Have you ever tried to argue with someone who was really “dug-in” to a position regarding a controversial issue like abortion or admitting refugees to the United States? As someone who has been committed to a pro-life position for 40 years, I’ve had many conversations with pro-choice people that went something like this:
“I don’t believe the government should interfere with the private personal choice of a woman and her physician.”
“But those aren’t the only two people involved in this decision. There’s another person. The child she’s going to abort.”
“Until a child is born, that child is part of a woman’s body and doesn’t have the rights of a person according to the Supreme Court.”
“But I believe that the Supreme Court’s decision was wrong. Do you really think that a child that is fully developed in the womb and is five minutes from being born should have no legal protection? What about 10 minutes? What about two weeks? What about four weeks? What about four months? Who are you to draw the line regarding when a child should be given legal protection?”
“Why should you be allowed to impose your religious viewpoints upon someone else? If you don’t want to have an abortion, fine, don’t have an abortion. But don’t impose your views on another person.”
“But we impose our views of morality all the time. That’s what law is all about. Protecting life is one of the most basic responsibilities of government. Is there any person more in need of protection than a child in the womb? Since the Roe v. Wade decision, over 58 million babies have been aborted.”
“Well, I believe that a woman has a right to choose and no one should be able to impose their views on someone else.”
How about the recent controversy regarding the President’s order to ban refugees from being admitted to the United States from seven countries for at least the next four months? America is very divided about that decision.
Some argue, “We need to get control of our borders. The most basic job of government is to protect its citizens. Our borders are like a sieve now and we don’t know who the refugees are that are coming in.”
“Wait a minute. Refugees currently go through a 13 step process before they are admitted to the United States, a process that typically takes two years.”
One Syrian woman who applied for refugee status in the United States wrote this:
“Over 15 months I was interviewed five times – in person, over the phone by the United Nations and by the United States. They asked me about my family, my politics, my hobbies, my childhood, my opinions of the United States, and even my love life. I was interviewed by four United States government agencies. By the time I received my offer to live in the United States, the United States officials in charge of my case file knew me better than my family and friends do. In fact, there’s probably nobody in the world that knows me better than the United States government. I was finger-printed multiple times. I was photographed. My family members were separately interviewed on multiple occasions and filmed, were asked repeated questions about our views of democracy, our views of religious freedom, our views of men and women, whether we would protest in the United States, what are good things about the US, what do we think are bad things? I was lucky, my process only took 15 months, typically it takes 24 months. We also had to pass a medical check-up. This wasn’t a check-your-temperature, hit-your-knee-with-a-hammer kind of doctor’s appointment: this was a top to bottom, full scale assessment. They took blood samples, X-rayed most of my body, stripped me of my clothing. My eyes and my ears were tested as healthy. I had thorough biometric testing. All told, the medical examination took eight hours. Finally, after nearly a year-and-a-half of being poked and prodded, physically and figuratively, I was given clearance to start a new life in the United States. If you had told me beforehand the depth and breadth of the United States vetting process, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It was definitely extreme.”
“Well, it’s not extreme enough, we need more.”
“What else do we need in your opinion?”
“We need to make absolutely certain that no refugee will ever commit a terrorist attack on the United States. As one church member said to me, ‘If you knew that there was one poison jelly bean in a jar of 10,000 jelly beans, would you eat any jelly bean from that jar?’”
I responded, “Nothing is ever certain. I want safety and security for my family and all of America as well. But all of life contains risk.”
Right now, in the United States, there are 35,000 traffic deaths every year. That’s about 100 people every day who are killed in motor vehicle accidents, yet we still drive our cars. There are even more deaths from opiate overdoses. 40,000 Americans die every year from opiate overdoses (from heroin, fentanyl, and opioids). And there are about 16,000 murders in the United States every year. You are hundreds of times more likely to be murdered by another American in the United States than you are to be killed in a terrorist attack even including the horrific 9/11 terrorist attack.
“But what about the attack in the Orlando nightclub just last year? 49 people were killed, 53 others were wounded.”
“But the shooter was not a refugee or even an immigrant. Omar Mateen was born in the United States.”
“What about the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 people?”
“Again, the man who committed that attack was born in the United States. Since 9/11 no one has been killed in this country in a terrorist attack by anyone who immigrated from one of the seven countries on the President’s list of banned countries.”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a temporary pause to just make sure that our vetting processes are doing enough to protect Americans.”
Having been in multiple conversations like these about abortion and about immigration, I have discovered that almost no one is persuaded by evidence once they’ve adopted a certain perspective. This should come as no surprise to readers of the Bible. In Matthew 12, Jesus heals a man that is both blind and mute. People asked if Jesus could be the Messiah, but the religious leaders said there’s no way he could be. They claimed that Jesus was casting out demons and healing people by the power of Satan. Jesus responded to the illogic of the leaders’ assertion that Satan assisted him to cast out other demons by saying:
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Matthew 12:33-34)
In other words, even the most staggering amount of evidence that God is at work through Jesus will not convince someone who has made a prior “heart decision” to reject the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah.
I’ve always believed that my job as a pastor in discipling our congregation was fundamentally about shaping the inclinations of people’s hearts.
How do we shape the inclinations of our hearts so that our hearts can be more like Jesus’ heart?
We need to allow God’s Word to deeply challenge and shape our hearts. It’s not enough to superficially read the Word of God. We must approach God’s Word as the instrument God uses to speak to us and to form us into the likeness of his Son. Our attitude as we approach God’s Word ought to be: “Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening! And this means listening about everything: our vanity, our blind spots, our politics, our money – everything!”
We need to form personal relationships with people we’re ordinarily not around. If we’re sincerely interested in reducing the number of abortions, we need to interact with women who are facing unintended pregnancies. Our Value Life ministry is an incredible place to meet such women (Contact Diane Bauman at diane.bauman@vineyardcolumbus.org for more information). And if we really want to know what a Muslim immigrant or refugee is like, we can’t take our viewpoints from media portrayals or politicians or editorials. We need to actually get to know an immigrant or a refugee. Our ESL classes at the Vineyard Community Center are a fantastic way to meet immigrants and refugees.
Finally, the inclinations of our hearts are changed as we listen with an open heart to people’s stories.
Here’s a story about a woman that our Value Life ministry helped:
“When we met there was no logical reason why Kayla should not end her pregnancy. Kayla was working at a fast food restaurant, struggled with addiction, and was in a very difficult relationship with the baby's father. Kayla was not convinced even with the promise of help from Value Life Ministry, and Support for Life assistance that she could manage a baby in her life. So she scheduled an abortion. At the clinic, Kayla saw the ultrasound of the baby and knew this was a life— she could not go through with the procedure. Despite all the odds stacked against her, her heart was bent towards the life Kayla knew God had created inside her. Her baby came early, is doing well now, and Kayla continues to be open to the care and support the church can provide for her and her new family.” It’s for women like Kayla and her baby that Vineyard Columbus’ Value Life ministry exists.
Here’s a story about a Syrian refugee:
“Abir’s home in Syria had three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a fenced backyard with a garden. Her husband had provided well for her and their five children – but there was nothing he could do in the face of war. When the family ran out of food, the two of them made the gut-wrenching choice to send their three oldest children to Lebanon to live with family. Abir said that her husband was too proud to shed tears when they left, but she heard him weeping at night.
Even this drastic measure was not enough. While she was out one day with her youngest children, Abir was wounded by a sniper, and she knew she had to leave for their safety. With the children in tow, she walked eight hours to the border – leaving her husband behind. In Lebanon she was reunited with her older children, but they couldn’t stay with her brother, who had seven children of his own. So today, Abir and her five daughters live in a tent settlement. It’s a life of hardship, and of fear.
Abir and her girls now live in a one-room tent smaller than a typical American child’s bedroom. Unable to work, they live on assistance from humanitarian agencies, just $13 per month for each refugee. It’s for women like Abir, and her children, that Vineyard Columbus refugee and immigration programs exist.
My prayer for each of us here at Vineyard Columbus is that we would grant Jesus total permission to shape the inclinations of our hearts in all things!