One of the problems with the atrocity of abortion and the attitude we have toward it is our cultural desensitization of the Bible. We talk often about how abortion is a term that’s lost its meaning to many, but we neglect the undertones that drive abortion, which are financial. The classic parallel Scriptures in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 are ones most of us have heard since we were children:  “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13) We’ve grown up knowing worshiping money instead of God is bad, and we don’t do it. Do we?

Mammon can’t simply be translated money, as we often use it. It’s about more than money. Mammon was actually the god of riches. The word itself encompasses more than just how much money we have, but it also places value on wealth, possessions, and our heart toward these things.  

Cut to the 2008 election season. As polls burgeoned nationwide on who was voting for whom and why, a recurring theme emerged: the economy. Voters said over and over that was their primary concern. Unfortunately, many Christian voters said this as well. It caused many to utter rationalizations such as “who I vote for won’t change abortion, but we need to help the poor. That’s what Jesus would do.” Actually so would the devil.

The devil actually feeds his business on helping the poor. This is the spirit driving the modern social justice movement that says we should help those less fortunate at all costs. The truth is, we should help those less fortunate—but only at the cost of the blood of Jesus. Not the blood of  54 million babies.

We have become worshipers of the god of riches. That’s the reason we have so much federal funding of Planned Parenthood, and why the latest recommendation for national health care includes a mandate for birth control coverage, including abortive birth control. If every person who called him or herself a Christian were standing against these issues vocally and publicly, there would be no debate. We are more in number than Planned Parenthood, NOW, Congress, the National Institutes of Health—all of them put together. The fact is, money is behind it all and since more pro-abortion policies have been in place since January 2009, we have watched our nation pursue the American dream of wealth in the name of practicality and security. We care more about our personal comfort than we do righteousness when we live this way. And that is the very spirit of the antichrist who uses this very method to find his worshipers:

He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev. 13:16-17)

It’s becoming increasingly easier to see how the antichrist could get such a hold on so many people. Threatening people’s financial security will cause them to go against what they claim to believe, if they are not rooted in the reality of Jesus and His righteousness, no matter what it looks like to the human eye—or pocketbook. Our culture is one of security. We want our homes in gated communities or security buildings; we want a good job, good benefits, a good future. All of these things translate to making enough money and making sure the economy is in good enough shape to allow us to pursue these dreams. But sometimes good is bad. The R-word (recession) has even terrified the body of Christ into going against the Bible. When Jesus says we cannot serve God and mammon, He still means it today.

There is no justice apart from Jesus Christ and His ways. His ways never include violating His holy laws to make us comfortable.
 

*editor’s note: A version of this blog ran in March 2010, as the original health care bill was being debated