In order to pray this prayer, one must come to understand the roots of abortion and how it became embedded in the will of our nation. The moral philosophy of Eugenics in the 1920’s provided the primary justification for abortion. Eugenics was a “scientific,” and socially acceptable, means of justifying the latent racism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism of the White New England community. It also found its way into the Protestant Churches in the early 20th Century through the culture. The Eugenics movement led to the Birth Control movement which led to the abortion movement. For a more complete history and documentation, see Racist Roots of Abortion online.
Background.
The present impotence of the Church in America regarding the sin of abortion can be directly attributed to the quiet assimilation of eugenic, racist, and classist ideologies by the mainline denominations during the 1930’s. This legacy began in the 1920’s with the adoption of the birth control ideologies promoted by Margaret Sanger [The founder of Planned Parenthood]. The nation at that time was awash in immigrants from Slavic and Catholic countries and was having trouble assimilating the people. Poverty and disease were endemic. It was especially evident in the New England areas. Margaret Sanger promoted her agenda, claiming that it was better for society as a whole to reduce the number of “Slavs, Hebrews, Italians” and other “dysgenic” peoples being born in the US. She promoted birth control as a means of reducing the reproduction of these and other “undesirables,” including the “colored” people.
The mainline Protestant church bought into her agenda and its subtle classism and racism. The churches came to believe that there are people who are less worthy, less intelligent, and made a little less in the image of God, who need to be managed by the more intelligent races [Anglo-Saxon whites]. Since these “poor creatures” were not as worthy and would corrupt the purity and quality of life in the United States, the “enlightened” whites tried to limit the reproduction of other races through birth control.
Contemporary writings reveal how this attitude of racial superiority was a socially accepted without fear of criticism or challenge. Well known, mainline Protestant church leaders in every denomination began to support Sanger in her cause, giving her open endorsements or verbal praise. Many signed onto her manifestos. Money poured in from such wealthy scions as Ford and Rockefeller and other bastions of American industrial wealth. As a result, by the 1950’s virtually every Protestant denomination supported the Planned Parenthood ideology (Sanger’s organization became the present day Planned Parenthood). They saw limiting the reproduction of “inferior” races as a “compassionate” way to remedy of the social ills of poverty.
The TRUTH is that the Image of God dwells equally in ALL people [Gen. 9:6]. Racial prejudice is a lie that denies God’s truth. The adoption of this attitude led to the present impotence of the Church. Whites who accepted Eugenics accepted a “quality of life” argument – that some people have more right to life than others because of their inbred “intelligence” or physical health. But by accepting this lie the mainline Church lost its moral authority to speak to the culture. Abortion is only a fruit of this seed ingested so long ago: if some are more worthy than others, then the abortion of the children of “lesser races” is not the same thing as the taking the life of a full person… It does not mar or kill the image of God, but only culls the herd of a “sub-human” species.
Of all the other errors of the Church [the questioning of the Word of God as the source of authority, the adoption of liberal humanism in the place of Orthodoxy, and the like] NONE of these errors of doctrine or practice invalidated the Church’s witness as seriously as this denial of God’s Image in Man.
For when the Church rejected the TRUTH that all people are made in God’s image, the Church lost its ability to speak coherently to the culture, it lost its unified voice, and it lost its ability to challenge the culture to moral righteousness. It had become co-opted and corrupted by the hatreds of this world. It ingested moral poison and began to die from within.
With this background in mind, I now offer this prayer for corporate and private use.
A Prayer:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, (Ephesians 3:14,15, RSV).
Majestic Heavenly Father! Father of all People! Who makes all peoples in Your image, so that the glory of God is evident in the faces of your little ones, whose angels continually look to You- (Matt. 18:10)
HAVE MERCY UPON US!
For we have turned our backs upon Your Covenant. We have disregarded the image of God Your Image Father! in the little ones who are about to be born. We have not considered them worthy of life and have discarded them like trash and refuse. We have cast them out like trash beneath our feet. Though it says in your Commandments, “You Shall Not Murder,” we have ignored Your Command and have not treated their life as sacred to You. We have put them to death as a matter of convenience in order to pursue our selfish interests. For this bloodshed we ought to be condemned and judged, for innocent blood is upon our hands, and innocent blood has polluted the land of our Country. Because we did not raise up an outcry against the sin, we too have become guilty by our silence and our complacency. We, as the Church, have loved our pleasure and our comfort more than our neighbor and more than Your Word. We deserve your judgment, O God. And we are without excuse.
Therefore, O God, we cry out to You, HAVE MERCY, for we do not deserve your kindness or your blessing. And cause the fear of the Lord to fall upon us so that we would no longer turn a blind eye to our sin or are nation’s sin.
Father forgive us.
It says, in days gone past, that the blood of Abel cried out to You for “Justice!” (Gen 4:10). The blood itself cried out from the ground for retribution for the sin and the crime committed against it. But we, O Lord, NOW have a blood that cries out “more graciously” than the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus cries out “Mercy!” and “Forgiveness!” (Heb 12:24) Father, ONLY because of our hope in Jesus may we now dare approach You and beg You to have mercy upon us and heal our land of its great sin against you.
O God, for the historic sin of the Anglo-Saxon Churches against people of different races and ethnic backgrounds, we here make our confession. We pray You expose the wickedness of the Church and bring it to repentance. Expose O God, the secret and subtle approval we have given to racist sentiment, to anti-Semitism, to Catholic, Slavic and immigrant hatreds. Expose our consent to the evil of racism towards people of any color. Expose it O God and crush it. Put it beneath Your feet. Cause true repentance to come to Your People, Your Church. Cause the defiling LIE of hating others because of their differences to be destroyed in our hearts, O God, that we might display the true Love of Christ to ALL — for all people are made in Your Image.
For accepting and acting upon the lie of racism (that some races are superior to others and that some people are made more in the image of God than others) forgive us and heal us of its vileness! For accepting and acting upon the lie of the “quality of life” (that some people are more worthy of life than others due to health or intelligence or status of wealth) forgive us O God, and heal us! We have wickedly hated people whom you have made! We have arrogantly looked down upon others. By mixing racism with religion, we have made room for the sin of abortion in our midst. These lies still divide the Church and compromise the Church so that we do not speak with one Voice about these sins. And we are without excuse! If you judged us, we would be justly i want to order condemned for our arrogance and self righteousness.
We Could never make restitution for the damage our racism has done to others, O Lord. We can never repay the centuries of sorrows our greed and arrogance have caused. We pray therefore for those who have been wounded by the attitudes and deeds of our sinful hearts; for them and for their children and their children’s children. Undo the effect of our transgression! Let Your Love and Favor be More than Healing. May it be Privilege. Comfort them by Your Love. Heal them and make them Whole. Give them First Place among your Body, that their innocent suffering would yield for them a greater crown of Glory. Let their reward be greater, and assuage their pain by Your intimate comfort. And let their restoration be directly from Your hand, that they may know the God who has a heart to know the sufferings of the poor. Let their healing be of THEE.
Now O Lord, we ask, “How can your Church witness to Your Goodness and to Your love of all people, when we have consented to prejudice in our hearts? How can we minister to others your Good News, when we have rejected them as unworthy? Can we be instruments of your Peace while we still have such uncleanness in our hearts?” Lord, we are unfit vessels and unworthy to carry out Your Great Commission. We have accepted the Devil’s lie as Your Truth. Heal us and deliver us from this deception, that we may be worthy ministers of the Gospel and truly love our neighbors as ourselves, for Jesus Christ’s sake.
Now, O Lord, through the mercy of Jesus and his Blood, not our righteousness, we are bold to approach you. Because You have said, “If we confess our sins,” You are “faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), we thank you Lord for forgiving us and cleansing us. Let our restitution to favor be followed by acts of true reconciliation, that our repentance may be real and visible. That others may know that we do truly love them and have not made light of our sins. Now, O Lord, as ministers who have been forgiven when we did not deserve it, we intercede on behalf of the rest of the Church and this Land. Forgive, O God, and Cleanse the blind Bride of Christ who continues in her transgression, not knowing how deeply she has offended you. We pray O Lord, forgive her, cleanse her, and heal her, that she may indeed be spotless before you and live righteously for you all her days. Heal her and cleanse her for Jesus’ sake, O Father.
And to this Land of the United States, whose shores are drenched in the blood of the unborn, whose Capital Cities and High Places of government are dripping red with the blood of the innocent, we ask You Father – we BEG You Father – Have MERCY!
Remember Father, how Our Lord pleaded with You from the Cross, saying “Forgive them Father, for they don’t know what they do.” Listen afresh to His Words, Father, and heed. We are told Lord, that a quarter of our generation has been sexually molested or abused. They have not known the safety of a loving Father or the security of protective home. Out of their great pain, out of their feelings of being rejected and left unprotected, they cry out against the shame and embarrassment of their past defilement. They know no comfort or healing. They do not know how to be free of the pain. Wrongfully, they advocate for abortion, thinking that by it, they can protect others from the same shame and spare them the pain they still feel. They do not see that they are ending a life, Father. They only see the anguish, and they identify with it as if it were their own. Lord, they do not know that You are the Bread of Healing and the Balm of Life that will bring healing to their souls. In their pain and grief, they cry out in confusion and do not see that killing the little ones will not bring relief. Forgive them Father, and forgive us, Lord, that we live in a nation that hates and abuses its own children. Forgive us, Father, for we know not what we do.
Holy Spirit, witness how the Devil has stirred up the anger and taken advantage of this great abuse. See how he has fanned the flames of vengeance and sown confusion – equating the murder of the unborn with the righting of the wrongs and the healing of the wounds. See how he has deceived the media and blinded the eyes of the people, so that they think they are bringing forth justice by destroying the life of the innocent. As You Lord judged the Serpent in the Garden, so now Judge him! Make him pay for his deceptions, but set the people free from his coils.
In a nation without Fathers, see how the Devil has taken advantage of the people’s desperation to know LOVE. See how they have substituted sexual touch for the true embrace of divine affection. And Lord, mark the consequence of this desperate deception – for from it all manner of evil results: broken families, fatherless children, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, rape, abuse, fornication, and abandonment. Forgive, O Lord, the promiscuity and the sins of lust that have enslaved this people, and deliver them from seeking fulfillment in one another to the true freedom of being fulfilled by You. Let them know Your Holy Love that is totally unselfish, and let them be restored to selfless love for others, that what is lame may be healed. Forgive the nation, Lord, for thinking that license is liberty. Wrest them from the false pursuit of self-centered need and free them by Your Sacrificial kind of Love. For You Said, Lord, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Forgive them, Lord, and free them, that we as a nation and a people, may be whole.
Now under the authority of Christ, and because we are ambassadors to this nation in Jesus’ Name, we declare to you this day — Your sins are forgiven, O America, For Jesus Christ’s sake. Not that you were righteous, but He is righteous. And because of His Love, your deeds ARE forgiven through the Blood of Christ. WE DECLARE UNTO YOU THE GOOD NEWS THAT GOD HAS OVERLOOKED YOUR SINS AND FORGIVEN YOU. He has declared mercy unto you.(Ephesians 2:17; Romans 10:15; 2 Cor 5:19-29) We, as priestly intercessors of the Most High God [for we have been called a Kingdom of Priests unto God (Ex 19:6; 1 Peter 29)], declare the Blood of Christ to You, O Land, and upon You O peoples, that it cleanses you of your sins. The Blood of Christ cries out for you to the Father “Mercy” and “Forgiveness” and satisfies the cry of Abel’s Blood for “vengeance.” And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven – Col 1:20. For the Blood of Christ covers the Mercy Seat, and He has paid the price for your sins. Therefore, we declare to you that God has reconciled himself to you and forgive all your sins!
This day, we declare over you, innocent blood will be shed no more. Your cities shall know peace, and your halls of government know righteousness. Your courts shall be inhabited by godly men and women, who shall put the Lord’s will into Law and His Love into Precept.
Not because you deserve it O People, but because the Lord has had Mercy — for the Sake of His Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and because He has heeded the prayers of His Saints.
Therefore Repent, and be Thankful, that you may know the healing times of the Lord and that your restoration may begin.
For we pray all these things in Jesus’ Name and for the Sake of the Holiness of the Holy Spirit. Father SEAL this PRAYER with the SEAL of YOUR HAND. Amen.
Prayer by Jefferis Kent Peterson, Nov. 13, 2000
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