Statement on Roe V. Wade

Pastor Bryndon & Dr. Yvonne Glass

I learned a long time ago from my mother not to be the first person to speak up, but to take my time and think out my thoughts to prevent me from repeating another person’s sentiment. This statement is the thought out statement of Dr. Glass and myself. As followers of Christ, we follow Christ. To the best of our ability, we look at the entire Christian ethic left by our savior and try not only model ourselves after it, but also allow the Holy Spirit to formulate us in it. Being mindful of this, we understand that Jesus places a high value on life; much higher than humanity has ever done. Humanity debates over quality of life, source of life, and the characteristics of real life. However, Jesus simply talked about life. Jesus’ high regard for life is no doubt because he himself is the source of all life (John 14.6, Col. 1:15-16) and being that he is the source of life, he truly knows life’s worth and value. Jesus himself said that a good shepherd would leave ninety-nine sheep behind to go find one lost sheep. This is how precious the life of the sheep is to the Shepherd. Life is precious and life begins in the womb. In the womb, there is growth, one of the marks of an organism being alive. Does the fetus have the same life as an adulthuman? By no means. However, it is a form of life given by God. We pray for a country and world that values life and encourages it. However, Roe v. Wade is not about valuing life. Roe v. Wade does not look at life from this viewpoint. Therefore, its overturn is not yet a cause for celebration.

Before we celebrate as Christians, we have to begin to hear the pro-choice voices listening to the deep, honest, real, non-political concerns raised.

Before we celebrate, we must acknowledge how we shame women and girls who find themselves pregnant out of wedlock. Before we celebrate, we must stop shaming these women and rally around them in the ways that our slave ancestors rallied around young women and girls, forced to produce children for the good of the master’s bottom line. We must acknowledge these women and girls did not impregnate themselves.

Before we as clergy celebrate, we must ask ourselves when a woman gets pregnant, why is it that the church is not the place she goes for comfort, safety, and support. We must ask ourselves why she feels trapped, unwelcomed, and disgraced.

Before we celebrate as financially secure middle class citizens, we must ask ourselves, what does it feel like live suppressed by poverty, where opportunity seems out of grasp and the present does not offer any seeds of future hope? How does it feel to believe the life is a burden, not a blessing?

Before we celebrate this as a nation, we must first confront the truth of the history of abortion. Abortion was recent, most successful attempt of the eugenicist society to control what Margaret Sanger and others called the “black problem:” former slaves having children in freedom, not bondage. Abortion is one of the hidden manifestations of racism in this country. Most still ignore or deny this because moral issue became political.

Dr. Glass and I love life; we celebrate life, but not just life while it is in the womb. We love life as given to us by our creator, a life loved and appreciated for the duration of its entire life, from conception to eternity.