I will pick 3 winners randomly from those who comment with an answer. The winners will get a shirt from http://store.prolifeworld.com/

In a Presidential Election, If you had to choose between a fiscally conservative republican who is pro-choice or a liberal who was 100% pro-life. Which one would you vote for?

Leave you answer as a comment on this post. I will pick 3 winner tomorrow night.

The Winners are - Congrats to Amy, Ben and Becca, I replied to your comments with instructions on getting your t-shirts.  Thanks to everyone for commenting.

I often hear people telling me that I must only point out sin, and not point my finger at the sinner. As if I am to somehow be able to only confront the sin being committed, without confronting the sinner committing the sin. This thought process often comes with an assertion that if we “judge” someone by pointing out a wrong they are doing, that we are not loving that person.

When it comes to the topic of abortion, many people will argue that, if we call abortion murder, then we are calling people involved in it murderers. They will continue to argue that if we are calling them murderers then we are judging them and not loving them.

Some Christians will say it is “mean spirited” to call an abortionist a child killer, and we should call them doctors.

We call a person who rapes, a rapist.

We call a person who robs, a robber.

We call a person who molests children, a child molester.

How then is this mean spirited to call a person who kills children, a child killer? We must paint the proper picture of abortion, expose the gruesomeness of this evil for what it is.

The problem I see is that many people are only looking at the sin aspect of abortion and ignoring the physical violence aspect of it. Abortion is more than just another sin, it is the physical act of ending a human life and therefore must be actively opposed.

We are not failing to love the rapist if we first try and stop him from raping a woman; we are in fact loving both the woman and the rapist by actively stopping a violent act. If we allowed the rapist to go “un-judged” and continue to commit these violent acts against women then we are in a way condoning these acts.

If we do not speak out on behalf of the thousands of children who are being slaughtered each day in America, we do not love the abortionist or the children being killed. If we allow the child killers to go unchecked, then we do not love them but in fact are in a way condoning their violent acts.

Because society has made this crime against humanity an acceptable thing, we must show that it is not acceptable. The true love comes with our action, our voice and our resolve to end this bloody holocaust. We know that little baby boys and girls are being ripped limb from limb; our silence is a judgment in and of itself. Our silence is saying that what they are doing is acceptable. Our silence is an act of hatred as we ignore the victim being destroyed in order to not cast judgment on the destroyer.

Let me be clear – I am not saying that we go around and start calling women who have been deceived about the choice they are making murderers. I am not saying we need to stand outside an abortion clinic and shout hateful things at the women going inside.

What I am saying though is that if we fail to speak out for the sake of the human person who is being killed in every abortion, we have failed to love anyone involved in that situation. We have failed to love the child by allowing his or her killing to go unopposed. We have failed to love the mother and father of that child being killed by not pleading with them, showing them the truth and offering them hope. We have failed to love the abortionist by allowing him to kill innocent children and wound men and women as he carries out these violent acts.

Some may paint standing outside the abortion clinic as hate, but if you look closely at what is happening you will see love at work. The loving and effective work of projects like 40 Days for Life and the tireless sidewalk counselors who stand in the gap for the children being killed, are acts of true love. Watching these men and women who are willing to stand and oppose the killing but offer the alternative and the hope needed is to witness true love in action.

Judgment can often be the most loving thing we can do. If I see a man beating his child and cast judgment that his actions are wrong by interceding on behalf of the child, have I done wrong? If I see someone stealing from a store and cast judgment by reporting that theft have I been an un-loving person? If we see children being slaughtered, should we not stand in the gap and cry out against the bloodshed?

As I have written so many times lately, we are entering into the 40^th year of legalized child killing in America and I will cast judgment upon a society that has allowed this bloodshed to exist. I will cry out and use my voice to proclaim that this generation not only has the right to speak up, but also is obligated to do so. If we ignore this obligation and keep our mouths shut as to not offend, then we have truly shown the world hatred, not love.

Note:

I understand some will want to quote Matthew 7:1 to me. “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” 

Most theologians agree with the meaning of this verse, I liked the wording found here at Provocative Christian Living – “When Jesus said that we should not judge unless we be judged also, he was not saying that we are to never judge if behavior is sin or not. What he was doing was giving us a caution to make sure that we are willing to be judged by the same standard of judgment. This verse is not a warning against judging an action. It is a warning against self deception and hypocrisy.”

We are also told in John 7:24 to judge with right judgement – “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

For Christ I stand,

Bryan Kemper

Youth Outreach Director for Priests for Life

All of this being said I also point out the total forgiveness there is in Christ; He is the only Hope for those involved in this heinous crime.  Christ can and will heal those hurting from abortion just as he can heal and forgive those hurting from any other crime they may have committed. If you need to talk to someone about healing please contact http://www.rachelsvineyard.org

I recently ask my friend Patrick, a pro-life activist who is also an atheist to write a commentary about why he is pro-life. I think sometimes Christians might not understand that many non-religious people hold the pro-life position and hold it passionately. I thought this would be a great way for people who hold these views as part of their faith to understand why someone without a faith would hold the same views.

I have included a link to Patrick’s blog and I expect everyone who decides to comment or talk to him to do so with the upmost love and respect. The courage it takes for Patrick to be an active pro-lifer is way more than most Christians can understand.

Here is what Patrick wrote

Origins of Consensus

It can be said without argument that all who are against abortion have at least one thing in common. Be that as it may, the process in which we come to that conclusion is oftentimes a result of many different factors, thus our beliefs, while similar in principle, can be quite different in theory. 

Dozens of people have asked me why I am pro-life.

In the past it didn’t seem like such a hard question to answer. After all, if I have the ability to form a belief then surely my answer to such a question should come without forethought. However, I have never been asked by a pro-life Christian to clarify my position as a pro-life Atheist. Admittedly, the question has become a bit more difficult to answer because of the unnecessary adaptation. It was my presumption that this was not a confusing concept, but once I began to compile my thoughts I soon realized where confusion could emerge. The purpose of this article is to clear up some of the misconceptions about pro-life non-believers by providing a general comparison between Theism and Atheism in relation to the abortion issue and contributing a personal account of my own journey to the pro-life movement. An argument from morality has been purposely omitted.

To state the obvious, the only difference between my label as a pro-life Atheist and your label as a pro-life Christian is our outlook on the existence of a deity. Similarly, the difference between a pro-life Jew and a pro-life Muslim is once again rooted in religious differences. That being said, we can easily deduct that an anti-abortion position is not dependent upon adhering to a specific religion; thankfully. For example, one can be religious without ever taking a position on the abortion issue. Likewise, one can be pro-life without being religious. Because the two labels are independent from one another, it is not hard to imagine the diversity of  personal convictions within the pro-life community. This may become a confusing concept to those who base their pro-life position on the belief that they could not differentiate between right and wrong without guidance from their respective deity. This is where I believe some confusion and hesitation may occur.

The Christian religion, for the most part, has adopted a position on the abortion issue. Churches which have chosen to take a position on the issue have subsequently suggested that its followers do the same. To the contrary, Atheism asserts one thing and one thing only. That assertion makes no mention to the the issue of abortion or any other social issue for that matter and therefore does not require that Atheists accept any more or any less. An Atheist’s position on any other topic is simply a personal opinion.

Personally, my pro-life beliefs belong to the discoveries in science. While I am sympathetic to women’s rights and would even consider myself a Feminist as would any man who believes in gender equality, the right to life outweighs our personal discomforts. I will hesitantly concede that had I been born 10 years earlier I most likely would have considered myself pro-choice based upon the absence of scientific evidence within the pro-life movement at the time. More so, if science had proven that life began at birth I would have had no foundation for an anti-abortion belief. Thankfully for the pro-life movement, science has reemphasized the movement’s argument that abortion takes the life of an unborn child. Today, the movement has realized that science is much more likely to reach an audience which is increasingly looking for demonstrable evidence from which to base their position on social issues; not just the church’s suggestion.

It’s worth mentioning that the internet also had a substantial effect by allowing me to better research fetal development and share information and ideas with others.When I began exploring the issue as a seventeen year old back in 2006, the internet allowed me to see the larger picture, unlike the tri-fold pamphlet provided by my Catholic church. The pamphlet provided me with no context or arguments from the opposition. Heck, I didn’t even know there was an opposition.

I am not sure why the issue ever captured my attention, but it evolved beyond into a passion. After a couple years of researching the issue I decided that I would adopt an anti-abortion position based on the scientifically accepted conclusion that conception was the formation of a unique and living member of the human species. This was done absent of religious arguments and by 2008 I was beginning to question a different position – Theism. That year I wrote a pro-life blog which turned out to become the catalyst for my pro-life activism. The MySpace blog [insert joke here] titled The American Holocaust, was my first attempt at arguing against abortion from a secular perspective. The amateurishly written blog received hundreds of comments and at times was the third most active blog on MySpace. At that moment I was convinced  that the incorporation of religion was unnecessary to make a point against abortion and instead allowed readers to view the issue as a scientific and moral obligation rather than just a Catholic issue. The internet had allowed me to understand the various ways the issue affected people, something I would have never understood within the walls of the Catholic church.

I am currently concluding the final chapters of God is Not Great by the late Atheist, Christopher Hitchens; a post-abortive father himself. Hitchens, a hero to many non-believers, also noticed the reality of the unborn human life. I would imagine it took a great deal of courage to advocate the value of the unborn human despite the overwhelming number of supporters whom he knew would quickly voice their disapproval. For unfortunate yet obvious reasons, theists were just as reluctant to commend him. Undoubtedly, Hitchens has taught many non-believers and believers to rethink their position on the issue for purely scientific reasons. Like myself and the thousands of other pro-life secularists, Hitchens recognized that science had demonstrably proven that life does exist before viability and therefore deserved proper acknowledgement from the pro-choice side.

“As a materialist, I think it has been demonstrated that an embryo is a separate body and entity, and not merely (as some really did used to argue) a growth on or in the female body.  There used to be feminists who would say that it was more like an appendix or even-this was seriously maintained-a tumor. That nonsense seems to have stopped.  Of the considerations that have stopped it, one is the fascinating and moving view provided by the sonogram, and another is the survival of ‘premature’ babies of feather-like weight, who have achieved ‘viability’ outside the womb. … The words ‘unborn child,’ even when used in a politicized manner, describe a material reality.”
-Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great (pp. 220-21)

It seems to me that the confusion many people have when I tell them I am a pro-life Atheist happens to originate from their perception that Atheism and pro-life activism are incompatible. This is a half-century old product of religion’s disproportionate obsession with the issue and the subsequent and illogical ‘We want to be everything you’re not!’ attitude of Atheists. The middle ground, a pro-life Atheist (or a pro-choice theist), doesn’t seem to suit either side. I think it is fair to call us the step-child of the pro-life movement.Arguing against abortion goes beyond the policies or teachings of any religious text. It is not an issue restricted only to the religious but rather an issue concerning human rights and therefore defies the labels of religion, political affiliation, race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on. If we can agree that abortion wrongfully takes the life of a living human being, then all other labels which define our individuality should be irrelevant to the issue at hand.

- A pro-life[r] Atheist 
  Patrick Ptomey

http://frompatricksperspective.blogspot.com/