by Dave Hintz
During my two-year stint in Hungary, I had the opportunity to tour much of Europe. One of my most memorable excursions was a day trip my friends and I took during a stay in Krakow, Poland, to visit Auschwitz.
The mere mention of Auschwitz can change the tone of a conversation, as it is the infamous scene of one of the foremost manifestations of evil the world has ever known. Millions of Jews and others deemed less than human were abducted from their homes, transported to death camps, and systematically slaughtered. Such a crime evokes rage, indignation, and sorrow in one’s heart, and on that clear summer day, as I walked through the iron gates of Auschwitz into a tranquil sanctuary devoted to the memory of lost lives, I wondered how millions of Poles and Germans could look the other way in the midst of such atrocity. Some, I figured, may have been uninformed; but most of the population chose to ignore their suspicions—whether out of fear for their lives, their possessions, or simply because it was inconvenient.
The visit to the camp was stirring and powerful, but it was a conversation with my friends as we departed that left the most profound impact on me and changed my outlook on our own silent holocaust. As much as we despise the Nazis for their crimes against humanity, and deride those who looked the other way for their hatred and willful ignorance, in reality we must look to ourselves and our nation as well, as we continue to tolerate the murder of millions of unborn children. Every day in America, four thousand little lives are poisoned, ripped, and scraped away. Just as the Nazis exterminated those it deemed subhuman, so too does our nation permit, protect, and aid in the slaughter of those it labels less than human.
Though I do not have the pages to give a thorough explanation of the biblical perspective on abortion, two premises from the Bible are crystal clear:
1. Murdering a human being is clearly wrong (cf. Exo. 20:13)
2. An unborn baby is a human being (Job 31:13-15; Psa. 139:13)
Though many Christians agree with this reasoning, many fail to act upon it. When the Germans chose not to take a stand against what they knew to be wrong, by their silence they consorted with Himmler and Hess in allowing their plan of mass murder to go unimpeded. As more and more Christians surrender their swords and accept abortion as a fact of life, our nation is becoming more like these Germans. When Christians choose not to speak out and oppose abortion, we allow the moral consciousness of our country to be further deadened, and allow the slaughtering of babies to be met with little resistance. As the salt and light of the world, we must indict our countrymen of their sin. Let us prick our nation’s conscience with the sword of the Spirit, hold out the promise of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and pray that, Lord willing, they will repent, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop killing the unborn.
