A Culture of Life
A CULTURE OF LIFE
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
MAY 19, 2013
Among the many amazing events that took place in Bethlehem twenty one hundred years ago when Jesus was born, is the fact that He came and lived in a society which could accurately be described as being a culture of death. That truth was evidenced by what has been referred to throughout church history as being the slaughter of the innocents. Allow me to explain.
Matthew 2:16-18 (TLB) 16 Herod was furious when he learned that the astrologers [wise men] had disobeyed him. Sending soldiers to Bethlehem, he ordered them to kill every baby boy two years old and under, both in the town and on the nearby farms, for the astrologers [wise men] had told him the star first appeared to them two years before. 17 This brutal action of Herod’s fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, 18 “Screams of anguish come from Ramah, Weeping unrestrained; Rachel weeping for her children, Uncomforted—For they are dead.”
“Herod was a past master of the art of assassination. He had no sooner come to the throne than he began by annihilating the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews. Later he slaughtered three hundred court officers out of hand. Later he murdered his wife Mariamne and her mother Alexandra, his eldest son Antipater and two other sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. And in the hour of his death he arranged for the slaughter of the notable men of Jerusalem.”
“It was not to be expected that Herod would calmly accept the news that a child had been born who was going to be king. We have read how he had carefully inquired of the wise men when they had seen the star. Even then he was craftily working out the age of the child so that he might take steps towards murder, and now he put his plans into swift and savage action. He gave orders that every child under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding district should be slaughtered. Bethlehem was not a large town, and the number of the children would not exceed from twenty to thirty babies.” [1].
“Herod’s fierce rage, inflamed by the dim suspicion that those crafty Easterners had gone away laughing in their sleeves at having tricked him, and by the dread that they may be stirring up armed defenders of the infant King, is in full accord with all that we know of him.” “The fate of those few infants is a strange one. In their brief lives they have won immortal fame. They died for the Christ whom they never knew. These lambs were slain for the sake of the Lamb who lived while they died that by His death they might live forever.” [2]
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” So goes an old saying. But when the early Christians arrived in Rome from Jerusalem and parts of Asia Minor, they did not do as the pagan Romans did. They defied the entire system of Rome’s morality. The low view of human life among the Romans was one of their pagan depravities.”
“The low view of life among the Romans was a shocking affront to the early Christians, who came to Rome with an exalted view of human life. Like their Jewish ancestors, they saw human beings as the crown of God’s creation; they believed that man was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Although that image was tarnished by man’s fall into sin, they nevertheless believed the words of the psalmist to be true: “You made him [man] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5). They also knew that God so honored human life the he himself assumed it by becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son (John 1:14). Thus, unlike the Romans, Christians did not hold human life to be cheap and expendable. It was to be honored and protected at all costs, regardless of its form or quality. By doing so, they countered many depravities that depreciated human life.”
“One way that Christians underscored the sanctity of human life was its consistent and active opposition to the widespread pagan practice of infanticide-killing newborn infants, usually soon after birth. Frederick Farrar has noted that “infanticide was infamously universal” among the Greeks and Romans during the early years of Christianity. Infants were killed for various reasons. Those born deformed or physically frail were especially prone to being willfully killed, often by drowning.” [3].
“The low view of human life among the Greco-Romans also showed itself in widespread abortion practices. Ignoring this factor, historians and anthropologists tend to cite poverty or food shortage as the primary reason for their prevalence. However, historical data indicate that poverty was not the primary cause of the high abortion rates among the Romans in the century preceding and during the early Christian era. At this time in history the Roman honor and respect for marriage had virtually become extinct. Roman “marriage, deprived of all moral character,” as one historian had noted, “was no longer a sacred bond and alliance of souls.” Juvenal apparently was not exaggerating when he said that a chaste wife was almost nonexistent. And Seneca, the Roman moralist, called unchastely “the greatest evil of our time.” In light of this pronounced deterioration of marriage, countless Roman women engaged in adulterous sex, and when they became pregnant, they destroyed the evidence of their sexual indiscretions, thus adding to Rome’s widespread abortions.”
“Long before the birth of Christ, faithful Jews, contrary to the pagan societies around them, held to the sanctity of human life, including life in the womb.” [4].
Some of you folks may be wondering where I’m headed with this information-so let’s fast-forward to an article which appeared in last Wednesday’s edition of the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press.
“A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies who were born alive in his grimy clinic agreed Tuesday to give up his right to an appeal and faces life in prison but will be spared a death sentence.”
“Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was convicted Monday of first- degree murder in the deaths of the babies who were delivered alive and killed with scissors. In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by “snipping” their spines, as he referred to it.”
“Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell was to be sentenced today in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell’s own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out. “
“The gruesome details of Gosnell’s operation came out more than two years ago during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking. Authorities raiding Gosnell’s clinic for drugs instead found bags and bottles of fetuses,”… “along with blood-stained furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.”
“Partisans on both sides of the nation’s abortion debate were quick to weigh in after the verdict. Abortion foes said the case helped to illustrate the disturbing reality of abortion. This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about,” said David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion “once the unborn child can feel pain.”
“Supporters of legalized abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.” “Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now let’s make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care,” said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro Choice America.” [5].
“The arrest of Dr. Gosnell in 2011 brought a wave of news coverage that was not the case with his trial-at least not until public outrage demanded that the press pay more attention. The mainstream media largely ignored the trial, and national attention came only after a concerted effort in social media and on the internet made inattention to the story almost impossible.” [6].
King Herod and Dr. Gosnell were far from being as successful in killing babies as was achieved by the people in the very lucrative abortion industry. Since the founding of NARAL by Dr. Bernard Nathanson and a couple of other abortion advocates. David Kupelian in his outstanding book, ”The Marketing of Evil,” which was published in 2005 explains that,
“During the tumultuous 1960s, after centuries of legal prohibition and moral condemnation, a handful of dedicated activists launched an unprecedented marketing campaign. Their aim was twofold: first, to capture the news media and thus public opinion, and then to change the nation’s abortion laws. Their success was rapid and total-resulting in abortion being legalized in all fifty states for virtually any reason and throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Since the Supreme Court’s controversial Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, American doctors have performed well over forty million (now fifty five million and counting) abortions.”
“In marketing wars, the party that frames the terms of the debate almost always wins. And the early abortion marketers brilliantly succeeded in doing exactly that.-diverting attention from the core issues of exactly what abortion does to both the unborn child and the mother, and focusing the debate instead on a newly created issue: choice. No longer was the reality of killing the unborn an issue, but rather “who decides.” The original abortion-rights slogans from the early ‘70s-they remain virtual articles of faith and rallying cries of the “pro choice” movement to this day-were “Freedom of choice” and “Women must have control over their own bodies.”
“I remember laughing when we made those slogans up,” recalls Bernard Nathanson, M. D. cofounder of the pro abortion vanguard group, NARAL, reminiscing about the early days of the abortion rights movement in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. “We were looking for some sexy, catchy slogans to capture public opinion. They were very cynical slogans then, just as all those slogans today are very cynical.”
“In 1968 I met Lawrence Lader,” says Nathanson. “Lader had just finished a book called Abortion, and in it had made the audacious demand that abortion should be legalized throughout the country. I had just finished a residency in obstetrics and gynecology and was impressed with the number of women who were coming into our clinics, wards and hospitals suffering from illegal, infected, botched abortions. “Lader and I were perfect for each other. We sat down and plotted out the organization now known as NARAL. With Beverly Friedan, we set up this organization and began working on the strategy.”
“We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one,” recalls the movement’s co-founder. “Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U. S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was one million.”
“Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans, convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law. Another myth we fed to the public through the media was that legalizing abortion would only mean that the abortions taking place illegally would then be done legally. In fact, of course, abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the U. S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1,500 percent since legalization. NARAL’s brilliantly deceitful marketing campaign, bolstered by fraudulent research, was uncannily successful.” [7].
“We were inundated with applications for abortion,” says Nathanson. “To that end, I set up a clinic, the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), which operated in the east side of Manhattan. It had 10 operating rooms, 35 doctors, 85 nurses. It operated seven days a week, from 8 a. m. to midnight. We did 120 abortions every day in that clinic. At the end of two years that I was the director, we had done 60,000 abortions. I myself, with my own hands, have done 5,000 abortions. I have supervised another 10,000 that residents have done under my direction. So I have 75,000 abortions in my life. Those are pretty good credentials to speak on the subject of abortion.”
“After two years, Nathanson resigned from CRASH and became chief of the obstetrical service at St. Luke’s hospital in New York City, a major teaching center for Columbia University Medical School. At that time, in 1973, a raft of new technologies and apparatuses had just become available, all designed to afford physicians a “window into the womb.” “Nathanson recalls the dazzling array of cutting-edge technologies back then: Real-time ultrasound, Electronic fetal heart monitoring, Fetoscopy, Cordocentesis.”
“Anyway,” says Nathanson, “as a result of all of this technology-looking at this baby, examining it, investigating it, watching its metabolic functions, watching it urinate, swallow, move and sleep, watching it dream, which you could see by its rapid eye movements via ultrasound, treating it, operating on it-I finally came to the conviction that this was my patient. This was a person! I was a physician, pledged to save my patients lives, not to destroy them. So I changed my mind on the subject of abortion.” “There was nothing religious about it,” he hastens to add. “This was purely a change of mind as a result of this fantastic technology, and the new insights and perceptions I had into the nature of the unborn child.” [8].
“Many doctors who perform abortions cite the same contributory factors to their getting started-the media, woman’s rights groups, and their medical training itself. In addition, doing abortions makes for a very lucrative practice.” “Joseph Randall, M. D., of Atlanta, Georgia, frankly admits that he was attracted to the large income potential that abortions offered. Over the ten years that he did abortions, Randal estimates that he performed thirty-two thousand.”
“The media were very active early on,” recalls Randall. “They were probably one of the major influences on us, telling us that abortion was not only legal, but that it was to serve women. It was to give women a choice; more or less give them a freedom to grow and to take their rightful place in society where they had been kind of pushed down prior to that. We also believed the lie that there were tens of thousands of women being maimed, and killed from illegal abortions prior to the legalization of abortion law.”
“Remember, as Nathanson admits, the number of women dying from illegal abortions was only a tiny fraction of what the marketers claimed. As part of our medical training,” added Randall, “abortions became a necessary procedure, according to the chief of my department. This was in 1971, before the law had changed in the country, but it had changed in New York a few years before. We needed to serve women, we needed to know all the procedures that we had to do for women, and we had to know how to do them well. Otherwise we weren’t considered effectively trained. Our chief said that if we didn’t do abortions, we might as well get out of obstetrics and gynecology because we just wouldn’t be complete physicians.” [9].
“Ultrasound, the great awakener of Bernard Nathanson, is routinely employed today to check on the progress of developing babies. In an ironic and shadowy parallel, ultrasound is also used to aid in abortions. Joseph Randall observed: “The nurses had to look at the ultrasound picture to gauge how far along the baby is for an abortion, because the larger the pregnancy, the more you get paid. It was very important for us to do that. But the turnover definitely got greater when we started using ultrasound. We lost two nurses-they couldn’t take looking at it. Some of the other staff left also.”
“What about the women having the abortions? Do they see the ultrasound? “They are never allowed to look at the ultrasound because we knew that if they so much as heard the heartbeat, they wouldn’t want to have the abortion,” said Randall. “A peculiar problem in the abortion clinic is fetal disposal. “We basically put them down the garbage disposal if they were small enough,” said Nita Whitten. “We hardly ever sent anything to the laboratory for pathology unless there was something weird going on and the doctor wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t get sued.” “Every year in the United States more than a million abortions are performed-including tens of thousands of late-term abortions (after the twelfth week).” [10].
“As the current climate of our culture moves further and further away from morality and truth, it takes average people engaged in their area of influence to make any great strides toward change.” [11].
That concludes today’s sermon. I urge each of you folks to please make the time to seriously think about it and do everything you possibly can to change our society and bring about A Culture of Life.
Lord willing, next week….
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[1]. The Gospel of Matthew, volume 1, by William Barclay, P. 36-37.
[2]. Exposition of Holy Scripture, Volume 1, by Alexander Maclaren, p. 32-33.
[3]. Under the Influence, by Alvin Schmidt, p. 48-49.
[4]. Ibid, p. 55-56.
[5]. Mary Claire Dale of the Associated Press; cited in the Burlington Free Press, Wednesday, May 15, 2013.
[6]. Posted on Dr. Albert Mohler’s blog on May 14, 2013.
[7]. The Marketing of Evil, by David Kupelian P. 189-191.
[8]. Ibid. p. 192-193.
[9]. Ibid. p. 197.
[10]. Ibid. p. 199
[11]. By Alan Terwilleger, President of The Chuck Colson Center For Christian Worldview, May 18th.
I especially liked your son Mike’s comments and what your grandaughter Amanda wrote. I agree with them. That lady Dorothy knows what she is talking about. I can tell that she study’s the Bible.
Laurette
Last Sunday’s sermon, “A Culture of Life”, was quite the conversation in my van when I was taking everyone home. I wish I could say that the conversation was a positive one, but it was not. It wasn’t the fact of the sermon being about abortion, but the fact that it was VERY graphic bothered each one of us. I have to say I agree with Sarah and Doris on this one. Most of us (not all of us), go to church for the fellowship and uplifting spiritual message. I have heard some say you should not go to church on Sundays to get your batteries recharged. Well I do, and I look forward to church and everyone there. I know I have missed out on a couple of weeks since I was gone. I have to be honest and say it’s been a very long time since I have left church on a Sunday feeling uplifted. I have been debating all week about going to church this Sunday, not knowing what to expect. I finally came to the conclution that if I feel uncomfortable, I will go in the back.
I am sorry if I upset anyone but I really needed to share my feeling with everyone.
Beeb
Thanks Beeb.
Your comment’s are music to my ears! Lord willing, we’ll see each other at church on Sunday.
Mike
Hi Mike,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you regarding your sermon on abortion, but I wasn’t sure how I would respond. I can’t agree with you more on this issue, however I found it very disturbing due to how graphically you presented it.
I remember when I saw the movie that Mel Gibson did on the Passion of the Christ. I understand the horrible, horrible pain that Jesus suffered to save me. But it seem like the whole movie was this continuous beating and scourging of His body, presented far more graphically than what I needed to see to understand what He suffered.
I would assume that the folks that attend your church are already aware of how disgusting abortion is. I read some of the comments you received. For me, Doris said it best.
As always, you know how much we love and respect you.
God bless you,
Carol
Hi Carol,
I have to say that I didn’t like the comments that you posted on my blog. I loved them!
God bless you,
Mike
Grandpa, is there a reason why everyone who left negative feedback on your sermon but me got a response?
I’m sorry but I dropped the ball, Sarah. Please forgive me.
Your comments started the ball rolling and I’m very thankful.
I love and appreciate you very, very much, Sarah.
Grandpa
I love you too 🙂 and I forgive you I just wanted to make sure it was fine.
Sarah, I wondered the same thing – thought maybe you and your grandpa had discussed it privately. But I need to say that it was your comment that made me think even MORE deeply – if that was possible! – about the sermon and leaving the response that was on my heart. So thank you! How awesome is it to belong to a church where we can be so honest with our pastor!?! A true gift from God!
God Bless You and Jerry,
Doris
Thanks for dropping off a copy of your sermon. The in-human horror of abortion is never a pleasant topic, but has been made socially acceptable, and supported by ignoring and avoiding the reality of the procedure. We know well that when a pregnant mother sees an ultrasound of her baby the chance of her terminating the pregnancy falls dramatically…because she is given the facts and makes a fully informed decision.
I am privileged to have the opportunity to witness and participate in the amazing process of pregnancy and birth in my work, and I appreciate the trust my patients put in my hands daily. It is impossible for me to understand how others can look at a patient’s pregnancy with such an opposite mindset.
Best of health Mike
Hi Mike,
Your sermon was very thought provoking and interesting. the fact that 55 million abortions have been done in the US since the passage of Roe vs. Wade saddens me.In my opinion, I believe that life begins at conception and that this culture of death has been promoted with lies such as you presented in your sermon.
Our consciense should be deeply concerned about the way in which sins against love and against life are often presented as examples of progress and emancipation. Most often, they are nothing more than the age old forms of selfishness dressed up in a new language presented in a new cultural framework.
” Right to choose ” is a phrase we hear a lot. God has given us a tremendous gift in the form of “free will” which means we have the right to choose. We cannot insist on the right to choose without also insisting on the duty to choose well and the duty to choose the truth. God’s word, the Bible, is very specific on what the truth is.
Enjoyed reading your sermon.
Regards,
Mike
Hi Dad,
I apologize for not sending my comment sooner. I read your sermon over and over again today and I came up with my own personal opinion regarding this matter. First of all, I admire you for preaching the horrible, sinful truth behind the abortion. I want to thank you for helping my kids understand that abortion is not what God want us to do when we think there is no other choice when we have unwanted pregnancy. I have seven children and two of them are very young teenagers and having them hear about abortion and educating them with self respect, decency, purity, integrity, honesty, and never engage in adulterous sexual act otherwise it would result a unwanted pregnancy that could possibly result with abortion.
I felt that your sermon is very appropriate and people need to understand that killing the innocent little unborn babies is a low view of human life. I have a very good close friend in Alaska that openly admitted to me that she have had an abortion in the past and she wishes that it never happened at all. She said she wished that somebody gave her an advice to do the right thing but that never happen in her case. I do believe that every pastor has an obligation to preach about abortion and the ugly truth behind this sinful act. The world is full of cruelty and if we don’t expose the truth and educate our young children then how the young children would know the difference of doing the right and wrong things? This is exactly what I want for my kids to hear; sermons preached about how bad and sinful it is for mothers to kill the innocent babies that live inside their belly. I hope and pray that this sermon would stay in my kids heart and help my kids to make a Godly decision later in life.
Thank you so much again dad. May the good Lord continue using you for His own glory. You did an amazing job!
Love,
Veronica