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Abortion IS murder
by
Martin Aquinas
[The following is a response to the recent column by Eighty-One publisher Perry Neel entitled, “Abortion is not murder.”]
Over the thirty-five years since the Roe v. Wade decision, upwards of 44,000,000 silent screams have echoed across America. Forty-four million babies. Murdered. To deaden the language would be to dishonor those souls. To borrow a Shakespearean quote: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Pretending that abortion is not murder because Christians refuse to return evil for evil by gunning down abortionists reeks as despicable as the violent assault of schoolchildren waiting daily on that predictable yellow bus.
Some quote studies that attempt to unmask some “truth” that prefers to take refuge in the shadows. Their findings tend to indicate, maybe to their own consolation, that, lo and behold, born again, religious, evangelical Christians are indeed to blame for this nation’s legalized massacre. The esteemed, albeit slightly biased, Alan Guttmacher Institute issued what it appeared as an astounding finding that “78 percent of women getting abortions are religious”. (This seems to fit with the 85 or so percent of the American population at large that associates itself with “religion.”) An earlier Guttmacher study also unveiled that about 20 percent of those mothers electing abortion are evangelical Christians. And, as if that were not enough, there are those who want us to believe that the reported silence of the otherwise preoccupied Believers acquiesces to, if not actually advocates for, the murder of 1.2 million pre-born human beings every year. A word of somber warning here: the prayers of that “mum minority” are heard hour by hour before the throne of a just God.
Dr. Alan Guttmacher, for whom the Institute is named, held the post of President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in the mid-to late twentieth century. Planned Parenthood directs about 93 percent of its budget, much of it a result of tax subsidies, toward abortions. The Guttmacher Institute claims on its website that there is virtually no evidence supporting the fact that abortions are widely emotionally traumatizing for the mother. And the Institute also asserts that abortion opponents are not “working to reduce unintended pregnancy.” One who believes these two reports in whole are also likely to swallow the absurd notion that the pro-life tradition is weak and hypocritical because it tends to frown on those members who choose to work outside the boundaries of the law.
Since “pro-choice” advocates set their oft-vehement sights on Christians, we must explain again the truth of the old bumper-sticker adage that those Christians are “not perfect … just forgiven.” In fact, I challenge any reader to truthfully state that he has not committed murder in his own heart. As Jesus described it in Matthew 5, this reader’s anger condemns him “guilty before the court.” The fact that Christians tend to show mercy toward a mother in heartfelt crisis and suspicion toward a trained abortionist wielding a knife does not exhibit duplicity. If Jesus Himself had not been merciful toward the sinner while he was still in sin, Christians would not now know the vast and unmeasured love of their God. That is to say, yes, the mother and the abortionist are indeed “guilty before the court” … each in dire need of the healing and forgiveness that only Christ can offer.
But with the murder of an abortionist, the Christian makes himself more like that sinner than like Christ. Christians are not to be overcome by evil. They are to overcome evil with good.
That good usually comes in the form of prayer. It frequently comes in the form peaceful protests and vigils and marches. It often comes in the form of support for pro-life ministries that educate and lobby on behalf of those annual 1,200,000 babies and their families.
Setbacks for the pro-life movement undeniably come in the form of those “Christians” who will not acknowledge the future judgment of Christ but instead present themselves above that promise by blowing up abortionists. We are indeed a nation of laws and as such are responsible to those authorities and decrees which God chooses to place over us. Therefore, Christians are to beseech God on behalf of the unborn … and give to Caesar the future consequences that will be Caesar’s. The abortionist is working under the current law. And, with reference to Mr. Neel’s essay, the slasher at the bus stop is not.
Comments? Email us at letters@thevalleyamerican.com.
© 2008 The Valley American
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