—Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is Jan. 22 —
By Denise George
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Southern Baptist churches throughout Alabama and the nation will be observing Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on Jan. 22. It is a time for Christians to deeply reflect upon a wide variety of bioethical issues, including abortion, euthanasia, opposition to practices that violate the intrinsic value of human life and respect for all life as God-created, etc.
In 1984, then-president Ronald Reagan issued Proclamation 5147 designating Jan. 22 as the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day. He stated: “We have been given the precious gift of human life, made more precious still by our births in or pilgrimages to a land of freedom. It is fitting, then, on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that struck down State anti-abortion laws, that we reflect anew on these blessings, and on our corresponding responsibility to guard with care the lives and freedoms of even the weakest of our fellow human beings.”
It was more than a decade earlier, on Jan. 22, 1973, that the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy in all 50 states (Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton). Southern Baptist churches have chosen this time each year to observe and celebrate God’s gift of life, to remember the more than 58 million lives lost to abortion since 1973, and to recommit to protecting human life at every stage.
‘Celebrate life’
How can Alabama churches use the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday to encourage protection of the unborn and to promote the importance of all human life?
Here are some suggestions:
•Plan a special worship service to observe the sanctity of human life. Invite someone from a local pregnancy care center, children’s home or adoption agency to give a brief testimony.
•Post pictures of church members, children and babies on a bulletin board with a sign that reads: “Celebrate Life, Life Is Precious!” Post Scripture around the pictures that affirm life.
•Preach a pro-life message based on Scripture.
•At the beginning of the worship service, invite the church’s children to gather at the front. Teach a children’s sermon on the preciousness of life.
•Choose music and hymns that affirm life.
•Have a special time of prayer for the expectant mothers in your congregation. (Please don’t recognize them individually.)
•Host a movie night at church and show “October Baby,” a great film that celebrates life. For more information on acquiring a site license for your church to show the film, visit www.lifeway.com/n/Product-Family/October-Baby.
•Study and reflect on Psalm 139 in Sunday School classes and Bible study groups.
•Encourage your congregation to get involved in local community pro-life awareness projects. Ideas for projects include organizing a diaper drive for crisis pregnancy centers in your community and assisting families who are faced with an untimely pregnancy by offering financial or merchandise help.
•Order and/or download bulletin inserts and pro-life materials to give to your congregation. For free resources, visit savalife.org/Events/SanctityofHumanLifeSunday.aspx.
•Take up a special offering to donate to organizations that seek to protect unborn life.
•Encourage church members to consider serving in organizations like Sav-A-Life (savalife.org).
•Teach your congregation about the stages of fetal development.
•Pray for and support local churches and ministries that provide counseling and emotional support for women and parents who have suffered the loss of a child — through abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
In all ways possible use Sanctity of Human Life Sunday to encourage protection of the unborn and to promote the preciousness and inviolability of all God-created human life.
Editor’s Note — Denise George is author of 30 books including “Our Dear Child: Letters to Your Baby On the Way.” She is married to Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham.
Fetal development by the numbers
Did you know conception takes place on day one and in just seven days a tiny human implants in his/her mother’s uterus?
After 18 days the baby’s heart begins to beat, and after 21 days, he/she pumps his/her own blood through the circulatory system.
After 28 days the child’s eyes, ears and respiratory system begin to form. Brain waves have been recorded after only 42 days and by this time the skeleton is complete.
At eight weeks all the baby’s body systems are present, and at nine weeks he/she can squint his/her eyes, swallow and make a fist.
All body systems are working at 11 weeks, and one week later, the baby weighs one ounce. (Source: savalife.org/Issues/FetalDevelopment.aspx.)
Ethicist outlines Sanctity of Human Life concept
The concept of the sanctity of life is the belief that all human beings, at any and every stage of life, in any and every state of consciousness or self-awareness, of any and every race, color, ethnicity, level of intelligence, religion, language, gender, character, behavior, physical ability/disability, potential, class, social status, etc., of any and every particular quality of relationship to the viewing subject, are to be perceived as persons of equal and immeasurable worth and of inviolable dignity and therefore must be treated in a manner commensurate with this moral status.”
David P. Gushee, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer University
Alabama Supreme Court rules unborn baby protected by law
In a turning-tables kind of ruling at the end of 2016, the Alabama Supreme Court began to reverse some of the impact of the famous 40-plus-year-old, pro-abortion case Roe v. Wade.
Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker ruled Dec. 30 in favor of Kimberly Stinnet, who lost her baby in 2012 when OB-GYN Karla Kennedy administered abortion-inducing drugs to eliminate a thought-to-be ectopic pregnancy.
Earlier in 2016 a county court ruled against Stinnet, claiming she had no standing under the state’s Wrongful Death Act to sue Kennedy for malpractice.
Wrongful Death Act
But the state’s Supreme Court ruling reversed the lower court’s decision stating the unborn are protected by the Wrongful Death Act because life begins at conception, Parker wrote in his ruling.
Alabama is now the seventh state to allow wrongful-death actions for a preborn (or unborn) child, joining Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and West Virginia.
Equal protection
Parker wrote in his ruling, “Members of the judicial branch of Alabama should do all within their power to dutifully ensure that the laws of Alabama are applied equally to protect the most vulnerable members of our society, both born and unborn.”
Although the ruling did not address abortion directly, it did once again reject the viability standard, which was highlighted by Roe v. Wade in 1973.
The viability standard — which is meant to prevent states from putting the interest of a fetus above the interest of a pregnant woman until a fetus is “viable” (thus legalizing abortion) — was repudiated as an “incoherent standard” with the state’s Supreme Court ruling. (TAB)
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