Come and pray

David
Vogan is one of the most dedicated church members I know. Every Sunday, 15
minutes before the prelude begins, he climbs up into our soaring, Gothic tower
with one goal: to set our 2,020-pound church bell into full swing. Then, for
ten whole minutes, the Old South bell calls all of Boston to pray.

When I
found out that the Indiana House passed a bill blocking
all governmental funding for Planned Parenthood--an organization that
spends just 3 percent of its budget on abortion-related costs, and 0
percent of its government funds--the only thing I wanted to do was to go up
into that tower and start ringing the bell. That's the point of having it,
isn't it? To sound the alarm, to call our neighbors from near and far to come
and pray?

We
need to pray for women who rely on Planned Parenthood for their cancer screening,
vaccinations, STD testing and menopause treatment. We need to pray for the 15-year-old-girl
who is thinking about having sex with her boyfriend and finds herself unable to
talk to her parents about it. We need to pray for the nurse practitioner who is
caring for this tender young woman and helping her to make smart, informed
decisions about her relationship, her body and her future.

We
need committed Christians everywhere to reach out to one another--and to
non-Christians--to model compassionate, respectful disagreement over abortion.
We have to find ways to avoid the polarized political and theological discourse
that holds us back, that holds us hostage. We need to pray for wisdom.

We need to pray without ceasing,
not just on Sunday mornings. And we need to sound the alarm.