing, and Christians are the right people with whom they should have those conversations.

Now is the time for churches to talk about protecting the preborn.

Not all churches are silent, of course. Let me finish my thoughts by sharing two inspiring and encouraging examples of Christians and churches who are standing up and saying, “Enough is enough.”

There is a large Bible church in the Dallas–Forth Worth area that Online for Life was introduced to a few months ago. They came and visited us and, within just a few weeks, decided they were going to act on their convictions to help end abortion. They are leading the effort in their community and joining forces with OFL to build a definable, measurable strategy to end abortion in their county within the next five years. In all my years in this effort, I’ve never seen a more dedicated, passionate, forward-thinking church. I love it. Their leadership is inspiring a handful of other local pro-life churches to do the same. Dallas–Fort Worth, where Roe v. Wade originated, may well be the first city to see abortion die. And it will die because of the Church.

Jessica Schuessler is a mom from Illinois with a powerful story of God’s redemptive work in her life. After reading Deliver Us from Abortion, she felt convicted to get the book into the hands of every pastor in her city. Then she realized God was calling her to get the book into the hands of every pastor in the STATE. Over the past few months, she has covered over 30 cities, mobilized a team to work in other parts of the state, and been interviewed by the media; now she is being invited to speak at various church events. See her story and campaign here. One woman is awakening the Church in Illinois to the horrors of abortion. And some pastors are beginning to take notice.

These undercover Planned Parenthood videos provide a phenomenal opportunity for the Church to help accelerate our mission of making abortion unthinkable and unavailable in America. Let’s not let it go to waste. Be sure to visit the blog again in the coming days, as we’ll be announcing a site that provides resources that will equip pastors, church leaders and congregants in defending a pro-life position. Of course you can always financially and prayerfully support Online for Life in our mission to provide abortion-determined a grace-filled alternative to Planned Parenthood and their affiliates.

P.S. If you, your church, or your church leadership is sounding the call to advance against Planned Parenthood in light of these videos, please share that with me in the blog comments. I’d love to hear what’s happening in your world.


The original of this article appeared as a blog at Online for Life, August 19, 2015.

Brian Fisher—author, speaker, business leader and certified financial planner®—co-founded and serves as president of Online for Life. This work follows years of serving in executive management in the for-profit and non-profit arenas.

So Every Child Makes Their Mark! To find out more about how you can get involved in our mission to help rescue the unborn and their families from abortion, please visit www.onlineforlife.org.

© 2016 Used by Permission

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One Response to Will the Church Rise Up and Usher in Abortion’s Demise?

  1. Jerry Nordskog January 22, 2016 at 7:34 pm #

    Dear Brother Brian,

    Nobody can profess to claim now that these babies are not pre-born infants—but only blobs of tissue in the womb. We see PP harvesting and selling baby organs including beating hearts that are indeed real live human beings, being tortured—cut up and murdered in or out of their mother. Planned Parenthood and all abortion chambers should become illegal and removed from its funding and evil wicked businesses, including being convicted of killing tiny unprotected baby lives. N O W ! – GCN

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