Ruth Rawlins from CBRuk shares with us her passion for protecting the unborn child.
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Hello and welcome to Restore Citizenship.
Each quarter we will be introducing you to fellowcitizens who stand up for the faith in our society. These are people who show us what active citizenship looks like. They often stand out from the crowd because they highlight the issues many do not want to talk about.
Today, I am particularly excited to be interviewing Ruth Rawlins from Abort67. Welcome, Ruth, Thank you for committing time out of your busy schedule to be here.
Q1. So to start I am sure our listeners would love to know a little bit about you and how you came to faith?
Hi their, My name is Ruth Rawlins. I am a child of God. I am a mother to a beautiful thirteen year old girl. I am an activist. I work for a human rights organisation and we are working to make abortion unthinkable.
I grew up in a Christian home so I knew God. I knew Jesus through my parents strong faith. Like many who grow up in the church sadly I did fall away thinking that the grass was greener on the other side.
When I got pregnant with my daughter at university I realised that the worlds way didn't work and that Gods way and order of things was right. So really my daughter brought me back to the Lord and I began to seek him and his grace was amazing. So that's how I came to my own personal faith and he has been so faithful and he has been so good and so gracious to me.
Q2. Who do you think (past or present) has inspired you to become the person you are today?
My parents. Straight up have been the biggest influence in my life and to who I am now. As I said they raised me in the Lord to know the Lord. And just what they have modelled. They are so prayful and they trust God and put him first they'll follow him wherever he tells them to go. So just have been a wonderful example to me.
And than also other parental figures in the faith that have all modelled a different aspect of following Jesus. As well as friends that God has put in my path along the way. I consider myself really rich from the vast array of different friends from different backgrounds God has placed in my life.
Of course their are also great heroes from the past such as Martin Luther King and William Wilberforce and the other abolitionists of the transatlantic slave trade. All who sacrificed much for a people group whom were suffering a great injustice.
And than of course most of all Jesus Christ who made the biggest sacrifice for us all. His very life. And I have been re inspired recently of how Jesus both showed righteous anger whilst turning over the table along with great restraint and obedience at remaining silent in the face of false accusations as he faced trial towards his death. For the joy set before him he was able to suffer because he could see the bigger picture. And yes this has been a great inspiration to me recently.
Q3. So what convicted you about the mission of Abort67?
So the mission of Abort67 as I mentioned earlier is to make abortion unthinkable. And there is such a simple way to do this. All we need to do is expose it. To show an image of the reality of abortion. I was convinced of this strategy when I went to the Wilberforce Academy. A conference where I met the founder of our organisation. And he just explained to me that you can't skip this phase of an injustice. As long as an injustice is covered up it will be tolerable by society.
Its only when its exposed for the horror, the true horror, and the detail, the gory detail of what abortion and any injustice for that manner is can we begin the phase of making it unthinkable.
And that same weekend I came face to face with the reality of abortion myself. I saw an abortion procedure on video. Yes I had a burden on my heart to do something about abortion, but after seeing that video I remember just thinking that to do nothing was not an option any more.
I can't have seen what I saw with my eyes. Limbs ripped out of the mothers body and than just live my live as I did before without doing anything to be their voice. This injustice of abortion is very much hidden which is why it flourishes in our society.
With around eight hundred abortions every working day in the UK, it really is the biggest genocide that's hit the face of the earth, in the history of the world.
It was seeing it for myself. It was becoming aware that the founder in America had put a lot of in depth study and research into how past social injustices had come to an end and shared the principles and put that into our work.
And just like him. I thought if I am going to give my life to this, I don't want to do something to solve my conscience. I wanted to do something that's effective, something that's going to end abortion.
Yes! I have great faith in our strategy. You can hear more about our strategy if you come to the Clarkson Academy which is coming up on April 20th / 21st 2018.
Greg Cunningham will be over from the states sharing it for himself. You really don't want to miss it.
Q4. Have there been any ups and downs. If so what we're they?
Yes! There certainly have been ups and downs. Every time a child's life has been saved or a mind has been changed. That is a huge up and joyous occasion for everyone who has been involved.
And than great downs when you speak to a young lady and she goes ahead and has an abortion anyway. Its always very heart breaking.
But the single most challenging thing about this work personally is the apathy and even sometimes the opposition from the church. I can handle being shouted at 'shame on you' from passers by when we are doing a display. Holding up banners of abortion images in the public square. I can handle when they kick our banners, cover them up. Hurl abuse at us.
But when its brothers and sisters in the Lord who are more concerned about keeping a false peace than about ending the slaughter of millions of Gods children. Its tough! Unfortunately we do see a lot of churches and church leaders that have this attitude. Of business as usual, or this subject is to controversial. We will just upset people. This isn't always about our specific work. This is for addressing the abortion issue in general.
So this is a personal challenge to myself and many of us in this work to not become bitter at some of the church leaders. But by the grace of God he is helping me, forgiving me and strengthening me to keep pressing forward despite opposition from brothers and sisters.
And I am confident we will see a shift in the church and that the shift is already beginning as people begin to wake up to the reality of abortion. Waking up to our role as the people of God to be a voice of the voiceless and turn back those being led to slaughter.
Simply being the good Samaritan and being there for our neighbour whom the unborn child surely is.
Q5. In what way do you think citizenship plays a part in the abortion debate?
There is a wise quote which says that 'A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members'
Surely there is no one more weak and vulnerable than a child in a womb. Surely as citizens of a nation we should be this voice and not turn a blind eye to the suffering endured by a group of people on our watch.
Even more so as citizens of the Kingdom of God we will answer to him about what we did when his children were being sacrificed.
Its not enough to simply have a position on something by saying 'I was pro life'. We know from the parable of the sheep and the goats in the book of Matthew that Jesus will asked us what did we do for the least of these, when they were hungry, thirsty and I add being slaughtered.
Its not enough to say I was pro nutrition or I was pro life. We will need to give an account of what did we do.
The battle is won on the battlefield. We need to stop critiquing from the sidelines. Stop with our theological debates and enter the Lord's army because he has the victory. He is looking for a people to go, to act, and to fight.
Q6. In what way can fellow citizens get involved?
1. Get equipped
You can get involved by first of all getting equipped. I mentioned earlier that we are running our annual Clarkson Academy named after Thomas Clarkson who was an slave trade abolitionist. He travelled the UK with images and other evidences such as slave shackles to expose the horrors of the trans Atlantic slave trade.
So on the course you will learn more about our strategy as well as making a case for life. Learning from top pro life apologists Scott Klusendorf. As well hear from a church leader who went from silence on this issue to begin to engage their congregation on abortion. Its also a great place to network with like minded people.
So I strongly encourage you to book on to the Clarkson Academy friday 20th & Saturday 21st of April Emmanuel Centre, London, UK. Book via our website the Clarkson Academy.co.uk.
You don't want to miss it!
2. Join our display.
We hold public education displays. Where we hold up banners, images of aborted babies. We see people change their mind as we hand them leaflets and have conversations about the humanity of the preborn child.
We will be holding a national display in major UK cities as a culmination of something we have been doing this past year called the awakening tour where we have travelled the nation.
Saturday the 28th April join us in a city near you to see this mind changing work in action.
3. Support us financially
Finally you can donate. Some of you may struggle to give time due to demanding jobs or family life. So support us financially to release skillful individuals to work fulltime.
Many people are working fulltime to kill our children in the abortion industry a thriving multimillion dollar industry, full of professionals. We need individuals to give their fulltime. Ideas and talents to this work. Maybe you are one of these individuals or maybe you could financially support an individual.
You can also:
Sign up to our mailing list. Follow us on Facebook. Pray, speak and show the truth.
Well... this has been a great interview with much information shared.
And just another reminder to our listeners that if you have been affected by what we have discussed here today or would like to learn more or get involved please, head over to Abort67.co.uk.
And once again thank you Ruth for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us here today. I am sure many of our listeners have been blessed by what you have shared with us.
And to everyone who enjoyed this interview, I hope you join us again next quarter.
