Five Reasons For Writing Pro-Life Songs

If you've picked up a pro-life emphasis on this blog over the last few weeks you're right. Last summer I set myself a goal of writing 4 pro-life songs from the point of view of the unborn. The songs ended up in a kind of bottleneck as I worked through the pastoral implications with others but now my songs and I are ready to face the world, hence the temporary take over of this blog. Next Monday we'll be back to normal with a post entitled “Does the Holy Spirit thrive on chaos?” but today I want to explain what influenced me as a praise & worship songwriter to tackle this issue, by looking at 5 quotes that have shaped my thinking.

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

Fake Martin Luther (Quoted in Parker T. Williamson, Standing Firm: Reclaiming Christian Faith in Times of Controversy p. 5)

Nobody knows who said this, but it wasn't Luther. However the point is good. The amount of children killed by abortion is far greater than any example ethnic cleansing, war or famine. The death toll for the US alone is well over 50 million children since 1973. That is equivalent to a 9/11 every 6 days. Not everyone can be actively engaged in political campaigning, but surely all can speak out? I am a songwriter. Should I write songs about everything else and not this?

Let me write the songs of a nation - I don't care who writes its laws.

Fake Andrew Fletcher (An Account of a Conversation)

Actually what Scottish politician Fletcher said was "I knew a very wise man so much of Sir Christopher's sentiment, that he believed if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation" and his point was he didn't agree with the view. I think to some extent he was wrong. Songs and art can change hearts, changed hearts can change public opinion, public opinion can change laws.

The person who frames the terms of a debate almost always wins that debate.

David Kupelian (The Marketing of Evil)

Tim Challies pointed out this reoccurring phrase of Kupelian's . Using abortion as an example he says

“The right to abortion was not fought over the right of a mother to kill her child...The child has been left out of the equation altogether. Instead, the debate always has been and seemingly always will be over a woman’s right to choose. It was never presented an issue of life or death, but an issue of choice. And who, in a free and democratic culture, could deny a person the right of free choice? The debate was over and won before it began”.

These songs are an attempt to re-frame the debate. I wanted to present the unborn in these songs not as foetus's, extensions of a womans body or 'potential human beings' but real people with their own hopes, fears and desires.

Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
So that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD

Psalm 102:18

It's my greatest hope that one day I might meet a worshipper of God who is alive because their mother or father heard one of these songs.

Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 31:8-9

It seems that no voice has been silenced more effectively than that of the unborn. Even among their champions the emphasis is often on changing legislation, religious ethics or preventing post abortion trauma. I am in no way criticising these aims, or even saying they are being over emphasised. Only that there is an almost completely unexplored perspective. Speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves rather than just speaking about them. And so, rather than ministering to people who have been through an abortion, I'm trying to serve those who have been, or are in danger of being, aborted.



I know it's unusual and somewhat unorthodox, and if the songs themselves suck it's all a lot of fuss over nothing. But...if you think it's a worthwhile aim please leave a comment and say so. Download the songs (the links are below) - they're all free, and if you like them leave a comment. I'm not looking for you to stroke my ego - your recommendation may encourage someone else to listen.

Lastly please give the songs away. Some of the content is pretty strong and you will have use your own sensitivity and faith in knowing when to share a song and with who. Don't forget those who have not had an abortion but would “if they 'needed' one”. And don't forget pro-choice guys too.


First Black President
mp3     Chord Sheet     Read Lyrics      Behind The Song

One Three Nine
mp3     Chord Sheet     Read Lyrics     Behind the song


Salt Water
mp3     Chord Sheet     Read Lyrics     Behind The Song


Your Difficult Decision
mp3      Chord Sheet       Lyrics       Behind the Song