I'm one of those who can get very practical when it comes to saving and helping people. I have no problem with Rick Warren inviting Barak Obama to speak at Saddleback if he wants to educate the church on the death and devastation caused by AIDS and how the church can help – regardless of his stance on abortion.
The Church is at its best when it takes a stand for the hopeless and helpless and is a voice for the voiceless. The AIDS epidemic definitely qualifies as a place Jesus would be and where His church should be.
However, a little perspective on the voiceless...last year 2.8 million people died of AIDS - a simply horrific number. How many abortions per year? How about 46 million! The worldwide average is 1/female/lifetime. (A huge percentage of abortions occur because the fetus is female - known as gendercide. At one time this was the number 1 cause of abortion in the world - I don't know the recent stats as India and China have cracked down on this).
Too bad this topic has been politicized and has turned right against left and Republican against Democrat...and too bad the Church hasn't figured out how to be more effective in combating this issue. And too bad the church is now afraid to approach the topic because the culture has demonized the pro-life movement (and rightly so in many regards). But if there is such a thing as the voiceless, it is the human "unborn" or fetus or whatever you want to call them. They are alive and they are not "NOT human." I'm not saying it is or isn’t murder, I'm saying at least 90% of them are unnecessary. And I'm saying God cares about them. And I'm saying that even though the topic has given the Church a black eye, and even though it is a divisive and controversial issue, and even though working for AIDS relief gets you back stage passes to a U2 concert - abortion should be seen, from anyone's perspective, not to mention the church, as the number one plague on humanity.
So yes, invite Barak to talk about AIDS, I'm glad he is coming. But invite him to talk about abortion as well. Just because the man thinks it should be legal, doesn't mean he thinks it is good. Maybe it would light a fire under Barak do something about the abortion to actually ask him about his plans and passion for reducing them by say, 95%, which would put abortion on par with AIDS.
The church needs to figure out how to stop being "right" about abortion and start figuring out how to stop them. And we also need to be of "no reputation" and not care that when we talk about AIDS we sound cool, hip, cultured and educated and when we bring up abortion we sound like a televangelist.
Those who are upset about Barak need to get a clue, but Rick Warren could use a little perspective, he shouldn't be surprised by this outcry - some of it is tragic, a lot of it is prophetic.
Didymus
Well said, Didymus. Great points. I hope Rick reads All These Things!
--Lu
Posted by: lucy pevensie | December 08, 2006 at 06:26 PM