When Laws Allow Murder

WHEN LAWS ALLOW MURDER

By Cal Thomas August 30, 1988

“I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” — Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” 1849

Pro-life forces, frustrated by 15 years of abortion on demand and their inability to halt the practice, are increasingly borrowing an effective tactic of the 1960’s left–civil disobedience.

According to Randall Terry, who heads the largest of the civil disobedience movements call Operation Rescue, nearly 5,000 people have been arrested since early May for trespassing on the grounds of abortion clinics in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and other cities. Most of those arrested in the abortion protests are middle-class whites.

Randall Terry told me, “We have people coming directly from church to demonstrate. There’s never been anything like it before. Pastors who have never had a traffic ticket are putting their bodies on the line.”

Terry’s approach is different from past efforts–largely confined to protests from pulpits and lobbying Congress for a human life amendment–that have so far been ineffective. He said, “I’m not calling for upheaval, but repentance. We ought to be wearing a sign saying, ‘We’re 15 years too late.’ Christians have sinned against God and men for allowing abortion to go on.”

Terry believes that mass arrests will so clog the jails that “the system will cough us up because it is not equipped to deal with large uprisings.” Although more than 300 protesters remain in Atlanta jails for refusing to give their real names to authorities, Terry says not a single demonstrator has gone to jail or paid a fine in New York City, where hundreds were arrested during separate demonstrations.

The “rescuers” have four goals:

That no abortions will be performed on the day of the demonstration.
The closing of other clinics in the city that day because of increased tension.
Putting the pro-abortion forces on the defensive.
Adding momentum to the pro-life movement and contributing to the social pressure necessary for political change.

The protests are coming at an opportune time. Not only is it an election year in which continued demonstrations may again make abortion a major issue, but liberal Protestant denominations, which have long supported the right of a woman to have an abortion, are under increasing pressure to rethink their position.

The 1.6 million-member American Baptist church, which previously endorsed abortion, now is neutral on the issue. It also has withdrawn from the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with 3 million members, has called for a task force to review its strong pro-abortion position, written in 1970. Even the 9.3 million-member United Methodist Church has pulled back from its position and condemned abortion for “gender selection” or “earth control.”

In recent weeks, two major conservative ministers have endorsed civil disobedience tactics as a means to end abortion. Rev. Jerry Falwell, who preached in the 1960s against civil rights demonstrations against the government, gave $10,000 to Operation Rescue to help pay the legal bills of those who are arrested. He also showed up at an Atlanta Rescue operation and said he would consider being arrested, if it would help.

Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale is also a supporter. Noting that civil disobedience has been a part of the Christian church since the first century, Kennedy said, “I’ve always held to the New Testament position that we are to obey God rather than men. If the Apostles had obeyed the Sanhedrin (the religious city council of ancient Jerusalem), Christianity would never have been heard of. Millions of martyrs would never have died if they had burned incense to Caesar.”

If Operation Rescue catches fire and goes national, politicians will have to take note. The key is those conservative ministers. If they take up the cause of civil disobedience and encourage those who have been comfortable in their church pews too long to empty into the streets, profound change on abortion will come. Surely the jails could not hold them all. And our society could no longer ignore their message that what is taking place behind “clinic” doors is the slaughter of innocent human beings.