{"id":3264,"date":"2016-11-03T10:43:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=3264"},"modified":"2016-11-03T10:44:51","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:44:51","slug":"the-aborted-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/the-aborted-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"The Aborted Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Important Disclaimer: We are not in the least against women who have had abortions. In fact, we love them dearly, as some of them are among our dearest friends and family. Those who have talked openly with us have expressed the aftermath of pain they have lived through having undergone an abortion. We realize these decisions were made with excruciating agony, not flippantly \u2013 many feared the judgement of their churches&#8230; (God, forgive us.) Still, as Christians, we cannot deny the fact that many children have been sacrificed on the altar of convenience. We as believers have a mandate to care for both mother and child, not to choose between the two. With that in mind, and with this mandate to speak up for the voiceless, we continue\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>\u201cAnd anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.\u201d ~Jesus (Matthew 18:5)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u201cBut I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because Jesus said, \u2018If you receive a little child, you receive me.\u2019 So every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus, the neglect of receiving Jesus.\u201d ~Mother Theresa<\/em><\/p>\n<p>America has\u00a0aborted millions of\u00a0potential voters for the 2016 presidential election, a number which could have potentially\u00a0changed the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>What if we were to give a voice to those aborted between 1973 and 1998 \u2013 to those children who would be over the age of 18 on November 8, 2016. Is there any question about how they would most likely vote if given the chance?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to take the hearts of those millions of human beings with me into the voting booth. I\u2019m going to give them a voice, voting for candidates that would protect their rights, not merely the rights of the bodies of their host-mothers. It&#8217;s the least I can do.<\/p>\n<p><em>Father,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You have taught us to love the least of these. You said that whatever we do for them, we do for you. You have taught us that the angels of children stand in your presence ready to defend them. Lord, I stand with their angels. I offer myself to give them a voice as I vote next week. Use my vote and my voice to aid the children yet unborn. Among them are Presidents, leaders, inventors, scientists, archeologists, civil-servants, and world-changers. Without them we are without cures, without peace, and without hope, not to mention without family who will care for us in our golden years.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Lord, as you instructed John to take care of Your blessed, beloved mother, help us and equip us to care for all mothers and fathers in crisis. Give us the means to help financially, lending our homes, opening our purses and our refrigerators to their needs \u2013 to change diapers, to teach, to read stories, and to love and receive the love of children whose entrance into this world wasn\u2019t planned by men or women but is certainly welcomed by You and me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In Jesus\u2019 Name Amen<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/files\/2016\/11\/mother-T-with-hillary.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3274\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/224\/2016\/11\/mother-T-with-hillary-300x159.jpeg\" alt=\"mother T with hillary\" width=\"300\" height=\"159\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Important Disclaimer: We are not in the least against women who have had abortions. In fact, we love them dearly, as some of them are among our dearest friends and family. Those who have talked openly with us have expressed the aftermath of pain they have lived through having undergone an abortion. We realize these&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,9,24,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[1836,235,1930,1923],"class_list":["post-3264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-breaking-news","category-current-events","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-2016-presidential-election","tag-abortion","tag-praying-for-the-unborn","tag-voting-your-conscience"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Aborted Vote<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/the-aborted-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Aborted Vote\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Important Disclaimer: We are not in the least against women who have had abortions. In fact, we love them dearly, as some of them are among our dearest friends and family. Those who have talked openly with us have expressed the aftermath of pain they have lived through having undergone an abortion. We realize these&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/the-aborted-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-03T14:43:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-03T14:44:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/files\/2016\/11\/mother-T-with-hillary-300x159.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Aborted Vote","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/the-aborted-vote.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Aborted Vote","og_description":"Important Disclaimer: We are not in the least against women who have had abortions. 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