GOSPEL BOUND WITH COLLIN HANSEN
What I'm Seeing

I’m writing this week from Almere, not far from Amsterdam, where I’m speaking for TGC Netherlands. Last week I joined TGC Norden in Stockholm, Sweden. Almost nothing gives me more hope for God’s work than meeting with these pastors and their families. Please pray that these church leaders would be encouraged! I’ll be speaking about Tim Keller and his vision for evangelism and apologetics in the 21st century.

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He calls abortion the “spiritual battle of our lives.” And he firmly believes that abortion will end when men make it so. Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but this former football star says the fight for life has only reached halftime.

He is Benjamin Watson, author of The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race, and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice (Tyndale Momentum). You may already know quite a bit about abortion. But you may have never seen the subject explored from this angle.

Watson argues, “Ignorance of or disregard for racial justice— especially by some white pro-life evangelicals—has been a hurdle to unifying and expanding the movement.” He’s not content to pass legal restrictions or even ban abortion. He describes a “higher, more complete calling” to “to address the factors that drive abortion decisions.”

And he comes prepared with an array of statistics that may surprise you. Did you know, for example, that 40 percent of the women who abort their children attend church regularly? Or that 76 percent of abortive mothers would prefer to parent the child under different circumstances?

Watson isn’t afraid to step on toes or tell Christians they need to step up in the fight for life. He sees hope in the gospel and in the church. He writes, “As a church, we need to become a safe haven, a refuge, a place where the most vulnerable can turn—not just for spiritual help, but for emotional, material, and financial support too.”

Watson joined me on Gospelbound to discuss the role of men in the pro-life cause, the relationship between history and agency, and the responsibility of parents to talk to their kids about sex, among other subjects.

COLLIN HANSEN
Editor in Chief