Thank you brother Richard Burdeshaw for these life lessons to live by while dying!

Thank you Brother Richard for these life lessons to live by while dying! 

Around three weeks ago, a dear friend and church member was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma cancer. To make a long story short, this was a shock to him, to his family, and to our church. Our brother and friend was in the prime of his life and caring for a wife and three beautiful children. Richard was a faithful man to our church and to his work, he served as a deacon, and also was a dear friend who helped me personally and encouraged me when I was going through some difficulties to persevere in the faith. One of the things I remember about our conversation was that Richard’s counsel was biblical and concise and he, by no means, cut corners. Richard loved and lived the truth. 

When Richard was diagnosed with cancer, I wanted to help my dear brother in any way, but little did I know that Richard would be the one to do the most good. As a matter of fact, I’m sure Richard did do the most good. As my eyes looked upon my dear brother, who was definitely beginning to feel the grip of aggressive cancer consuming his body, he so gently and affectionately ministered grace to my heart and encouraged me to follow Christ, regardless of the circumstances of life!  

A dear brother in our Church organized night shifts so that men could come and stay with Richard, help give him his medicine, and assist him through the night. I’ve also seen many folks, as I  served as Chaplin at Hawfield’s Presbyterian Home, suffer through cancer, but the confidence and courage that Richard displayed on the nights I stayed with him was unlike any other. 

So I wanted to pen a few life lessons to live by when dying that my brother Richard taught me the two nights I was able to spend with him. 

The first lesson is that sin is worth slaying. 

As brother Richard and I talked, as he was sitting in his chair, he spoke of the difficulty of slaying those remaining sins that that seem so easily to beset us, those sins that haunt us on a regular basis! Richard told me that God had given him much grace to lay those besetting sins aside and to enjoy sweet fellowship with the Lord Jesus! The grace that was displayed by brother Richard, his rich confidence and determination to pursue Christ through his cancer and persevere in holiness, is a wonderful lesson to live by when dying. I was reminded of how precious the gospel is and how we can truly be confident that Jesus who has begun a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ or until he decides to take us home! (Phil 1:6) Thank you, Brother Richard, for teaching me this lesson. Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,!”

The second lesson is that God is truly good.

Brother Richard reminded me a few times of how good God has been to him even in the midst of battling cancer. Richard reminded me that God had given him over 40 years of life. He said that he did not deserve those, and he really wanted to serve Christ through his cancer and be a blessing to all around him. Throughout the night when Richard was awake and needed attention his first words to me were “God is so good.” Our God answered our brother’s prayers and Richard’s faith and love for Jesus was radiant and shined as brightly as a city set upon a hill. Thank you, Brother Richard, for making this truth real to me! Psalm 63:3-4  “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.  ⁴ Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.” Psalm 106:1  “Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

The third lesson is that we really do have a blessed assurance.

                On the second night, the day before our brother reached the New Jerusalem, Richard was heavily medicated because of the aggressive nature of the cancer that was consuming his body. As I sat beside his bed holding his hand, alongside my brother Micah Allen who was graciously tending to Richard’s medical needs, Brother Richard began to sing that wonderful hymn, “Blessed Assurance.” Micah and I began to sing this song with our brother.

                Yes! Even amidst the darkest providence, the deepest sickness, God visits his people with amazing assurance! Our brother, Richard, displayed for us what happens when we truly live and believe these words found in Ephesians 3:17-19.  “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height --  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

                Sometimes, as we are with our friends who are going through tremendous trial, we are lost for words, or find it hard to respond, but thanks be to God that through our brother’s sickness he taught us to sing so that at all times and in every place we can have exactly what the hymnist wrote in this beautiful hymn.

1.                 Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 

                    O what a foretaste of glory divine!

                    Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

                    born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

                    This is my story, this is my song,

                    praising my Savior all the day long;

                    this is my story, this is my song,

                    praising my Savior all the day long.

2.                 Perfect submission, perfect delight,

                    visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

                    angels descending bring from above

                    echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

                    (Refrain)

3.                 Perfect submission, all is at rest;

                    I in my Savior am happy and blest,

                    watching and waiting, looking above,

                    filled with his goodness, lost in his love.

                    (Refrain)

Thank you, Brother Richard, for teaching me what perfect submission, rest, and happiness is, and what it means to be watching and waiting, filled with his goodness and lost in His love!

The forth lesson is to live a life that is not wasted!

As we came to the close of Friday morning, our dear brother had a very difficult night. It was evident that Richard’s body was becoming weaker, and that the remaining hours of his pilgrimage here were coming to a close. Richard asked if he could be set up, and it took us a few moments to understand exactly what his request was. So we sat him up with his dear wife, Marisol, sitting beside him and with Micah on the other side to hold him up. Richard was trying to communicate with us, but because of the extreme circumstance our dear brother was in, it was hard for him to communicate for more than a few seconds.

                So I asked Richard if we could sing a hymn to him and he nodded yes. With the hymnals in our hands, I thought of this hymn which God’s grace was demonstrating so vividly in Richard’s life - “All The Way My Savior Leads Me.” We found the page and began to sing.  Richard joined in with no hymnal and sang the first stanza by heart before he could not continue. The truths and promises contained in that hymn taught me that no not for one moment has Richards heavenly Father left his side. The vibrant display of our brother’s faith and trust brought home the reality that indeed our God is great! His promises are true, and we can say with confidence that Jesus leads us all the way, not part of the way, not three-quarters of the way, but all the way until we reach that blessed embrace which extends through endless ages! 

At that moment, I began to realize that my dear friend and brother lived his life in such a way that when death came to his front door he had not wasted his life. His life was cut short but his life was lived to the full. Our brother, Richard, loved his family, his wife, his children, his church, but most of all, he deeply loved his Savior and redeemer, The Lord Jesus! 

It has been said “Catch on fire and others will love to come watch you burn.” Before cancer, Richard Burdeshaw was a bright light and an example to us, but through his trial our brother burned brightly, and we marveled at the grace of God on display and rejoiced as he burned white hot for Christ’s glory!

Thank you, Brother Richard, for not only living well, but for finishing well. Your life and ministry to me and our church family has been a living epistle, and we are indebted to you, dear brother, for teaching us some priceless life lessons to live by when dying! I know one thing for sure, I’ll never be able to sing this hymn again without relishing its truth and the fact that Jesus truly lead our brother all the way, even to glory!

1. All the way my Savior leads me;
     What have I to ask beside?
   Can I doubt His tender mercy,
     Who through life has been my Guide?
   Heav'nly peace, divinest comfort,
     Here by faith in Him to dwell!
   For I know, whate'er befall me,
     Jesus doeth all things well,
   For I know, whate'er befall me,
     Jesus doeth all things well.

2. All the way my Savior leads me,
     Cheers each winding path I tread,
   Gives me grace for every trial,
     Feeds me with the living bread.
   Though my weary steps may falter,
     And my soul athirst may be,
   Gushing from the Rock before me,
     Lo! a spring of joy I see,
   Gushing from the Rock before me,
     Lo! a spring of joy I see.

3. All the way my Savior leads me;
     Oh, the fullness of His grace!
   Perfect rest to me is promised
     In my Father's blest embrace.
   When my spirit, clothed immortal,
     Wings its flight to realms of day,
   This my song through endless ages:
     Jesus led me all the way,
   This my song through endless ages:
     Jesus led me all the way!

May Jesus give me and all His people the grace to sing, as Richard  did, these marvelous words as we prepare to meet our Savior! Thank you, Brother Richard, for these life lessons to live by while dying!

Made Willing In The Day Of His Power! 

Casey Kirkman

VOTE FOR MARRIAGE NC

On May 8th our State will vote concerning a Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman as the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.

I’m not big in politics at all. As a matter of fact the political scene is very disheartening!  Nevertheless, I cannot stand aside when moral issues become front and center in the political realm. Christians are called to support and pray for our leaders so far as it does not violate God’s clear commands or our conscience. (Rom 13:1-7) (1 Pet 2:13-14) (Matt 22:21) (1 Tim 2:1-2) (Tit 3:1).

Regardless of what our culture, Government or society deems correct or right the Christians response is always "We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)

Spurgeon's words may be prophetic to us as we look back upon this issue!

"We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right perhaps our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His word.”

  

Here is a few reasons from the pin of John Piper why I will be voting yes concerning the Marriage Protection Amendment.

 Here are some thoughts rooted in my Christian, biblical convictions that may help you think through this issue. I hope they help.

1. There is no such thing as so-called “gay marriage.”

Except in a sentence like this one, I don’t think we should use the term “gay marriage” or “same-sex marriage.” I think in our everyday discourse, we should say “so-called gay marriage” or “so-called same sex marriage.” I would encourage politicians, pastors, and people to adopt this simple habit.
The reason is that in God’s eyes, there simply is no such thing as so-called “gay marriage.” It does not exist. It cannot be made to exist by desires or decisions or language or laws. God ordained marriage with the words: “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Marriage is the union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant as husband and wife.

Humans don’t create or define marriage. God does. Not all humans believe this. But those who do, should not use the term “marriage” to refer to any other relationship than the one God ordains.

2. Same-sex sexual relations are sin.

When the human relationship with God was broken at the beginning of our race, countless good things were broken, including the goodness of sexuality. When the vertical axis of our existence was disordered, the horizontal axis was disordered.
There are many tragic expressions of this disordering in the sphere of sexuality. For example, narcissism, exhibitionism, bestiality, pornography, fornication, adultery, abusiveness, coercion. All of us are broken sexually one way or the other and in need of the forgiving and healing mercy that only comes through Jesus Christ.

One of the expressions of this horizontal disorder of our sexuality is same-sex desires. Thousands of decent, moral people, including Christians, find this disorder in their desires. Many do not want it, but it is there. The apostle Paul describes the roots of it, along with other sins, in the disordering of man’s relationship with God.

[We humans have] exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator . . . . For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts. (Romans 1:25–27)

This does not mean that every person who finds same-sex desires in his heart has consciously brought it on himself by exchanging God for a lie. Some of the most God-honoring, Christ-exalting people may find themselves with deep disorders.
Paul’s point is that, in general terms among the human race, a disordered desire for God has resulted in a disordered desire for people. Homosexual desire is one form of that disorder. There are others.
As in the case of other disordered desires, God forbids that we indulge same-sex desires. For example, the apostle says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality” (1 Corinthians 6:9).

Therefore, the practice of homosexuality is a sin. And we can see from this same verse that heterosexual adultery is also a sin. Both sins are the indulgence of disordered sexual desires. Men should not desire another man or another man’s wife. Therefore, God forbids that we act on these desires.
Knowing how deeply dependent all of us are on the mercy of God for the forgiveness of our sins, and the healing of our peculiar brokenness, Christians should be slow to anger and quick with compassion. Jesus did not condone sin, but was compassionate with broken-hearted sinners. From the cross he even prayed for his proud adversaries: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Joe Hallett, who died of AIDS in 1997, helped me taste how conviction and compassion come together. I pray that this remarkable and rare combination will pervade the Christian community as the marriage debate continues.

3. Not all sins should be proscribed by human law, but some should be.

Almost everyone agrees that there are unethical actions that should not be illegal, and some that should be. Almost everyone would agree that theft and murder are unethical actions that should be proscribed by human law. If life and property are not protected by law, living in society becomes virtually impossible.
But where to draw the line on which unethical actions are made illegal is a judgment call that in our system of government is made by elected legislators. It’s a pretty good system that balances the freedom of the human conscience (Luke 12:57; 2 Corinthians 5:11; Acts 17:11) with the rights of government to make laws and use force (Romans 13:1–4).

For example, looking at pornography should not be proscribed by human law. To be sure, the lustful use of pornography dishonors God’s design for sexuality, damages male-female relationships, and corrupts a person’s capacity for holy affections. It is sin. But it should not be proscribed by human law.
Some of the reasons would be 1) without a common ground of biblical holiness, the precise definition of what’s acceptable to look at would entangle our lawmakers in hopeless disputes; 2) the privacy of the act would make the law virtually unenforceable; and 3) the indirect way that people are hurt make it unfeasible for the law to be handled with proper proportion. So there are many sinful behaviors that should not be illegal.

4. The legal significance of marriage makes a statutory definition necessary.

It is clear that some laws are necessary in relation to marriage. The clearest place this is seen is in relation to children. Sexual union in marriage usually produces children. Marriage creates a mutual claim of parents to have the right to raise their children. These rights of parents must be protected by law because of the reality of kidnapping and because of custody conflicts that arise through divorce.

There are many other laws relating to marriage, such as inheritance laws, and the rights of married couples to own property or file income taxes together, and so on. The inevitable legal significance of marriage makes it imperative that there be a clear statutory definition of what it is.

5. It is wise that our laws define marriage as between a man and a woman.

This is not because homosexual practice or same-sex relationships should be legally stopped. Rather, it’s because they should not be legally sanctioned. The issue is not whether same-sex unions are permitted, but whether they are institutionalized. The issue is not whether we tolerate same-sex relationships, but whether we build on them as a foundation for society. The issue is not whether we forbid a particular sin, but whether we mandate social approval of that sin. The issue is not whether we block a sinful behavior, but whether we imbed it in our laws.

I am not making a case for the legal prosecution of homosexual practice. Nor would I advocate the legal prosecution of heterosexual fornication. But I would make a case against the institutionalization of fornication, or making it a building block of society, or mandating its approval, or imbedding it in our laws. It is one thing to tolerate sin. It is another to build society on it.
________
May God have mercy on us. Laws are not our Savior. We need a great awakening to the truth and glory of Jesus Christ far more than we need a marriage amendment. Our hope lies in the work of Jesus—for us on the cross, and in us by his Spirit. Be thankful for laws and for courageous political servants, but live for the gospel and the glory of Christ (Mark 8:35)."


Made Willing In The Day Of His Power!
Casey Kirkman

Love Undeniable yet so Inconceivable!

                                                                   1 John 4:10 

 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

We cannot even begin to understand love apart from God's gracious dealings with sinners. To stand back and look at the immensity of God's love in Christ we have to shout Awesome! We see tokens of love all around us but all of these are faint in comparison to the love which drove Jesus to hang upon the cross! My heart is overwhelmed just to think about it. This verse makes my heart want to do great things Jesus! He's worthy and I'm thankful that my eyes and heart once again had the opportunity to thank much upon the deep love of Jesus this morning. May this truth mark all that we do today and live unfettered for His glory and for His fame!

Spurgeon noted: " There was not a man on earth who loved God. There was none that did good—no, not one. And yet, the Lord fixed the eye of His electing love upon sinners in whom there was no thought of loving Him! There is no more love to God in an un-renewed heart than there is of life within a piece of granite. No more of love to God is there within the soul that is unsaved than there is of fire within the depths of the ocean’s waves! And here, indeed, is the wonder, that when we had no love to God, He should have loved us! This is a mild way of expressing it, for instead of loving God, my Brothers and Sisters, you and I withheld from Him the poorest tribute of homage. We were careless and indifferent. Days and weeks passed over our heads in which we hardly thought of God. If there had not been any God, it would not have made much difference to us as to our thoughts, habits and conversation. God was not in all our thoughts and, perhaps, if somebody could have informed us that God was dead, we would have thought it a fine piece of news, for then we could live as we liked and need not be under any fear of being judged by Him! Instead of loving God—though now we rejoice that He loves us—we rebelled against Him. Which of His Laws have we not broken? We cannot put our finger upon one command without being compelled to acknowledge that we have violated its claims, or come short of its demands."

In the fight with you to glory in none other but Jesus alone!
Made Willing In The Day Of His Power!
Casey Kirkman

Oh! To get hold of a living Christ.

I know that my Redeemer lives. : Job 19:25


"The marrow of Job’s comfort lies in that little word “My”—”My Redeemer,” and in the fact that the Redeemer lives. Oh! to get hold of a living Christ. We must get a property in Him before we can enjoy Him. What is gold in the mine to me? Men are beggars in Peru, and beg their bread in California. It is gold in my purse which will satisfy my necessities, by purchasing the bread I need. So a Redeemer who does not redeem me, an avenger who will never stand up for my blood, of what avail were such? Rest not content until by faith you can say “Yes, I cast myself upon my living Lord; and He is mine.” It may be you hold Him with a feeble hand; you half think it presumption to say, “He lives as my Redeemer;” yet, remember if you have but faith as a grain of mustard seed, that little faith entitles you to say it. But there is also another word here, expressive of Job’s strong confidence, “I know.” To say, “I hope so, I trust so” is comfortable; and there are thousands in the fold of Jesus who hardly ever get much further. But to reach the essence of consolation you must say, “I know.” Ifs, buts, and perhaps, are sure murderers of peace and comfort. Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow. Like wasps they sting the soul! If I have any suspicion that Christ is not mine, then there is vinegar mingled with the gall of death; but if I know that Jesus lives for me, then darkness is not dark: even the night is light about me. Surely if Job, in those ages before the coming and advent of Christ, could say, “I know,” we should not speak less positively. God forbid that our positiveness should be presumption. Let us see that our evidences are right, lest we build upon an ungrounded hope; and then let us not be satisfied with the mere foundation, for it is from the upper rooms that we get the widest prospect. A living Redeemer, truly mine, is joy unspeakable." Spurgeon

Made Willing In The Day Of His Power!
Casey Kirkman

Spurgeon on Motherhood

Titus 2:1-5 "But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Motherhood.

MOST men are what their mothers made them. The father is away from home all day, and has not half the influence over the children that the mother has. The cow has most to do with the calf. If a ragged colt grows into a good horse, we know who it is that combed him. A mother is therefore a very responsible woman, even though she may be the poorest in the land, for the bad or the good of her boys and girls very much depends upon her. As is the gardener such is the garden, as is the wife such is the family. Samuel’s mother made him a little coat every year, but she had done a deal for him before that : Samuel would not have been Samuel if Hannah had not been Hannah. We shall never see a better set of men till the mothers are better. We must have Sarahs and Rebekahs before we shall see Isaacs and Jacobs. Grace does not run in the blood, but we generally find that the Timothies have mothers of a godly sort.

Little children give their mother the headache, but if she lets them have their own way, when they grow up to be great children they will give her the heartache. Foolish fondness spoils many, and letting faults alone spoils more. Gardens that are never weeded will grow very little worth gathering ; all watering and no hoeing will make a bad crop. A child may have too much of its mother’s love, and in the long run it may turn out that it had too little. Soft-hearted mothers rear soft-headed children ; they hurt them for life because they are afraid of hurting them when they are young. Coddle your children, and they will turn out noodles. You may sugar a child till everybody is sick of it. Boys’ jackets need a little dusting every now and then, and girls’ dresses are all the better for occasional trimming. Children without chastisement are fields without ploughing. The very best colts want breaking in. Not that we like severity; cruel mothers are not mothers, and those who are always flogging and fault-finding ought to be flogged themselves. There is reason in all things, as the madman said when he cut off his nose.

Good mothers are very dear to their children. There’s no mother in the world like our own mother. My friend Sanders, from Glasgow, says, “The mither’s breath is aye sweet.” Every woman is a handsome woman to her own son. That man is not worth hanging who does not love his mother. When good women lead their little ones to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus blesses not only the children, but their mothers as well. Happy are they among women who see their sons and their daughters walking in the truth.

He who thinks it easy to bring up a family never had one of his own. A mother who trains her children aright had need be wiser than Solomon, for his son turned out a fool. Some children are perverse from their infancy ; none are born perfect, but some have a double share of imperfections. Do what you will with some children, they don’t improve. Wash a dog, comb a dog, still a dog is but a dog : trouble seems thrown away on some children. Such cases are meant to drive us to God, for he can turn blackamoors white, and cleanse out the leopard’s spots. It is clear that whatever faults our children have, we are their parents, and we cannot find fault with the stock they came of. Wild geese do not lay tame eggs. That which is born of a hen will be sure to scratch in the dust. The child of a cat will hunt after mice. Every creature follows its kind. If we are black, we cannot blame our offspring if they are dark too. Let us do our best with them, and pray the Mighty Lord to put his hand to the work. Children of prayer will grow up to be children of praise; mothers who have wept before God for their sons, will one day sing a new song over them. Some colts often break the halter, and yet become quiet in harness. God can make those new whom we cannot mend, therefore let mothers never despair of their children as long as they live. Are they away from you across the sea? Remember, the Lord is there as well as here. Prodigals may wander, but they are never out of sight of the Great Father, even though they may be ” a great way off/’

Let mothers labor to make home the happiest place in the world. If they are always nagging and grumbling they will lose their hold of their children, and the boys will be tempted to spend their evenings away from home. Home is the best place for boys and men, and a good mother is the soul of home. The smile of a mother’s face has enticed many into the right path, and the fear of bringing a tear into her eye has called off many a man from evil ways. The boy may have a heart of iron, but his mother can hold him like a magnet. The devil never reckons a man to be lost so long as he has a good mother alive. O woman, great is thy power! See to it that it be used for him who thought of his mother even in the agonies of death."

Made Willing In The Day Of His Power!
Casey Kirkman

The Great Question of All Scripture!

“Abortion is as American as Apple Pie” — The Culture of Death Finds a Voice!

Abortion is now one of America’s most common surgical procedures performed on adults. As many as one out of three women will have at least one abortion. In some American neighborhoods, the number of abortions far exceeds the number of live births.

Most Americans will pay little attention to the 39th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wadedecision. In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a woman has a constitutional right to arrange the killing of the unborn life within her. Since that decision was handed down, more than 50 million babies have been aborted, at a rate of over 3,000 each day.

One of the most chilling aspects of all this is the sense of normalcy in American life. Abortion statistics pile up from year to year, and each report gets filed. Moral sentiment on the issue of abortion has shifted discernibly in recent years, as ultrasound images and other technologies deliver unquestionable proof that the unborn child is just that — a child. Nevertheless, the larger picture of abortion in America is basically unchanged.

RELATED POSTS

• “We Had Abortions . . . . I’ve Had Abortions” — A New Voice in the Abortion Debate
• The Culture of Death Grows Desperate: War Declared on Crisis Pregnancy Centers
• Abortion and the American Conscience(Audio)
• The Culture of Death Speaks — Is Anyone Listening?
• The Culture of Death is Losing Its Grip
• With predictable regularity, cultural authorities call for the emergence of a moderating position between the pro-life and pro-abortion positions. But efforts to achieve a stable compromise on the abortion issue are doomed to failure. The two positions hold irreconcilable views of reality. The pro-life movement holds that the central issue is the unborn child’s right to live. Abortion activists have staked their entire case on the claim that the only determinative issue is the woman’s unrestricted right to choose.

A middle position would require pro-lifers to accept that the deaths of some unborn children are acceptable, and abortion rights activists to accept that some decisions for abortion are wrong. Given the logic of their positions, there is no means of compromise.

In recent years, some on the pro-choice side of the controversy have called for abortion proponents to use language indicating that abortion is a painful and wrenching, but sometimes necessary procedure, and to accept that some reasons for abortion are just not sufficient. Nevertheless, this is received as a call for treason within the abortion rights movement, and these voices are regularly sidelined.

At the same time, there has been an effort to protect abortion with euphemism and evasion. Abortion rights activists speak of being pro-choice, not pro-abortion. The unborn child is reduced to a fetus, or a bundle of cells. Abortion clinics are described as women’s health centers.

There are some abortion activists who will not join that bandwagon. With chilling candor, they defend abortion as abortion, they defend the decision to abort as a morally superior decision, and they lament the evasiveness of their colleagues in the abortion rights movement.

Just recently, Merle Hoffman, a major voice in the abortion rights movement and founder of Choices, a major center for abortions in New York City, has written a memoir, Intimate Wars. In telling her story, Hoffman calls for her colleagues in the abortion industrial complex to defend abortion as a moral choice.

Abortion is the ultimate act of empowering women, she argues. “The act of abortion positions women at their most powerful, and that is why it is so strongly opposed by many in society,” she asserts.

A central portion of her memoir deals with the abortion rights movement’s attempt to defend abortion in the face of pro-life arguments that the fetus has a right to life.

“The pro-choice movement had to find a way to navigate these narratives,” she explains. “The simplest option was to negate the claims of the opposition. And so many pro-choice advocates claimed that the fetus was not alive, and that abortion was not the act of terminating it. They chose to de-personalize the fetus, to see it as amorphous residue, to say that it was only ‘blood and tissue.’”

As she explains, the pro-life movement thought that, if women really knew what abortion was — the killing of an unborn human being — they would decide to keep their babies. She rejects the argument.

Hoffman argues that women do know what an abortion is. Abortion does stop a beating heart and that it is not “just like an appendectomy.” Her conclusion is that women know that abortion is “the termination of potential life.”

She then makes this statement:

“They knew it, but my patients who made the choice to have an abortion also knew they were making the right one, a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart. Sometimes they felt a great sense of loss of possibility. In the majority of cases, they felt a great sense of relief and the power that comes from taking responsibility for one’s own life.”

Rarely do we see abortion defended in such unvarnished terms — “a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart.” Merle Hoffman goes on to explain how she can speak of abortion so directly. She has, she tells us, no conception that life is sacred.

“Abortion is as American as apple pie.” Hoffman made that statement in a recent interview about her book. She laments that abortion is the cause of shame in some women and that shame attaches itself to abortion in the larger culture, even now. In her view, if women would start talking more honestly and directly about their abortions, the shame would be removed and women would discuss their abortions like they speak of “a bikini wax.”

Is Merle Hoffman right? Is abortion “as American as apple pie?” To our great shame, she has a right to make that claim. How can it be refuted when abortion on demand has been legal in this country for almost forty years, when one out of three American women will have an abortion, when within some communities far more babies die by abortion than are born?

In Merle Hoffman, the Culture of Death has found a new voice. Almost forty years after Roe v. Wade, abortion remains a central part of the nation’s moral landscape. Over 50 million unborn children have been aborted within the span of just one generation.

A titanic clash of absolutes is taking place in full view, and this clash indicates just how much work remains to be done in the great effort to protect the dignity of every single human life. As those who contend for the sanctity and dignity of each human life try to reach the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens, others are at work as well. If they have their way, Americans will one day openly speak of abortion as nothing more shameful than a bikini wax.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.,