Abortion and Child emotional wellness
Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Monday 2nd March 2020
Abortion. This issue, for me at least, rises to the top above all the myriad of social and cultural issues swirling around NZ society today. I deem this issue a more critical then even Religious Freedom and manmade Climate Change for example as important as those issues are. What I find most interesting is this. After a quick literature review there is now a category of Christian folks including scholars, social activists and pastors who call themselves ‘pro-choice followers of Christ’. Just saying the phrase out loud seems odd, doesn’t it? It’s not a big group in comparison to the pro-life army of people but it is becoming a more vocal group.
At the crux of this discussion is the question that pro-life people ask,
when does human life begin? Pro-choice people ask a completely different question – when is human life viable? Can I suggest that it is these two questions we need to wrestle to the ground. I for one am in no doubt. Human life begins at conception and this is both attested by science and the Bible. Further I have seen the movie ‘Unplanned’ twice and it is such a compelling story and makes you want to weep for both mothers and babies. It is very distressing yet a movie I would recommend all pastors to see. It’s available on DVD now.
Here are two articles written by two Christian women. Elaina Ramsey is pro-choice and Karen Swallow Prior is pro-life.
Finally, our current coalition Government seems hell bent on liberalising the current law so that it would be easy for a women to have a late term abortion which under the current legislation is illegal. And that’s just for starters.
Child Emotional Wellness.
This article titled, The Silent Tragedy, has been doing the rounds lately and no surprises really. It is superb in every way.
It is written by Dr Luis Rojas Marcos, a Spanish Psychiatrist who is one ofthe most internationally respected science popularisers and a highly-reputed doctor and health system manager who has pursued his career mainly in New York. In the space of just 713 words he succinctly states what has and is going wrong with our children and then equally as concisely what to do about it.
I would give this piece to every parent in my church….in a heartbeat.
I would also use it as the basis for a parenting seminar for all the young Mum and Dad’s in my church.
It’s no secret that I am deeply worried about the cultural milieu our children are growing up in. We need all the help we can get. Most of all we need not only engaged parents but SKILLED parents. The local church is one place where skills can be learnt and where all parents, caregivers, grandparents, aunts and uncles can be encouraged.
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Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.
