HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2014 / SUMMER / EDITORIAL
S U M M E R • 2 0 1 4
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2
D E P A R T M E N T S
Editor's COMMENTS
Many years ago I agreed to ghost-write a chapter of a book for an Adventist hospital administrator. This man was participating in a jointly-authored work, and his assignment was to submit a chapter on Adventists’ contributions to the particular field being explored.
One day as I (still an Adventist) met with this man to discuss the details of the chapter and the sources I would need, the conversation turned—I have no memory of how or why—to the subject of abortion. This administrator told me that abortion is necessary as a means of helping underprivileged population groups. For example, he said, suppose a 15-year-old teenaged girl from an impoverished southern black family became pregnant. Unmarried, she would have no way to support her child, and she herself would likely have to drop out of school. Abortion, he explained, would prevent adding another child to the welfare rolls; it would allow the girl to finish school and become qualified to get a job, and it would spare her family the new burden of caring not only for her but also for her baby. Abortion, he concluded with conviction, was a necessary service to protect quality of life and to prevent a growing welfare state.
We will explore how the Adventist doctrine of the nature of man supports an entrenched culture of abortion |
His argument impacted me—indeed, this particular exchange is the only conversation I clearly remember from my collaboration with him—and I remember thinking it made logical sense, although I knew it did not address all the arguments against abortion. Nevertheless, his reasoning fit my Adventist understanding of life and the unborn.
Since that day, however, I have thought more deeply about how abortion affects the mother who sacrifices her baby in this way. Just as a parent never gets over the death of a child at any age, a mother who aborts will always carry the memory of the child that was part of her. Furthermore, women for whom abortions become a means of birth control cannot help but stifle their maternal instincts. Abortion is not only a decision that victimizes the weakest person involved, but it also affects a woman’s emotions and reactions as she eventually parents any children she may have.
Abortion is perhaps the “ultimate” means of managing one’s reputation in extreme circumstances; those watching without knowing might never perceive that a woman’s success may have been partially purchased at the cost of soul-shattering pain and shame. Within Adventism, however, where life is defined as body + breath = living soul, that pain is explained and justified without ever addressing the guilt the mother carries. Only the gospel can address her ongoing suffering.
In this issue of Proclamation! we will look at the ways Adventism may contribute to hurtful parenting and how the gospel transforms us, even if we have no good human role models. We will explore how the Adventist doctrine of the nature of man supports an entrenched culture of abortion that hides just below the awareness of the members but which is allowed to flourish within the medical community.
Lisa Winn shares her story of how God removed her idol of perfect parenting, restoring her ability to love her infant son. Nicole Stevenson tells how the gospel transformed her ideas of how to manage her children and her reputation, and Mary Seeley Stockler gives us a glimpse of the dissonance, the pain, and the joy she has experienced as the Lord Jesus has transformed her through His gospel and rescued her and her children from their life-threatening environment in the SDA Reform Movement.
Amy Herwig, a home-schooling mother of three who has never been Adventist, shares with us how to live biblically so our children will learn to love Scripture from their youngest years, and I unpack the history of abortion within Adventism and show how and why it flourishes just barely out of sight. Of course, we also hear from our regular columnists, Rick Barker, Chris Lee, Carolyn Macomber, and our pastor, Dale Ratzlaff.
We pray that as you read, the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus will transform you with the reality of His forgiveness, life, and truth. Only in Him is fulness of joy. †
Copyright 2014 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised August 13, 2014. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
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