From Lifesite News (read the whole article for more information):
A hip hop group entitled Flipsyde, led by the singer known as Piper, released a song in Dec. 2005 entitled “Happy Birthday…so make a wish” which voices the remorse and love that a father feels towards his unborn child who was killed by abortion. It is an undeniable testament to the guilt and sadness that many fathers experience after losing their child to an abortion.
I really admire the raw honesty. I’ve never heard a song this candid about anything. Watch and listen (the video has the words on the screen). Be patient; it takes about 10 seconds to start.
Consider how bluntly he acknowledges that:
- A real person would have been here today
- It was murder / homicide
- He was responsible
- He was young, but old enough to be a dad
- It was a mistake
- He is sorry
- There is a hint of hope and healing
Wow. Not a bit of tortured reasoning about whether his child had achieved “personhood,” or whether she was really human or really alive.
I teach classes in pro-life reasoning, but if I had a choice between sharing an hour of PowerPoint slides or this 3.5 minute video with a young person contemplating abortion, I’d go with the video.
Please join me in praying that people who are considering abortion will hear this and change their minds. There is a better way.
Please join me in praying that people who were involved in abortions will hear this, acknowledge their mistakes and get the help they need. Good news: There is forgiveness and healing available in Christ Jesus.
Also see Nick Cannon’s Can I Live video, a passionate tribute to mothers who chose life.
Keep reading for the lyrics to Happy Birthday . . .
Happy Birthday. So make a wish.
Please accept my apologies, I wonder what would have been.
Would you have been a little angel or an angel of sin?
Tom-boy running around, hanging with all the guys.
Or a little tough boy with beautiful brown eyes.
I paid for the murder before they determined the sex,
choosing our life over your life meant your death.
And you never got a chance to even open your eyes,
sometimes I wonder as a fetus if you fought for your life.
Would you have been a little genius? In love with math?
Would you have played in your school clothes and made me mad?
Would you have been a little rapper like your poppa The Piper?
Would you have made me quit smoking by finding one of my lighters?
I wonder about your skin tone and shape of your nose,
and the way you would’ve laughed and talked fast or slow.
I think about it every year, so I picked up a pen.
Happy birthday, I love you whoever you would’ve been.
Happy Birthday
What I thought was a dream
Make a wish
Was as real as it seemed
I made a mistake
I got a million excuses, as to why you died.
And other people got their own reasons for homicide.
Who’s to say it would’ve worked and who’s to say it wouldn’t have
I was young and struggling, but old enough to be a dad.
The fear of being my father has never disappeared,
I ponder it frequently while I’m sippin’ on my beer.
My vision of a family was artificial and fake
so when it came time to create, I made a mistake.
But now you got a little brother, maybe it’s really you.
Maybe you really forgave us knowing we were confused.
Maybe, every time that he smiles it’s you proudly knowing
that your father’s doing the right thing now.
I’ll never tell a woman what to do with her body,
but if she don’t love children, then we can’t party.
I think about it every year, so I picked up a pen.
Happy birthday, I love you whoever you would’ve been.
Happy Birthday
What I thought was a dream
Make a wish
Was as real as it seemed
I made a mistake
And from the Heavens to the womb to the Heavens again.
From the ending to the ending, never got to begin.
Maybe one day we can meet face to face,
in a place without time and space. Happy birthday.
What I thought was a dream
Make a wish
Was as real as it seemed
I made a mistake
Filed under: Christian worldview, Favorites, Politics, Pro-life | Tagged: abortion, Politics, Pro-life, rap, religion
wow
Thank you for presenting an example of hopeful use of what has become a decidedly destructive musical genre.
While sales may lag behind the usual “kill a cop” and “shut up ho” messages so widely consumed by the young, someone, somewhere just may have an attack of conscience and avoid indulgent, life ruining behavior.
The theme of apology is another sadly lacking response to engaging in, if only by your own admission, to less than proper activity.
No one loves being exposed as having been in error, but shouldn’t everyone learn to enjoy coming clean and admitting failure to make good decisions?
Just saying “I’m sorry” has relieved me of the worst, most wasteful use of my time, which was insisting I was right, and justified in my attitude and behavior, when I knew, all along, that I was wrong.
Piper renews my faith in the young and I hope he continues with to remind his listeners of what’s right and good.
Hank
Thanks for sharing that, Neil.
Sometimes, I find it really hard to express why I am pro-life because words don’t seem adequate. I mean, there are a billion and one reasons to be against abortion, but this video is the epitome of being pro-life. No matter what angle you take – child, mother, father – abortion hurts everyone. I can’t imagine what he must feel knowing and in fact accepting that he contributed to the murder of his child.
Thanks for the video and for visiting my site
I have loved this song since the day it came out. I am so glad to find someone who appreciates it as a real message, rather than just a good rhythm. t.A.T.u, a female russian rock duo, is the featured artist singing “what I thought was a dream, was as real as it seemed” is a selection from their song “Gomenasai.” I am think that it’s important for people to understand that, had an abortion not occurred, a real, living, breathing human being would stand before you. I like to think of it this way: I’m a fourteen year old adopted child. If my biological family had taken one step in the opposite direction, I wouldn’t be here. Answer me this: why is it okay to kill a person that hasn’t experienced the crashing of waves; the scent of a rose; the beat of a song, yet it’s unacceptable to euthanize a suffering human being who has seen the prime of life and is now living in constant pain. (NOT THAT I AM PRO-EUTHANASIA. I AM COMPLETELY AGAINST BOTH. IT JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE WHY THE TWO ARE CONSIDERED SO DIFFERENT)
haha sorry for all the typo’s…i’m multitasking
*t.A.T.u, a female russian rock duo, is the featured artist singing “what I thought was a dream, was as real as it seemed,” a selection from their song “Gomenasai.” I think that it’s important for people to understand*
Charli, thanks for sharing that! I agree with your points. I’m adopted also (though just a little older than you – I was born 10 yrs. before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision legalized abortion across the U.S. ).
P.S. Don’t worry about typos – I didn’t even notice them, and I don’t have Mr. Grammar Person on the payroll anyway.
Tieki makes a good point that abortion hurts everyone. Feminism and the pro-choice side are, in many ways, inherently at odds with each other.
I didn’t know that you were adopted, Neil!
Charli: a big part of the pro-choice argument is that 1) it’s better to abort than to bring an unwanted child into the world; and 2) if abortion is made illegal, there will be scads of unwanted, unloved, and abused children out there. Your enjoyment of your life and your family is the strongest argument against those ideas out there. We don’t want to be China, were it’s acceptable, nay, required to abort your “extra” children.
Not to butt in on your life, but if you were born in 1992 or 1993, your birth mother is a brave, caring woman. There is so much pressure on women to get abortions; doctors don’t counsel women, they just ask when to schedule the abortion. 1.2 million abortions a year and only 120,000 or so adoptions; she’s one of the few who cared enough about her kid to go that route.
BTW, a qyestion, How do religions treat children who were not born so not baptized (or any other religious form of joinging community) ?
Hi Sylwia,
Interesting question! There are different views, but I think the most mainstream view is that they go to Heaven. It doesn’t appear to be in God’s nature to punish someone for sins that they would have committed but didn’t actually commit.
The main verse people refer to is when King David’s newborn son dies and he says, ” But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23)
But one could take this notion to some ridiculous extremes (”it is better to have an abortion to ensure the child goes to Heaven instead of letting them live and not be sure”). That makes no sense, of course. So there may be a little mystery here. With topics like this I try to focus on what is clear (the nature of God, abortion kills an innocent human being, etc.) to help explain the unclear (what happens when humans are aborted or die in infancy?).
BTW, Baptism is a response to our salvation, not a requirement. For example, the criminal on the cross was not baptized but Jesus promised him he would be in paradise that day.
[...] this year, Neil over at 4simpsons posted a video by hip hop group Flipsyde entitled “Happy Birthday.” Listening to this man ask what his [...]