Brave...

{Five Minute Friday}

I have a feeling this will take more than five minutes...

We haven't been nearly brave enough....

I read a blog post and I can't get it out of my head. And I've been thinking on just how she's right and if we want to be brave we need to look at this and let it change us. Because it will take bravery and courage and commitment and love to fix what is broken.

A trial began in March. The man is charged with murder. He broke so many laws I lost count. He took countless lives and put countless more at risk. He murdered innocent babies with a pair of scissors.

But strangely the national media was mostly quiet over this. I read about it on a blog. I had to search to find the story.

Gosnell ran a clinic just a few miles from where I live and work. He's practiced there for years (3 decades, actually). He's an abortion doctor whose practices are foul, unsanitary, immoral, disturbing, unthinkable....I can't seem to find a word that best describes what he has done. All in my neighborhood. I'm nauseous.

He got away with it for 30 years. The agencies who are supposed to check up on these places? None of them were brave enough to put a stop to madness that was going on inside this so-called clinic.

He performed late (some extremely late) abortions. His practice was dirty, unsanitary. He had unqualified people administering dangerous drugs and performing dangerous procedures. Women contracted diseases and some died. There is no way to know how many unlawfully-late late term abortions were done but there are reports of hearing babies cry just before they were terminated. The details are horrid and I cry just thinking of the little faces searching for a mother, a breast, only to be met with pain and death.

What have we done?

Gosnell, though disgustingly to blame for these specific crimes to humanity, he's not the only one who bears this responsibility.

We have made this a political fight: Right To Choose verses Right To Life. How dare we? Right? to anything? No. We have lost our place. We are cowards. We don't know who we are or what we are or where we came from. If our young people are taught this world is all here by chance, that a random series of events sent our whole existence into being then HOW can we teach them right and wrong? Who's to say this man cutting the cervical spinal cord of viable babies outside of the womb is murder? Why? Who says?

We KNOW this is wrong. It's wrong because life doesn't belong to us or to anyone. Created life belongs to the Creator. He gives the gift of life. It's gift and we are the honored recipients. This wrong gets ignored because if we look too closely at what this man did we'd have no choice but to question the whole political fight.

We're no different than any ancient culture who thought human sacrifice appeased their gods. We sacrifice tiny souls to satisfy our own idols . The god of time, the god of convenience, the god of money, the god of promiscuity. We don't want to change our lifestyles so we choose to end a life. Millions and millions of lives.

And Church, I'm talking to you too. Where is our courage? How do we view a girl who makes a mistake and winds up with a swollen belly and no real plan on how to take care of this babe? Do we shake our heads? Do we ask her to leave the church? Do we shame her into feeling like there is no hope, no other choice? Where are the brave people with the open hearts and open homes?

"The abortion debate is not so much about how we can somehow change the law, but right now change how we love. To have credibility in lobbying for laws against the abortion of babies, we must have the dependability of opening our doors for the welcoming of children."

Why don't these woman know that they can walk towards the sanctuary doors instead of the clinic doors?

When will we be brave enough to love unconditionally?

Men, you know this problem is not just about women and choices. It's about men not being men and that's not the same as boys being boys. Men wanting pleasure and no strings. Men lying down and walking away. Men raising their boys to think they can touch what doesn't belong to them, that it's all part being a boy to play the field to sow some oats.

It's takes a brave man to have self control and to value women in a way that goes against all this culture teaches.

This isn't about a right. It's about Life being a gift. It's about being brave enough to lead by example, brave enough to open our arms, brave enough to put our love out there instead of our opinions. It's about being brave enough to put feet to our prayers and hand to our laments. Being BRAVE enough to DO something.

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Ok so yeah more than five minutes. But when I saw the promt it all came pouring out. Forgive me for breaking the rules. Jump on over to Lisa Jo's place to check out some actual 5 minute posts.