The Right to Life (and to Civil Disobedience)

With this week’s explosion over the question of financing contraceptives and abortafacients by religious organizations, we are visiting ground both ancient and forever new. We may be seeing what appears to be a unique fight beginning, but in its fundamental underpinnings it is very old. Questions concerning morals and law, obedience and resistance, church and state have been fought by words and swords for centuries. What is new here is the seeming strength of backbone being shown by the American church both Catholic and evangelical. A head on struggle over a church state issue is not something Americans remember. We grew up in a nation that respected well defined boundaries between these spheres, which is a reformed theological term. The doctrine of the separation of church and state was fought out by reformation era Christians in western nations for centuries. Now it seems that the fight has once again been revived by the arrogant humanistic state and its self-assured, moral midget, minions.

It looks to me like the church has finally begun to awaken, at least on this one issue. For decades Christian men and organizations have financed through their income and other taxes, organizations like Planned Parenthood, and a host of other programs geared to abort, contracept, and generally reduce the number of birthed babies around the world. For reasons a bit difficult to discern it seems that the American church is now preparing to resist as “one man.” Catholics and Southern Baptists are driving iron pegs in the ground with men like Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptists resolving firmly, “We will not comply.” Of course there will be a host of supposedly conservative Christians who live on the fringes of belief who will not comply with Dr. Land’s pronouncement. They will continue to abort and contracept as usual. However, at the heart of Christ’s church there is always a remnant that will do the right things and resist the evil of their day. It is to these that the prophets speak and in whom convictions become unshakable.

Most of the talk by the resisting church centers itself around quotes and principles residing in the Constitution. At the outset that may be workable, but in the long haul it will not. Unbelieving humanists have long insisted that the Constitution is, “a living document,” meaning really that it is a dead document. They insist that the language and precepts of the Constitution have to be understood in light of current needs, morality (immorality), “penumbras,” and any other specious concept that allows them to rule without the constraint of moral law. In essence, they believe themselves to be God, and seek to replace the commands of Moses with endless statutes and directives designed to propel their humanist dreams. If they do not meet resistance they will expand like leaven in a loaf or like a mustard plant in a garden. This is the expression of the antichrist and the anti-church.

The Constitution is a grand document but it is insufficient for any extended moral confrontation. When Christians want to determine what must be defended and how to fight they have to return to their God and His word. God’s law is always our permanent foundation. Documents like constitutions and bills of rights may be built upon that law but they are derived not revealed. We are entering a season when it will be imperative to know and understand with precision exactly what God has said and what His word means. A trifling cognizance or a belief that that old law is just “cultural” will not bear us sturdily through a nasty, brawling, unsocial mud-fight, such as what may be forced upon us.

All of the underlying concepts of freedom are carried through the pages of God’s word. Do we believe in a separation of powers? God’s word established both priests and Judges, each with separate duties. Do we believe in free speech? God’s law allowed the civil authority to punish blasphemy and possibly slander and libel but nothing else. God’s people are free to speak their minds. Do we believe in no taxation without representation? Our example is life under the Judges where there was virtually no taxation, issue resolved. Do we wonder now if righteous men may demand a separation of their lives and duties from wrongful taxation (such as taxes for contraception in this case)?  Re-read the story of the ten tribes of Israel departing the national covenant and leaving Judah and Benjamin to stand alone (1 Kings 12:1-24). When Judah’s king prepared to go to war to enforce that union and his harsh taxes, God sent a prophet to warn him, “…this thing has come from Me.” Even though the northern tribes would become idolatrous and deeply wicked the initial departure was from the Lord. This is a lawful example of passive resistance. Do we doubt that moral people may ever resist the higher powers of which Romans 13 speaks? If so, re-read of the Hebrew mid-wives under Pharaoh or of the killing of Queen Athaliah.

The apostles were dedicated to the principle that they would obey God rather than men. We are the covenant heirs of the apostles, the prophets, and those faithful Hebrew mid-wives. We will not murder our children. We refuse to finance the murder of anyone’s children either born or unborn. This is an unshakable principle. The fight is against wickedness in high places. It is not a time for earthly weapons but it is a time for firm reliance on Providence and the things to which He calls us. The steel we swing is the blade of God’s word. Untie the cord and prepare to draw that sword. The fight is upon us.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach