Advertising is important and effective. It's why companies paid $3.5 million for 30 second ads during the Super Bowl. Yep.
Imagine this...there is a new restaurant in town. EVERYONE says it sucks. Waitresses are rude. The line is forever long. Food is not good. Food takes too long to come. Hostess has not got the mostest. The decor stinks. The seats are uncomfy. The tables are dirty. The air conditioning doesn't work so well so it's uncomfortable hot in there. And, the prices are really high! You get too little food for too much money! Forget it!
Do you want to go there?
What if you see a whole big long line of people holding signs telling you to go eat there...wanna go there?
What if the gov't passed a law requiring you to go there once a year?
Even tho' you've never been there before...you sure don't like that place, do you? You will likely even warn others not to go there.
Now, what if you get invited out to lunch and whadaya know? Everyone's meeting there? Oh geez. You don't wanna be rude, so you show up. How do you think all that advertising you heard will effect how you experience your lunch? Will you notice everything wrong with the place? Sure.
Do it the flip way...
New restaurant. EVERYONE is talking it up. Man is that the place to go! Whoo wee! Waitresses are SO nice! Food is excellent! Lots of it! Cheap! Hot! The atmosphere is incredible! Seating and tables are clean and awesome! The bathrooms are so clean and fancy you could eat off the floors! It's SOOOO awesome there!
Now what? You can't wait to go, right!?
What if there were people standing a mile long on the road one day holding signs telling you NOT to go there. You'd wonder what was wrong with those people, right? What if the gov't tried shutting that restaurant down? You might even write your Congressman and tell him about it, right?
OK...
Where am I going with this?
ABORTION.
ABORTION...in my opinion...we do not have legalized abortion in our country because of liberals...leftists...Democrats...or anti-Christian beliefs...whatever the right wants to blame this on...
We have this problem because of...advertising. And, Christians are right there with the advertisers PROMOTING/SELLING abortions.
And, no...as far as advertising goes, I don't mean that Christians need to put more bumper stickers on their cars or wear more t-shirts. No. It doesn't matter how many petitions people sign...how many Facebook "likes" they put on unborn babies...how many pictures of their own ultrasounds they post...how many pamphlets they leave around...how many pro-life bumper stickers they display or if they have the "Choose Life" license plate...how many pro-life t-shirts they wear...how many pro-life organizations they volunteer for or give money to...how many pro-life politicians they vote for...because most Christians spend every day advertising, "Having a child will ruin your life!"
They do. I hear them all the time. I read the status updates. I talk to people. I overhear people. I see the looks on their faces when dealing with their kids. People think having kids ruins their lives.
I have heard "pro-life" Christians say things like:
"I don't know what I'd do if I had another kid! I can't HANDLE any more!"
"You have 8 kids? I only have 1 and I can't HANDLE them!"
"You have 8 kids? You must be a saint!"
"Toddlers are SO hard to handle!"
"Just wait till the TERRIBLE twos!"
"Ugh! You think this is hard wait till you have a teenager! They're the worst!"
"I never get any sleep!"
"My child drives me crazy!"
"I don't have the patience for kids!"
"I neeeeeeeeed a night away from my (2) kids!"
"Kids get in the way of doing ministry work!"
"If only we didn't have the kids we could do..."
"If only we didn't have the kids we could go..."
"Someday when the kids are grown we'll have money to do things..."
"When my kids are grown then I want to do (this fun thing)"
"Oh, that poor girl! She's totally ruined her life!" (said about a pregnant teenager)
"You definitely need to wait to have kids until you get a chance to live a little!" (have fun before all the misery begins)
It's why ladies follow, "Infant Management Programs" (Babywise) Because, "by golly, in the name of God I will not let this kid interrupt my life!"
I got pregnant when I was 17. No one said to me, "Wow! A baby! Your firstborn! How precious! Some people wait till very late in life to start families, but, you will be so young when your child is grown I bet they will be your best friend. Oh, having children is so wonderful. Kids are the best! Oh, you must be so excited!"
You know, those words would have been THE TRUTH.
No. I believed all the advertising. I believed that I had just ruined my life. Babies are smelly. Babies are messy. Babies cry. Babies are horrid selfish creatures that manipulate you to be held all the time and they end up taking all your time and money and leave you worn out and broke! Have a baby and you can never have any fun anymore unless you go broke paying a sitter! Work! Work! Work! That's all they are. A thankless job, at that! They have tantrums and they disrespect you all thru their childhoods and they're horrible when they're teenagers! And, worst yet I will have to miss out on all the partying and fun of college! Life as I had always dreamed of it was OVER! Wrecked! Ruined! Destroyed!
That belief I had was not based on any experience with babies, myself. I couldn't remember even ever holding one! The belief I had came from my culture. It came from hearing everything that everyone says about having babies.
The reason that in 2008, approximately 1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S is because those 1.21 million mothers were convinced that having a baby would ruin their life as they knew it. Ruin something. They didn't have enough money. They didn't have enough education. They didn't have enough time. They didn't have enough patience. Whatever it was having a baby was NOT better than whatever they chose to do instead. Working. Going to college. Anything was better than having a baby.
If any of you Christians out there hate abortion, you need to look at yourself and ask yourself what you think of having children. Do you love having them? No. Not do you love them in spite of the fact that they irritate you and are hard to "handle". No. Do you LOVE HAVING KIDS? Do you see each of your children as "something to handle" or do you see them like a $10 million dollar bill (aka something to be enjoyed)? Do you ENJOY having them as part of your life?
What believe about children is going to be what you advertise to the world every day with every word you speak about your children...
What are you advertising?
"Having a kid is the best most awesome thing in the world!"
or...are you advertising:
"Whatever you do DON'T HAVE KIDS!!!"
If every Christian in the world painted the picture that having kids was the awesomest funnest wonderfullest thing you could possibly ever do...that having a baby was better than getting a $10 million check...no one would WANT an abortion...
Voting pro-life won't fix the problem of abortion as long as Christians all think that having kids is a big pain in the butt and that kids are something to "handle"...this
If you care about the subject of abortion...it is as they say...you have to "be the change you want to see in the world"...
(There is another problem that Christians tend to have no respect for children either...and this too adds to the problem of abortion...but that will be another posting...)
