The Alan Guttmacher Institute tells us that 43% of aborting women identify themselves as Protestant, while 27% identify themselves as Catholic. If these numbers are accurate, that leaves us with the shocking conclusion that 70% of all abortions in the U.S. are performed on women who claim the name of Jesus Christ. This is almost beyond comprehension. While it is true that the Alan Guttmacher Institute supports abortion, while it’s true that it’s in their interest to demonstrate high numbers of “religious” women aborting, and while it’s true that surveys are easily manipulated to get the outcome you want, it is also true that abortion is happening with great frequency in the church. Some people will look at this as evidence that there is nothing “un-Christian” about abortion, but this is a very wrong conclusion to make. The Bible in no way supports abortion. What the Guttmacher numbers do tell us is that:

• There are a lot of people in this nation who claim some allegiance to Christ but do not live as Christians. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord...And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” Matthew 7:21-23
  
  
• There are a lot of churches out there who are not sufficiently exposing the evil of abortion. Some of these are apostate churches who reject the sufficiency and deity of Christ and publicly endorse abortion. Some of these churches say nothing about abortion from the pulpit for fear of offending those in the congregation who have had abortions. And some of these churches simply don’t preach on “topical” or “social” issues, and rationalize that abortion isn’t happening in their congregation.
  
  
• The secret sin of abortion is an all too convenient way to cover up the public sin of out-of-wedlock pregnancy. King David himself, a man out after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), shed innocent blood so as to conceal an out-of-wedlock pregnancy (2 Samuel 11:15). David’s example has been followed many times over.

• CAMPUS MINISTRY PACKS - Read the “Marketing” section below for more details or visit: Abort73.com/mp.

• MINORITY ABORTIONS - We’ve added a new video clip to this section of Abort73’s “Case Against Abortion”. Be sure to take a look, it’s definitely worth watching.

• ABORTION AND THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH - This new page can be found in Abort73’s “Medical Testimony” section. It examines both the classic Hippocratic Oath (which explicitly condemns abortion) and some of the more modern revisions that have followed.

• EXPANDED AUDIO ARCHIVE - The expansion of the Desiring God website (desiringgod.org) gave us access to more of John Piper’s abortion-related sermons. We now have a total of 19 sermons online (look in the “Theological Case Against Abortion”).

• NEW SHIRTS - A few new shirt designs, including the first to explicitly mention abortion (“Abortion Unfiltered”) have been recently added to the Abort73 Gear section. More than 2,000 Abort73 shirts are now in circulation.

• MYSPACE COMMENTS - Visit MySpace.com/Abort73 to read a slew of encouraging visitor comments - then leave one of your own.

The following comes from an April 2002 sermon given by Loxafamosity Director, Michael Spielman.

This morning, I want to begin by posing a question for each of you to consider in your own head. The question is, “What is faith?” or more specifically, “What is saving faith?” If you had to describe to someone what a saving faith in Jesus Christ looks like, what you say? Think about it for a minute.

Here’s another question. When you worship God, let’s say in singing, are you giving, or are you getting? Is worship a service of sacrifice to God or a response to the overwhelming blessings from God?

I want to talk this morning about faith and sacrifice by suggesting that if you are coming to God to give to God rather than to receive from God, something is very, very wrong and your faith may not survive.

As I sat in my apartment on Friday night, trying to finalize my lesson, this is the phrase that came to me so brace yourselves. The call to be a Christian is the call to never sacrifice. I’ll say it again. The call to be a Christian is the call to never sacrifice. Now that just sounds all wrong so I better quality that before I’m asked to sit down. The call to be a Christian is the call to never sacrifice the unfathomable wealth of the kingdom of God for the two-bit, low yield, here today gone tomorrow pleasures of this world.

Let me ask you, is it a sacrifice to give up the lesser, to receive the greater? Is it a sacrifice to give up your blindness so you can receive sight? Is it a sacrifice, as C.S. Lewis puts it...

Have you ever wondered why you have to pay for a newspaper at the market but can access the online version for free? Or why you’re charged to call information, but can get far more information on Google for nothing? While it’s true that most home internet users pay a monthly access fee to get service, the websites, themselves, don’t see any of that money. They’re putting up loads of material for visitors to consume and, for the most part, not charging them anything for it. How can that be?! Does it cost nothing to store and process the trillions of web pages being accessed at any given time? Do web authors, designers, and programmers all donate their labor for the good of the internet? Of course not. Just like everything else in the “free” market, the internet is driven by profit, and though the largest, most-trafficked websites offer all sorts of free content, they’re certainly not going home empty handed. Take a look at the sites for ESPN, CNN or CNET, and you’ll notice ads for companies like Intel, GM, and Samsung floating in the margins. Visitors can come for free, so long as advertisers foot the bill... paying their rent, paying their equipment costs, and paying their people. Believe it or not, Intel, GM, and Samsung have yet to express any interest in advertising on Abort73.com. And CNN, FoxNews, and The New York Times have shown no interest in honestly educating the American public about abortion. You see where we’re going with this. Abort73 is providing free access to crucial and compelling content that isn’t available anywhere else, and we’re doing it without any corporate backing. But that doesn’t change the fact that building...