Go Beyond

The late Nelson Mandela once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.” He was right! Children are, after all, among the most vulnerable members of any society — including children in the womb.

God has always been concerned about the weak and vulnerable in society. A child in the womb is more vulnerable and at risk than any other members of society. If I am in danger, I can take steps to seek safety. I can move to a more secure home or neighborhood or community. However, if a child in the womb is in danger, that child cannot move to a safer womb.

Children in the womb have no voice and no choice. They cannot speak for themselves. They cannot appeal to an abortion-minded woman to let them live, to do them no harm, to keep them from being torn limb from limb. They are the weakest of the weak and at the mercy of those who are stronger.

This past week, the voices of those who would seek to destroy life in the womb have spewed some of the most vile rhetoric I have ever heard.

State Representative John Rogers of Alabama voiced his opposition to the abortion ban that was approved in his state. He said, “Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later.”

The preborn are always on the losing end of choices made by those who deem they are neither loved nor wanted. Many children are not loved nor wanted because they have come at an inconvenient time (as if the child had anything to do with that). Mother Teresa observed, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

Brian Sims, a Pennsylvania State Representative, recorded himself harassing pro-life women outside the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania clinic in Philadelphia. His eight minute rant went viral on social media.

Sims viciously scolded these women, telling them that they had no right to tell other women what they can do with their bodies — while he reserved the right to tell other women what they can do with their bodies. He accused Christians of being Bible Bullies, bigots, sexists, and misogynists — while recording his own misogynistic, bullying, and bigoted behavior.

And finally, a Students for Life group at the University of Texas—San Antonio set up a display of crosses to remember the 910 babies Planned Parenthood kills each day. Their peaceful display was interrupted by protestors associated with the Shout Your Abortion movement which encourages young women to proudly proclaim they had an abortion. What followed was recorded on video.

Several young women holding pink “I Stand With Planned Parenthood” signs walked among the display of crosses. One pointed at a cross and boasted, “Look, there’s mine right there!” Another said, “I just love sex and aborting fetuses. That’s my number one kink.”

One girl chanted, “Stop, hey, what’s that sound. All the fetuses are in the ground.” Another responded, “What if we pissed in the fetus graveyard.” These are just some of the things shouted by the protestors.

The one thing all of these individuals have in common is that they lack the bandwidth to see beyond today, to where disregarding the sanctity of life will ultimately lead us as a society. Their vile speech is the fruit of emptiness.

Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet in the Old Testament, lamented that the people of Judah had strayed far from God. He observed that they had followed emptiness and became empty themselves as a result. Unless they repented, he warned, judgment would come. And indeed judgement came.

God cares about the plight of the weak and the vulnerable, and so should we. We must speak for those who have no voice. Like Jeremiah, we too should weep over what is happening in our society. And we must warn that judgment will come, if not sooner then later.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Ultimately, no one destroys life with impunity. There will be a reckoning.

Every beneficent and malevolent act committed in the world today is driven by worldview considerations. Whether human rights atrocities or acts of extreme love, every act can be traced back to what an individual believes.

The substance of beliefs is ultimately transmitted by words. That is why words matter. There is power in words.

A children’s rhyme boasts, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” The truth of the matter is that words can hurt us and others — and sometimes hurt in a big way!

The Holocaust is not something that happened overnight. This horrible chapter in our human history can be traced back to words that shaped the thinking of a people. In Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler referred to the Jews as “parasites upon the nations.” His words paved the way for the final solution.

Last month, a biology professor at the University of California San Diego compared unborn babies to parasites. As part of a lecture, this professor drew “parallels between fetuses and cancers.” A student in his class took a photo of one of the professor’s slides and expressed his shock on social media.

The class title was “biology of disease.” Thus to refer to a pre-born baby as a parasite is essentially to liken pregnancy to a disease for which abortion is the remedy.

The professor described a fetus, or unborn baby, as a “legitimate parasite” that grows rapidly and manipulates the immunity of the mother — just like cancer. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, this professor used words that unquestionably contribute to the dehumanization of a baby in the womb.

Dehumanizing language is indeed dangerous because it suggests that certain human beings (in and out of the womb) are less valuable than others. And, as in the case of the Holocaust, this kind of language can lead to the destruction of life.

Nobody would argue against killing a parasite any more than they would protest killing a roach. Comparing unborn babies to parasites, however, can condition people to think of the preborn in terms of being something less than human. While a parasite does not belong to the human species, a human fetus is a human life — regardless of the stage of development.

Derogatory and dehumanizing language is nothing new to those who advocate for abortion. In her book Pivot of Civilization, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, used derogatory language to refer to minorities and certain groups of human beings. She referred to those she loathed as “human weeds, reckless breeders” and “human beings who never should have been born.”

We live in dangerous times. When we regard a child in the womb as a parasite, then it will not be long before life outside of the womb is regarded in similar terms — especially children that survive abortion, the aged, and those born with special challenges.

How utterly arrogant and irresponsible for anyone to use language that dehumanizes, devalues, and disregards the sanctity of human life. If we are not careful, this kind of rhetoric will ultimately endanger us all.