The silence in the Black American Church regarding the evil of abortion is killing us. The numbers reflecting the impact of abortion in the Black American community are horrifying.
From 1882 until 1968, 3,446 Black Americans were lynched here in the U.S. Today, that number is surpassed in 2.8 days by abortion in the Black community. [1]
The abortion rate for black women is almost five times that for white women [2]. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of pregnancies among black women are unintended. [3] Every 1.2 minutes of every single day of the year in America, a black baby is aborted.
According to the U.S. Census Report of 2006, which is given to the Senate and the Congress, Black Americans need 2.1 live births to replace themselves. At this point Black Americans are currently below the replacement level at 1.9. This means Black Americans are no longer replacing themselves because there are more deaths than live births. [4]
It has been reported that the abortion rate for black women is 543 abortions for every 1000 births. In other words a black baby has less than a fifty percent (50%) chance of being born alive. Yet Black American leadership continues to support the pro-choice movement.
Why?
Why did ninety-six percent (96%) of Black America vote for our President-Elect, Barack Obama, a man who supports abortion, the very action that is killing five percent (5%) of the black population? This is a very serious conflict of interest.
Is Black American leadership afraid to acknowledge how dangerous the President-Elect’s support of abortion is?
Are Black American leader’s too un-informed to be outraged that for years our President-Elect has been supporting and currently is supported by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., an organization that is the leading provider of surgical abortions in the United States of America?
Is it possible that Black Americans really believe the product of a human father and a human mother can be anything other than a human being?
Do Black Americans really believe a man or a woman has the right to kill their child?
Can it be true that Black Americans really believe it is best to allow our babies to be physically dismembered and sucked out of their mother’s womb into biohazardous waste bags because the child’s parents income is below the federal poverty level?
Do Black Americans really believe the reason a Black woman kills her child is because she understands the value of an education, the benefits of a job and the responsibilities of parenthood and family life?
Do Black Americans really believe that if a Black woman does not have the love and support of a man, she should consider terminating the life of her baby?
Do Black Americans really believe there is a “time and place” to suspend the constitutional rights of our offspring?
The statistics would say “yes” to all of the above and as a Black American man of the cloth, I am ashamed of the Black Church’s unwillingness to opening, publicly and forthrightly, address the morally reprehensible impact of abortion in the Black community.
According to Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union, abortion is the number one killer of Black Americans. Abortion kills more black people than heart attacks, stroke, HIV-AIDS, accidents, cancer, violent crime and all other deaths combined.
Yet our pulpits, if not supporting pro-choice leaders, have been criminally silent on the issue of abortion and negligent in providing tangible and practical help such as Post Abortion Counseling and Education (PACE) programs to men, women and families in the pews who have been deceived by the lies of a pro-death society and horribly hurt by a rabid abortion industry.
God has ordained the man of God to serve this present age and given him the power to speak truth in to the hearts of people. In the Black community no one has more influence than the Pastor and brothers we have willfully allowed ourselves to be deceived by our own self-interests. Abortion is clearly a moral issue and the Word of God requires us to stand up and speak out against it. [5]
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” dated April 16, 1963, wrote:
“Whenever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being ‘disturbers of the peace’ and ‘outside agitators.’ But they went on with the conviction that they were ‘a colony of heaven,’ and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be ‘astronomically intimidated.’ They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.”
Let us face this new year without fear.
Let us humble ourselves and seek God’s face.
Let us repent of our sins and ask God to forgive us.
Let us like the early Christians boldly choose to obey God rather than man and bring an end to abortion anywhere and everywhere it exists.
Footnotes:
[1] Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute, accessed January 1, 2009.
[2] The Alan Guttmacher Institute Policy Review: Summer 2008, Volume 11, Number 3, accessed January 1, 2009.
[3] The Alan Guttmacher Institute: Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States, accessed January 1, 2009.
[4] U.S. Census Report of 2006 and refer to chart 77, accessed January 1, 2009
[5] King James Version of the Bible: Leviticus 18:3, 20:21-24; 21; 20:1-5; Deuteronomy 12:29-31; 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31,32 ; 19:4-6; Ezekiel 16:20,21; 23:36,37. This is a partial list of scripture references.
issues4lifefoundation.wordpress.com 
While I respect your statistics and your passion, I can’t help but wonder why your starting point is the abortion. Why not start with men laying up with women and knowingly fornicating without the use of birth control and bragging about having two or three kids the same age by two or three different women. Maybe the place to start is by repairing our family units or making sure our daughters feel good enough about themselves to stay out of a man’s bed until marriage. I continue to find it striking that we like to go to the Bible to condemn abortion and homosexuality but we seem to miss the part about how we shouldn’t be fornicating outside of marriage at all, which by the way has nothing to do with Barack Obama.
Thank you so much for your comments.
It has been my experience in the Black Church, that discussions surrounding sex outside of marriage (i.e., both fornication and adultery), and especially in our youth groups, take place boldly and routinely. Saving oneself (i.e., abstaining from sex until marriage) for your husband or wife is Christianity 101 in the Black Church and is taught in our small groups and preached from our pulpits on a regular basis.
In the Black Church, in one form or another, programs designed to repair and build up the family unit and communicate God’s love for us to live holy lives have been in place for years and have touched the lives of many. I would imagine all of this to be true for the body of Christ as a whole.
However, 447,700 Black babies were legally murdered, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 2005. Put another way, every day 1,226 Black babies are aborted. While we are having this discussion, every 1.2 minutes a Black baby’s life is being monstrously and nightmarishly ended with the consent and cooperation of the child’s mother and with the financial support of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s priorities were in order and his comments entirely prophetic when he said: “The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.”
We will never have the chance to address holy living with our youth, the future of the Black America, if they are murdered while in the wombs of their mothers. It all starts with life. I believe we can all agree that one must be born to have any opportunity to contribute to the betterment of society.
Even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God Almighty Himself, entered this world as a child that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
I believe all children deserve birth.
I believe life in the image of God is sacred.
In my opinion, it all begins with life (Genesis 1:1).
Without life we have nothing!
Dear Rev. Hoye; I just found out about your plight yesterday from a news site. I have not seen ANYTHING about this corruption of justice on the regular news. My heart goes out to you and your wife and I will keep you in my prayers. I have been involved with the pro-life movement for about 11 years and just when I think things can’t get any worse, they do. It is indeed a testimony of faith to read your blog and it is definitely the time for us to stand together and stand strong…to ‘put on the armor of God’. God Bless you and your family. I know God has a plan for you and that you, with your enormous faith and with God’s unfailing grace, will be up to the task. God bless you and keep you strong in the days ahead! Linda Lee