Evangelicals Abortion

Evangelicals Strengthen Pro-Life Witness at 2016 March for Life

on January 13, 2016

It’s that time of year when hundreds of thousands of fearless pro-life advocates face the blustery wind chill of Washington, D.C. to participate in the annual March for Life, a peaceful demonstration commemorating the 43 anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This year, the number of Evangelical marchers might be noticeably larger than in previous years.

Let’s be honest: it’s our Catholic brothers and sisters who’ve been the dedicated stalwarts organizing, prayerfully and financially supporting, and participating by the busloads in the March for Life. Catholic high schools and colleges encourage youth participation by exempting students from class. Local Catholic ministries transform their facilities into lodging in order to help families cut travel costs. Simply put, many more Catholics than Evangelicals make the March for Life a priority in their Christian social witness.

This is unfortunate when we consider that abortion destroys nearly 4,400 unborn lives every day in the United States. In addition, abortion burdens approximately 4,400 new women every day with its long-lasting physical and emotional effects. By not participating in the March in some capacity, Evangelicals suppress their own public witness in a mission field all its own.

Southern Baptists and Focus on the Family hope to change this disappointing trend with the inaugural Evangelicals for Life event coinciding with the 2016 March for Life.

“I don’t want to see any fewer rosary beads at the March for Life, but I want to see more evangelicals here also at the March for Life,” said Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Commission (ERLC), to a gathering of Evangelical leaders during last year’s March for Life. “Our absence is a shame. And so we don’t need any less ‘Ave Maria,’ but we need some more ‘Amazing Grace’ in the mix as well.”

For most faithful Evangelicals, the issue is not whether to advocate for the sanctity of unborn life, but a question of how and where to start. The Evangelicals for Life conference can help. “This conference exists to help evangelicals articulate a truly Christian doctrine on the dignity of all human life,” Moore wrote in an article on his personal website.

In addition to promoting the dignity and personhood of unborn babies, this conference will educate Evangelicals on issues including adoption and foster care, the effects of fatherlessness, holistic support for expecting mothers, and church-based ministry opportunities.

The March for Life is more than a public demonstration of our pro-life stance. It’s not just about “making a big spectacle,” as some have asserted. That’s where our critics get it wrong.

Thousands of marchers are the “boots on the ground” for pro-life ministries. The March for Life offers crisis pregnancy center volunteers, adoptive and foster care parents, ministers, and counselors a moment to come together for a commemoration of death, but also a celebration of life. Armed with encouragement and solidarity, these pro-life advocates leave the March for Life refreshed and ready to return to their advocating life among their local communities. That’s why the March for Life is vital.

Please consider joining the Evangelicals for Life conference. Afterwards, we’ll march together as Evangelicals at the official March for Life. For more information, please visit www.evangelicals.life.

  1. Comment by Gail Finke on January 13, 2016 at 2:40 pm

    This is wonderful news! Here at Cincinnati Right to Life, the majority of people who come to our events and who protest at the local Planned Parenthood — where 2500 lives are brought to a violent end every year — are Catholic. We invite our non-Catholic brothers and sisters to come and witness to the sanctity of life, but the numbers who do so are small (though very welcome!). We are very happy to hear this and hope it’s a wonderful event with many attendees… and our members at the March will be listening for “Amazing Grace” along with “Ave Maria”!

  2. Comment by faithmcdonnell on January 13, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    As long as we sing the REAL “Amazing Grace” and not the Tomlin take-off on it. 🙂

  3. Comment by Scott Evans on January 14, 2016 at 12:23 am

    The annual marches for life are pretty much worthless. Where are all those folks when it comes to actually being at the abortion mills, pleading for babies’ lives? At the Denver Planned Parenthood, the Catholics stay across the street and “pray,” or circle the building and “pray,” but refuse to get on a ladder to see over the fence and, “Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.” – Proverbs 31:8. They tell us we shouldn’t “shout” at the mothers going into the mill. We don’t “shout” at them. We have to raise our voices in order for them to hear us because some of them park a ways away. And they tell us we shouldn’t display our graphic signs of abortion and that our graphic signs are not welcome at the march for life, but we bring them anyway. Sure, Catholics do a lot of talking about abortion, and a lot of “praying” about it to be seen in public (which scripture speaks against), but when the rubber meets the road, many of them don’t want to get their hands dirty.

  4. Comment by Jason Suggs on January 17, 2016 at 5:06 pm

    Scott, you sound envious. Why dont you just join in?

  5. Comment by Scott Evans on January 17, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    I have. Many times. That’s how I know what I said is true.

  6. Comment by Jason Suggs on January 17, 2016 at 10:15 pm

    That is just not credible. If it is so useless, why did you go “many times?” A fraud, me thinks.

  7. Comment by Scott Evans on January 18, 2016 at 12:16 am

    When I went about three or four times and didn’t see any new folks at the Denver abortion mill except the same folks who always went. No new people who were at the March for Life ever showed up even though they were invited to during the March. None.

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