Though gradually, though no one remembers exactly how it happened, the unthinkable becomes tolerable. And then acceptable. And then legal. And then applaudable. – Joni Eareckson-Tada

In our hyper-politicized culture, it’s often missed that pro-life convictions are biblical, not political. While a pro-life position is currently associated with the Republican Party, today it’s more rhetoric than substance. The 2024 Republican National Convention platform eliminated a strong pro-life stance. Instead of calling for a national effort to curtail abortion, as the platform did for the past 40 years, the 2024 document removed that. Add to that, since the wives of the last four Republican presidents have been pro-choice, it’s difficult to believe the RNC is pro-life by conviction. 

Of course, the Democratic Party, nearly without exception is pro-abortion. Many even embrace extreme positions, like abortion up until the moment of birth. Thankfully, there’s still a small minority of pro-life Democrats. Usually, they also identify as Hispanic Catholics or Black Protestants. In both parties those who are pro-life tend to be religious and conservative. Holding to a conservative religious worldview effects your ideology on pro-life issues. It’s virtually impossible to be a Christ-follower who believes the Bible is authoritative and hold to a pro-choice position. Yet, those who hold to a “culture of death” worldview are not our enemies. They’re victims of the Enemy and we are to love them just as Jesus does! 

Part of our contemporary insanity in our postmodern age is the attempt to alter terms, but it doesn’t change the meaning. “Reproductive Rights” has nothing to do with reproduction. It’s a linguistic shell game to distract from the horror of abortion on demand and termination of a human child.  

Aside from the evil of abortion, it’s astounding the disconnect between abortion and economic disaster. America has a falling birth rate that will be financially catastrophic. Pro-choice advocates are bankrupting their own future of financial support through Social Security. At our current rate of workers versus retirees, there won’t be enough workers to financially sustain those wanting to draw on Social Security. 

There are solutions, but the one that will probably be more acceptable in a morally bankrupt culture of death is euthanasia. It’s quickly making inroads across Western Civilization. In an Orwellian statement in 1984, Colorado Governor Richard Lamm stated that elderly people had a “duty to die” as he argued for physician-assisted suicide. He said, We’ve got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life. That “duty” may all too soon be a government edict. 

In a culture where Downs babies are routinely aborted or severely disabled babies are allowed to die without medical intervention, how far of a leap is it to euthanize disabled children, particularly the severely disabled? At nearly a $1000 a month in government support for a disabled child with three million classified disabled, a future generation will look for fiscal savings that may be deadly so that the “fittest” will survive. 

Insurance underwriters know the last months of life are the costliest because of medical care. In a culture with little regard for human life, already euthanasia is being advocated. It’s an outcome of an evolutionary worldview. If you believe that we are the “human animal” with no one seriously resisting euthanizing an aging, suffering pet, why not euthanize an aging, suffering “human animal”? Christ-followers are pro-life from cradle to grave because Scripture teaches Imago Dei, we are made in the image of God. While there is a big difference between extending life and prolonging death, “quality of life” must not enter the equation. 

It’s no longer Nazi Germany. The culture of death has taken a giant step forward in New York state. The state senate has recently legislated allowing for what’s dubbed as “medical assistance in dying” (another linguistic shell game), i.e. assisted suicide. But to avoid using the word suicide, it’s called assisted death or medical assistance in dying. 

The Center for Disability Rights has argued in a position paper, In a for-profit healthcare system, assisted suicide is a lethal way to control costs. Societies concerned with spiraling health costs see hope with physician-assisted suicide. Just allow people to schedule their deaths, tell them they’re doing so in the name of freedom and personal autonomy…and it just happens to save lots of money. Families in a very deadly way are given an economic incentive to move people along before they consume too much in terms of medical bills and family wealth, rationalizing, “Grandma is suffering. She’d be better off dead. Let’s help relieve her pain.” 

Once the door is cracked, it doesn’t stop with the disabled or terminally ill. Europe has euthanasia laws, but is it being used only for the terminally ill? No! One Spanish father lost his case to prevent his daughter’s euthanasia. The young woman, who has severe mental illness, tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building, leaving her a paraplegic. A court decided that due to her disability, doctors can finish what she started. 

Euthanasia killings in the Netherlands increased by 10% between 2023 and 2024, with nearly 10,000 killed by doctors in one year. Lethal jabs for the mentally ill increased to 219 and 427 dementia patients in 2024. 

Nearly 4,000 Belgians were euthanized in 2024. The majority experienced both physical and psychological suffering (82%). Just under 16% experienced only physical pain and 1.9% only psychological suffering. Belgium has now become a euthanasia tourism destination with individuals traveling there from other countries to be terminated. Could the gas chambers be far behind? 

The only hope for a culture of death is the gospel. The gospel gives hope for this life and the next. Christians must legislatively seek to stem the tide, yet it can’t end there. Christians must, as they always have, step in for children (pre-born & born), the poor, mentally ill, elderly and terminally ill. 

In the early church famine and war had afflicted the city of Caesarea. When the plague hit in the fourth century, the populace was already weakened and unable to withstand this additional blow. People fled the city for safety in the countryside. Yet, in the midst of the fleeing inhabitants, one group was staying behind, the Christians. 

Eusebius, an early church historian, recorded that during the plague Christians tended to the dying and their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them. Other Christians gathered together from all parts of the city a multitude of those starving and distributed food to them. Why? Christians run in when everyone else runs out! It’s what Jesus did in love for us and it’s what He has called us to in our world!