FROM THE PULPIT: "YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH...YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD."

The following is an eyewitness account of registered nurse Brenda Pratt Shafer.

I stood by the doctor's side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant.

The baby's heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby's body and arms, everything but his little head.

The baby's body was moving. His little fingers were clasped together. He was kicking his feet.

The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall.

Then the doctor opened the scissors up.

Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out.

Now the baby was completely limp. I never went back to the clinic. But I am still haunted by the face of that little boy.

It was the most perfect, angelic face I've ever seen.

This nurse used to be pro-choice. But what she saw that day so shocked and grieved her that it changed her view on abortion 180 degrees.

She is now pro-life.

How can it be that we live in a nation where you can get in more trouble harming an animal on the endangered species list than you can taking the life of an innocent child?

How can it be that a young couple in an eastern city of our nation can be put to trial for killing their newborn baby and yet the doctor who performed this abortion can go unpunished and even rewarded with pay for doing such a thing?

Since Jan. 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court made it legal to get an abortion, we as a nation, have ended the lives of 30 million babies developing in the womb.

These little ones had no choice in the matter. They had no voice to protest.

This is why Christian people need to take seriously what Jesus meant when he called us the "Salt of the earth and the light of the world."

Salt has always been a preserving and healing agent. Light always dispels darkness. Christians are called to be a source of preservation and healing in a world that so blatantly disrespects life.

We are to let our light shine in the midst of a world that is plunged in deep spiritual and moral darkness.

We are being salt and light when we speak up for the lives of the unborn.

The bible says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and for the rights of all who are destitute." (Prov. 31:8)

If we know of someone considering an abortion, we have the responsibility to encourage them to keep their child to full term and if necessary give the child up for adoption.

We are being salt and light when we are willing to reach out and help women suffering pain and guilt over an abortion.

Abortion is not an unforgiveable sin. Jesus Christ died to take away that sin too.

We are being salt and light when we can point women and men to Jesus Christ to find forgiveness and release from the terrible burden of sin and guilt they feel.

Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

May God help us within the Christian community to be what God has made us to be in Jesus Christ, the "salt and light" of the world!