Does your Christian college or university have a public pro-life position?

Today is the 40^th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling known as Roe vs Wade that legalized abortion through all 9 months of pregnancy in the United States. Over 50 million babies have been murdered by abortion since that day, a staggering number, more than the population of the 25 largest cities in the US combined.  In some cases it is paid for with our tax dollars.

For every woman who aborts, there are another 60 people affected by that choice on the day of the abortion, that number increasing as the years go by. Moms, dads, grandparents, children, boyfriends, husbands, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, co-workers, fellow church members, all have lost something through someone else’s choice. No one has escaped the effects of this national sin.

40 years, an entire generation later and where do we place the blame for this holocaust? It would be easy to point fingers at the abortionists, Planned Parenthood, pro-choice politicians, Hollywood, the liberal media, or secular universities. But the truth is that the church hasn’t done what it will take to bring an end to abortion. Not only have we failed to stand firm and call abortion a sin but in many circles we have put on our very best postmodern attire and declared ourselves “neutral,” as though all choices are equal.

There is no greater example of this than what is happening on the campuses of Christian colleges across the country where all views of abortion are considered acceptable. Seth Gruber, a junior at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California discovered this when he requested permission to host a Genocide Awareness Project on his campus, an exercise that is intended to open up discussion on abortion among college students, the largest demographic of women who commit abortion. After being turned down three years in a row, Seth organized his own awareness campaign, standing outside the campus dining commons with graphic posters depicting aborted babies. Two things happened: Seth’s desire to see students engage in conversation about abortion became a reality.  But it was also revealed that the college, in spite of its public declaration that their goal is to “encourage students to develop biblically based, intellectually strong convictions and worldviews…..concentrating on a critical time of life when students make decisions shaping their future,” they consider abortion to be a topic that has no moral absolutes.

Westmont College certainly does not stand alone with this position. I was a student at Judson University (then Judson College) in Elgin, Illinois when Roe became law. Not once did I hear an apologetic for taking a pro-life stand. In fact, one professor assured us that abortion in the case of a Down ’s syndrome child would be the moral choice. A few years later when I discovered that the college had chosen to take a neutral position on the issue because they were “Baptists who believe in the separation of church and state,” I challenged the school by leading a pro-life demonstration in front of the campus. The college president and the dean, both who knew my husband and me personally, came out to assure us that they heard our concerns but to affirm the school’s neutral stance.

In more recent years I have been so grieved to reconnect with friends on FB from my years at Judson who embrace a pro-choice position. Some are pastors and leaders in their churches. On more than one occasion I have seen some of their writings making light of the death of unborn children through the atrocity known as “choice.” Like Seth, I have to ask them if they truly know what “choice” looks like looks like up close and personal.

Today I want to call all of my fellow alumni of Judson University to self-examination. What do you believe about abortion? If you are pro-choice or if you say you are pro-life but believe others have the “right to choose” for themselves, do you really know what you are supporting? Do you realize that it would be like saying in 1864 that you were personally opposed to slavery but that you felt your neighbor had the right to keep slaves? Please, please consider how your position aligns itself with the Bible and what it says about your worldview.

If you are pro-life, please make an appeal to the Judson University administration and Board of Trustees. Ask them to take a public stand against abortion and to require the faculty to sign a statement that they are pro-life as well. Refuse to financially support Judson or recommend students to the school unless they become unapologetically pro-life and then follow through with your convictions.

And for those who attend or have graduated from Christian colleges, find out where your school stands on the issue of abortion and take them to task.  It is a life and death situation!

The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”  ~  Matthew 25:40