Walking into a Planned Parenthood facility and shooting people is not pro-life – it's pro-death. Nothing about Robert Lewis Dear, the 59-year-old gunman who killed three people and wounded nine in Colorado Springs last week, carries the true, biblical essence of the pro-life movement.
He's a maniacal man who deserves punishment to the full extent of the law. The picture is still unclear as to his motives, but if it was to confront abortion, he's dead wrong – that's not the way to do it. Nothing separates murderers like him from killers like ISIS.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those killed and wounded. We pray the church in Colorado Springs surrounds them with the love of Jesus.
With all the hype around Planned Parenthood recently being exposed and now this tragedy, it brings the prolife community to a significant point in time where we must clearly define the movement.
We grew up pro-life and were taught to value all life, not just that of the baby. The biblical basis for this was Jesus' words in John 10-11:
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
We understood that taking the life of anyone – including that of an abortionist – was morally wrong and biblically reprehensible. Rather, we were to give up our lives for others, including those dismembering babies.
We remember a guy who came into the pro-life movement in the early '90s by the name of Paul Hill. He was spewing rhetoric like "justifiable homicide," proclaiming it was OK to kill if it meant saving babies. We knew this was garbage.
Many pro-life leaders publicly denounced voices like Hill's, and the pro-life community as a whole created distance from him.
Sadly, Mr. Hill actually believed what he preached, and he killed an abortionist and his bodyguard in 1994. It was a significant tragedy.
In the days following the murder, news trucks covered our house in Dallas, Texas, as our dad was a pro-life leader. He did dozens of interviews, denouncing Hill's actions and fighting to clearly define what it meant to be pro-life.
The shot heard round the nation was when Dad said, "If I was at the abortion clinic the day Paul Hill arrived with his gun, it would be my Christian duty to take the bullet and lay my life down for the abortionist."
That statement disarmed the narrative that was running wild against the pro-life community – and it clearly defined the biblical basis of what it meant to be pro-life.
Paul Hill was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in 2003. (The only God-given right to take life is that of the government via capital punishment, which is meant specifically to deter murder and protect life.)
Now today, as the nation becomes more life affirming every day it's vital to restate, reaffirm and reapply what it means to truly be pro-life.
Because it's one thing to be against abortion, but it's another thing to be for life.
In the streets, we seek to be the loving hands and feet of Jesus at the moment of crisis when abortion-bound mothers feel they have no other choice.
In the media, we seek to be a voice for the voiceless – to bring dignity to the unborn and healing to the family.
And in the legislature, we strive to protect life and liberty – our basic American rights – for all individuals, both born and unborn.
We reject the narrative that being pro-life is "hateful" or "extreme" in any way. In fact, it's the complete opposite.
Yet, unfortunately, today this is the narrative that is again rising to the forefront after Friday's tragedy. Already some in the media are likening pro-lifers to those who pull the trigger. This is ridiculous.
According to Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains: "We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country."
As morally incomprehensible as Mr. Dear's actions were on Friday (and given the fact he's unknown among pro-lifers and is registered to vote as an "unaffiliated female"), the pro-life community is not creating a "poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism." Nor are we extreme because we believe that dismembering innocent children and selling their body parts is morally wrong.
If you want to see a true extremist who's creating an environment for domestic terrorism, look no further than Louis Farrakhan, as he called for 10,000 volunteers to "stalk and kill" white people. (Why is he not in jail, by the way?)
If Ms. Cowart's statement is left unchecked and becomes the accepted narrative, then being pro-life in America will become illegal. Why? Because it's considered "extreme." And it won't stop there – in time, all Christians who believe the Bible to be true and are willing to give it a voice in culture will also be considered "extreme."
We stand up and reject this narrative. It is Vicki Cowart and the thousands of others who make money off dismembered babies who are extreme. They've created a "poisonous environment" for innocent children, many of whom would be here today if only they had a voice.
Now is not the time to be silent – first for the victims and their families in Colorado and also for the millions of defenseless babies that are murdered year after year. It's time to be voice, strong and true!
Media wishing to interview Jason & David Benham, please contact [email protected].
|