Kirk Walden has been advocating for the lives of the unborn since 1991 when he became the director of a small pregnancy help center in Auburn, Alabama. Over the last 17 years, he’s focused on fundraising for Heartbeat International, which supports pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, and maternity homes. In this interview I ask him about how he talks to both Christians and non-Christians about this sensitive and emotionally explosive issue. He lays out his case using biblical and scientific reasoning, but what really comes through strongest is his incredible sense of compassion for those who find themselves in this situation.
—— Links ——
- More about Kirk Walden here
- Get a copy of his book, The Wall, on Amazon
- Find out more about Heartbeat International
- Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
Aloha,
I enjoyed your presentation and enthusiasm Kirk and may God bless your work. I come from a bit different perspective, as I am male, married, and having had three children and am now elderly, I can’t speak from a woman’s perspective. I also revert back a little more to associating “breath” with life as did scripture in so many places, so I am not one that really believes that fertilization equates with a soul enhanced human. Some scriptures showing breath and life can be seed in Gen 1v30, Gen 2v7,Gen 6v17, Gen 7 v15 Gen 7v22, Gen 25v17, Gen 35v18, Gen 35 v29, 1 Kings 17 v 21-22, Job 10v18, Job 12v10, Job27v3, Job28v8, Ps 104v29-30, Eccles 8v8,Eccles 12v7, Is 42v5, Ezek 37 v5-9 amongst others. I am not quite ready to assume that a freshly fertilized egg has breath. That being said, I find abortion to be a terrible means of birth control. I also find that since the issue is such a hot button issue with many “christians”, that it would end up being an issue for which Jesus was quite mum. Jesus told us what to do with our enemies and what to do to those who hate us, but He was quite silent on abortion, and seeing that it was widely practiced in Rome and even Israel through the use of herbs as abortifacients, it just seems to me that the issue either didn’t have much importance to Jesus or his way of defining it as an issue has skirted me in New Testament reading., Just as a question, I wonder what you think of natural abortion? Is this just God’s desire. After all, stats tend to support that 10-20% of all known pregnancies end in natural abortion or miscarriage and that doesn’t count figures as high as 30-50% of fertilized zygotes where the woman doesn’t even know she is pregnant but there is a natural aborting process within the body. Does God not want that life if it is considered life? Again…I am not pro abortion, but just pointing out some facts regarding it. I am not a big fan of government regulation as governments are fallible. Do you think we should ban marriage of couples with different blood groups, because in those cases, natural abortion is drastically increased, and certainly, preventing such marriages would reduce abortion rates. One scripture that I find interesting and would like your input is from Numbers 5, v11-31. It looks to me in reading this that God permitted a man who thought his wife to be unfaithful to take her to the high priest where she would be given “bitter water”, an abortifacient and the priest would say something over her and if she had been faithful nothing would happen but if she had been unfaithful and was pregnant, a curse was put on her by the priest after she drank the bitter water and she would abort??? Again..,.I want to thank you for what you do in trying to help those in an unwanted pregnancy to deal with their issue and show them options. It just seems to me that if we are “fearfully and wonderfully” made as the author in Psalms 139 states, and life as a full human begins at conception, why are there so many natural abortions? Sorry if I seem a little odd on this issue, but it is what it is and God bless.
Just as an additional point that might help to clarify my thoughts, might be the following. From what I can find, it might be interesting to look at when “life” was determined to exist by using old Judaism, as the scriptures were written by those people in the context of that time. From what little research I can find, it seems that Judaism defined a human life as something that was given its full value when during the birthing process, half the baby was out and breath had started. At this time, it seemed that full human life was given value. Prior to that the human was “under construction.” This might further validate why Numbers 5 v 11-31 could take place. This also might also make for understanding in Exodus 21 v 22 where it appears that if a man in a violent act caused a woman to miscarry, (Was miscarriage thought of as a term for death in the pregnancy?), and no further harm was done, (does that mean that the woman herself didn’t die?), then a fine was paid. This would make sense if in the context of how Judaism defined life as needing to breathe. If Judaism didn’t define it as life then it would appear that a fine was in order as hard to require eye for eye if it wasn’t life yet. Anyhow…again thanks for your thoughts and God bless.