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Pauline Hanson recently exposed how, under the Albanese government, women who have late-term abortions are able to claim the Stillborn Baby Payment of $4326 or alternatively, the Paid Parental Leave of $22,754.

This was previously confirmed through a letter from Katy Gallagher’s office, who is the Minister for Women, which explicitly stated that it included women who had an “intentional abortion”.

But incredibly, when Pauline Hanson recently asked Katy Gallagher in parliament about the issue, she was met with a master class in political obscurification. Even when Pauline Hanson asked a number of supplementary questions to clarify the matter, she was repeatedly met with deflection and spin.

Singing So You Can’t Hear the Screams

In his book When a Nation Forgets God (Moody, 2010), Erwin W. Lutzer relays the shocking eyewitness account of how one particular congregation responded to the cries of Jews being taken to the death camps. And he asks the provocative question, “What would I have done?” if we were there at the time.

I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because what could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning, we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realised that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars!

Week after week, the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us.

We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.

Years have passed, and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene.

Since someone first mentioned it to me, I have been reflecting a lot on how similar things are in Australia today. Each week, approximately two thousand pregnancies are terminated in this country. Every. Single. Week. This should rightly fill us with deep grief at the enormous loss of innocent human life.

When the Watchdogs are Silent…

What is of grave concern to me, though, is the silence of so many of my fellow Christian leaders, especially while this is occurring. There is a verse in the book of Isaiah 56 which says:

Israel’s watchmen are blind,
they all lack knowledge;
they are all mute dogs,
they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream,
they love to sleep.
~ Isaiah 56:10

It’s a stunning rebuke, as well as a reminder, that the LORD expects His servants to speak. In particular, to be ‘watchmen’ who stand on the wall of the city and diligently call out danger and rebuke sin, whenever they see it.

My concern is that a similar predicament is occurring in Australia today, i.e. Christian leaders (the watchmen of God’s people, see Ezekiel 33:1-16; Acts 20:26-28) are remaining silent in the face of growing hostility.

Just as in the time of William Wilberforce, it is time for Christians everywhere to raise their voices first of all to God in prayer, and secondly to His servants here on earth through the democratic process.

Will you dare to not only speak but also believe that the LORD might put an end to this practice within our lifetimes? If you are, then please consider using the following prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, You are the God of life.
With You is truth and justice and forgiveness.
Forgive us for being silent when we should have spoken up.
Forgive us for being indifferent to the plight of the unborn.
Forgive us as a nation for allowing the murder of babies to grow and expand.
Please put an end to the practice of abortion.
Raise up men and women with the wisdom and courage to speak.
And when we do, grant us the ability to do so in love.
Thank You for hearing our prayer.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.