An Open Letter to the Pro-life Movement
“Abortion brings into the public arena a Van Tilian fact of life: an aborted baby is either dead or alive. There is no neutral ground, no halfway condition, in between dead or alive. The abortion issue was the wedge of Van Tilian self-consciousness for millions of Christians. They gained the first glimmer of awareness regarding a Van Tilian truth applied to civil law: the State is not neutral.
“We began to see placards: ‘Abortion is Murder.’ But then … that terrifying judicial question: ‘What is the proper civil penalty for murder?’ The answer was obvious: execution. The anti-abortionist leaders all began to waffle, and they have waffled ever since.”
- Gary North
Chalcedon Report
I concur.
I used to own a house across the street from an abortion clinic, before it was closed and then bulldozed. We have an extensive web site dealing with pro-life happenings from the mid-1990s until present.
See: http://forerunner.com/fyi/
I conceived the site as a way to identify a “mystery abortionist” who wanted to keep his identity secret. Meredith Raney now runs the site and has added volumes of information. Mademoiselle Magazine wrote a critique of the web site a few years ago. The abortuary owners used to accuse the local pro-lifers of being responsible for cutting their business in half. They even filed four federal lawsuits against us as a group claiming that the existence of the web site was a tortious (yes, that’s actually a word) offense.
I wrote an “Open Letter to the Pro-life Community” a while back, making the same point North makes above.
http://forerunner.com/abortionwars/abortionwars.html
Pro-life activists have done a lot to stop individual abortions from occurring. But if we want a permanent solution, that we do have to come to grips with the fact that although abortion has been restricted in American history, we are one of the few nations on earth that has not ever criminalized abortion.
There IS a lot we can do in the meantime. I chronicle some of these in my “Open Letter.”
But few want to deal with the weighty question of what criminal sanctions need to be enforced.
While it is widely held that abortion was legalized in 1973 through Roe v. Wade, this idea is absolutely wrong. While abortion was restricted in various places, abortion has never been nationally criminalized in American history. We must begin to create the kind of tension in the minds of people that will help them to extend beyond the current debate over the morality of abortion versus a woman’s right to choose. We must change the argument. Should abortion be restricted by the state in the same way that the FDA puts restrictions on food production? Or should an abortionist be tried as a murderer and executed?
See my “Open Letter to the Pro-life Community” for more details.
- Jay Rogers
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«- The Forerunner web site redesigned and updated
- Letter From Imprisoned Abortionist James Pendergraft, 8/13/2001
- Pro-life Activism
-» Theocracy of Ancient Israel: Pattern for Colonial New England
Comments
Your comments are welcome!
http://forerunner.com/abortionwars/abortionwars.html
I write in part:
In 1988, I participated in my first rescue in Brookline, Massachusetts. I understood that the purpose was threefold -- repentance, spiritual warfare, evangelism. Rescue was a way of waking the heart of a sleeping church and gaining media exposure. Before long, people would see that abortion was murder because here were Christians who were finally acting like it was murder.
Over the next few years, I noticed that there was a wide difference in what some pro-life activists were saying about the abortion issue and the biblical authority of the law of God. On either side, there were two extremes. On one side, there were a few who would advocate violence. On the other side, there were some who were so extreme in their sanctity of life view that they would deny that capital punishment by the state is a proper biblical punishment for the murderer.
There is inherent in all human beings the sense of good and evil. We all know deep down that murder is wrong, theft is wrong, adultery is wrong. According to Romans 1:18-21, natural revelation testifies of the nature of God, His power and the nature of His creative acts. Man recognizes the existence of the power of God and His creative acts even without knowledge of the Bible.
Obviously, natural revelation teaches us that abortion is wrong. But this knowledge will not alleviate the evil of abortion. In most cases, knowing that abortion is murder will only sear the consciences of the unconverted. Such is the depravity of man. This is why I believe extravagant forms of street activism designed to grab media attention are actually counter-productive in the long run. We would do well to remember that the natural man siting in front of his television set is not basically good. He is intrinsically evil.
The greatest error the pro-life movement made early on is that it was not law-based. That is, abortion is not simply wrong. Abortion is murder. If we believe abortionists and the fathers and mothers who kill their little boys and girls in the womb are murderers, then we must treat them like murderers. There is not a single pro-life organization that is currently lobbying to criminalize abortion. This must now change. We must now begin a movement, by the grace of God, to criminalize abortion with capital punishment as a penalty for murdering children in the womb. We must also advocate criminalizing the actions of those who act as accessories to murder. The mothers and the fathers who pay to kill their babies are also guilty.
Posted by Jay Rogers on 04/07/2006 12:03 AM #
Reversing Roe: The Norma McCorvey Story (DVD)
In 1969, a pregnant 21 year old Norma McCorvey felt abortion was her only answer. He case was used to challenge the Texas abortion law and she eventually became the Jane Roe of the 1973 US Supreme Court decision, Roe v Wade. She never had an abortion, but instead became an icon in the national abortion debate. For 22 years, Norma McCorvey’s life was a battlefield. She worked inside abortion clinics. She promoted legalized abortion. But she was tormented by what she saw and felt. In the summer of 1995, her life changed forever.
Through the friendship of a pro-life leader and a special invitation from a 7-year old child, Jane Roe finally died so Norma Leah McCorvey could live. This is her story.
Running Time: 28 minutes
Watch a clip from Reversing Roe.
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(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
A Revival Account: Asbury 1970 (DVD)
What is true Revival and Spiritual Awakening?
Discover the answer in this eyewitness account by Dennis Kinlaw, President of Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky, who recounts the story of a visitation of the Holy Spirit in 1970. This is the presentation that has continued to spark the flames of Revival in the hearts of people around the world. Contains eyewitness footage from the Revival at Asbury College in 1970 in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Certain to challenge you to greater holiness and a deeper commitment to full-scale revival. Original news and private footage has been included. If you are a student who longs to see a spiritual awakening at your school, you must see this video!
“This simple video does a wonderful job of conveying something of God’s heart and power, Everyone we have ever shown this to has received an immediate impartation of faith for revival and the power of prayer.”
— Bob and Rose Weiner, Weiner Ministries Int’l
Running Time: 40 minutes
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The Abortion Matrix: Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death (DVD)
Download the free Study Guide!
Is there a connection between pagan religion and the abortion industry?
This powerful presentation traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God and crime against humanity has produced in our beleaguered society.
Conceived as a sequel and update to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion’s specific target – the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.
The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?
As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).
Speakers include: George Grant, Peter Hammond, RC Sproul Jr., Paul Jehle, Lou Engle, Rusty Thomas, Flip Benham, Janet Porter and many more.
Ten parts, over three hours of instruction!
Running Time: 195 minutes
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Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism (DVD)
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Just what is Calvinism?
Does this teaching make man a deterministic robot and God the author of sin? What about free will? If the church accepts Calvinism, won’t evangelism be stifled, perhaps even extinguished? How can we balance God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? What are the differences between historic Calvinism and hyper-Calvinism? Why did men like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Edwards and a host of renowned Protestant evangelists embrace the teaching of predestination and election and deny free will theology?
This is the first video documentary that answers these and other related questions. Hosted by Eric Holmberg, this fascinating three-part, four-hour presentation is detailed enough so as to not gloss over the controversy. At the same time, it is broken up into ten “Sunday-school-sized” sections to make the rich content manageable and accessible for the average viewer.
Running Time: 257 minutes
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Dr. Francis Schaeffer - How Should We Then Live? (DVD)
Special Two-Disc Set!
After 40 years of intense study and world-wide ministry, Dr. Francis Schaeffer completed his crowning work of scholarship – to present profound truths in simple film language. Dr. Schaeffer’s brilliant analysis of the past and predictions for current trends have proven so uncannily accurate that this amazing series still feels contemporary almost three decades after its initial release. Ultimately, Schaeffer concludes that man’s only hope is a return to God’s Biblical absolute, the truth revealed in Christ through the Scriptures.
Available for the first time on DVD, this documentary spectacular also includes intimate in-depth conversations with Francis and Edith Schaeffer. With the on-disc study guide, this presentation forms a unique course of comprehensive study. While this series forms an innovative analysis of the past, this outstanding work is more than history. Each episode focuses on a significant era, yet speaks clearly to 21st-century man with answers for modern problems.
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please try to help me understand. it would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by monet517 on 03/07/2006 05:54 PM #