By John Ensor for REAL CLEAR RELIGION
With the passing of Charlie Kirk, we have lost a voice that resonated with young men and summoned them to be good men, even godly men, and to know that a good portion of that manhood is expressed in getting married, having babies and proudly serving as the point man for their family.
I got married at 22 in large part because when I was 17, restless, aimless, hormone-pumped, I was challenged by a Charlie-like voice in the 70s, named Josh McDowell. He had the nerve to go to college campuses across America and to talk about “Maximum Sex.” Smack in the middle of the sexual revolution, he challenged young men like me to find our greatest happiness in yielding our lives over to the living Christ and follow his design for sexuality: wait till marriage and be faithful in marriage! This is the path I took. After 48 years and counting, I have no regrets. It’s the best thing I have ever done for one woman in particular, my wife, and the best respect given to all others.
What then is the worst thing a man can do to a woman? Clare Bremner, writing in The Times, UK’s paper of record, is spot on when she says, “In my long experience, typically 75 per cent of the women who summon up the courage and bravery to make a call for help regarding an abortion were pressured or bullied into having one, in almost all cases by the man involved… It must be among the worst things a man can do to a woman.”
Forcing, coercing or abandoning the woman with whom you were intimate and who is now carrying your child is the worst form of moral injury a man can inflict on a woman. It’s a soul-stabbing moment of discovery. As a friend wrote, “My boyfriend was furious when he discovered I was pregnant. He immediately demanded that I have an abortion… Afterward, the mere presence of my boyfriend caused deep hurt and pain.”
