Annual event highlights questions to ponder daily

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is Jan. 20. One American theologian laments he “hates” this day because, “I’m reminded that we have to say things to one another that human beings shouldn’t have to say: mothers shouldn’t kill their children, fathers shouldn’t abandon their babies, and no human life is worthless regardless of skin color, age, disability, or economic status.”

It’s hard not to see the glaring contradiction in a person’s “reasoning” which claims to hold to a real Christian worldview (which is undeniably pro-life), but which also compromisingly supports abortion “under certain circumstances.” One must ask the obvious question: What is the unborn? Is it a human being, made in God’s image, or just a clump of undifferentiated cells? What was Mary carrying when Luke (a physician) reports in his gospel the prophecy of Gabriel, “You will be with child”? And what makes humans valuable—something they acquire later (a function), or is it defined by what/whom we are intrinsically?

One may feel, as some studies have suggested, an “issue fatigue” on this biblical/moral-made-political matter; that is, just tired of the debate. But this is no settled dispute to the 2,500 to 3.000 babies in America who are going to be aborted today and each following day this year. Could this be one major reason many of us feel God’s hand of protection and blessing being lifted from our country?

Could it be that many of our pulpits and pews need to not be “fatigued” or misled by such an important moral truth of proclaiming the sanctity of human life? Instead, should we get down on our knees in repentance and then boldly stand for the precious value of life in the womb? Just some thoughts on the upcoming Sanctity of Human Life Sunday — or should that be every day? DONALD J. ECKARD

Bentonville