Babies Are Murdered Here

The spectacle of the Kermit Gosnell trial has captured the attention of quite a lot of Americans these past few weeks. At first the major news outlets refused to air the story but eventually they were shamed into talking about this sordid case.

 We have been dragged (shall we say) kicking and screaming through the gates of Hades to gawk at the horrors now laid bare. There we discovered again the masterful, beguiling language of the ultimate Evil Genius being worked toward its usual destructive ends. We found that “suctioning pieces” meant pulling off arms and legs of an unborn child. A child becomes a fetus when scheduled for dismemberment. Snipping the spinal cord means essentially beheading, and instead of being born the “fetus” is “demised.” A baby is never (tsk tsk how could you say) killed, rather, a pregnancy is terminated. It is all in the language.

 I remembered that just 70 years ago Jewish nationals were not taken to concentration camps; they were rather “relocated” for their own safety. The gas chambers were “delousing” stations and genocide was “purifying the race.” It was all for the greater good of course. The genetic inheritance of the nation was purified, unwanted people were eliminated, and the nation could feel happier for the occasion. Who were the rest of the citizens to judge? Who were we to judge? Who was anybody to judge? It was all legal – proper forms filled out and no statutes violated.

 Scripture, Jesus, makes an interesting commentary to hostile Jews on the connection between the telling of lies and the practice of murder (John 8:44) “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”

 This connection between the liar and the murderer has, I believe, been missed by most of us, including me. I have often been cognizant of the half-truths half-lies propounded by the pro-abortion crowd. Shaded meanings, softened words for sharp-edged sin, positive spin on the blackest behavior have been the shrouds that kept our mind’s eye from perceiving cold truths. What ought to make us shiver, to suspect the shadows, to fear heavenly wrath, has been packaged in sweetened language. We do not murder babies we demise them. We are civilized. Sometimes when they are born alive we stop their suffering by drowning them in poison; proof we are compassionate! We are the kind progressive souls of the Enlightenment. As a nation – we have become the children of our adoptive father the devil who was a murderer from the beginning. 

 We did not begin this way. Our founders were truth tellers. They were rigid Calvinists who used language with careful precision. Every word in their confessions was labored over to describe God’s given truth in the most careful measure. They met together for weeks and months to assure that truth became the foundation for the church and civil society. But, in recent decades, the church has to a great extent been captured by humanist enlightenment philosophy. Our pursuit of truth has weakened. We have often accepted the shaded hypocrisy in the language of our Savior’s enemies. By osmosis we begin to sound like them and our own members begin to act like them. And so, this demising, this suctioning and terminating become not only our language but our behavior as well.

 The deceits of the age surround us. We have been uncareful in our thoughts and language. Instead of transforming the society we have been remade into the liars’ image. The murderer’s image begins to hide, yes, almost fully obscures, our own in many instances. It may seem small now, perhaps too finely nuanced, but maybe if we had railed against their early lies we would not have traveled so far with them in this culture of murder. If we expose the lies we begin to open lightening rays into their awful world. Exposure to the light of truth forces our enemies to cringe, to shiver at their own crawling evil.

 My daughters carry signs proclaiming, “Babies are murdered here.” They stand on that sidewalk for hours each week. Passing friends give thumbs up. Enemies to Truth, shout curses, raging first at my girls but ultimately at the Creator. They hurl abuses at Jesus just as His murderers did 2000 years past. They hate the truth so plainly spoken. A sign reading , “They terminate pregnancies here” would have no power. We cannot use their language lest we become like them. They do not terminate babies nor do they demise them. No, babies are murdered here. That is right language. Sharp edged, it is truth.

 Proclaiming bold-faced truth in the face of monstrous evil is a very real beginning. It removes God’s people from the shadows created by the men we oppose. Truth solidly proclaimed begins to separate us from the confounding and curse of the murderers. We cannot imitate them at all. Rather, we are to expose their evil deeds as Scripture demands. We will no longer travel with liars and murderers. We will expose them. We will obey God rather than man. We will seek blessing for our land and for our families. The fight for life is beginning to demonstrate strength. It is becoming muscular. Thank God for this.

 For Christian Culture,

 Don Schanzenbach  5-5-13