240 Unwanted People

Not long before the blood of our Lord and Saviour dribbled coldly down his side, it boiled with wrath against the injustices of his time. Wielding a makeshift whip, he invested all of his carpenter’s strength into some oh-so-uncalled-for acts of violence. His muscular fury was enough to send grown men scampering into the shadows. His justification?

“Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:17)

The question raised to Jonah – “do you have good reason to be angry?” – could, in Jesus’ case, be answered ‘yes’. He’s Jesus. Of course he had good reason to feel what he felt, and do what he did.

Anger that is moored to the justice of God is a valid Christian emotion, and Christians – especially young men and women living in an age of apathy and competitive humour – ought to feel it. Every day, two hundred and forty Australian babies are slaughtered.

Do I need to say that again?

Every day, two hundred and forty Australian babies are slaughtered.

Consider the fact that there are hundreds of Christian couples mourning miscarriages or yearning for the blessing of conception that God has withheld from them. Think of the young men and women who get up each day with, in the back of their minds, the underlying goal of starting a family to the glory of God. I know these people. I’ve heard their stories.

Whilst they grieve the absence of what God has not gifted, others slaughter that same gift, mockingly labelling it “a clump of cells”.

And yet, all around me, I see a culture that is apathetic. I see men who prefer to play video games under the guise of a university degree, rather than getting out of their musty basement and shouldering responsibility. I see women who seek the slavery of ‘independence and career’, rather than the rooted peace and generational blessing of family.

It makes my blood boil, and it should yours. Australian young people need the proverbial rocket up their collective jumper.

Now, Christians should know how to bask in the untroubled joy of their salvation. They should know how to be jovial and ironic amidst the most serious of matters – abortion included. I myself do so here.

But where American Christian culture requires less ‘shrillness’, more calm conviction, its Australian counterpart could do with less cadaveric pallor, more zest. We praise the larrikin. We value humour. Great. I love a good laugh myself. But we should also know how to exhibit the less attractive virtues of countercultural vigour and principled wrath. The present moment calls for both approaches – ‘assume-the-centre joviality’ and ‘stop-murdering-babies vexation’. In spadefuls.