[Darris McNeely] This week's Beyond Today program was entitled, "The Sanctity of Life" and we were dealing with the subject of abortion and a child's right to life in the womb of its mother. We covered that pretty thoroughly I thought in the program from a biblical perspective. I've been thinking about it a lot. We've had a number of comments on the program that have come in to us. It's a subject that is always in the news and in just a few weeks we're going to be looking in this country, the United States, at the 40th anniversary of the signing of Row vs. Wade, the legalization of abortion as a woman's right in the United States. The debate goes on and on and on. Of course it was a—it came up in the most recent presidential election because one party lost, the Republicans. They are doing soul searching on all types of issues and especially on this particular issue of abortion. I've noticed some of the commentary beginning to position even the Republican Party and conservative thought away and in a different form from abortion.

And yet, when you look at so much of what is taking place in regard to that, there are some interesting signs. For instance, among young people today there seems to be a trend that is going against abortion. And the latest data that has been available for abortions within any given year takes us through the year 2009, which at that time showed that there was about a five percent decline in the number of abortions in the United States. Whether that will hold, whether that's a trend, we'll have to wait and see for further data to come out. Regardless of how a political party adopts their stance, their platform, their view, or even any political candidate, what is God's view on abortion is what is most important. And that's what we were getting across in the program, "The Sanctity of Life." If you haven't watched it, I hope you will. When it comes down to it, it's what God says about life and the womb of a mother that is the most important. I've focused in on a scripture out of the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 30 and verse 19 that I think really sums up a call to this.

In Deuteronomy 30:19, Moses is rehearsing before the children of Israel the way of God laid out before them at their time, and it's the same for us today. He tells them to choose life over death and he comes down in verse 19 with this memorable phrase to choose life, a phrase which fits so many decisions and so many parts of our life, and especially when it comes to abortion and the sanctity of life. The key phrase, the operative phrase from the word of God is choose life. That should be what we focus on.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.