:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 ::

I've Had An Epiphany

I used to have a hard time understanding how being pro-life in this country is, 99.95% of the time, synonymous with being strictly anti-abortion. I used to band my head against large, solid objects trying to figure out where the emphasis on providing for the needy, caring for the elderly, opposing the death penalty, and opposing war had gone to amongst the supposedly pro-life crowd. Where did it go? It just didn't make sense to me.

That's changed. I understand now.

At first glance, one would think that the reason that being pro-life was boiled down into one element is because the American public can't handle such a multi-faceted approach. A look at the straight-edge movement can quickly show this to be a lie. What's going on is that, for many/most people, calling themselves pro-life allows them to engage in Pharisaism and not feel bad about it. It's hard to feel holier-than-thou about demonstrating against the death penalty, clothing the naked, or feeding the poor. The issue of abortion allows people to say "I never did that evil thing, I must be better than those people. I need to do what I can to stop them from doing their evil deeds." Unlike the other components of being pro-life, there's no moral action or improvement for the self; it's all about how evil somebody else is. This is one of the very faults that Jesus Himself railed against in his preaching. Being holy and doing good things isn't about being seen while being holy, it's about being holy. That message is the entire point of Matthew 6-7:6. I acknowledge that there are those who truely are pro-life and have decided that they can best be effective in opposing abortion. But, there are a great many people for whom the be-all and end-all of being pro-life is being anti-abortion, and it is they who have missed the point entirely.

I need to remember all this for the next time I go off on someone for saying they don't like the Democrats because they're "baby-killers." The GOP has managed to corral the anti-abortion position, and so they get the mis-applied label of being pro-life, even though they were gung-ho for invading Iraq and are led by a president who was previously a very execution-happy governor. Because so many people falsely label themselves pro-life, they feel approval for their self-righteousness every time a politician or member of the clergy speaks out about the evils of abortion. It's time that somebody, preferably a bunch of somebodies wearing Roman collars, stood up and disabused people of this notion.

:: The Squire 4:26 PM :: email this post :: ::
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