In this political season, many people are bringing up the issue of being “Pro Life” as a means (in part or in whole) for justifying their vote for Trump, or that being “Pro Choice” is a reason to not vote for Gary Johnson.
This has come up in a number of of my friend’s Facebook posts, and as a “Pro Life” person I was recently in a conversation with a fellow “Pro Lifer” (someone I do not know) in a Facebook thread that literally made me shake my head it disgust. Never had I been so enraged and had my eyes opened by someone who supposedly believed the same things as me.
What was the issue you ask? Well this person basically said that anyone who is “Pro Choice” is a baby killer and is bad as Hitler. Here are some screenshots of the conversation to catch you up to speed:
Then in a different comment thread I replied to him about another point and in doing so I deduced he was voting for Trump (since he is the only possible “Pro Life” Candidate that I’m aware of), and he replied:
And later he replied to another person named Peter in the same thread and said:
Wow. Just…. Wow. And this is just one example of the same thinking I’ve seen in other conversations surrounding the topic of “Pro Life” vs. “Pro Choice”.
Ok, so lets back up a second…
At its core a Pro Life person is in essence making the statement “I value life”. This of course begs the question… “who’s” life do they value? Of course the obvious answer is “the unborn child”. So you could safely reword the “Pro Lifer’s” statement to say “I value the child’s life”.
What got me so upset was the idea that anyone thinking differently from that statement above must mean the complete opposite. In other words a “Pro Choice” person is making the statement, “I don’t value life at all” or “I want to kill children”.
Wow… that’s quite a strong accusation. Can you imagine someone telling you, “You don’t value life at all, and you are as bad as Hitler if you are Pro Choice?” Not the best way to win someone over with Christ’s love if you ask me… Remember, this person doesn’t know me and I easily deduced this person was a Christian based on their profile picture which had Christian references in it and also based on the mutual friend who’s Facebook post we were both commenting on. Maybe I was wrong in assuming he was a Christian, but I doubt it.
Now, I’m not going to get into the debate about these 2 sides of the issue. I won’t dive into the myriad of situations that get people debating about the various grey areas (rape induced pregnancies, medical emergencies etc…) that’s not what this is about. What I want to bring into the light is the conversation we need to have about how people who are Pro Life view and communicate about people who are “Pro Choice”. I think we need to step back out of the fray and listen to what we are saying and how it might be received by someone who may think differently from us. If fact it makes me wonder… what do Pro Choice people think of Pro Life people? Now that’s a conversation I’d like to have. Perhaps healing can occur and brokenness restored in asking that question.
Friends, people who are Pro Choice value life too, they just value it differently. Pro Choice people don’t WANT to kill babies. They don’t go out of their way to promote the death of babies the same way Hitler did with the Jews. Do they take action to make abortions easier to happen? I have to believe some of them do. Why? Because perhaps they value the life of the mother over the unborn child and they are acting in a way that values that life. Now I don’t 100% agree with the “Pro Choice” philosophy or all of its thinking on abortion, but I also don’t see Pro Choice people wanting to actively pursue death to babies. They are NOT psychopathic murderers that need to be stopped at all costs with our votes. So how then should we vote? That is a conversation for another post. 🙂
My hope is that we as Christians can start to pull back the hate and have our eyes open to ways we can better embody the Kingdom of God by showing love with our words and actions. We need to explore the question of how to love people who think differently than us. I would argue that casting judgement and accusations that people are murderers isn’t the right place to start. Perhaps we should refrain from making people feel guilty for thinking different. There is a better way to have this conversation, and I welcome it.
Jesus didn’t temper his judgment of evil, nor will I
No. Jesus showed love to all regardless of their sin. He also did not instruct us to judge. That is not our charge, but rather for Him alone.
Actually, Jesus DID tell us to judge–“Judge righteously.” It’s in John 7:24
I like the heart around this issue. I think the extremes of comparing people to Hitler is off base and agree on that point. How do you expect to have a conversation with someone by saying “hi I think you as bad as the man who orchestrated the second greatest holocaust in human history.” You are right they think different then us. To further your logic one more step pro choice does not value the mother life over the baby. They do not believe the baby is alive or human at that point. If so they would have to call it murder. They value the mothers choice supremely even over what the bible seems to point out. We are known by God in our mothers womb. Ignoring the fact that rape, incest, and mother endangerment only make up less then one percent of the reason abortion happens every day. One is left with the other 99%. I would love for it to be a simple agree to disagree point. But it is not. By valuing you mother life over the child you are setting up a dangerous precedent. That we as humans decide when life matters not God. No one is judging them. They heap judgment upon themselves by not aligning with scripture. By assuming the place of God. The woman assumes the right of the creator and judges if that baby with in her womb has the right to live. At this it is more then a simple disagreement. It then becomes a question of Lordship. John you are right Jesus met everyone with love and mercy. I challenge you to find one place with his love and mercy are not followed by His mentioning of their sin. Jesus either points out the sin or forgives it. The disagreement is far different then us valuing one life over another. No the root of it goes back to who is our creator and who has the right to past judgement on our value. We have seen in nazi German what can happen to life when left in the hands of men who are allowed to past judgement on a humans worth. Many good people who did not want to see Jews die or valued their life’s ushered hitler in. They valued their lives over that of the non Germans. Make no mistake the greatest holocaust the world has ever known is that of abortion. While I do not believe people who are pro choice are hitler incarnate. It is hard to divide their thinking from the climate that made German home to the slaughtering of millions of Jews in the 1940’s. Went I say I’m pro life that means I value all life and believe that God judges life and it’s worth. It might even mean that I value the baby more then my own life. I would have to be willing to give my life if needed so the baby might live. We need to have love in all things and not shy away from the truth. The same God full of Love and grace who died on a cross for me is the same God who has called me a sinner. It is not Love or truth. It is the truth in Love.
I agree with much of what you said, however the major point that I’m trying to make is that you can’t begin to speak truth in love unless you speak love first. Someone who doesn’t know Christ, or is aware of what we believe will not even begin to hear truth unless there is love first. And that is where we are failing. We are too quick to take up our position, our belief, our understanding of truth and pass it on to those who do not have ears to hear. The “Truth” we speak to them is lost on them because of how and when we speak it. Jesus had something we don’t have, an understanding of who he was speaking too… he knew the woman at the well, her situation, her story… for us, we need to get to a place of understanding before we can begin to speak truth in love. Can the Holy Spirit speak through our lack of understanding? Of course… but it starts with a deep desire to love and help others first, not convince them of their sin first.