A Major Win For God?

The following is a post seen on social media following the overturning of Roe v. Wade & Planned Parenthood v. Casey. A friend and opponent in the abortion debate, who is agnostic/non-Christian shared it with me seeking commentary. I obliged them. So, here is the commentary. My responses are included inline. [You may identify my remarks by the brackets containing them]. The author of the original post is unknown to me at the time of this writing.

The Post:

A headline on one of my Facebook friends’ posts yesterday was “Today’s Supreme Court decision was a MAJOR win for God.”

A win for God?

[No, it’s a win for morality. Moralism for the sake of morality in the secular realm isn’t for God.]

I immediately thought, does he think our God is so feeble that he needs a panel of nine men and women to affirm him and bestow favor on him?

[No, He isn’t. No, He doesn’t. And, they didn’t affirm Him. SCOTUS affirmed the rights of all people to be secure in their person from death by murder as enumerated in the Constitution. The poor precedent didn’t stand scrutiny in its discovery of unenumerated rights that superseded the life of a unique human being in the womb.]

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of abortion, yesterday’s decision has proven to be a terrible day for God and His church. Why? Because so many of the people that make up His church are deciding to act anything but Christlike.

Scripture says, “They will know you are my disciples by your love.” By your love. Not your memes, not your posturing, not your gloating, not your politics, but by your love.

[That’s out of context and a poor translation in any case. A better on says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Does Jesus say other things about this “love?” Yeah, He sure does. He says a lot more.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

Was Jesus diminishing the commandments here? No, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) In the rest of chapter five, He expands the commandments beyond their perceived limits. Hatred is the same as murder. Lust in the heart is the same as adultery. This is our understanding of and the way we teach all of the commandments (Matthew 5:17-48).

Love begins with the love of the Lord and His commandments. Then, love moves to my neighbor. No one can love his neighbor while encouraging his neighbor to commit sin like murder.]

On the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, so many in the church began waiving victory flags for Jesus, while the enemy was using your actions to turn more and more people off to God.

This wasn’t a win for the church.

[Meh, it’s a win for babies, who were being murdered. More of them may live now. Murder is always evil. Not murdering is always good.]

In fact, I believe history will show that this decision was a tipping point for the downfall of church attendance and effectiveness. No one on the opposite side of the decision felt the love, compassion, and ministry of Jesus yesterday. No one.

[This guy doesn’t want to see the church or Christians’ love for people. He wants us to be indifferent to sin. He wants us to encourage our neighbor in their separation from God. That would be the end of the church and the Christian faith.]

Let me be blunt.

If you are a Christian who believes in a God who will condemn people to hell for not believing in Him and you’re choosing to spew hate and vile towards people you disagree with, then you, my friend, have more blood on your hands than any person who chose to get an abortion.

[Acceptance ≠ Love. Acceptance/encouragement of sin = actual hatred, and not the imaginary kind dreamt up by an unbelieving world. But, actual, genuine hatred for your fellow man. The kind of hatred that gleefully of indifferently watches my neighbor hurtle themselves toward perdition.

We believe that we separate ourselves from the love of God by our sin. Only forgiveness received by faith, which turns us from sin, can remedy this.]

It’s time for the separation of church and hate.

[No one can love his neighbor while encouraging his neighbor to commit sin. The world has redefined love by the definition: acceptance and exaltation. Accepting, exalting, and encouraging sin, which separates people from God is not love. That’s indifferent hatred. A hatred that doesn’t mind my neighbor going to hell, separated from the Lord by their beloved sins.]

The church is the richest organization in the world. We have more money than Apple, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. If we really cared about babies, we could do something about it.

[False! The tech billionaires are extraordinarily wealthy individuals, and their international corporations are wealthy to a degree we can’t fathom. They are also quite miserly in their charitable donations.

It’s possible that the Roman Catholic Church may be a very wealthy organization. All other Christian churches organizations pale in comparison. My parent organization, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, with her 2.9 million members is quite poor comparatively. Others are significantly smaller still. I’d love to see a dollar by dollar comparison of monies taken in vs. those spend for the good of people. Between charitable organizations run by individual congregations, small groups of them, and their parent organizations as well as money sent into use outside of themselves, there isn’t a comparison in the secular sphere.

I will leave the graft, waste, and fraud in government, the wealthiest organization yet mentioned, for others to address.]

I am hoping when I attend church on Sunday there is a line around the corner for the church to volunteer to adopt and foster. That’s what you do when you really care about babies.

[There is. The state is the only thing preventing even more. The legally mandated goal of CPS and every foster agency – working to reunite families of birth – directly opposed to best interests of the children in their care. This genetic priority further wounds prospective and current foster parents in a much lesser way than the children themselves.]

I hope there are special offerings taken on Sunday to raise money for diapers, formula, babysitting, and therapy, because that’s what you do when you really care about babies.

[We don’t need special offerings. It’s baked into the cultural bread of every church. We don’t talk about it much. Because, it’s just business as usual.]

I hope every church that offers preschool will now do so at no charge, because that’s what you do when you really care about babies.

[Nah, the best place for babies is with their mothers. Daycare/preschool raised babies/toddlers do less well than kiddos with mom at home. We offer the service and help folks make ends meet. But, we also encourage and assist in the best situation for every child: mom & dad, married for life, raising their kids. We work hard to uplift and strengthen families, because that’s the very best thing for babies. We do that because we love babies, toddlers, children, and their parents.]

Where is the love and compassion for women?

[Right alongside the compassion for the children, about 50% of whom will also grow to be women. Even if there were a complete absence of care or support for mothers, that would never justified murdering their babies. But, that premise is faulty. It assumes a counterfactual situation and condemns us Christians based upon an imaginary sin.]

Where is the Christ-like behavior?

[Which Christ do you want us to emulate? Jesus, who dared the crowds to throw their stones, if they were without sin? Jesus, who called the Syrophoenician woman a dog? Jesus, who became angry with His disciples for keeping the infants away? Jesus, who flipped over tables and chased the money changers with a whip? Jesus, who forgave sin AND commanded sinners to go forth and sin no more? Jesus, who lived a perfect, sinless life, died for our sins, rose again to life on the third day, and ascended to the right hand of the father?

They are all the same Jesus.

I’m not Jesus. Neither are you. Let’s let Jesus be Jesus and Jesus us in the way that He Jesuses.]

Where is the empathetic understanding that this decision, even if you agree with it, has placed real fear in the hearts of so many?

[Love can never encourage its neighbor in sin. I cannot encourage my neighbor toward hell.]

Church, remember why you exist. It’s not so you can consistently get your way politically. It’s so you can introduce people to a God who loves and cares for them. It’s time to confuse people on where you stand politically and give them the unconditional grace that God gave to you.

[No sir, this is the commission, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Go back, read it all again, teach it, and do it.
The Law & The Gospel
Condemnation & Forgiveness]

You only have ONE LIFE. You might as well MAKE IT COUNT.

[No, we have eternal life to live. Jesus counts for us, dying for our sin to deliver us from it and into eternal life. Some don’t want that and love sin. There is eternal damnation for those having no need of forgiveness. As a result, and we can only live our lives to the glory of God. Speaking out against sin and preaching forgiveness in Christ Alone. “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel… For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
(Philippians 1:15-16, 21)

I suspect this will fall on deaf ears. The writer, who may be a part of a Christian church, clearly knows very little about the work of the church or the life and teachings of Jesus. His goal seemed to be eliciting a shamed backpedaling apology.

In the law of God I delight. And, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. I preach Christ and Him crucified for sinners who are perishing, but God grants hearing, faith, and growth.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel.]

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
and
Mission planting pastoral team:
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Bastrop, TX