Preaching An Unplanned Sermon

       It must have been 1993, and I was an undergrad at Western Illinois University, when I decided to attend a "pro-choice" (read: pro-abortion rights) rally that was being sponsored by the so-called "women's studies" department in the building where some of my classes were held.  I was already decidedly pro-life, but I thought I'd stop in just to try to better understand the other side and to try to grasp what they were really saying.  I wanted to look through their eyes and try to comprehend where they were coming from.  I should have known better.

       A self-proclaimed feminist anthropologist got up and told a story about a woman from a third world country who had two sons and decided that she couldn't afford to raise them both--so she she killed one.  The gist of the message was that it was too bad that abortion wasn't available so she wouldn't have had to do that.  I already knew that even the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos practiced adoption (not to mention the fact that the arms of so many childless Americans ache to hold babies, if they could only cut through the miles and miles of red tape and come up with enough money) so the whole disgusting example was lost on me.  Regardless of your circumstances, you don't kill your own child to solve your problems...period.

       Then a young lady got up and said that she USED to be pro-life, but that she was sexually assaulted and became pregnant.  In her case, the pregnancy ended with a miscarriage; however, if it hadn't, she said she would have resorted to extreme measures to end it.  She said these words, "what was in me wasn't even human---it was an accident."  Now, I am not insensitive to the young lady's situation, and I understand how awful that would be.  But if she had had the baby killed, what would that have solved?  Would that have magically "un-raped" her?

       I realize that rape-of-the-mother situations are extreme circumstances, but once again, you just don't kill babies to solve your problems.  There are couples who LONG to adopt a baby, if only....  I know that.  See, I was a "prom-night baby" who was conceived out of wedlock by two kids who were not ready to be parents.  Killing me would have uncomplicated my birth mother's life (perhaps), but would it have made everything go away?  Really?  Or would she have found herself duped by false promises that I was "just a blob of tissue" and carried the reality of what she had done to her grave?
And once I was conceived, didn't I have a right to life?  True, this wasn't a rape, but these situations seldom are.  The time for choices was nine months before I was born--not after I was already growing in her womb.  She gave birth do me and placed me for adoption---the option that the pro-abortion crowd never wants to talk about very much.

       So the rally continued--I listened to these feminists rant about their "reproductive rights" (the right to kill babies in order to have sex without consequences), say outrageous things like "what kind of a life can someone with genetic defects have" (so people with cerebral palsy would be better off dead, huh?)--pathetic, mindless ravings. Then some disgusting excuse for a human being got up there and said she thought abortion should be legal "all nine months".  SURE--butcher them on the way out of the womb to protect your "rights" (gag).  You know, I don't even want to breath the same AIR as someone who can think like that.

       SO, I'm listening to all of this, and a rock started to form in my stomach.  I was in physical pain.  This was the first and last time in  my life when I actually got physically sick at something I was witnessing.  I can scarcely imagine such inhumane cruelty.  So when they opened the floor and invited audience participation---well, I was only too happy to participate.  You might say that THAT was the day I became a preacher . 

       I got up to speak--far too rattled to even care that I was in a crowded auditorium (much less be nervous), and I started in.  I addressed the garbage about the woman who murdered her son.  I upbraided them for never wanting to talk about adoption.  THEN, I mentioned the young lady who said that her baby "wasn't even human---it was an accident", and one of those nincompoops hollered "WELL IT WAS".  I LOST it!  Talk about getting inspired--my response made the NEWSPAPER.  I started in "well I WAS AN ACCIDENT--I WAS A MISTAKE!  AND MY BIRTH MOTHER....." and so on.  It drew applause from some others who were there, as I was, just to see what the other side had to say.

       I couldn't stay long after that---I had to leave---I was literally in pain and physically sick.  Here's the strange part---after that, once in a while I'd run into that young lady on campus---the one who had been sexually assaulted.  She always  made a point of looking me in the eye and greeting me--being respectful---not a hint of reproach in her eyes.  I'd like to believe that I made a difference to her--that I caused her to rethink her position.  Sometimes, we just need someone to remind us of what we already knew all along.