He is happy for us. He is disappointed in us. He hurts for us. He cries for us. But through it all the value we hold in His eyes is immeasurable, even incomprehensible to mortal minds and hearts.

The life of a child born into this world is precious beyond all things on earth. Mormons do not believe in abortion, we reverence life.

Elder Russell M Nelson mormonElder Russell M. Nelson, an apostle of the Lord and world renowned heart surgeon, said,

“A heavy toll on life is included among the evils of war. Data from all nations are appalling. For the United States of America, one hundred thousand were killed in World War I; over four hundred thousand died in World War II. In the first two hundred years as a nation, the lives of over one million Americans were lost due to war.

Regrettable as is the loss of loved ones from war, these figures are dwarfed by the toll of a new war that annually claims more casualties than the total number of fatalities from all the wars of this nation.

It is a war on the defenseless—and the voiceless. It is a war on the unborn.

This war, labeled “abortion,” is of epidemic proportion and is waged globally. Over fifty-five million abortions were reported worldwide in the year 1974 alone. Sixty-four percent of the world’s population now live in countries that legally sanction this practice. In the United States of America, over 1.5 million abortions are performed annually. About 25–30 percent of all pregnancies now end in abortion. In some metropolitan areas, there are more abortions performed than live births. Comparable data also come from other nations. (Russell M. Nelson, “Reverence for Life,” Ensign, May 1985, 11)

The sixth of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Regardless of Roe vs. Wade, or what has been rendered legal in regards to this very serious matter, abortion is wrong except in cases of:

. . . exceptional circumstances [which] may justify an abortion, such as when pregnancy is the result of incest or rape, when the life or health of the mother is judged by competent medical authority to be in serious jeopardy, or when the fetus is known by competent medical authority to have severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. But even these circumstances do not automatically justify an abortion. Those who face such circumstances should consider abortion only after consulting with their local Church leaders and receiving a confirmation through earnest prayer. (Gospel Topics – Abortion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2007 www.lds.org

As one who has had eight miscarriages, it heartily offended my spirit when my doctors called those spontaneous abortions. It made my heart bleed and my spirit ache to have such a harsh term applied to something I’d had no control over, events that tore my heart in two. My husband and I come from large families and wanted nothing more than to have a large family of our own. We love children. For there is nothing sweeter than holding an infant in your arms who looks up at you with such love and intelligence. Nothing like having a toddler launch themselves at you, throw their arms around your neck, kiss you and say, “I wuv you, Mommy!” There is nothing more wonderful than a child, now growing tall and strong, telling you, “I’ll protect you, Mom.” Nothing like a teenager, who even through all the angst and hormones, looks at you and says, “You’re cool, Mom.”

I will never hear those words, not in this lifetime. It rips my heart out that other girls and women so carelessly view life they have no problem murdering a child who is unborn because that child is an inconvenience. 97% of abortions are because of pregnancies of inconvenience. Only 3% fall into the reasons because of rape, incest or the health of the mother. (See U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Human Life Bill: Hearings on S. 158, 97th Congress, 1st session, 1981.) How is it possible we have become so callous in regards to the lives of children of God?

The Lord’s prophets have made it very clear how He views abortion:

Now, as a servant of the Lord, I (Elder Russell M. Nelson) dutifully warn those who advocate and practice abortion that they incur the wrath of Almighty God, who declared, “If men … hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, … he shall be surely punished.” (Exodus 21:22.)

Of those who shed innocent blood, a prophet declared: “The judgments which [God] shall exercise … in his wrath [shall] be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.” (Alma 14:11.)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has consistently opposed the practice of abortion. One hundred years ago the First Presidency wrote: “And we again take this opportunity of warning the Latter-day Saints against those … practices of foeticide and infanticide.” 11

Early in his presidency, our beloved President Spencer W. Kimball said, “We decry abortions and ask our people to refrain from this serious transgression.” (Russell M. Nelson, “Reverence for Life,” Ensign, May 1985, 11)

Elder Nelson does say that we are free to choose, but as he mentions, and I mentioned in an earlier post today, we are not free to choose the consequence. God views the murder of unborn children as a serious and grievous sin. You do not only make a decision for yourself, but in committing to having an abortion, you are denying a child of God who has passed his or her First Estate and earned the right to complete his or her Second Estate . . . you’re denying a child the right to live.

I find it odd that we as a society will weep for those who are hurt, mourn for those who have died, cry for those who are lost, and yet as a world, we turn our backs on the unborn.

A nation who allows the wholesale murder of its unborn will no longer have the protection of the Almighty. He cannot, nor will He, defend those who will rob His sons and daughters of their valiantly earned opportunity at mortality.

Elder Nelson’s last words of this talk will end this post:

Life comes from life. It is a gift from our Heavenly Father. It is eternal, as he is eternal. Innocent life is not sent by him to be destroyed! This doctrine is not of me, but is that of the living God and of His divine Son, which I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. (Russell M. Nelson, “Reverence for Life,” Ensign, May 1985, 11)

About Candace

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