JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) President Chris Williams, pastor of Fellowship Church, Greenwood/Raymore, is urging Missouri Baptists to oppose Amendment 3, which will be on the state ballot during the general election, Nov. 5. Williams made his appeal in a video shared by the MBC. It can be accessed below, along with another video by Williams regarding Amendment 3.
“This November, you have a chance to take part in deciding the sort of state Missouri will be by voting on Amendment 3,” Williams said. “This amendment would enshrine a deregulated industry of abortion and gender transitioning into our state constitution. And I want to give you a few biblical truths that should shape the way we vote.”
First, as revealed in the first chapter of Genesis, God has created people for a “great purpose” and “in God’s image.”
“For this reason alone, every man, woman, child, and preborn baby deserves honor, to be valued and respected regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or background,” he said.
Second, in the Old Testament, a boy named Ishmael is “abandoned by his father, sent away from the family with his single mother into the wilderness.
“And in that wilderness, the Bible says, the Lord God sees him and provides for him,” Williams explained. “There is no such thing as an unplanned pregnancy, maybe unplanned parents, but even so, every baby is loved by God.”
Third, according to Psalm 139, “Jesus is intimately involved in every aspect of a life, beginning at conception. He’s at work in every human being.” This Psalm states, “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).
“Four, in Exodus, men are fighting and a pregnant woman’s preborn baby is killed. In the Scriptures, this is seen as the ending of a life – not some possible life or a future life, but as a life, a person who images God and was alive and now is not.”
“So for these biblical reasons, I encourage you to vote ‘No’ on Amendment 3 this November.”