A group of activists in Arkansas vandalized the 65-foot-tall Christ of the Ozarks statue with a “God Bless Abortions” banner last week. Members of the activist art group INDECLINE disguised themselves as construction workers and used pulleys to scale the statue and hang the 40-foot banner. “In Arkansas, there is only one 65-foot statue of Jesus. There is also only one abortion clinic,” the group wrote on Instagram in a post celebrating their act of vandalism. Two days later they posted a picture of a baby wearing a “God Bless Abortions” t-shirt announcing that the shirts were available at their online store.

INDECLINE said in a statement that, "The project, entitled ‘God Bless Abortions,’ is in direct response to the dramatic attempts being made in Arkansas and throughout the South, to ban abortion services to women in need.” Women don’t need abortion and they certainly don’t need the abortion industry’s lies. INDECLINE’s message completely ignores the women whose lives have been upended by the horror of abortion and the babies whose lives have been lost.

The director of operations at The Great Passion Play, the organization that maintains the Christ of the Ozarks statue, expressed hope that the activist group’s actions will ultimately turn people toward the gospel. “It was all about getting attention to expand their platform,” he said, “But our pivot really is that it’s about Jesus. This whole place exists to lift up Jesus. And at times what was intended for evil, in Genesis 50, it says ‘what was intended for evil God used for good.’”

In recent years abortion activists have begun insisting that because the word “abortion” does not appear in Scripture, the Bible is “pro-abortion” and a growing number of Christians are buying into the claim that the Bible is “ambiguous” on abortion. But Scripture is in no way ambiguous about murder, the sanctity of life, or the personhood of preborn babies. 

INDECLINE’s celebration of abortion is ghoulish. It twists Scripture and dismisses the reality of abortion’s cruelty and devastation. But perhaps this act of vandalism will lead people to search out what the Bible really does have to say about abortion—that abortion is murder, but also that through the blood of Christ there is redemption and forgiveness for sin, including abortion, and because of that, there is hope and healing.

(Image: INDECLINE, Instagram)