Fear of distraction
Pastors sometimes ask, "Won't addressing abortion distract the church from the gospel?" This is a legitimate concern. Our preaching must always direct sinful human beings to the righteousness that God alone provides. The good news is that we can use the topic of abortion to point people to the very gospel they so desperately need.

At the same time, we should remember that God's gospel is addressed to particular audience, human beings. But our attempts to communicate that gospel suffer when the very definition of what it means to be human is up for grabs. Indeed, it's hard to preach that man is a sinner, that man needs to repent, and that man can be saved only through Christ when nobody knows what a man is anymore.

To cite J. Gresham Machen, teaching Christians to engage the ideas that determine culture is not a distraction from the gospel. Rather, it removes roadblocks to it:

It is true that the decisive thing is the regenerative power of God. That can overcome all lack of preparation, and the absence of that makes even the best preparation useless. But as a matter of fact God usually exerts that power in connection with certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favorable conditions for the reception of the gospel.

False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.

Under such circumstances, what God desires us to do is to destroy the obstacle at its root. . . What is today matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires. In that second stage, it has gone too far to be combated; the time to stop it was when it was still a matter of impassionate debate.

So as Christians we should try to mould the thought of the world in such a way as to make the acceptance of Christianity something more than a logical absurdity. . . What more pressing duty than for those who have received the mighty experience of regeneration, who, therefore, do not, like the world, neglect that whole series of vitally relevant facts which is embraced in Christian experience—what more pressing duty than for these men to make themselves masters of the thought of the world in order to make it an instrument of truth instead of error? (Emphasis added.)

In short, it's not either/or: We can preach the gospel and confront false ideas, including the one that says humans have no intrinsic value.

Fear of driving people away who might otherwise hear the gospel.
I dealt with this problem in an article on my blog about clergy and abortion. Suffices to say that well-crafted pro-life talks suggest to unchurched people that the Christian worldview is reasonable to believe.

When I gave a pro-life presentation at the University of North Carolina Law School, a young female professor responded (in front of her students): "I did not come to this event with the same pro-life views you hold. In fact, I came here today expecting an emotionally charged religious presentation. Instead, you gave one of the most compelling arguments I have ever heard. Thank you."

True, she didn't fall on her knees and confess Christ on the spot. But now she's begun wrestling with Biblical truth. To use a baseball example, you don't have to hit a home run with every conversation. Sometimes just getting on base is enough. And you'll certainly do just that whenever you clarify the moral logic of the pro-life view.

Fear of offending people with abortion-related content.
It's amazing how people will tolerate a strong pro-life presentation if you make your case graciously and incisively. Kindness goes a long way and often pays off with changed lives. Consider this email from 15 year-old Brittany, received after I spoke to an assembly of 1,000 high school students in Baltimore:

Dear Scott,
Yesterday you came and talked to my high school, Archbishop Spaulding, about pro-life. It made a big difference on how I thought about abortion. I was totally for abortion and I thought that pro-life was just plain stupid.

I have totally changed my mind after I listened to the pro-life point of view. Upon watching the short video clip of aborted fetuses, I felt my stomach turn and I thought, "How could anybody do this? How could anyone be so cruel and self absorbed as to kill an unborn baby who doesn't have a say in that decision?"

Then I thought, "Oh my gosh, I think that!" I was totally ashamed at how selfish I had been. Before the assembly, I didn't want to listen to what you had to say. I was going to nap during your speech…until I saw that video. Now, I am totally changed forever. Keep doing what you do!

In conclusion, as a pro-life pastor in the 21st Century, determine to preach truth and equip your church family to engage the culture with a robust, but graciously communicated, biblical worldview. Always stress grace. Give hope to those wounded by abortion. Ask God to fill your heart for lost and hurting souls. Then speak and show the truth in love. They can take it.

Scott Klusendorf is the President of Life Training Institute and he persuasively defends pro-life views in the public arena, equipping pro-life students and adults to make their case persuasively in the marketplace of ideas. Want more information about communicating the Sanctity of Human Life persuasively, passionately and practically? Need some sample speaking outlines or 5-Minute Pro-Life talking points? Go to: www.prolifetraining.com or www.caseforlife.com.

Looking for a good resource to help train your congregation? Scott Klusendorf thinks the best practical tool for training Christians to defend life is the DVD series Making Abortion Unthinkable from Stand to Reason.

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