By Matthew A. C. Newsome ©2002

The following was written a few days before Christmas, 2002.

I love the holiday season.  We get to spend more time with our families.  We eat meals with more butter, more fat, more flavor.  The cookie jar always seems to be full.  I also love getting mail.  There is nothing like seeing the UPS man pull in your drive to deliver a present, or opening the mail box to a stack of Christmas cards.  People take time to wish one another joy and peace this time of year as we celebrate the Incarnation of God as man, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Recently, I discovered that some of the cards people are getting bear anything but a Christian message.  “Choice on Earth” is the greeting used by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, on thousands of Christmas cards sent out each year.  I have been unaware of this up until now.  Thankfully, I’m not on Planned Parenthood’s mailing list.  But this year I read about it in the news, and just had to see for myself.

I visited their web page to see these cards being promoted as “fun and festive” and a good way to “spread the holiday spirit.”  The inside bears the message “Warmest wishes for a peaceful holiday season.”  The cards are “inclusive . . . for people of all faiths.”  (All quotes are taken from www.ppfa.org).

You may be asking yourself how a Christmas card with a pro-abortion message can be appropriate for people with any faith, let alone people of all faiths.  Planned Parenthood’s response comes from a member of their clerical advisory board writing to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly.  O’Reilly had criticized these greeting cards as being offensive to Christians, so this “reverend” sent him a letter assuring him that, according to the Bible, Jesus would be pro-choice.

Amazing.  The “Choice on Earth” campaign has been condemned by many for being insensitive and inappropriate during the holiday season.  How dare they re-word a Scripture verse (“Peace on earth” from Luke 2:14), and use it to promote something that Christians find morally evil during one of their holiest times of the year?  But to now claim that Christ Himself would be pro-choice.  It’s disgusting.

What is ironic is that they are correct, though not in the way they imagine. God is pro-choice.  He made us with a free will, didn’t He?  We, as creatures made in His image, have the free will to make choices.  If we couldn’t make choices, we would be no better than robots – automatons incapable of making decisions on our own.

Our ability to make choices is part of our being human persons, with God-given dignity.  So yes, God is very much in favor of choice.  God gave us the ability to choose because He loves us.  But He loves us so much that He wants us to make the right choices.  You see, we are responsible for the choices we make.  Our choices have consequences.  We will be accountable for our actions.

To keep us from making the wrong choices, God gives us guidance.  He has given each of us a conscience, written onto our hearts, informing us that certain things are good and others evil.  And in case we can’t hear that little voice of God inside us, He has spelled some things out quite plainly.  “Thou shalt not kill” would be a prime example.

God wants us to choose, but more importantly He wants us to choose rightly. We, as human beings with dignity have the right to make choices.  But we should not make choices that interfere with other rights shared by those with human dignity, such as the right to live.

Is this what Planned Parenthood has in mind when they wish for “Choice on Earth?”  Do they want you to make the best choices?  Do they recognize human dignity?

I wonder what choice Planned Parenthood would recommend for a poor, pregnant, unwed teenager, engaged to be married to a much older man, who knew the child in her womb was not his.  She must have been very frightened.  On top of everything, her baby would be due around the winter solstice, during the coldest time of the year.  What would Planned Parenthood have told her, if they could have foreseen that she would deliver her baby in a cave, on dirty straw where animals slept?  Not a promising beginning for the fetus in her womb (we don’t dare call it a child).

You should abort.  It’s a simple procedure.  Perfectly safe and healthy.  And legal.  You’ll be in and out, and then you won’t have to think about it any more.  You and Joseph can get married just like you planned, and start your life together free of this burden.  You won’t have to worry about “showing” at your wedding.  No one will ever have to know.  You don’t even have to tell your husband.  It’s so much easier this way.  And better for the baby that it not be born into difficult circumstances.  A child would only put a strain on your marriage and your finances.  And you don’t need that responsibility, anyway.  You’re too young.  It’s better to abort.  You wouldn’t even have to see it.

There is no doubt in my mind that Planned Parenthood would have advocated the abortion of the Christ child, crucifying Him before He was even born.  And I’m sure they would have followed up by counseling Mary and Joseph on how to “protect” themselves against pregnancy so that they could live their lives free of the natural consequences of their choices.

I used to oppose abortion on purely intellectual reasons.  Then I became a father.  Every time the topic comes up now, I see my little girl’s face and think, “they are talking about killing little angels like her.  Thousands of them.  Millions of them.”  And yes, I do get angry.

Another thing that I have a much deeper understanding of as a parent is the Incarnation.  When I hold my daughter, and look at her innocent and completely helpless face, I can easily imagine the face of Christ.  I know what Joseph must have felt, carrying God in His arms.  My mind swirls at the thought that God didn’t just become a man.  God became a baby!  A crying, hungry, weak and completely dependant baby, just like mine.  He made Himself utterly dependant upon the love and care of His mother and foster-father.

Thank God Mary and Joseph had the sense and decency to avoid Herod’s agents, the Planned Parenthood of their day, who would have readily killed the infant Christ.

We are made in God’s image – all of us, of all ages and stages of life’s development.  When God came to earth He did so not in a chariot of fire, but as a baby in the womb.  Life is sacred.  We are sacred.  Yes, even those people at Planned Parenthood.  That’s the Christmas message, whether or not you choose to believe it.  “Glory to God in the highest.  And on earth, peace to all good men.”