Baby Jake, Kermit Gosnell, and the Gospel

I tend to steer away from controversial topics on the 4theVoiceless blog.  Not that I don't value dialogue about topics that shape our thinking.  With so much to be done for the fatherless, I typically choose to focus on a children's home in Haiti that still needs immediate funding or a 5K run that will provide housing for orphans living in the bush in Uganda.  And there are much better minds than mind that give greater voice to the issues of the day (Shout out to my friend Russell Moore).  But today's topic is so heavy on me that I decided to move toward the controversial.

Baby Jake

In his excellent book Orphan Justice, Johnny Carr tells the story of baby Jake, born with severe medical issues to a young single mom who could not provide the special care he would need.  This young mother asked a nurse to contact an adoption agency to try to find a home for her little son.  The couple who took Jake into their home felt an urging from the Lord to adopt him, even though he was not expected to live through the adoption process (He did.).  Their reasoning was that "Jake needs a mom and dad, no matter how short his life on earth might be."  Carr concludes Jake's story by saying, "Jake will not die an orphan."

Many in our culture would say that everyone would have been better off all the way around if Jake had simply been aborted.  The young mother would not have had to see her handicapped son and know that she would not be able to meet his needs.  The couple who adopted Jake would have been saved the costs of his adoption as well as his significant medical expenses.  They would never have gotten attached to a special-needs child who will likely die in childhood.

My worldview simply will not allow me to see Jake's situation in that way.  My filter about the value of life begins with "In the beginning God..." (Genesis 1:1) and includes "God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female (Genesis 1:27).  My filter also includes Isaiah 29:16: "You have turned things around, as if the potter were the same as the clay.  How can what is made say about its maker, 'He didn’t make me'?  How can what is formed say about the one who formed it, 'He doesn’t understand what he’s doing'?"

My worldview allows me to see the value of people as reflections of the image of God.  All people.  Not just unborn children.  All people.  Even Kermit Gosnell, whose story you may not have even read yet.  (Click on the link in the previous sentence to get caught up . . . I'll wait. . . .)

What?!?  

How can you see the value in a monster who committed the atrocities that he did?  How can you say that you value life and say that his life has value?

I don't see his value.  That's when I default to my worldview that God created all humans with value, even if I don't see it myself.  If I don't, I become just like him, picking and choosing whose life matters and whose life doesn't.  That would be a bit hypocritical for someone who calls himself pro-life, don't you think?

Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.  One mile in, the tracks just stop.  Chilling.

I have walked the fields of Birkenau and walked through the crematorium of Auschwitz, where the value of life was taken into human hands.  I can only imagine what the fields of the aborted would look like in America.  I hate the taking of life, born or unborn, because I value life.  But I can't de-value the lives of those who have aborted the lives of others in the process.  For a very good reason.

Crematorium of Auschwitz I.  Stunningly efficient reflection of the devaluing of human life.

Because, you see, I realize that is was I, just like they, who nailed Jesus to the cross.  My sins.  I am not exempt from "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  My consequence is the same as theirs: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, emphasis added).  The gift of mercy.  The gift of grace.  Kermit Gosnell doesn't deserve mercy and grace.  Neither do I.  Neither do you.  "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, emphasis added)!

You might say that Kermit Gosnell deserves to burn in eternal hell for the atrocities that he has committed.  And I believe that you would be absolutely right.  But what if we all got from God what we deserved?  I can't take the undeserved grace of God and give Him thanks for it and then turn around and expect others to earn it.  Twenty-eight years ago this April 3, I turned over control of my life to Jesus, and He doesn't allow me to take His place as Judge over someone's eternity. So while I strongly condemn the actions of Gosnell and other abortionists, I can't condemn their souls.

So be outraged.  Wonder where the mainstream media is in all this.  Mourn the devaluing of  human life in our culture.  Fear where that will take us as a nation.  And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, saved by His blood and not your good works, pray for the soul of Kermit Gosnell.

 "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). 

Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al