I have been pro-life for as long as I can remember. When I was twelve, I was the database keeper for the NC chapter of Right-to-Life. The chair would call me for a list, which I would print on tractor feed label paper using a dot matrix printer, and he would come over to pick up the print outs because I couldn't drive. At age 13-16, I worked the NC Right-to-Life booth at the State Fair. I have voted for the most pro-life candidates in every election since I registered at eighteen. I have observed Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in multiple churches and stood by many roadsides with pro-life signs while praying for this national tragedy to end.
I write all of this because I want to be perfectly clear that I believe abortion is abhorrent before I say what I am about to say. It has become very plain to me in the past few years that there is a difference between being pro-life and merely anti-abortion. I started noticing this a few years ago, but, like a lot of things, 2020 has brought this into sharp relief.
When horrifying images of what was happening at the border started coming out in 2017, many people that I had respected as pro-life made it clear that they did not care about kids in cages or the people being sent back to places where they would be killed. They cared a lot about finger-pointing, making sure that people knew this was happening prior to the Trump administration, but they did not care about the lives of the image-bearers of the Creator. They may be anti-abortion, but they are not pro-life.
When the caravan of refugees was making its way from Guatemala to America in 2018, our President (who many people that I know and love voted for only because he promised anti-abortion policies) threatened military action, and those same people in my circle agreed. These are people who label themselves pro-life, and they said out loud in my presence that we should just start randomly shooting refugees, people fleeing conditions we cannot imagine. Some of them have posted angry words at those who go to Mexico to feed those in camps, waiting for their asylum hearings. Imagine being angry that people are feeding the hungry. These people in my life are anti-abortion, but they should really stop calling themselves pro-life.
Please know that I understand that the situation at the border is complex, and there are no easy answers. I believe in the rule of law, and I want people to do things the right way. But I also know that those who care about life can't casually talk about randomly shooting human beings.
When the coronavirus was spreading through China in December, we observed from afar, thinking, "Oh, the poor Chinese. They've got another one." We'd seen them in masks before, and it really didn't seem to bother us. Besides, we had koala bears in Australia to worry about. When the US got its first identified cases, however, we jumped to blame the Chinese. People I love insisted on calling it everything but its medical name. When I question that, I get a history lesson (almost always showing their ignorance by using the Spanish flu (which started in Kansas) as their example). Can you say it? Of course. Is it helpful to do so? Of course not. Did we care when Chinese people were dying of this virus? Do we care if our Asian American citizens get attacked? If not, I'm not sure pro-life is an appropriate label.
In March, the shutdowns began. For about a week, we were all in this together, separately. That must be our attention span because as soon as people got done watching Tiger King, they started demanding the lockdowns be over. I have nothing but sympathy for those who have lost their jobs and worried about feeding their families (and those of us who are able should be doing everything we can to support food security), but the people holding signs like this one are showing their lack of respect for life over convenience and vanity.
I know we have to re-open eventually, but it has been disheartening to see how many people who call themselves pro-life saying things like, "Only 2% will die from it." I truly get the point they are making, but it's hardly a pro-life kind of statement. Some have been even more blatant, like conservative author Bethany Mandel, who tweeted, "Call me a grandma killer. I'm not sacrificing my home, food on the table, all our docs and dentists, every form of pleasure (museums, zoos, restaurants), all my kids' teachers in order to make other people comfortable. If you want to stay locked down, do. I am not." Where her Twitter bio used to say "pro-life," it now says "grandma killer." At least she's honest about not being pro-life anymore.
And now, we have the tragedy of the George Floyd murder. Don't kid yourself. It wasn't an arrest. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a complication. It wasn't a difficult decision that had to be made in a split-second. It was a murder. For 526 seconds, that cop listened as a human being suffocated beneath his body weight. In broad daylight, in front of three other police officers, bystanders begging him to stop, and a firefighter asking to be allowed to check Floyd's pulse, a man charged with the duty to "protect and serve" ignored those pleas, ignored his training, and ignored every human instinct to preserve life. I keep wondering what was going through his mind for 526 seconds. In the video, he appears unphased, even a little haughty. He put his hand in his pocket, which at best shows casual apathy (at worst, he's apply more pressure to his leg with his hand). I can't read his mind, but surely someone who cared about life would have stopped. He didn't. Those of us who identify ourselves as pro-life must respond to this. So far, the only way I have found is to donate to the NAACP Defense Fund, but I am seeking out other ways.
When the rage over this incident turned to riots, the divisions returned. I'm not in favor of riots, but I also know many of those who are posting about the riots just found a way to care less about the murder. It gives them a way to divert their attention and not ask themselves the hard questions. How did we react to the incredibly peaceful protest of "taking a knee"? We screamed that disrespecting the flag was protesting wrongly. When they blocked traffic, we said they were protesting wrongly. Perhaps if we had paid positive attention to non-violent protests, there wouldn't have been violent ones. Listen, I'm not condoning it. I'm truly not. I'm just saying if we wish to prevent it, we consider its cause. If you care more about property damage than we do about the death of George Floyd, you are not pro-life.
When I was in the 8th grade, my school showed a video series in chapel, called "How Now Shall We Live?" in which Chuck Colson and Francis Schaeffer examine the history, practice, and effects of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. It's gruesome, and I'm pretty sure no one would advocate showing it to middle school students today. But, it stuck with me. What stayed with me the most was that our culture seemed to divide life that was worthy of value from not based on convenience. If you want the baby, it's a life. If not, it's a clump of cells. If a person is born healthy, they are valuable. If they are born deformed or diseased, not so much. If a person becomes ill or damaged or in any way inconveniences society at large, we devalue them. The pro-life world has been preaching how wrong this is for at least the four and a half decades I've been alive. What is different now? Is it really about the rule of law and resisting arrest or is it that we are inconvenienced by immigrants and those who are different than we are? Do we believe human life is sacred or don't we? These are questions we MUST ask.
I know I am offending at least half of those reading this. That's fine. Be offended. But then be self-reflective. Are your actions, words, and social media posts part of the problem or part of the solution? Do you care deeply about the unborn but not so much about the post born? Are you anti-abortion, or are you truly pro-life? If you are pro-life, how will that change the way you live, speak, and act?
This might be my favorite blog post.
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