In recent days, I've encountered a new wave of criticism: The posts on my Facebook page are unchristian because I'm demonizing Planned Parenthood and attacking pro-choicers. A true Christian position, I'm told, would be one of love, of understanding.
Well, my position is one of love and understanding, beginning with love and understanding for the children in the womb. That's where our compassion and empathy must start.
And we must certainly do our best to empathize with the intense struggle many women go through when it comes to having an abortion – for countless women, it was the most difficult choice they made in their lives, not to mention the pain and regret they often live with for years after the procedure.
Some of the most moving calls we've ever received on my radio show have been from mothers and fathers who once chose to abort their babies, and we should always offer hope and forgiveness when speaking on the sin of abortion.
But when it comes to Planned Parenthood and the proud practitioners and defenders of abortion, they should be exposed and rebuked in the clearest of terms. What they are doing is evil, and when we combat evil we will certainly offend those who practice it and defend it.
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So be it. To not offend would mean that we failed to confront.
Was William Wilberforce concerned with offending the British slave traders when he exposed the evil of their industry?
Was Harriet Beecher-Stowe concerned with offending the American slave owners when she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin"?
Are we concerned today with offending radical Muslims when we denounce their murderous acts?
Then why should we be concerned with offending those who get rich off abortion or who celebrate the "right to choose" and denigrate preborn babies as a "mass of tissue"?
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible" (Ephesians 5:11-13).
Light will always expose darkness – as the recent undercover videos have exposed Planned Parenthood – and being exposed is never comfortable.
But rather than acknowledge guilt, Planned Parenthood has entrenched itself even further, attacking those who exposed them and even telling outright, slanderous lies.
Speaking on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood (who makes more than $500,000 per year as the leader of this "nonprofit" organization) made reference to the "heavily doctored videos," forgetting that "the full, unedited videos were released alongside the edited ones" and that the "full versions are, in fact, far more incriminating than the edited videos" (as noted by Susan Michelle on LiveActionNews.com).
Worse still, Richards then accused the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the group behind these sting videos, of being "part of the most militant anti-abortion movement that has been behind the bombing of clinics, the murder of doctors in their homes and in their churches, and that's what actually needs to be looked at."
This is downright slander, and lies like this need to be exposed in the sharpest possible terms.
By all means, let Planned Parenthood and its defenders be offended when we rebuke their lies and disinformation.
In point of fact, every major pro-life group has consistently denounced violence against abortion doctors and personnel as well as all attacks on clinics. And there is no connection between CMP and any of these acts of violence, as Michelle documents in her article, concluding, "No tie exists between CMP and murder. But it's apparently all that Planned Parenthood can try to connect. Words like militant have dark connotations, and Richards knows that. She uses the word so often, one might wonder if her vocabulary is very large."
And while the murder of abortion doctors and workers is just that – murder, to be punished to the full extent of the law and without excuse – we are talking about less than 10 such fatalities (all of them tragic) since Roe v. Wade in 1973 in comparison to more than 55 million abortions during that same time period.
Which is the greater tragedy, the greater horror, the greater crime?
And if it is right to expose and rebuke those who killed abortion doctors and their coworkers, it is right to expose and rebuke those who snuff out the lives of the unborn, all the more when they do it for profit and then market the child's parts.
As noted by Eric Morrissey, senior editor of HotAir, "This is the problem with the abortion position. They're arguing 'clump of cells,' 'pile of goop' while PP is marketing human livers, hearts."
What is offensive here is not Morrissey's statement but the truth of the statement. Let the offense come.
There are shocking parallels between the barbaric acts and philosophy of the Nazis and the barbaric acts and philosophy of Planned Parenthood, and the most damning quotes about Planned Parenthood come from the mouth of their founder, Margaret Sanger, whom I recently referred to as arguably "the architect of the greatest genocide in history."
Without question, we need to have compassion on victims of rape and incest, already traumatized beyond words by what was done to them and now, in their view, "punished" with an unwanted pregnancy, one that reminds them of their shame and pain every day. And we need to be sensitive to those who are already overwhelmed with life, saddled with meager finances and inadequate housing, wondering how they can possibly care for one more child.
However possible, we must work together to offer practical solutions, from adoption to assistance to moral and spiritual support, as many pro-life ministries do.
But we must not shrink back from rebuking the evil of the abortion industry, whether it causes offense or not.
In the face of such evil, we sin when we remain silent.
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