Trevin Wax, You Cannot Talk about the Horrors of Abortion and be Silent on Child Sex Abuse

Trevin wax writes another article about Planned Parenthood and abortion. This is a response to Trevin’s writing about abortion. This brief article looks at my own views on abortion. But the main goal is to tell Trevin Wax the following…you cannot continually write about the horrors or the evil of abortion and then be indifferent to child sex abuse. If you are going to value life it should be valuable after birth as well.

 

“That shrugging of the shoulders is what scares me to death.”

Trevin Wax

“If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.”

Joni Erickson Takada

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,  when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Psalm 139:13-16 NIV

 

Today’s post comes about in noticing a trend when I search or mine The Gospel Coalition for journal entries. I’ve noticed a significant increase in the amount of articles about either gay marriage or abortion.  After reading a recent article by Trevin Wax I need to vent a little bit and tackle the issue of why are the Neo-Calvinists silent about child sex abuse but loud on abortion.  After all do they care about a child after they are born? I need to explain a little bit about the Planned Parenthood controversy and get into my thoughts on abortion.  My thoughts on abortion are different and they have been molded by being an observer to the countless culture wars that evangelical Christianity has waged.

 

The Planned Parenthood Controversy and My Thoughts on Abortion

In July and August 2015 a number of videos some edited and some unedited were released by the Center for Medical Progress. In these videos actors and actress record Planned Parenthood officials as they inquire about purchasing fetal tissue. In the video I watched you witness Dr. Deborah Nucatola discuss selling specimens to a non existent company called Biomax Procurement Services. The videos led to wide media coverage and injected debate into our political system. There have been renewed calls to defund Planned Parenthood and some states such as Alabama, and New Hampshire  have cut funding as a result.  I think that gives a concise summary of the situation and the current controversy that exists.

I don’t like to wade into the abortion fray for this one simple reason. I’m exhausted of hearing about abortion. Its one of the battles of the culture war that I’m fried. That doesn’t make me pro-choice, indifferent, or apathetic. I am honestly wondering what the game plan is of many evangelicals when it comes to Planned Parenthood. While I am opposed to abortion I think many evangelicals need to come to a realization that abortion is here to stay. And instead of all the effort they put into trying to change the law, scream, etc… I wish they would put their effort instead into helping a scared teenager in crisis, get health care, and love and support them both to the person who gives birth, AND  afterward as the young woman recovers and young child grows if she decided to keep the child. Love can move mountains and part of the reason why I’m weary of the abortion fight is because I see no love in those in The Gospel Coalition. Instead I see an organization that is corrupt, loud, arrogant  and keeps posting about abortion. The Gospel Coalition and many Neo-Calvinists are stuck on culture war issues on topics like abortion and the more they remain stuck on it the more they marginalize and make themselves irrelevant. Now as for breaking the law with illegal recordings like the Center for Medical Progress did I don’t know what to think about that in all honesty. My initial reaction is that its uncalled for and you lose credibility for your argument when you break the law. However then I think of what Martin Luther King did in the 1960’s and how he challenged the law with love. I also think of the well known Letter from a Birmingham Jail that Martin Luther King penned and I am in a state of personal conflict. The difference I think is that King exhibited love, and showed a lot of grace…are many evangelicals able to duplicate that kind of love or grace toward the world? Is love in the language of many evangelicals today?

 

Another Article by Trevin Wax

I see Trevin Wax as being like the Energizer Bunny of The Gospel Coalition, in how he cranks out articles.  I saw this article by Trevin Wax called The Shrug That Scares Me to Death, and I find the title to be rich considering the shrug many Neo-Calvinists have given over child sex abuse.  But let’s look at what Trevin has written before I dissect this article.  In a journalistic piece in New York magazine called “The Big Secret of Abortion: Women Already Know How it Works” it discusses the issue of the undercover videos. According to Trevin’s interpretation of the article the big secret is that women know how abortion works. Quoting Frances Kissling who led Catholics for a Free Choice the article says “Abortions are yucky, but after that response, there is a shrugging of the shoulders.” Trevin then goes on to continue tackling the issue of whether those in the Pro Life movement think that the problem in our culture is ignorance in that many don’t know. Trevin say the following to that claim. “But it scares me to death that we may be wrong. It frightens me to think we live in a society that knows full well what we are doing and simply doesn’t care. The shrug is the sign we have become a shell of humanity – a soulless society where the baby hearts we sell are bigger than our hearts that are still beating. We live in a world in which people can look square into the faces of tiny human beings and talk about how much money their organs will bring in.” He then ends his post talking about how Eric Metaxas prayed at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2012. In that talk at the National Prayer Breakfast Metaxas mentioned about how Wilburforce and Bonhoeffer could see what others could not see. Wax then ends his post by saying, “Metaxas is right. That’s why we must pray – that God will open eyes to see the gift of human life and the tragedy of our killing clinics. After all, had God not opened our own eyes, we would be shrugging too.”

Here’s the problem with what Trevin Wax has written…in many ways he and other Neo-Calvinists are doing what they are concerned about….

They shrug their shoulders regularly to the issue of child sex abuse in organizations like Sovereign Grace and other evangelical churches.

Trevin Wax is cranking out articles about gay marriage and abortion yet he shrugs his shoulders toward child sex abuse in Sovereign Grace and evangelical Christianity regularly.

John Piper shrugs his shoulders toward the families and victims in Sovereign Grace when he stood behind CJ Mahaney in Louisville.

Justin Taylor, DA Carson, and Kevin DeYoung shrugged their shoulders in unison when they issued this bastardized statement through The Gospel Coalition.

Every person from Jerry Bridges to Mark Dever has shrugged their shoulders about child sex abuse when they went to Sovereign Grace Louisville and spoke up for CJ Mahaney while ignoring the victims.

I’m sorry I need to put this in bold….but you cannot talk about the horrors of abortion and then stay silent about child sex abuse. It doesn’t work you lose the moral authority to speak about abortion when you ignore child sex abuse.

Then there is this statement by Trevin Wax on abortion and the fact that many know and yet many don’t care. “But it scares me to death that we may be wrong. It frightens me to think we live in a society that knows full well what we are doing and simply doesn’t care.” To hear this come from Trevin Wax I find to be deeply disturbing and disheartening. When it comes to child sex abuse could it be that Trevin Wax knows about the problem of child sex abuse in Sovereign Grace and he simply doesn’t care?

Does Trevin Wax care about child sex abuse? What about DA Carson? What about Justin Taylor? What about Mark Dever? Is the fact that they know about the situation and the problems of child sex abuse but that they just do not care?

I am completely baffled…why would someone like Trevin Wax argue so passionately against abortion then be indifferent, or apathetic about child sex abuse after the child is born? Why would Trevin Wax shrug his shoulders? Why would many Neo-Calvinists shrug their shoulders? As I wind this post down I want to focus on this sentence in Trevin Wax’s piece. Trevin says, “That’s why we must pray – that God will open eyes to see the gift of human life and the tragedy of our killing clinics.” The fact that many Neo-Calvinists are indifferent to child sex abuse shows the tragedy of the entire neo-Calvinist movement. Not only is it the laughing stock of Christianity because of people like Mark Driscoll, its also a movement that is morally bankrupt. I wonder if individuals like Trevin can see the gift of human life or if they are so committed to ideology that in the end the human life is expendable. Every time Trevin Wax publishes an article about Planned Parenthood and abortion while ignoring the problems of child sex abuse he makes himself more and more irrelevant. It troubles me because I think Trevin does have potential but I also see him squandering it. I would think that in the economy of God that a young child would count as one of the least of these. I also would think that one who has been sexually abused would definitely fall in that category. Maybe what needs to take place is that individuals in the church, those concerned, angered and seething over how the issue of child sex abuse has been handled should pray for individuals like Trevin. Maybe we need to pray that God will open his eyes to see the harm that is occurring. After all is it too far a stretch to say that if Planned Parenthood is profiting from abortion and the needs of those in a crisis, can it be said in return that Trevin and others in his camp are profiting off the Reformed Industrial Complex and ignoring the cries and the pleas of the wounded and hurt? The Gospel Coalition in the end is nothing but a spiritual version of Tammany Hall. The beauty of Tammany Hall is that at least they were open about their corruption and honest about their sin. They practiced corruption with arrogance and yet impeccable honesty. The Gospel Coalition cannot say that due to how mired it is in corruption. One thing I find deeply refreshing about Planned Parenthood is that they are at least honest and open about the fact that they provide abortion. I’m not a believer in abortion and would not encourage one to obtain one, yet I respect the fact that at least Planned Parenthood is open and honest about their sin. Maybe The Gospel Coalition in the end could learn a thing or two about transparency from Planned Parenthood. If they can’t do that then the image I have is of Trevin Wax sitting behind his computer shrugging his shoulders as he publishes yet another post.