What is the underlying cause of abortion? Some say it is poverty. Some say it is apathetic fathers. Some say lack of adequate childcare. Some say it is deficient education. It is none of those things. In fact, the foundation for the abortion bulwark was dug so long ago that the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, dehumanizing preborn boys and girls, was not the beginning of this demographic scourge, it was the logical conclusion of another project begun long before.
The mission of CompassCare is that we are a Christ-centered agency dedicated to erasing the need for abortion by transforming a woman’s fear into confidence. CompassCare takes every part of the mission very seriously, especially the first part, that we are a Christ-centered agency. Yet we been told with increasing frequency by educators, medical professionals, and even self-proclaimed Christians that religion OUGHT NOT to have a place in CompassCare’s service to women facing unplanned pregnancies. It is somehow considered morally inappropriate to publicly hold a religious belief, say nothing of basing one’s actions on those beliefs. And therein lies the root cause of abortion: the cultural pressure to act on the presumption that God does not exist. This is the fundamentalism of the new official religion of secularism. If we are to be serious about eradicating the social weed of abortion we must pull it out by the roots.
Abortion is caused by the secularization of society. This secularism is a project designed to establish societal structures “neutral” to religion, Christianity in particular. Why Christianity? Because it is Christian principles that informed the formation of our government, from justice systems to marriage, to the very purpose of man. So re-engineering society requires de-Christianizing it. Secularization is based on the notion that pure godless materialism can produce a common moral standard. But it can’t. Modern history has witnessed the project of secularization embraced during the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Chinese Revolution, all with murderous results.
Up until the mid-twentieth century the U.S. was not interested in secularizing because everyone, including the Supreme Court in 1892 and again in 1931, understood the U.S. to be “a Christian people.” But then something sinister reached U.S. shores in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was America’s quiet revolution executed in a series of Supreme Court cases secularizing American law and public policy by de-Christianizing everything from education to medicine to marriage. Let’s be clear, de-Christianization of society dead ends in the back alley of amoral superstition and legalized human rights abuses like the French guillotine, the Russian Gulag, and the American Planned Parenthood.
Secularism will not rest until its revolution of de-Christianization sinks its icy talons into the Church and our homes. We must ensure that the grisly business not only remains unfinished but is undone. We must exhaustively apply the Christian worldview in every corner of our lives from marriage to money, from contraception to career, from immunization to sterilization, and from entertainment to education. And while we fend off the wolf that is secularism at the doorstep of our hearts, we must at the same time protect those that are the victims of its ravenous jaws: preborn children.
CompassCare faces unique challenges to its mission because of secularization, including navigating a physician shortage crisis and the legal challenges that arise when government enshrines abortion as a fundamental human right like Gov. Cuomo proposed in 2013 and vowed to bring back in 2017. Yet there is another trend that is disconcerting and is already impacting local churches and para-church ministries: the Christian church recession. CompassCare’s mission is supported entirely by the people of God. Yet if trends continue, in 27 years the church will have lost 45% of its current membership through death or attrition, and churches and parachurch ministries will have lost 70% of their funding.
CompassCare is responding to these threats in two ways right now, while investigating additional means to insulate the mission from the longer term effects of secularization. The first is the launching of a medical process management system that will allow CompassCare to get better, faster: saving more lives while reducing service costs. The second is piloting a program that will allow people to easily donate for the mission their non-cash assets like stock, cars, real estate, antiques, collectibles, etc. Part of this process includes launching Legacy for Life: A Planned Giving Opportunity so that this generation of Christians can leverage the considerable assets God has given us today on behalf of life for generations to come.