My Body, My Choice? How to Talk Sense to an Irrational Generation

When Justice Alito’s draft was leaked, thousands of mostly Millennial and Gen Z women took to the streets chanting, “My body, my choice.” That mantra is not only the argument for wholesale abortion, but the logic behind so much of what’s driving the thinking of our next generation of kids. Yet is “my body, my choice” reasonable? Is it logical?

If you want to have a conversation with your Gen Z children or grandkids, you should understand how social media, cultural influencers and educational elites have reprogrammed their values. Examining the values of this generation will help us understand why more than 85% of them embrace the LGBTQ+ agenda, and why 59% support the legality of abortion in almost all cases.

Progressive: Gen Zs are progressive on issues like LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, racial justice and open borders. They believe government should play a greater role in solving problems and are more likely to attribute climate change to human activity rather than natural patterns.

Compassion: Feelings are more important than the dogmas of right or wrong. The emotional trauma of a woman being forced to carry a child supersedes the moral rightness or wrongness of her choice to abort. To cause others to feel bad about their decisions is hateful. To make a moral judgment is bigotry.

Diversity and Inclusion: Gen Z wants to work for companies that champion diversity and buy products from advertisers who use images portraying diversity. Everyone should be welcomed and included, regardless of race, gender, sexual preferences, religious views or moral beliefs. (Everyone, that is, except for those whose views are not inclusive: evangelical Christians or political conservatives.)

Authentic: As Frank Sinatra once sang, “I’ve gotta be me.” And “me” is whatever I decide I want to be, regardless of what the biology or scientific facts say. To be authentic is no longer to express verifiable reality, but to express what you imagine yourself to be, and then to demand that others see you the same way.

Is it really “our body, our choice?”

The LGBTQ+ lobby changed everything when they convinced cultural elites to divide sex and gender distinctions: your sex defined by empirical data like your genitalia and chromosome makeup at birth; your gender determined by what you feel it is or want it to be. If, as a woman, you insist that the preborn baby in your womb is not a viable person and subject to elimination, but others disagree, then those pro-life supporters are haters of women. In the value system of most Gen Zs, each person gets the right to decide what is real to them, and those who push back are denying their fundamental right to be who they want to be.

When it comes to who owns our bodies, there are only three choices:

You own your own body: This thinking is at the root of the pro-abortion movement when it comes to abortion and the sexual preference and gender identity lobby. This lawlessness is what’s destroying our society. In 2 Timothy 3:1, the Apostle predicts our dystopian future: “In the last days people will be lovers of self…” He goes on to describe the horrors that are unleashed on society when everyone does what they see fit.

When we own our own bodies, no one has a right to tell us what to do:

“My body, my choice. I can choose what to do with that fetus in my womb because it’s an appendage of my body. Its future isn’t as important as my future. Its needs are not as important as my needs and you have no right to tell me otherwise because it isn’t your body.”

“No matter what my body says I am at birth, I can redefine who I am because my body belongs to me and I can do whatever I want with it: My body, my choice.”

Others own our body: Others could include our parents or family of origin, our spouse, friends, boss, church, government or all the people we strive to please. But as stated above, no one other than God owns us. An expectant mother does not own the life in her womb. Parents have authority over their children, but they do not own them. Your spouse belongs to God, first and foremost. Others don’t own you and you don’t own others.

God owns my body: The Bible is uncompromising when it speaks to fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ—our bodies are not our own and our choices are not our own. We belong completely to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He alone has the right to determine how we treat our bodies, how we use each part of them, and every choice we make about what we will do with our bodies and any other body—whether it is inside of us or outside of us.

God the Father owns it because He is our Creator. Psalm 24:1-2 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell within.” We belong to God the Son because he redeemed us. St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “…you are not your own, you are bought at a price.  Therefore, glorify God in your bodies.” God the Father purchased us by sacrificing His only Son for our redemption, and Jesus bought us with his blood.

We need to speak to our own irrationality.

In Romans 1:20, Paul writes that the evidence God has put in His creation is clear and that we are without excuse when we ignore it. Irrationality is to ignore logic, empirical data and reason, and abandon ourselves to the emotions and lusts of our bodies.

Sadly, Evangelical Christians are buying into the thinking of the world. We should know better. Not only do we have the same evidence available to everyone else in the world, but we also have God’s Word. He has made it clear that our bodies belong to Him alone. He has made it plain that life is conceived even before conception in the womb.

Look at Psalm 139:16. “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; all my days were written in your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.” God saw us before we were even formed, before we even became a two-celled zygote, before our mother even knew we were there and before the sonogram detected a heartbeat. All our days were written in His book of our life and ordained for us.

Furthermore, Revelation 13:8 declares that our names were written in His book of life before the foundation of the world. God alone decides when we are to be born, in whose womb we will be planted and how we will spend eternity. He speaks harshly against murder, abortion, infanticide and genocide.

This is also why it’s irrational for anyone to say that their body, or a life within their body, belongs to them—or the choice to end it belongs to them. God also determines the sexual identity of the child born. That child has no right to change it later.

In talking with Gen Zs, our children and grandchildren, we should remember that among their highest values is the freedom of expression. As we teach our fellow grandparents at Legacy Imperative, if our desire is to win their souls rather than the argument, we need to listen and ask questions rather than give lectures. We should seek dialogue rather than debate and carefully lead them to see another point of view. We must know the biblical facts and pray that the Holy Spirit will show us when and how to share them.

Lead all discussions toward the Gospel. Only when we humble ourselves and realize that Jesus controls our bodies and choices will we see changes in our culture.

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