For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret,
While non-graphic, I still caution you on watching the video because you're in essence witnessing a murder. But I probably suggest you read the article (which has the same message as the video but just goes into more detail of the background), in that this post will basically just be responding to it. The first question I had after reading the article is how does a Christian respond to something like this? Well I'm sure there are many Biblical ways to respond. For my part, there were two main things that stood out to me, her neglect of the child's perspective, and her misunderstanding of the nature of guilt. The Child's Perspective She said her goal was to help women. That’s certainly an admirable goal. But what she failed to take into account is the young women (the baby girls) that she is clearly not helping when they are aborted.(1) Likewise, during the video she was talking about how "lucky" she was to have so much support during her abortion. One of the supporters on camera said "You deserve it," to which Emily replied: "Everyone deserves it." ... Everyone? What about the little image-bearer of God you're about to kill? Doesn't that person deserve support too? A question Emily doesn't address. In the article Emily cited as her inspiration for the film project a girl who goes by “Angie AntiTheist." Angie filmed her RU486 abortion and posted it on Youtube (also non-graphic). Emily stated that Angie did this “to show everyone that she was fine, that it’s not scary, it doesn't hurt, and that she was confident in her decision to do it.” The problem of course is that Angie wasn't the only one involved. Was the baby she killed inside her fine? Was it scary for the baby? Did it hurt the baby? We could go on about Emily's continual neglect of the child's perspective of this abortion(2), but regardless of any of the answers to the above questions (or others), does the fact that doing something to someone that is not scary and does not hurt but results in their death make it right? If I administer a painless poison to someone (so not painful) without their knowledge (so not scary) with the result that they are killed, does that make it right? Of course not! And neither does “confidence in one’s decision” make it right either.(3) But there is something else very askew about Emily's story... The Nature of Guilt Despite their lack in logic I'm sure we've heard the above pro-abortion "arguments" before. But the reason that Emily had her abortion filmed is a very interesting (read disturbing) one: I wanted to show it wasn’t scary — and that there is such a thing as a positive abortion story. It’s my story. What does Emily mean by "positive"? Her intentions are clarified in the video and later down in the article: I know there are women who feel great remorse. I have seen the tears. Grieving is an important part of a woman’s process, but what I really wanted to address in my video is guilt. Her reason for filming and posting this video, her definition of a "positive abortion story" is that it can and should be done without the presence of guilt. But you see, that's not really for her to decide is it? There's a reason that "even women who come to the clinic completely solid in their decision to have an abortion say they feel guilty." But contrary to Emily's assessment, it's not because society breeds guilt or the women pressure themselves. It's because they are made in the image of God, and whether they acknowledge it or not, they know His righteous wrath is revealed against all ungodliness - including murdering innocent children (Rom. 1:18ff, 32). God's righteousness (and man's sinfulness) is the reason these women feel guilty (even for "not feeling guilty") because He has declared that murder is wrong. Being created in His image then, we have two choices when this guilt presses upon us:
Despite what Emily is trying to accomplish she is not going to eliminate guilt in the process of anyone's abortion. She is only going to encourage suppression of that guilt rather than repentance from that murder. But the Bible is clear that if we suppress our guilt rather than repent and turn to the Savior for forgiveness, then we will not have a positive experience but will perish in His righteous judgment (Lk. 13:3, 5). It must be seen that this abortion story is not a positive experience for anyone. It was certainly not positive for the baby that was murdered. It's not positive for Emily's audience to hear that ignoring God rather than repenting from sin is the way to relieve guilt. And it's not positive for Emily to be reinforced in that same idea. Final Remarks Of course, the story doesn't have to end here. We can do a lot of things mentioned in a previous article, including prayer, social action, financial giving, and/or political action to help save the lives of our unborn neighbors. One thing to keep in mind is that as Christians we know that it's not like Emily is any more of a sinner than we were when God saved us (Jas. 2:10-11; Ti. 3:3). But we also know the power of the gospel and that God saves sinners - even the chief of sinners (Ti. 3:4-7; 1 Tim. 1:15-16). We can pray for Emily and her repentance. It would be a wonderful thing indeed if rather than her suppression of God's guilt (that should so heavily press on any and all of us who do not turn to our wonderful Savior), she made a video of her repentance that also reached over a million views. I hope this does happen. I hope Emily's story becomes a story of repentance. I think that is one way it could become a truly positive story, a story no longer of guilt-free murder, but a story of redemption. We can pray and work toward (by God's grace, with His sovereign working in our lives) that, regardless of Emily's repentance, He would take this story and make it a truly positive one, in that the world would see we cannot eliminate guilt for our sins. We can suppress our guilt until we come face to face with the living God (Heb. 9:27, 10:31), or we can trust in the Savior, who, substituting Himself, became the only acceptable payment for our sins (1 Jn. 2:2) and consequently the only true alleviation of our guilt. Whatever your part is in that (whether prayer, publication, social action, etc.), I pray God will use you in a way that brings Him glory, brings the much needed protection to unborn children, and brings the message of salvation to a world that so desperately needs to hear it. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you (1 Cor. 16:23). (1) In her video she mentioned one of the great experiences of her story is that she knows she can grow life inside her – so she even recognizes that the baby inside her was alive. (2) Like how she said she forgot the cameras were in the room and was focusing on "staying positive" and "feeling the love from everyone in the room". Everyone? Do we know that the baby who was being surgically murdered was sending out these love vibes? It's so sad that this baby didn't even get a chance to feel the love that Emily is trying to describe. (3) Hitler was indeed very confident that the extermination of the Jews was the “Final Solution.” But that obviously did not make his "Final Solution" right. No less was Angie's decision in her RU486 abortion right nor Emily's decision in her surgical procedure abortion.
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