40 Days of Sweet Lies
It is that time of year again for the 40 Days of Life campaigns. We see the familiar furniture in front of Planned Parenthood: Rosaries, Guadalupe icons, statues, and pro-lifers with their mouths taped shut. Conspicuously absent are pictures of aborted babies which participants are purportedly praying to save.
We are glad to see many exercising their first bit of repentance and activism toward the plight of these children. Much good comes out of it. Their presence do save lives. Men and women who are responsible for abortions in their past are publicly making a statement and a stand for the babies be it be ever so feeble. Others considering abortion are convicted and repent. Most passersby are clueless as to what 40 Days for Life is about, nor do they care.
40 Days participants try to be winsome by being inoffensive to those who commit murder of the innocent. They do this by being inordinately nice, and overly kind to death camp workers and their baby-killing customers. They laud Abby Johnson, Bernard Nathanson, Carol Everett, and other “pro-life heroes” who left the baby-killing industry over of the niceness of pro-lifers. It is great that they repented, but why put them on a pedestal? They are not worth one of the babies that they killed!
Pro-lifers are willing to sacrifice the interests of the babies slated for death so they might endear themselves to the public. They are abhorred with those who come to the death camps with graphic images of aborticide though it is proven that these images save lives! They complain that the images bring scorn upon 40 Days for Life campaigns. 40 Days is trying to give a positive message to the public: CHOOSE LIFE! Anti-abortion people give a negative message: THOU SHALL NOT KILL!
Both messages are biblical but both messages are not appropriate at the same place and time.
Imagine 40 Days performing their act at a Nazi death camp in front of starving, freezing prisoners. Imagine them being ever so sweet and nice to German soldiers force marching ragged prisoners to a work detail. Rosaries in hand they smile and wave at the armed jack booted thugs “We are praying for you!” “Choooooose life!”
This scenario gives sort of an acceptance to the Nazi’s conduct while tacitly rejecting the prisoners.
Admittedly, those in a similar scenario displaying pictures of holocaust victims stacked up like cordwood offend Nazi sensibilities, horrify children, and invite Nazi scorn, yet the message is a true and appropriate, it is a calling to repentance. One does not repent if wrongdoing is not implied. 40 Days particpants join with the Nazis in scorning anti-abortion folk. 40 Days is reluctant to mention the word “sin”. They search in vain for a positive alternative to the “S” word. There is no such alternative, so they settle instead for a lie. And that dear reader is why we title this paper “40 Days of Lies.”
Jesus is a “rock of offense” He is a “stumbling block” to death camp workers and those who support them (1 Peter 2:8). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is both positive and negative. We must own our sin before we “choose life” in our Savior Jesus Christ.
dan holman
Missionaries to the Pre-born, Iowa
End of email
There is significant moral error in this message. Firstly, there is the respect that pro-life people of good will owe to one another. We may differ from time to time on choice of tactics, but in no way is Holman morally justified in disparaging this campaign as "40 Days of Lies". In a word, who does he think he is to judge them? Second, there is the belittling of the repentance and conversion of the former abortionists whom he mentioned above. I seem to recall Jesus saying something about the joy in heaven over one repentant sinner; I don't sense that joy in Holman's message, but rather a dismissive attitude. Third, he says "both messages are not appropriate at the same time and place". I suppose he's entitled to his opnion, but that's all it is - his opinion. Oh, by the way. I did google the term "40 days of lies" and indeed it is being used by a pro-abort blog. Nice going, Holman! You managed to align yourself (albeit unwittingly) with pro-aborts who hate 40 Days for Life! And you had the nerve to equate the 40 Days for Life folks with cowards trying to appease the nazis! You might want to consider why the 40 Days for Life campaign is arousing the anger of pro-aborts.
On the flip side - Not all of what Holman said can be dismissed. The "my way or the highway" approach that is so strident in Holman's email is indeed present in many "40 Days for Life" leaders with regard to the signs, although they do try to be "diplomatic" about it. While we should respect their right to decide on the appropriateness of the graphic signs in their campaign, we should make clear that 40 Days for Life will respect the rights of other pro-lifers who use the graphic signs. I have seen the graphic signs save lives; isn't that worth the attendant squeemishness and discomfort?
The proof of 40 Days for Life is in the number of babies saved. We can certainly disagree on tactics. I once heard a tape by a sidewalk counselor who had saved hundreds of babies personally. She was not against graphic signs, but thought they were less effective at the abortion mills because it made the woman immediately think, "Those people only care about the baby; they don't care about me."
ReplyDeleteThis counselor's approach was to address the self interest of the woman. And it certainly worked in her hands as the number of babies she saved babies showed.
We sure don't need to be attacking each other over differences in strategy to save babies and save souls. But to disparage the repentant sinners is certainly not Christian. There are plenty of murderers among the saints. Thank God for their conversion!
On the other hand, we've seen women turn around precisely because of the graphic signs. Many truly do not know what an abortion entails. When they see it, they realize that they cannot go through "the procedure". Therefore, I will not oppose their presence at the mills. Different things work for different environmnents. And I too thank God for the conversions of the abortion workers.
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