Rev. Seton Tomyn of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., says the Word of God declares the destruction of unborn babies a sin, and that America should repent and turn to Christ.
Seton Tomyn yearns for the blessing of life, and he wants people who pass by the front of his church to yearn for it, too — or to mourn its wanton destruction. The Rev. Tomyn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Soddy-Daisy, once again has installed 2,500 crosses on the front lawn, reminding passing motorists of the pity of abortion.
“Abortion is continuing because we allow it,” Rev. Tomyn says. “We as a Christian community allow it, because we have not stood any more strongly for abolishing it. We as a nation allow it because we can excuse it. I mean, after all, it’s not really a baby, is it?”
The slaughter of unborn boys and girls has been legal in the U.S. for 40 years, since the opinion Roe vs. Wade in 1973 forbade Tennessee and other states from protecting the youngest souls. The abortion industry has grown and prospered, with more than 50,000 million people disposed of in hospitals and clinics around the country, about 3,300 a day. The largest U.S. seller of abortion is Planned Parenthood, which earned a profit of F$87 million this year, with F$542 million in federal government money.
About 300 babies from women residing in Hamilton County, Tenn., are destroyed yearly, though the city no longer has an abortion clinic.
Rev. Tomyn is concerned about use of babies in stem cell research, the disposal of extra babies resulting from in vitro fertilization, morning-after pills which are abortifacients, the exporting of abortion under U.S. population and public health programs, “all issues that involve life.” The federal requirement of business to supply baby-destroying drugs to employees is an offense against God. “I very much stand with the Green family and Hobby Lobby and their desire to stand for life. I wish I had a billion dollars to help pay their fine.”
From human being to avatar
Abortion is about depersonalizing the human being, and is taught as a fact. The Rev. Tomyn said he’d gotten an email today from a daughter taking a university psychology class, and from it came this quote: “The fetus is pushed out of the mother’s body and becomes a baby.” How can preborn children be viewed solely by medical terminology when preborns receive exquisite medical attention as early as the 23rd week after conception?
“Where do you draw the line as to where life begins? You have to go back to conception. Life begins at conception. And if life begins at conception, then whether it is viable outside the womb, it is still a life. And so that’s why I support the abolition of abortion for any cause, at any time, for anybody.”
The Christians at First Baptist have put up the display for many years, well before the Rev. Tomyn arrived in 1999 from Nashville, where he had been active in the right-to-life cause.
“Once a child is conceived, it’s a child,” he says. “And we are dealing with issues of life even if we haven’t held that life in our hands, even if that life is not viable outside the womb. It’s a baby. [The crosses] become a reminder to people who may think this is not an issue that I have to think about now. Yes, it is something you have to think about. And perhaps, also, it can be a help to someone who has already undergone an abortion, who may need to provide some closure and some rebuilding of their own lives.”
Members of First Baptist Church of Soddy-Daisy place white crosses on the front yard to mark the state of mourning in Christendom at the deaths of more than 50 million babies in the U.S. since 1973. (Photo by David Blackburn)
Is God judging the U.S.?
The Rev. Tomyn considers a difficult question. Is abortion an offense against innocents that will bring God’s judgment, or is it the judgment itself?
It’s not my position to stand in the place of God and to bring judgment on people. I would rather stand in the place, as a minister of God, and bring compassion and a good message to people. I cannot help but think that the God whom I serve who is consistent from the time of creation until this day and has not changed, is appalled at the idea of abortion. You find that in the scriptures. When people would sacrifice their children for any reason or another, the text says something of the order, ‘That is not anything that even entered my mind,’ speaking for God. *** Life is something that God deals with. He is not a vengeful God. He does not desire judgment. He desires that we be reinstated into a relationship with Him. He desires that we see life from His perspective. And He takes no joy in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn, and turn back to Him.
Sources: Lifeissues.org
It is funny that all that talk and not one mention of miscarried babies. Babies that God allowed to die inside their mother’s womb even if the mother wanted the baby. I lost two babies to miscarriage I wanted more than anything.
God took those babies from me for whatever reason. I don’t doubt His reasons, but that did not make it any more horrifying for me to experience. Why don’t you put crosses out there for miscarried babies? Far more babies are miscarried every year than aborted. And those babies were wanted!
I would never attend a church like this. It is wrong. How would a woman feel, who had an abortion, when she saw this? Would it make her want to go in and be saved? It would make her feel judged by people who have just as much sin in their lives as that woman. It would say to her “you’re not welcome because you’re a sinner”