Christian mission for women
Regarding Stephen J. Lyons’ op-ed “Rolling back abortion rights? America, you’re breaking my heart.” (May 14): While I will not comment on the merits of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion, I will comment on what Lyons incorrectly, and without support, characterizes as “the newest Christian crusade against women, children and the poor.”
On the contrary, and I speak as a pastor, there is no such “Christian crusade,” but there most certainly is a Christian mission. And that mission involves caring for women, including single mothers, children and the poor.
I would like to invite Lyons to our church to see that mission in action. He would see how we care for the single mothers in our community of faith, including by providing housing at little or no cost. He would see how we support them financially, spiritually and emotionally. He would also observe our meal ministry that served over 4,000 hot meals and 1,800 sack lunches in 2021 to the poor, the homeless and the shut-in. He would also see how we love and support the babies born in our midst.
He would also see how we partner with local organizations, as well as other churches in underprivileged areas of Chicago, to provide school supplies, winter clothing, food and toiletries. In 2020, at the height of civil unrest, we provided 25,000 diapers and dozens of cases of formula to mothers in an area of Chicago where the local stores had been destroyed.
Churches in our community and across the nation routinely supply such care and support as part of their mission of service.
As to abortion, it is a fallacy that we seek to control women’s bodies. We seek to control no one. What we seek instead is the protection of the most vulnerable in our society: unborn children. Because we believe that God is the author of life, we believe that these children have the right to live.
Are there instances where abortion should be allowed? Of course there are. Should birth control be widely available? Of course it should. Can we do better in our efforts to support pregnant women and
single mothers? Of course we can. Should fathers be held accountable? Of course they should.
While Lyons paints the abortion debate with a cynical and simplistic brush, the truth is that this is a complex moral issue that deserves careful listening on all sides.
— Lou Bury, pastor, Downers Grove Community Church