Did you breathe a sigh of relief when the Republicans won back
control of the House of Representatives? Sit back and put the
car on cruise control until 2012, baby!
Or did you get excited about the changes certainly to come?
Things are gonna be different now, for sure! You heard those 60
newly elected Republican politicians talk about their commitment
to ending legalized abortion…well, right after they figure out
how to lower unemployment, reduce the trade deficit, cut taxes,
and repave Wall Street. Actually, “let’s call a truce on
contentious social issues until we fix the economy.” Can’t we
all just get along?
I listen to newly elected pro-life politicians…pro-life
politicians, mind you…talk in public, and what do they prattle
on about? The economy. Why are they doing that? Who needs to
hear from them for the umpteenth time that the budget
needs to be fixed and that jobs need to be created? No one
disagrees with that assessment; go to it. I do understand that
Congress is a microcosm of our country; the vast majority of the
citizenry care more about their pocketbooks than they do about
the lives of preborn baby girls and boys. And so, elected
officials—even most pro-life ones—in order to keep their jobs,
must make “fixing the economy” their number one stated priority.
Still, what I’d like to hear from one of these newly elected
pro-life politicians is a more courageous sound bite: “You
know, we have a far greater problem than the trade deficit, high
unemployment, and a slumping housing market. We are a body of
people with a cancerous growth on its vital organs—a home-grown,
self-afflicted disease of our own making and perpetuating. Our
nation’s founding documents were misinterpreted almost 50 years
ago by our highest-level jurists in a sequence of decisions that
has led to a supposed right to mass murder children.
Consequently, the laws of every single state protect the
victimizers, not the victims...and the hoi polloi have
fallen in line like dumb sheep.” (Hmmm. That could be my
campaign slogan...well, but I’d never get elected….How about,
“We need to create more jobs!” Yeah, that would give me
a reasonable shot at public office….I think I’m catching on,
now.)
Once in a while I go to conservative political meetings (won’t
say which ones) where “activists” rant and rave and spit and
fume and shake their fists in anger—literally—at all of the
“unjust taxes” that they have to pay. I bring up abortion, and
I’m met with a hundred silent stares. I take two minutes to
mention politely and delicately what we’re doing at HCRTL and
MDRTL. I’m not looking for applause—and since it looks like
your hands aren’t real busy right now, how about shaking your
fists in outrage that baby girls and boys are murdered en
masse before they’re born? And after they’re born, too.
Philadelphia’s monster Gosnell is just the tip of the iceberg.
Viable babies are being born then butchered all over the
place.
The pro-life movement is lacking outrage, too. (Burnin’
another bridge, am I. Okay—let me do some calculations
here—my voter base is down to about 5, now.) Too little
weeping, too little preaching, too little shouting, too little
pleading with the “one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:5)
The call to outrage is not a charge to behave outrageously or
act out of rage. As the Apostle Paul wrote in the first half of
Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry, and yet do not sin.” To be outraged
by abortion means that you are constantly appalled and horrified
by its violence targeting innocence. It means that the dread of
the loss of precious life tomorrow impels you to commit to
acting creatively and decisively today in order to bring peace
and safety to preborn children. Not everyone can go undercover
like Lila Rose or take a highly visible public stance like Missy
Smith in her brilliant TV ad campaign for Congress, but within
you is a reservoir of unique gifts and talents that you
can use in the defense of the lives of babies.
The second half of that verse commands us, “Do not let the sun
go down on your anger,” which I will take out of its true
context (about not holding grudges) and re-interpret to suggest
that you do something about abortion before 7:40 p.m., which is
when the sun sets tonight.
What will it be? “Here I am, Lord. Use me.” or “There I go,
Lord. Excuse me.” Don’t wait for politicians—even pro-life
ones—to move us into a culture of life, because they’re
constantly sidetracked by the economy and jobs. Saving lives is
my job...and yours.
April 12, 2011
