Richard Land Speaks to Baptist Students about Roe v. Wade

Joel Boersma
January 27, 2012

Recently, Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, spoke at a chapel service at historically Baptist Truett-McConnell College in Georgia. Not inconsequentially, his address concerning the “sanctity of life” occurred only a few days before the anniversary of the controversial, landmark decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), which declared abortion a constitutional right.

As a prominent leader for conservative Christians, Land approached this “pro-life” stance from Scripture. “If we are going to follow a biblical understanding and a biblical worldview, then we are going to have a respect for all of life, and a reverence for human life,” he said in his opening remarks.

First, Land pointed out that in ancient biblical times, Israel was the only nation that did not routinely practice infanticide or abortion among the cultures and civilizations along the Mediterranean Basin: “The Assyrians did it, the Babylonians did it, the Egyptians did it, the Phoenicians did it, the Greeks did it, the Romans did it. The Jews didn’t do it, Land declared. “Why? Because their God, who is the ‘One true God,’ had revealed to them that whenever conception takes place, He’s involved.”

Land cited several key passages from Scripture, notably the prophet Jeremiah and King David in the Psalms, illustrating the divinely bestowed sacredness of unborn human life. “Even before we’re conceived,” Land remarked, “God has a relationship with us and God has a plan and purpose for our lives.” He proceeded from citing strictly the Bible to the field of medical science. Land quoted former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and medical surgeon, Bill Frist, who claimed, “Life begins at conception and that is not a statement of faith, it is a statement of scientific fact.”

Making a provocative comparison between modern America and ancient Rome, Land asserted: “Any society that does not extend the protection of life to its weakest and most defenseless citizens, is a barbaric and pagan country…we wonder why God hasn’t blessed us as a nation. I’m surprised He hasn’t judged us more severely than He has.”

Land’s message is clear: the direction of present cultural norms and legal precedent have regressed to that of a society notorious for its hedonism and lack of an essential moral and spiritual core. He pointed out that after Christians worked to ban abortion and infanticide in Ancient Rome, it remained illegal in the Western world until the founding of Communist Russia in 1917. Land specifically noted it to be the duty and calling of Christians to counter such practices: “Whether we’re going to have a future where God blesses America doesn’t depend on what the lost people do, it’s what the saved people do.”

Land pointed to a political solution: “You know how you get that vote [to overturn Roe v. Wade]?” he asked his audience. “You elect pro-life presidents, who will only nominate pro-life justices, and you elect pro-life senators, who will only confirm pro-life justices of the Supreme Court.” He urged suspicion of any law that gives the “supreme right” of the individual to take the life of another.

Additionally, Land cited Obamacare for its potential threat to the elderly: “Make no mistake about it, unless we get this evil genie back in the bottle, many of you will find out that as you get older, you’re going to be denied medical care, and you’re going to die sooner than you would have otherwise, because it’s not considered ‘cost effective’”

Land also tied abortion to the impending crisis of Social Security. He highlighted that when Social Security was founded in 1934, there were 12 people working for every person on the program, and today there are 3.2 people working for every person on social security. “Because of abortion, because we’ve killed 55 million workers,” Land observed, “By the time the people who were born in 1957 begin to retire, and that’s 12 years from now, it will be 1.5 to 1.”

“If Obamacare goes into place,” Land warned, “Ninety-nine percent out of 100 of you will die sooner than you would have otherwise, and you will experience more pain and suffering before you die, and so will your loved ones, and so will your children…we’re going to do to old and terminally ill people what we’ve been doing to unborn babies for 49 years. And God will not bless it. God will not bless us.”

Steering away from the politics and toward the pastoral, Land talked about the goodness, mercy, and grace of the Christian God. “You cannot in a crowd this size…not have someone here who’s had an abortion,” he observed. “You may have not understood until now what you did.” Land then proposed what is central to the Gospel: “He’s promised us that if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”