Pro-Birth, MLK and Matariki
Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Pro-Birth, MLK and Matariki
Monday 8th February, 2021
The purpose of this weekly ‘Gospel and Culture’ blog is to assist pastors and Christian leaders to quickly understand ‘key’ issues of the day and how they might intersect with the Gospel, Church and with Christianity generally. It is essentially a ‘curated’ blog that raises between one and three current issues and directs you the reader to a reliable article, podcast and/or a website for further reading. It is my contribution to help us ‘think Christianly’ and to develop a Christian world-view. Jesus prayed for us in John 17, “I’m not asking you, Father, to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one………make them holy by your truth”.
Pro-Birth or Pro-Life?
POV. Since the 70’s pro-life has essentially come to mean anti-abortion. But the meaning has become to narrow. In other words what we are usually saying when we talk about being a pro-lifer is that we are pro-birth. And that of course is true. Everyone who is pro-life is also pro-birth and I am one of those people, but I am not so sure if everybody that is pro-birth is also as committed to the fuller meaning of pro-life.
As Christians we are pro-life, a term meaning that we are radically in favour of life or ‘for-life’. We believe in life eternal and the fullness of life between ‘womb and tomb’. That means we must strive for the value, dignity and quality of life for all people in all respects and at all stages. That being the case then, as pro-life people, have we thought through issues like:-
- A liveable wage
- Economic policies that marginalise (even oppress) the poor.
- Inadequate and sub-standard housing
- Equal Opportunity for men and women
- Immigration policies
- Race relations
- War
- Euthanasia
I can almost hear your response. ‘Stop, this is hurting my brain’. Perhaps, but as pro-lifers lets embrace a whole-of-life, pro-life ethic.
MLK Anniversary Day was on the 19th January.
“... there are two types of law: just and unjust.... A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.... Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (Letter from Birmingham Jail) (New York: Mentor/New American Library, 1963, 1964).
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reveals date of first Matariki public holiday.
In case you missed it, here is the Radio New Zealand announcement.
There are NO copyright restrictions on this email update. Got some feedback about this Update, or anything in the news? Would you like us to cover a story then drop me a note at alan.vink@leadershipworx.org.nz
