36 Seconds

I came across a statistic recently that says, and I quote,

"Every 36 seconds a baby is killed by abortion in the US."

 That came from the Life Issues Institute website, which I hadn't previously heard of.  They don't list a source for that statistic so I don't know where they got that number, but if it's anywhere near accurate, that is staggering.  I haven't stopped thinking about it.

I did some calculations, and it just so happens that one baby killed every 36 seconds exactly works out to 100 killed every hour (on average).

1 death every 36 seconds
5 deaths every 3 minutes
25 deaths every 15 minutes
100 deaths every hour
2,400 deaths every 24 hours

This is too big to wrap our brains around, I think, and perhaps too overwhelming to dwell on.

I think we actually have more than 250 members, but my church's building can fit 250 people in the sanctuary.  If a shooter came to church on a well-attended Sunday when every seat is filled, somehow managed to lock us all in there and vowed to shoot one person every 36 seconds (and succeeded in doing so), in just two and a half hours, the entire congregation would be wiped out.

This is the rate at which abortion occurs every day in America (if the statistic is accurate -- and I'm guessing it's not far off).  If the above hypothetical situation is shocking, abortion is more shocking, for the preborn are the most vulnerable group of people - much more vulnerable than we would be even in that situation; and on top of that, abortion is completely legal.

We should be shocked, and grieved, and moved to action, knowing that God goes with us.