ERLC’s Richard Land on
sanctity of human life

by Scott Sienkiewicz

(click here to view video)

CLEVELAND, Ga. (TMCNews) — “The Bible is very clear about the sacredness and the sanctity of all human life,” said Dr. Richard Land during his sermon at Truett-McConnell College’s chapel service, Jan. 19.

Land — president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — cited several biblical passages in his remarks.

Noting Jeremiah 1:5, Land said, “Even before we are conceived, God has a relationship with us, God knows us, and God has a plan and purpose for our lives.”

King David in Psalm 51 acknowledged that he was born with a sinful nature. “Only a human being with a soul and spirit can have a sin nature,” Land said.

Moving through Psalms 116 and 139, Land demonstrated biblical proof that life begins at conception, saying that God knits babies in their mother’s womb. Land said God creates all people unique. Illustrating from his own family, Land said his children have the same parents, but are uniquely different. “Each one of us is unique, and no one can do as good a job of being the person — the unique person — that God created you to be as you can … [God] has a unique purpose for your life,” he said.

“God never created a nobody,” he added. “Everybody is a somebody to God; and you may have been a surprise to your parents, but you were not a surprise to God.”

Quoting a doctor who addressed the United States Senate, Land said the belief that life begins in the womb is not a statement of faith, but of science. Land highlighted some developmental stages of pre-born babies, showing that life begins at the moment of conception.

“Whether we’re going to have a future where God blesses America doesn’t depend on what the lost people do, it depends on what the saved people do,” Land said. “For the last 39 years in America, the saved people have been allowing a baby to be killed approximately every 20 seconds.”

Land stated that 55 million babies have been aborted, and one-third of the current generation had been aborted. “We wonder why God hasn’t blessed us as a nation; I am astounded that he hasn’t judged us more severely than he has,” Land said. American culture has been penetrated by what Pope John Paul II called “the culture of death.”

“No one deserves the supreme right to life and death over a human being, even a mother,” he said. “Any society that does not extend the protection of life to its weakest and most defenseless citizens is a barbaric and pagan country.”

“There is an added, ugly, vicious twist to abortion in America,” said Land, noting that Planned Parenthood in its infancy was a racist organization trying to control the population of what founder Margaret Sanger considered the lower races.

Land holds that, to this day Planned Parenthood has 80 percent of its clinics in the poorest neighborhoods in America. “The African-American community is smaller now than at anytime since 1800 as a percentage of the population, and its not because of immigration; it’s because of abortion,” he said. “There were twice as many black babies aborted than were born in New York City last year.”

Land decried that taxes totaling $300 million a year fund Planned Parenthood’s racist genocide.

He also recalled a protest he attended in Dallas, where the largest abortuary outside of China was opened. Ten thousand of the 15,000 protestors were under 30, he said, noting the ethnic split was 40 percent Anglo, 30 percent Hispanic, and 30 percent Black.

“‘We survived Roe, but Roe won’t survive us,'” said Land, recalling some of the protestors’ signs.

The United States has become pro-life, Land said, noting that more people under 39 are pro-life than those 39 and above. The reason, he believes, is that pro-choice advocates have likely aborted their children while pro-lifers have not. Land believes pro-life parents have reared their children to be pro-life and that the reversal of Roe v. Wade will happen in the current generation’s lifetime.

“This issue is not just in the womb, its not just in the nursery, its in the old folks’ home,” Land said. Pointing to the socialization of health care, Land states people around the U.S. already have been denied health care through Medicare because they are considered terminal.

“Since they’re terminal, they’re not going to treat their other painful maladies because it’s too expensive and it’s not cost effective,” he said.

President Barak Obama admitted that it was not the best use of resources to allow the grandmother who reared him to have a hip replacement once she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “With shepherds like that, we don’t need wolves,” Land said.

“Make no mistake about it,” he said. “Unless we get this evil genie back in the bottle, many of you will find as you grow older that you will be denied medical care, and you are going to die sooner than you would have otherwise because it’s not considered cost effective.”

According to Land, the preceding generations will be unable to support the baby boom generation for there are far too few people because of the abortion of 55 million potential tax payers. “We are at a fork in the road. … We are either going to stop this cold, or it will consume us,” Land said. Using the example of Margaret Thatcher in England, Land said no nation that adopted socialized healthcare has ever repealed it.

If socialized healthcare is allowed into legislation, then euthanasia will be as commonplace as abortion. “We’re going to do to old and terminally ill people what we’ve been doing to babies for 39 years,” Land said.

Focusing on God’s power in restoring the individuals affected by the aftermath that millions of women feel, Land said abortuaries don’t talk about post-abortion impact.

Many women suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and Land concluded that the only one who can heal lives traumatized by abortion is Jesus Christ. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleans us of all unrighteousness,” Land said.

“Everyone of us can leave here guiltless if we claim his promise purchased in his blood.”

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