When it comes to the pro-life movement, the Church needs a major paradigm shift. Political engagement and providing material support are vital, says Roland Warren, but our perspective needs to be aligned with the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
Roland Warren, the president and CEO of Care Net, made that exhortation when he was a guest on the Equipped with Chris Brooks program on the Moody Radio Network in December. This challenge can also be found in his latest book, The Alternative to Abortion: Why We Must Be Pro-Abundant Life, where Roland outlines a blueprint for compassion, transformation, and discipleship, drawn from 12 years of leading Care Net, a network of 1,200 pregnancy centers across the United States.
On the Equipped program, Chris Brooks commented that coming off of an intense election season, many listeners voted with the hope of electing officials to public offices who would shape laws that lead to human flourishing. As the host introduced Roland, he noted that there is something more listeners can do beyond the ballot box.
Roland wrote The Alternative to Abortion to help Christians focus on a discipleship-centered perspective when it comes to abortion. On the program, he framed this concept by using the example of a triangle that had living out the Great Commandment/fulfilling the Great Commission at the top corner and political engagement and providing material support in the lower right and left corners.
However, “in the pro-life movement, we have flipped the triangle and made the higher thing (Great Commandment, Great Commission) the lower thing, and made the lower things (political engagement, material support) the higher things,” he said.
Roland’s latest book was written to encourage Christians to see the abortion issue from a biblical, Pro Abundant life perspective instead of merely a pro-life perspective.
“We need to exchange the podium for the pulpit,” he said. “That’s how we lost our way.”
“If we only try to pursue political power, if we try to leverage economic strength apart from discipleship, then what we will ultimately find is that we have become empty houses. We will have lost the most important thing—our relationship with God.”
Pastors need to be at the forefront of the movement, mobilizing the church by embracing a holistic, biblical worldview when it comes to abortion, Roland said.
“Anybody can stand at a podium, but not just anyone can stand in a pulpit for Jesus Christ.”
“When I talk to pastors, I tell them, ‘Look, even folks in the pro-life movement need to have a John the Baptist moment.’ We must decrease. He must increase. The goal is to get people to Jesus.”
That will happen when the movement not only focuses on the sanctity of life, but also values the sanctity of marriage and family. The Alternative to Abortion seeks to help believers—whose views may range from pro-life to pro-choice—embrace a Pro Abundant Life approach that is based on the words of Jesus in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10 is the why statement of Jesus, Roland said.
“These babies in the womb should be heartbeats that are heaven bound. The mother who is giving birth to this child or who’s considering abortion should be a heartbeat that’s heaven bound; the father should be a heartbeat that’s heaven bound. It’s about framing this issue through the lens of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.”