The top news this week was the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the infamous case “Roe V. Wade”, when in 1973 that court had forced abortion on the whole nation, in my view, based on legal-speak. The “Wade” in the case was a famous District Attorney in Dallas County, Texas. He had already tried the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, which happened in Dallas after Oswald assassinated JFK. His name was already on the map then. Henry Wade, however, would be the D.A. sued by “Jane Roe”, a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a woman who had already given up two children for adoption in her early 20’s. I guess she thought that was too much ‘trouble’ to save the lives of those two children.
I’m “Wade”, because my mother named me Wade at my birth, almost eight years before the Roe V. Wade decision. Obviously, my first name is Daniel, but Wade is my middle name, carefully selected by my parents. Before choosing that name, they were going to name me after one of my uncles, but decided to leave that for his children. The reason I bring this up, is because my birth, from conception to birth, was tough on my mother, in every way.
Later in life, I figured out that I was a birthday present to my Dad; his birthday is EXACTLY nine months before mine. But, they already had four children. My Dad was career military. He was an enlisted man, and at the time was a “1st Class Petty Officer”, teaching GMM school on a Navy base, for a very low salary. They lived in base housing to save money, but still had very little to spare. When Mom found out she had conceived me, she was very stressed about bringing another baby into the world. She did not feel like they could feed another mouth. For weeks, she contemplated having an abortion, even though that was not something she believed in. When she came to herself, she asked God to forgive her of the thought, and she told Him that this baby would be His, and that she would name him Daniel. I ended up being named Daniel Wade.
Growing up, I remember linking the Roe V. Wade case to my own name, and struggling with the fact that people were legally killing babies. I was almost eight when it happened, and my Dad had retired, and we’d moved back to his home town in Texas. I remember that in High School and my early twenties, people were protesting against abortion, and it was often in the news. I remember the media trying to paint people standing against the murder of babies as ‘radical’, ‘religious zealots’, and worse. Any time a wing-nut did in fact do something crazy, they painted the whole “Right To Life” group as evil and murderous, to try to defend murder of innocent babies. It never made sense to me. But, I was busy trying to become ‘something’.
I went into the Navy myself, and had wandered away from a very firm faith in Messiah I had in that little Texas town. I did not go into any kind of egregious sin. But, I was not living my faith. I cursed. I got drunk one time, after failing a transistor theory test. I danced in the clubs a lot. I resisted temptation, but I did not pursue eternal life. I was weak, and distracted. And sad. One day, while on patrol in the Gulf of Alaska on a submarine, after a girl I was sweet on had dumped me, and after a buddy shut down on the boat and would not talk, I finally prayed earnestly, and Messiah then showed me that I was not living the life to which he had called me. I turned around.
Not too entirely long after that pivotal moment in my life, I went home on leave. I had written to my parents about my renewed faith in Messiah. I told them when I would be arriving, and asked them to pick me up in the Houston airport. Mom, of course, said she’d be there. When that day arrived, she put on a pot of red beans to slow cook, and she headed to the airport. Red beans and Rice is an east Texas staple, and one of my favorite home cooked meals. When we got back to the house from the airport, Mom had to make the cornbread [can’t have RB&R without sweet cornbread!]. While doing so, she told me she was so happy to read my letters, and how very different my ‘tone’ was, and how happy she was that I was living my faith. And then, she told me about my birth. She started by saying, “If I’d had you first, I’d have never had another baby.” Apparently I was a little late, and she ‘drove me out’ with castor oil and orange juice. I came quickly, and she had to drive herself to the hospital. I was crowning in the waiting room. Certain assistance from the physician was necessary to get me out, when he finally showed up, and so I injured my Mother a bit. She knew I’d be her last, her ‘baby’. And then she told me she had ‘given me to God’.
After that, I was grateful that abortion was illegal, which probably stalled her decision, and gave me a chance at life. My Mom lived in the regret of that, but was grateful for having been deterred, and that she’d not gone through with that horrible decision. I was grateful, and still am, to have been ‘saved’ by my Mother, so I could then be saved by my Messiah.
Not long after I got out of the Navy, a pro-abortion candidate was running for office. I worked among a bunch of ex-military men, and the politics of the day were always the scuttlebutt. Abortion was a big factor in that election. While sitting among those twenty-five or so men, the topic came up, and some were waffling on whether or not they should vote for the pro-abortion candidate. I am generally a shy person. But, something rose up in me, and I barked, “God said to the prophet, “I knew you before I formed you in your Mother’s WOMB!”” One of the men said, “You just sent cold chills down my spine,” and we talked about why abortion is murder.
Life is sacred. Life is basic: it is anything that is metabolic, can grow, can respond to stimuli, and contains cells or is capable of producing cells. Baby. Those on one side of the argument say that the constitution does not defend life. Poppycock. We have the guarantee of LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT of happiness.
What the Supreme Court did was an answer to a lot of prayer, and is being celebrated among those who believe life starts at the moment of conception. “I’m Wade”, because I have long opposed the notion of abortion, and it sickens me that so many people in this country think so very lightly about ending a human life, no matter the size of it, or the location of it.
The various states now need to move swiftly to make it illegal. Many states have ‘trigger laws’ on the books, and will make abortion illegal soon after this decision. One state’s trigger has already been pulled: Missouri. Texas’ will be pulled in thirty days, I think. I am so very grateful for that.
One of the things that got Israel punished was sacrificing babies on the altar of Molekh. Burning them in the fire, or casting them against the rocks in certain temples, one of whose ruins I’ve seen with my own eyes. The U.S. has dared to go even further, to kill an infant before it is born. And now, they’re getting ever closer to turning a blind eye to other reasons to kill children. It happens in the dark all the time, and is being brought into the light, almost gleefully, by Hollywood entertainment, the vehicle used to brainwash America for the last 50 years plus.
“You will not murder”. God wrote that in stone with His own finger. Yet people think it’s a moldable, bendable statement. In Hebrew, it is two simple words: לֹא תִרְצָח . That is it. There is no justification for intentional, baseless killing of anyone.
We have got to start declaring the sanctity of life in this world. We who believe in morality have got to express it, and NOT give those who express immorality all our money so they can numb the whole country further into other immoral, heinous behaviors.
Return to God. Do what He says. Be blessed!
D'var יהוה , The Word of יהוה 