It is, in one sense, a simple enough question to answer. When you remember that we are wicked enough to murder our own children it makes sense that we are also wicked enough to not be terribly concerned about the murder of children. Thus the answer to the question- why are Christians so profoundly unmoved by the murder of babies?- is this- sin. We are outside of wombs and therefore safe, and struggle to have compassion on those who are in danger.
I believe, however, that beneath this ultimate reason is an important proximate reason that is all too easy to miss. We have for nearly 50 years been arguing with the world that the unborn are babies. Of course everyone already knew that. Some just didn’t want to admit it. The trouble now is that both sides agree that the unborn are babies. And both sides agree that babies are the natural result of a man and a woman joining together.
But babies are not the natural result of a man and a woman joining together. Indeed babies are not the natural result of anything. They are profoundly supernatural. While it is true that God is sovereign over all things, He typically works through secondary means. With babies, however, God seems to take a proprietary interest, to insist that this is His call and His work. He is the one who opens and closes the womb. He is the one who blesses with the gift of children (Psalm 127). He is the one who responds to the prayers of Elizabeth and Hannah.
Is it possible that one reason Christians are insufficiently concerned about abortion is precisely because we think babies are merely natural? It is a terrible thing to kill a baby. But how much worse is it to kill a baby that God made? And if God made them all, then each killing is a tragedy of the deepest hue. We are killing miracles.
Our perspective on abortion is born not merely of our perspective on the ontology of the unborn but the history of the unborn. It is one thing to say of a baby in the womb, “This child, like all children, bears the image of God.” It is altogether another to say, “This child, like all children, is a direct creation of the true and living God.” The Bible, of course, tells us that each child is knit together in the womb, not by natural forces, not by the outworking of DNA, but by God (Psalm 139:13). Abortion is the unraveling of what God is knitting together. Which ought to unravel us. We are not merely witnesses to a wrongdoing. We are not merely averting our eyes from a tragedy. Rather we are snuffing out the very life God is about the business of growing, or being indifferent over others doing the same.
Our God is not a distant God. He is at work. May we begin our growth in grace by confessing our wickedness in working against His work. May His miracle of our rebirth make us more zealous to protect the miracle of the birth of all He is knitting together.