Being pro-life, I feel like I am perpetually living in exile. I feel like I am wandering through the desert in between the two political poles demarcating the ideological terrain of the "life" issue. On one side, I am told that the life of a child is not valued more than the freedom of choice from a woman in a difficult situation--while at the same time proclaiming war is a despicable act because it denigrates the value of human life. Turning to the other side for relief, I find voices in protest against the atrocities done to the unborn because life is treasured--while at the same time clamoring for the blood of the savages over the pond through perpetual and endless wars. As a result, I want to definitively state to both political parties: you are not pro-life.
What does it mean to be "Pro-Life"?
When I claim the title of "pro-life," I am not merely describing the opposite of "pro-choice." While the issue of abortion is near to my heart, I do not feel like it is the only life issue that I, as a Christian, should be concerned about. The fact of the matter is that the war in Iraq is a "pro-life" issue. Capital punishment is a "pro-life" issue. Feeding the hungry and helping the oppressed is a "pro-life" issue. As a Christian, I am passionate about all human life because I truly believe that all human life carries intrinsic value in that it is a part of humanity that is made in the image of God.
Odd Exceptions to the Pro-Life Agenda
In my experience, I have found at least two instances when people championing the "pro-life" agenda ignorantly or conveniently set the issue aside.
Three summers ago, my wife and I experienced a miscarriage that really rocked our world. We were devastated, because we truly believed that we had lost a child. Even more shocking, however, was the way in which our "pro-life" friends reacted to our miscarriage as if it were not a big deal. "Well, it's not like you actually lost a child." or "Oh...are you still upset about that?" I remember thinking, "Aren't you against abortion because 'life begins at conception'? If that is taking a life, then why are you not considering this miscarriage as if we have lost a life?" This inconsistency bothered me, because it felt as if the "pro-life" agenda is cheapened in other avenues with no political advantage.
Second, the events of 9/11 opened a blood-lust in some of my "pro-life" friends that is nothing short of astonishing. I am baffled when Christians who read the words of Jesus--who said, "Love your enemies and pray for them," "When someone strikes you on one cheek, turn your other one towards them so that they may strike it too," or "Put away your sword, Peter. For don't you know that my kingdom is not of this world"--will say things like, "We need to bomb those barbarians back to the stone age!"
My heart breaks for the people enduring the war in Iraq, because first of all they are not barbarians, they are people. They are humans made in the image of God like you and me, and therefore, their lives, in my opinion and in God's opinion, have intrinsic worth that deserves to be valued. Second, this type of attitude by Christians (reminiscent of the crusades) is an illogical outworking of the message of love found in the Bible, expressed by Christ's ministry. Christ was so "pro-life" that he was willing and preferred to have his own life taken (brutally might I add) so that others may have life. Christ was so "pro-life" that he even cried out while hanging on a cross for God to forgive the people that were killing him. Christ was so "pro-life" that while he had the power to call down legions of angels in his protection to wipe out his enemies he chose, instead, to die. So how can I patronize his teachings and actions, then, by calling down fire on people that have hurt me? In other words, how can I love my enemies when I am staring them down through a gun scope?
I still cannot help but wonder what would have happened if America, a self-proclaimed (not God ordained) Christian nation, would have mimicked Christ on 9/11 and turned the other cheek? How would the world have responded? How would our oppressors have reacted? You see, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi both understood the message of Christ with great acumen. Instead of the archaic, barbaric, knee-jerk reaction of meeting violence with more violence thereby perpetuating an endless spiral of violence that can only end when one side decides to lay dormant or completely dies, the way of Christ stops the cycle of violence by allowing an injustice to stand, by allowing honor to be lost, or by allowing some people's death to go unpunished. While non-violence is counterintuitive and even seems idiotic, Christ understood that loving people is the way to spread a message of love and peace and even transform an entire world--for his method of idiocy is still making waves 2,000 years later. If you don't believe this works, just ask Vaclav Havel.
Pro-Life in the 21st Century
So, what am I trying to say? I am trying to say that it is time for people committed to being "pro-life" to actually implement this message in all facets of their lives. I am convinced that abortion, war, capital punishment, and other scenarios in between are "pro-life" issues.
In addition, I am convinced that the most effective way to attack each of these issues simultaneously is by focusing our efforts on the issues surrounding the poor and the oppressed. How do we help abortions to go down in our country? Make full-term pregnancies cheaper than abortions--or make adopting a child easy and affordable for anyone--or give people opportunities through affordable education to provide a better life for them and their family (esp. single moms--its funny, because the Bible says that "a pure and faultless religion is one that looks after orphans and widows"...I am not saying anything new here, just forgotten).
How do we decrease the amount of "terrorists" around the world? Passionately target their key areas of recruitment with food, clothing, shelter, and a better life. When I was in Cairo, Egypt the summer after 9/11, the cab driver taking me to my flat pointed to a small wall on the opposite side of the road. He said, "Over that wall is called the city of the dead. That is where people actually build their homes on top of and inside of mausoleums because they are so poor, and in there not even the government will pursue them." While I was dumfounded by the reality of such a situation, the man nonchalantly added, "The city of the dead is also the key recruiting grounds for muslim extremists." It makes sense. People are so miserable with their plight in life (i.e., living in someone else's grave) that when someone comes along and tells them that they can escape this life of pain and torment and go to a life of luxury with 40 virgins if they would blow themselves up in a crowded intersection or in a plane crash into a building, what do you think they will choose?
Poverty, which is created in the aftermath of wars with great rapidity, is the greatest epidemic and threat to "pro-life" agendas than any election will ever pretend to be. I pray that Christians will hear the call of Christ to fight not only for the unborn but also for the living, because all life is precious and blessed with intrinsic value--even the life of a Muslim.
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