Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1989

Abortion and Civil Disobedience
Murray Moerman

A Snapshot of Recent Memory:

In 1933 in a certain land a wonderfully and passionately idealistic man came to power. Christians of that land supported him almost unanimously.

This great leader opposed smoking, drinking, pornography, prostitution and a host of other social ills.

He then shared his vision of a great new society with enraptured audiences throughout the land.

New laws of course would be needed for a perfect society. Unwanted children would detract from a perfect society. So would those with subnormal IQ's, the physically handicapped, and those of mixed blood and questionable racial origin.

New legislation was therefore duly written, passed, and made into law. One of the wonderful things about this great new leader was that everything he did was perfectly legal. He wrote much legislation, such as that which wiped out all individual rights "for the protection of the people and the state" he explained, and never broke a single law. "Law and order" was his motto.

Vans backed up to orphanages. Their drivers tore children from the arms of the Catholic nuns who loved them, and took them to facilities especially established to remove old, imperfect vestiges from the emerging perfect new order.

Unwanted babies were disposed of there, neatly and without any embarrassing mess. Likewise the physically and mentally handicapped, Jews and Gypsies, and a host of others who had been legally declared to be without rights for the good of society.

The church was told to preach of the gospel and stay out the legal process. The civil government, after all, had been elected to rule.

Adolf Hitler legally destroyed 14,000,000 "imperfect" - by his definition - human beings.

The world watched.

The New Face of an Old Question:

How it came to be that one's right to life in our nation has been reduced in a very few years to a mere matter of public polls and media debate in our society remains a mystery to many Christians. This change in public attitude and policy has been a gradual one, but unfortunately one which has been demonstrating a growing momentum in the last several decades.

The recent conviction and jailing of Christians of various denominations, including our own, for their involvement in "illegal" pro-life activity has attracted media attention and troubled church members across our nation.

Are these members of our churches now going to jail troublemakers, or are they courageous and unsung heros?

The Question of Civil Disobedience:

The removal in our society of any law prohibiting the killing of unborn children has raised serious and perplexing questions - questions which will not at any time in the near future go away.

In many quarters of our secular society the question appears to be: "How dare anyone challenge the right of a mother to end the life of her inconveniently conceived pre-born child (fetus)?"

In the church the resulting question for many is: "When does the conflict between God's absolute moral standards and human law justify actions outside of human law to stand on the side of God's absolute moral standards?"

It had become necessary for Christians again, painfully and with great care, to consider the question of the relationship between the relative authority of God's law and human law - the question which historically has issued for some into what has been called "civil disobedience."

When is civil disobedience right? When is it wrong? Are Christians ever called by God to civil disobedience? What should be the attitude towards those who believe they have been?

The Evident and the Less than Evident:

Two facts are evident to most Christians:

The first fact is that there are times when the law of a nation openly and directly confronts and contradicts the heart and law of God, such as in the current legality of pornography, gambling, violating the Sabbath, taking the name of the Lord in vain, prostitution, adultery and abortion.

The second fact is that there is a difference - a radical, heart wrenching difference - between that which man has declared to be legal, and that which is right in the sight of God.

What is less evident is what a Christian is to do in those circumstances, and even less so, whether a Christian ever has the right or even the duty to violate a sinful arbitrarily made human law, in order to obey an eternal divine law. Does the Bible speak to this question?

Romans Thirteen:

As Romans 13 makes clear, Christians are called to obey human law and to respect that legitimate and necessary human authority which God, 'in His wisdo@ has established to restrain the terrible effects of fallen human nature on human society.

Christians are further to be model citizens of the Kingdom of God on earth, living a quality of life which is beyond that which is merely legal, to include impeccably-also- that which is moral, ethical, right and that which is far above the minimum daily requirement of the merely "legal".

The Book of Judges ends with the indictment: "And every man did what was right in his own eyes." God opposes anarchy. This is beyond dispute.

The state does not bear it's power in vain as Daniel learned as he was cast into the lion's den, and as members of our churches are learning as they are imprisoned for standing up for the right to life.

Yet as Joan Andrews, who has been held in solitary confinement for 2 1/2 years in a U.S. prison as part of a 5 year sentence for unplugging an abortion machine, said:

'Those who promote the killing at will are the anarchists. We who respect life are the law enforcers. We cannot allow the anarchists to legalize murder."

"More than the Law'

Most Christians will agree that believers are called to do more than the law in demonstrating the heart of God.

Christian "agape" love demands more than any human law requires, as does forgiveness, generosity, hospitality, tithing, purity of heart and a host of Biblical demands for righteousness.

But is doing more than the law in the sense of "civil disobedience", when there is obvious, direct, and blatant conflict between God's law and man's law, ever justifiable, right, or even required of Christians?

After Hitler's dream of a perfect society crumbled, the 'doctors' who killed those who had been leizalw declared to have no rights by the law, including the right to life itself, argued at their trial:

"But I was ordered to do so by the state, it was legal," and even "I would have been at risk if I had not done so,"

but the judges at Nuremberg ruled"

'There is a law higher than human legality. Though you were within the technicality of German law, you were wrong. You were obligated to disobey that unjust law."

Biblical Precedence for Civil Disobedience:

Examples of civil disobedience and its consequences in Scripture are more in number than most Christians think. They include God's honouring of such people as:

- Moses who stood against the law of Pharaoh demanding: "Let my people go!"

- Rahab who stood against the law of Jericho in harbouring Israelite spies.

- Esther who risked her life to violate the law of the king saying simply: "If I perish, I perish. Who knows if I have not come to the Kingdom for such a time as this!"

- Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were cast into a fiery furnace for refusing to bow to the king.

- Daniel who was cast into the lion's den for activity he knew to be illegal by the legitimate human law of the land.

- John the Baptist who died for confronting the authority of Herod the Tetrach.

- Peter and John who declared to the legitimate ruling authorities of the Sanhedrin: "Judge for yourselves whether it is right to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking of what we have seen and heard."

Early Christians by the thousands were martyred for declaring Jesus to be Lord over the emperor, and act against the legitimately installed -emperor which was interpreted to be civil disobedience.

And future Christians who will stand against Satanic authority are declared to have overcome because of the fact that they would love not their own lives unto death.

Civil Disobedience in History:

A study of history reveals that also in post-canonical years many ethical advances have required civil disobedience for their accomplishment such as the right to worship freely

-the right to educate our children in the ways of God,

-the end of child labour laws,

-the end of poor houses,

-the declaration that black people are in fact human,

-the end of slavery,

-the right of women to vote, and hold driver's licences.

My parents were involved in civil disobedience. They directly or indirectly but illegally fed, housed, hid and transported hundreds of Jews fleeing the death camps of Germany. Frequently on my mother's farm there were fifty "illegal" people who needed food and protection. My father was on the "top ten!' most wanted men list in his nation for his illegal activities in resisting the evils of the German invasion.

Some will say: "But Canada's current pro-fife civil disobedience is different, at least in degree. I am opposed to abortion, but that is different from Hitler's wholesale withdrawal of the right to life."

Our country's withdrawal of the right to life is different from that of Germany's in practice, I agree but I do not agree that it is different in principle.

In the 15 years that the unborn have been unprotected from those who would profit from their death in Canada, 28,000,000 children (more than the entire population of our nation, and twice the number of persons killed by Hitler) have -died in North America.

Has the Time for Civil Disobedience Come?

Each of us must answer that question alone before the throne God, not simply before any human judge.

Let me suggest reasons why s)ome Christians have come to believe that the time for civil disobedience has again come:

1. Abortion is premeditated murder.

In making this statement I am, as a pastor, aware that there are women who will read these words who have had abortions. There are men reading these words who have counselled their wife or girlfriend to end the life of their child. That knowledge remains deeply painful for them even if their action was taken in ignorance or under pressure some time ago.

The Lord remains present to heal, forgive, and make whole. The church must take the lead in bringing healing and forgiveness to those who have taken the life of their unborn. There is no one else who can.

Yet the facts remain the same. Many of these who have been victims of the abortion lie are today the greatest proponents of the rights of the unborn. A poll taken by Newsweek Magazine in 1985 indicated that 96% of post-abortive women believed that they had committed murder.

2. Fifteen years of concerted legal efforts to restore rights to the unborn have failed. Both Prime Ministers Trudeau and Mulroney have received in excess of 1,000,000 letters signatures, and post cards each, urging an end to the legally protected killing of children. They have been ignored.

The Supreme Court of Canada, after- inviting such a submission, has refused to rule on the rights of an unborn child under the Charter of Rights. This (in)action was necessary lest a clear decision confuse the public and medical profession, because the issue of killing is too theoretical and abstract, and because there is no law on which to base the ruling, the Court explained, after the same Court had thrown out the necessary law referred to just months earlier.

Parliamentarians indicate privately that right-to-life law cannot be written which the court will not throw out.

3. Homicide, according to a John Hopkins University study, has for 6 consecutive years, been the leading cause of death for children under one year.

Infanticide, under the guise of "withholding medical treatment" (often meaning the withholding of food and water, ie. deliberate starvation) is already widely practiced and supported by law.

4. Active euthanasia is widely discussed and supported by medical associations as an economical solution to the problem of again.

Understanding the Prisoners of Conscience:

Some will say nevertheless: "But why break -the law? I am against abortion on demand, but why not just write a letter, sip a petition, or carry a placard, and be done with it?"

I asked Dave Forsyth, a Christian who has been serving time in prison for blocking the door to an abortion clinic, that question for those who wonder but don't understand. He got personal. He said: "If you knew a stranger had your child, one week old, one day old, or one minute old; or your niece, your neighbour's child; and were about to kill the child, you would do anything to stop them, wouldn't you?"

"Jesus said, 'As you have done it to the least of these little ones, you have done it for me.' 'Just because you don't know the child to be killed personally, makes that child no less valuable.

"Awakening to the personalization of abortion is like coming upon a car accident where the occupants are unconscious, a fire is burning under the hood and there is immanent danger of the gas tank exploding.

"You say to yourself, "Anyone who climbs into that car with the gas tank about to explode is crazy."

"As you get closer, you realize that the car is borrowed from a neighbour, but the people inside are your own wife and children. Suddenly the fact that you could be badly hurt or even killed doesn't mean a thing.

Those are human lives in that car, the lives of your family."

To Those Considering Civil Disobedience:

Some will not understand what David Forsyth means with such words, and others will not agree, but let me say two things to those who are nevertheless considering civil disobedience:

1. It is necessary for those who choose civil disobedience to be those who obey secular law impeccably at every point where it does not violate the sanctity of human life.

Anyone who is undisciplined, who does not demonstrate model character, who does not have a sterling reputation in the world, who does not model humility and respect before the law at every other point, should not consider civil disobedience.

2. It is necessary for those who choose civil disobedience to take the legal consequences graciously, and without complaint. Do not suffer for evil, but suffer for good.

To Those Disavowing Civil Disobedience:

There will continue to be many who disavow civil disobedience. Some will reason simply, though unconsciously: "I do not want to follow in the footsteps of David Forsyth and other Christian prisoners of conscience. Therefore what he and the others have done must be wrong.,,

Yet every subject must have a predicate. If the killing of the unborn is wrong, then we must do something. We may not be satisfied simply to ride the coat tails of the moral convictions of these prisoners of conscience. Everyone must do something, and ff not this, what?

Other legal means must be pursued including picketing the home of supreme court judges, picketing the homes of doctors who kill for a fee, or caring for the personal affairs and ministries of those who do choose the testimony of civil disobedience, opening our homes and churches to the victims of abortion and those with problem pregnancies, or speaking to the lawmakers who are responsible under God for righteous legislation.

Each of us need to ask: "Should I be involved in civil disobedience?" and "If not, why not?" and "What shall I then do?" with equal honesty and intensity.

We may not win the battle. But the Lord is sovereign and He will win the war!

Jesus turned His face voluntarily towards the cross for us. Jesus was crucified for claiming to have an authority higher than that of the Jewish state of the Roman Empire.

Jesus said:"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)

Let us look to Christ and his cross not only as the sign of our salvation, but also as our calling to costly obedience.

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