It is one of the most disturbing articles I\u2019ve ever read. The current issue of Esquire magazine profiles the \u201cabortion ministry\u201d of Willie Parker, a doctor who flies in and out of my home state of Mississippi to perform abortions at the state\u2019s only abortion clinic. The word \u201cministry\u201d isn\u2019t incidental. Dr. Parker says he aborts unborn children because Jesus wants him to.<\/p>\n
Parker, the article says, preached in Baptist churches as a young man, before going into medicine. He had, he says, a \u201ccome to Jesus\u201d moment where he became convinced that he ought to do abortions. \u201cThe protesters say they\u2019re opposed to abortion because they\u2019re Christian,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for them to accept that I do abortions because I\u2019m a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n
The profile portrays Dr. Parker as he prepares women for the abortions he is selling them. He tells them to ignore everything but their own consciences, and then, of course, he informs their consciences that abortion is morally acceptable. \u201cIf you are comfortable with your decision, ignore everything from everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, he knows how to ignore everything else, including the conscience. The article quotes him talking a woman through an abortion by telling her that her unborn child is \u201cvery small.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the most chilling passage of the article, Parker has just aborted triplets, and is sorting through the aftermath. He then points out the body parts of a nine-week unborn child he has just aborted. \u201cThere\u2019s the skull, what is going to be the fetal skull,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there are the eye sockets.\u201d Parker points out, \u201cThat\u2019s an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article states: \u201cFloating near the top of the dish are two tiny arms with two tiny hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker says that he is not disturbed by these body parts because he is \u201cnot deluded about what this whole process is.\u201d It doesn\u2019t disturb him, he says, it just tells him the woman\u2019s uterus is empty, and she\u2019s no longer pregnant. He doesn\u2019t consider the \u201cfetus\u201d a person because the child is totally dependent on the mother, and \u201cthat dependence puts it in the domain of her choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker says his \u201ccome to Jesus\u201d moment, persuading him of the \u201ccall\u201d to abortion, happened when he heard a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr. on Jesus\u2019 parable of the Good Samaritan. By performing abortion, Parker sees himself as the Samaritan, caring for the beaten neighbor on the side of the road.<\/p>\n
That would be true, of course, if the Samaritan in Jesus\u2019 story had euthanized the neighbor, to put him out of his misery. Of course, he didn\u2019t. Instead, the Samaritan took the neighbor on as his own kin, nursing him back to health and caring for him, a picture that looks a lot like what many of the pro-life churches and organizations Parker dismisses are, in fact, doing for women in crisis and their babies.<\/p>\n
Ironically enough, the one left for dead on the side of the Jericho Road was also totally dependent. Without the embrace of love and the kindness of a passer-by, he was left for dead. He was hardly viable on his own. The priest and the Levite passed on, Dr. King preached rightly, probably because they were afraid. Fear paralyzed them from seeing the humanity of another. The road to Jericho was filled with \u201cchoice,\u201d as person after person averted his eyes from the hurting human being in front of them. The one on the roadside was dependent, totally dependent, on one who saw life as better than death.<\/p>\n
Dr. Parker could be that Good Samaritan. Instead, he looks into the sonogram screen and says, \u201cAnd who is my neighbor?\u201d (Luke 10:29).<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s pray and work for an end to the injustice of abortion. Let\u2019s pray and work for better solutions for women in crisis. But let\u2019s pray for doctors like this as well.<\/p>\n
We can pray for a \u201ccome to Jesus\u201d moment that puts him on the right side of the Jericho Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is one of the most disturbing articles I\u2019ve ever read. The current issue of Esquire magazine profiles the \u201cabortion ministry\u201d of Willie Parker, a doctor who flies in and out of my home state of Mississippi to perform abortions at the state\u2019s only abortion clinic. The word \u201cministry\u201d isn\u2019t incidental. Dr. Parker says he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[450,1012,2771,4782],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}