I Hope History Repeats Itself - For the Sake of the Unborn

January 23, 2010 was the thirty-seventh anniversary of Roe v. Wade. We remembered the tyranny of seven men, including five Republicans, who ushered in an era of unprecedented bloodshed in America by their ill advised decision – a decision that was not only bad law (there is no "right to privacy" in the Constitution) but immoral law. There is hope for America, but don't look for the change to come from more of the same. Ultimately, the injustice of Roe v. Wade will end after our nation experiences a spiritual transformation that reshapes its moral conscience. America's hope is in the hands of the Church. I believe spiritual transformation will be the impetus that brings the holocaust to an end. History gives us every reason for optimism. Historian Keith J. Hardman in his book, The Spiritual Awakeners, writes of the three Great Awakenings noting how these awakenings "energized the churches and poured countless new converts into them…In each of these three periods the church has poured its zeal for righteousness into the bloodstream of the nation…Renewed and empowered Christianity has been the single most important moral factor in making America great." Hardman goes on to cite various areas that were affected by these energized Christians. "Regarding the impulse toward democracy, the history of American revivals shows that they have promoted equality and democratic ideals…Regarding the humanitarian impulse, antislavery, prison reform, women's rights, temperance, concern for the poor and downtrodden, and philanthropy of a hundred different kinds has flowed in abundance from the awakenings." Charles Finney, one of the great revivalists of the nineteenth century believed that evangelism and Christian activism went hand in hand. Hardman writes, "Since the late 1820's, Finney had been moving in the direction of including reform in his program for awakening, and his evangelism meant that converts would immediately be put to urgent work in the battle against sin. 'Every member must work or quit. No honorary members,' was a motto of his." Hardman discusses the results."During the first three decades of the nineteenth century, evangelical Christians organized thousands of societies toward what they were convinced would become an empire of benevolence that would begin alleviating every vice and problem...Finney entered zealously into the leadership of the movement, sharing it with reformers like Weld, Tappan, and many others. Almost no phase of life in America was untouched. Temperance, vice, world peace, slavery, education, Sabbath observance, profanity, women's rights, the conditions in penal institutions – all those and more had specific societies devoted to their betterment." I for one am praying that history will repeat itself - that the church will once again pour "...its zeal for righteousness into the bloodstream of the nation" awakening the conscience of America to reverse Roe v. Wade. I am looking for a "renewed and empowered Christianity" that once again will be "…the single most important moral factor in making America great." I believe it can happen again.