ACCUSERS ARE QUICK TO CONDEMN EVEN FORGIVEN SIN

Mark Davis Pickup

My last post was under the title REFLECTIONS ON THE DEATH OF CANADA'S ABORTION CHAMPION. It was about Henry Morgentaler and contained a link to my recent column for Canada's Western Catholic Reporter newspaper. I received the following note from a man I will identify by his last initial: Mr. K. He wrote --

Hi Pickup, 

I heard you had aborted your child and that you were a big supporter of Planned Parenthood.  Now you are writing all this stuff in the catholic newspaper.  Do you take the reader for a fool?

 

Mr. K is right. Forty-two years ago I got my girlfriend pregnant and pressured her to have an abortion. She reluctantly succumbed to my pressure and emotional abandonment. It broke her heart and eventually it broke mine too. I will take that grief to my grave.

Mr. K the accuser is also right about my support for Planned Parenthood's terrible work. More than thirty years ago, as Director of Family and Community Support Services for two Alberta municipalities, I promoted Planned Parenthood affiliates and even invited them to make presentations in my communities.  

 

Later when I became a Christian, I confessed the sin of murdering my unborn child. I repented of my sin and repudiated my earlier support of Planned Parenthood. Since then, much of my life has been an act of penance. I will speak about the poverty of abortion (and euthanasia) to anyone who will listen.

God has forgiven me but the Mr. K's of this world have not. They are  quick to remind me of my old sin and think because of that I have no right  to speak or write about the subject of abortion and nobody but a fool would read my "stuff."

 

Mr. K's cynical comment is not the first time I have heard this sort of criticism.  It's indicative of a world view that makes no room for repentance and forgiveness. The crooked finger of accusation is always ready and quick to point in condemnation. The culture of death sees people like me as turn-coats and betrayers.

 

Yes, Mr. K., I am a sinner. I do not need you to remind me, my own conscience does that.

Happily God has forgiven me of the terrible sin of abortion (and other sins) through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ at Calvary. I have been freed from the shackles of my sin of abortion and the Mr. Ks amongst us cannot put them back on. Nice try. I will proclaim to other sinners the salvation that God has made available to all humanity, and I will warn others against the  evil of abortion that broke my heart, and killed my innocent child.

If Mr. K ever needs to be forgiven for something, he can take heart knowing that Christ's sacrifice can do the same for him.

Mark Davis Pickup