Category: Social Justice

Jesus famously was asked this question at His trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate:

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?

John 18:37-38a (KJV)

I was fascinated by this question as a young man. I even wrote a paper in college in an Honors Philosophy class on the subject. Interestingly, before I knew The Truth (the person of Jesus Christ), and the more I researched this subject, the more confused I became. I think we all have a somewhat intuitive notion of what is “true” and what is a “lie”, but trying to define “truth” is a troublesome pursuit!

So, in one sense, Pilate’s question is not his alone, but a struggle for all of humanity. But, of course, for those who know His Word, we know that Jesus Christ HIMSELF is the definition of TRUTH (and even more!) (John 14:6). This is at once quite satisfying, in that knowing Him, we know THE TRUTH. But, on another level, this might be even more troubling to the questioning mind, since Jesus is a person, while truth is a concept (or so we’ve been taught).

But my personal struggle with all this has only intensified in recent years (about 5 to be exact) as the political rhetoric around “disinformation”, “misinformation”, censorship, free speech, and now a government “Disinformation Governance Board” (a part of the Department of Homeland Security) has blossomed. About 3 years ago I re-read the (prophetic) novel “1984” by George Orwell, and was in a state of shock for several weeks, as the realization set in that we are now actually LIVING IN such times. And the formation of our own “Ministry of Truth” here in the free speech capital of the world has only exacerbated (if that were possible) the reality that truth has pretty much vanished from the public sphere; to be replaced by … well, I’m not sure exactly what we’re being fed these days…

And to make matters worse, it seems like much of the modern (American) church has been polarized into political camps, such that we are at war with each other on such (seemingly, at least to my mind) clear-cut issues as abortion, the role of government, freedom of speech and religion, and many others. I fear we have conflated our religion and our country (or at least our politics) into an unholy alliance of the sacred and the profane, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

So, what is truth?

Or even, “what is true?”

Can I believe my conservative talk-show hosts? Can you believe your liberal talking heads? (not to put it too personally 😉 …) Can I believe my pastor? How about your spouse, or mother-in-law? DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON????

yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;

Romans 3:4 (KJV)

Seems like this is MY only hope.

I have caught myself (recently, not so much earlier) refraining from shooting off my mouth in discussions with others (of a different political persuasion) with talking points that I haven’t researched myself. Or at least prefacing my remarks with “Apparently” or “I have heard” … instead of blindly claiming for truth what may be (at best) politically slanted, or at worst flat-out propaganda.

And yet, I still find myself WANTING to agree with my favorite people, just because they’re on MY side, rather than trying to find out if even they are really being truthful. And perhaps, therein lies the rub: our desires to fit in, to be part of something, to be in community, to be accepted, very often trump even our desire for THE TRUTH. And maybe it’s part laziness, or just plain busy-ness. It’s (most of the time) a whole lot easier to turn on the TV and “consume” our viewpoints, predigested by our favorite pundits, than to research, think, ponder, and pray. Or, God forbid, to change our viewpoint if we perchance find ourselves at odds with the actual truth…

One of my favorite speakers (although I’ve only heard him once) impressed me most because he seemed genuinely interested in talking with and HEARING other people’s points of view, because he wanted to ponder, and reason about his own viewpoint, so that he could arrive, more and more closely, at the TRUTH. He was speaking about abortion, which is, as you know, one of my hot button interests. Which, incidentally, I have changed and refined my view on over the years. In 1973, the year of Roe v. Wade, I was not even out of high school. I don’t even recall noticing the announcement of the ruling, much less caring one way or the other. Even when Operation Rescue came to my church in around 1988 (maybe, I can’t remember the date) I initially felt that the whole issue was too political, and so not something I needed to worry about (much less protest about) as a Christian. Being married to someone who have previously had three abortions, who subsequently came to a deep understanding of what she had done, obtaining forgiveness, and peace with God about it, and becoming (I would say) a warrior in the Pro-Life movement, did a LOT for my understanding. And yet, in the years since she died, as I have further involved myself in Right to Life, our local Hope Pregnancy Clinic, our Safe Haven Maternity Home, blogging, reading, and thinking, I find myself even deepening my understanding of the issues, the politics, but most importantly the plight of young women (and men; don’t forget the men) caught in the grist mill of unwanted pregnancy (from WANTED sexual activity), parental and peer pressures, political maneuvering, big money abortion providers, and so on.

And even so, the level of LIES, of deliberate misdirections, of hypocritical punditry, misinformation, and on and on, even more so today, ASTOUNDS me. How can people so blatantly spew the stuff they do?? How can well-meaning, religious, kind-hearted people believe, speak, act on such obvious (to me) untruths?

Of course, I only have to look at my own life to see a progression: starting from complete indifference and ignorance, to a growing zealousness, compassion, and hatred of evil. And how much more are others in their own progression? At what stage in such a journey are they? What pressures are they facing, and what influences do they have impinging on them?

Patience.

“God is not slow, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wanting that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth.” (somewhat paraphrased from 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:4).

God IS going to sort out all this. My job is to be OF the truth, so I can hear HIS voice, and be led onward to Glory. And to proclaim, persuade (perhaps), and nurture others towards that same TRUTH, so we can be together forever…

So, thanks for reading, and soldier on for the truth in a world full of lies and deception!!

If you’ve read any of my other posts you will know that I am passionately pro-life. And not just politically conservative, or Republican, but PRO-LIFE. And I am trying to “put my money where my mouth is” by volunteering with our local pregnancy clinic, the local maternity home, our local Right-to-Life chapter, and so on (and, of course, helping financially). Not to mention having been married to a post-abortion survivor (she had three abortions) for 20 years, and holding her through many times of agony and tears and regrets.

So, a couple of weeks ago I read a question on Quora.com (where I also sometimes write answers) asking basically this: “Are any ‘pro-life’ people actually willing to pay medical costs, etc. for a woman to deliver the baby they are forcing her to keep?” At first I was alternately offended, defensive, responding back (in my head) with righteous indignation, disgusted with the hypocrisy (and bitterness) inherent in such a question, and formulating fiery responses in my head. But the next day I believe God my Father told me simply to “Think about it”….

So, I did. and several things came up in rather rapid succession:

1. I can say I am completely willing, as are all the pro-life people I work with, to do whatever it takes to support a woman in choosing to give birth to her child. But I have to admit it would be hard (financially, emotionally, etc.) to do when the time came. I mean, I am a grandfather: how easy would it be to go back to essentially my twenties and stay up nights with a crying baby, not to mention the almost astronomical costs of childbirth in a hospital these days. And on and on. And I have to admit I hadn’t really thought through these things in terms of, “what am I asking a woman to go through, in not aborting her child?” I’m sure most of you HAVE thought through this, but, for me, it was a bit of an eye-opener.
2. Without knowing the questioner’s moral stance, livelihood, or basically anything about him/her, I can still say for almost certain that anyone forcing a woman into abortion is NOT very willing to pay the almost certain costs to her in terms of emotional, psychological, often medical damage and hurt, not to mention the possibility of death, infertility, risk of miscarriage, depression, grief, and more, all of which are documented side-effects of abortion. Why can I say this? For one: abortion is all about avoiding the costs and responsibilities of raising a child in the first place, so why would anyone wanting to avoid these basic costs want to incur any other costs/risks/responsibilities if they could avoid them? So, on a secondary level I was disgusted at the blatant hypocrisy of the question.
3. But, much further down the train of thinking came the thought: if I want and believe in the end of legalized abortion in this country, then what? What do things look like after that? Do we just return to the “good-old days” of back-alley abortions, of stigma and trauma and shame? What is the compassionate position we should be taking as truly “pro-life” people for the inevitable result of 1000s (millions?) of women and men who still do not want the responsibility of raising the child they created, and yet are unable to now have an abortion to “take care of” the “problem”? Are we willing, able, and prepared to actually support these women and men through the DIFFICULT scenario they face? Are we able and prepared to do the education and counseling, and make the societal changes necessary to ensure that we don’t have a backlash that would potentially bring back Roe v. Wade in perhaps an even more horrible version (such as we have seen this last year in New York and other places, actually legalizing what amounts to euthanasia (or legalized murder, in my view) of a child even after delivery if the mother “doesn’t want it”)? We only have to look back not even 100 years to see what happened to the carefully crafted and long-fought-for Prohibition, and the backlash that led to its eventual repeal, to the state we are now in where not only alcohol, but marijuana, even potentially more lethal and dangerous drugs have been/are being legalized…. If history is any teacher, I’m pretty certain that we could face the same kind of backlash after Roe v. Wade is overturned in 10-20 years, if not sooner.

So, in short, I believe God was asking me to think about what I am, what we are asking for, and to be prepared to fight the even harder fight to make sure the change is permanent.

How can I, how can WE do that? What even do we need to be prepared for, realistically?

And what if the Abolitionists win (see my previous post on “Abolition“)? What if after Roe v. Wade is overturned, the law of the land becomes murder charges not only for the doctor, but the woman (maybe even the man) who is involved in a now illegal abortion? What do we imagine the backlash to that will be after almost 50 years (approaching two generations) of legalized, even free, abortion on demand?

Now let me say, NONE OF THIS is intended to even suggest that I want to keep abortion legal. That is unthinkable; to me the equivalent of legalizing murder. But, having God ask me to think about this to me means that there IS something to think about, to ponder deeply, to do something about. Nor should you infer that I have any doubt about the future of Roe v. Wade — the blood of 60+ million unborn children is crying out to God for justice. He is NOT going to leave their cry unheard!

But to me this became very personal as I pondered the question: What would I do if a young woman came to me and angrily demanded that I had a responsibility to help her deal with her unwanted pregnancy now that abortion was off the table because of MY vote, MY pro-life stance and MY work? Could I just answer that her stance is immoral, unjust, and her own fault, so she just “suck it up” and deal with it? Should I threaten her with murder charges, jail, the ruin of her life if she goes through with a back-alley abortion (and mind you, I don’t for one second imagine there won’t be such people, any less than there were no speakeasies or moonshine stills during Prohibition)? Should we distribute condoms to all middle-school children and teach them about “safe sex” so they won’t get pregnant? Should we have all “wayward” teens sterilized so they couldn’t possibly have “unwanted” pregnancies? Or, … or …? God forbid we should respond AT ALL like any of this!!!

Or, should we have now government-funded pregnancy clinics (a possibility most pro-life clinics have avoided like the plague, because of the specter of government control that goes along with funding), and mandatory referrals to them for any unwanted pregnancy?

Will we just sit back, pat ourselves on the back for having achieved our goal of Roe v. Wade being overturned and let America (and the rest of the world) “deal with it”? Is that what Jesus would do?

But I think the hardest thought for me was this: given the CERTAINTY that there will (always) be women who refuse any good counsel, or laws, and have sex, get pregnant, and then refuse to go through with the pregnancy, what should we do for/with this situation? Should there be (shudder) some legalized abortion route for the truly recalcitrant? Like we have a minimum drinking age (that virtually no one that I know obeys)? To “limit” abortions to the truly desperate? Should we legally enforce adoptions? What if that leads to an increase in the rate of adoption abuse, where people get into the business of “adopting” children of unwanted pregnancies simply for the opportunity of financial gain, or worse?? Any number of HORRIBLE scenarios come rushing to my mind, and I’m overwhelmed…

I could almost start to think that it might be better to simply leave things as they are, than to deal with such possible nightmare scenarios once Roe v. Wade is gone. I did say “almost”. I can’t go there. But I have a feeling that not only myself, but maybe many of us in the pro-life movement haven’t really thought about what’s next. Maybe some, even many, have been thinking and planning, but I personally have never once had such a conversation, or read such a book or such an article, or even heard the question asked. So, I’m asking it: After Roe v. Wade, Now What?

I don’t have the answers (obviously) yet. But if we don’t even ask the question, I’m certain we won’t have any answers when the time comes either.

But, actually, I do think we have some of the answers. Already. We do have 1000s of pro-life pregnancy clinics all over the country. We do have prayer chains everywhere, millions of prayers going up to our Heavenly Father, for justice, for mercy, for help. We do have maternity homes in many places, we have adoption agencies, and trained counselors, we have many, many women who have gone through unwanted pregnancies, who have survived rape, and incest, and kept their babies, and know what it takes to do that. We have men and women who survived abortions in the womb, and have found the grace to survive, to forgive, and to be tireless advocates for the unborn.

What I’m most uncertain about, however, since we are seeking for legal changes, for laws to be repealed, for societal “norms” now set in concrete for almost 50 years to be upended, is what the legal framework should be, what the societal changes must look like, what the educational and religious and moral underpinnings of our country must be or become so that all of our gains are not lost in an even greater atrocity.

Thanks for reading.