Sunny Side of The Stream: Thank God for Dobbs!
June 24, 2022. Roe has fallen. What a good day.
This new weekly column is dedicated to highlighting the good, light and funny in the midst of the evil we expect to read about in the news. But in a rare occurrence, the biggest news of the day is good news. States are now free to pass and enforce laws protecting human life in the womb at any stage of development!
Yet, there’s heaviness too. A pro-abortion terrorist organization has vowed to harm those organizations that oppose abortion (and help women), like pregnancy resource centers. They threaten to riot. And so many more pregnant women, single mothers and struggling families will need real resources and help now that the solution of violence will be less readily available. We need more people serving at local pregnancy resource centers and Embrace Grace church groups.
We need more families to foster and adopt and more people to befriend and support those families who do foster and adopt.
Here’s the good news: the Church is already doing much of what needs to be done. We just need more of it. More willingness to do something beyond our vote. More making a difference with our time, our money and our love.
Thank God for Pregnancy Resource Centers. Let’s Resource Them!
Pro-life pregnancy centers are doing the loving work of coming alongside pregnant women, supporting them through their pregnancy and beyond, often offering material support like clothing and diapers, as well as parenting classes. Showing them through ultrasounds the life inside them they’ve been given to love. According to the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute:
A new analysis of a nationally representative dataset reveals that since 2016 more than 800,000 human lives have been saved through the community-based care of pro-life pregnancy centers, which provide local women with tangible support to address challenges related to pregnancy.
Currently, more than 2,700 pro-life pregnancy centers support pregnant women facing difficult circumstances with medical care and referrals, education, mentoring, and material support including diapers, car seats, and clothing. Community-based support is offered through nearly 15,000 staff and almost 54,000 volunteers, which includes 10,200 licensed medical professionals (both staff and volunteers).
Men are an Important Part of the Equation
Along with supporting women, we’ll need to pour into men to help them say yes to the role of father and be the best dads they can be. Men, who are often left out of the conversation about abortion, are crucial to the strong families our society needs. Speaking of dads and babies, dads loving on their babies is one of the cutest things I know of in this world. Here’s a montage.
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Babies are Hilarious
And here are a few more funny baby videos to brighten your day.
funny goat baby and funny and lovely baby girl 😊 😊 😊 pic.twitter.com/iIbXGCbrEw
— Interesting Channel (@ChannelInteres) June 18, 2022
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We Have Work to Do to Make Sure Babies are Happy
Let’s do our part to make sure the babies born because Roe has fallen will grow up to be loved and happy. There are many tangible ways to serve.
There’s also something seemingly disconnected but foundational we can do as the Church. We need to see more lives and generations changed by sharing the gospel and being the family of God to people. We need evangelism and discipleship. We need strong church communities strengthening each other and their local communities. The root of the abortion issue is rampant disregard for God’s design for family, marriage and sexuality as well as feeling isolated and unsupported in raising children. God has the solution to both these issues in His Church. Being set free from sin by the power of the gospel and being discipled in community: that’s the kind of life-changing action America needs to truly heal.
The Most Powerful Change
Here’s some good news on that front: Together ’22 is an event by PULSE to catalyze evangelism, June 24-25. It’s at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, honoring the 50th anniversary of Explo ’72. That event 50 years ago, remembered as part of the Jesus Movement, had the goal of training high school and college students in personal evangelism. This weekend’s event “will empower the next generation of Christians to Make Jesus Known.”
Roe began in Dallas. The Wade of Roe v. Wade was Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade. Isn’t it amazing that in the same city Roe started, and on the day it ended, we’re seeing exactly what our nation needs to truly heal? A large event to train young people in sharing Jesus. As a friend from church said as we discussed the end of Roe, may God bless America in a way He perhaps could not while such a vile law ruled our nation.
And may we see another Jesus movement in our day. Our nation needs the Church to be radiant right now. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few! And Jesus deserves a radiant bride who is living for the same goal for which he lived and died: that many would come to His wedding supper as a member of His devoted bride, where we’ll be with Him where He is and see His glory.
Aliya Kuykendall is a staff writer and proofreader for The Stream. You can follow Aliya on Twitter @AliyaKuykendall and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.
