In an article titled “My Problem With Expanding Pro-life Definitions,” cultural observer and writer Ben Buera—who also is Catholic and very pro-life—says this.
Expanding the definition of “Pro-life” by new pro-life/whole-life movements reminds me of trying to expand the definition of marriage. I’ve heard it said that marriage should mean anything we want it to mean, which of course, makes it mean nothing. Taken to an extreme, if “Pro-life” should refer to almost any issue that relates to a human being alive, as opposed to dead, then it means too many things.
We see this in the efforts of evangelical leaders who seem all too eager to treat the Democrat and Republican parties as equal in terms of virtue and moral authority. (Go here for one example.) We also see it in this piece titled A Letter to Our Conservative Parents, which I would encourage you to read. While the letter addresses many different aspects of a young adult’s perspective on politics and culture, we won’t be able to address all those elements here.1 I do, however, want to hone in on what it means to be pro-life.
It’s no secret that members of younger generations from evangelical homes have grown weary of what they’ve seen as political activism with regard to ending abortion, accompanied by minimal attention given to feeding the hungry and helping the poor and disadvantaged in other ways. Of course, Jesus commanded believers to engage in these and other charitable efforts. This is every believer’s responsibility.
Before critiquing the letter on its push to reinterpret what pro-life means, let me suggest that members of younger generations need to keep two overarching realities in mind.
First, they need to remember that help can be given to the poor through a variety of means, some of which are silent and unassuming. Churches, Christian charities, and ministries already are helping the poor on an ongoing basis, and their work often is taken for granted. It shouldn’t be.
Second, young adults and teens must understand that a person’s inability to do everything to help the pro-life cause from a broad perspective doesn’t mean he or she shouldn’t do anything. Each one of us must do what he or she can, and many Christians rightly see opposing abortion as a linchpin issue. As video blogger A. D. Robles has indicated, if we don’t get the abortion issue right, how can we get anything else right?
Many Christians rightly see opposing abortion as a linchpin issue.
Now, to the letter itself. To keep our critique simple, we will assume that the writer of the letter is a male and will use male pronouns.
It seems to me that the writer of the letter looks at the needs of everyone and then embraces the idea that pro-life ought to mean meeting everyone’s needs, but then he overlooks the assault against life itself perpetrated by abortion. Whether the writer realizes it or not, this tactic is a ploy being used by leftists to bring people who are reluctant to vote for Democrats over to a leftist ideology. Democrats, after all, are typically viewed as the ones concerned about the poor and disadvantaged. But there are serious problems with this assumption—and this whole scenario. I’m going to present the truth as clearly, as directly, and as compassionately as I know how.
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- First, the Democrats aren’t concerned about the poor. Nor are they compassionate. They are using the poor to get votes. If you doubt they would do this, consider a parallel issue — the refusal of every Democrat in the House of Representatives on June 25, 2020, to condemn the violence that has overtaken numerous American cities in recent months. Wouldn’t condemning lethal violence have been the pro-life thing to do?
On June 25, 2020, the House of Representatives voted down a resolution condemning the violence that has overtaken American cities in recent months. Not one Democrat voted for the resolution. Wouldn’t condemning lethal violence have been the pro-life thing to do?
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- Second, government is not compassionate, nor can it ever be. Government is a bureaucracy.
- Third, government’s job is not to meet people’s needs (see item #4 on this page).
- Fourth, from a biblical perspective, help for the poor is to come voluntarily from individuals, as well as organizations formed voluntarily by individuals to give them real help (see pages 24-27 of this publication).
- Fifth, people who are concerned about the poor shouldn’t wait for government to take away their wealth and give it to those deemed to be in need. They should roll up their sleeves and become personally involved in helping them! They should give their money to credible organizations that really help those who lack or who otherwise are in need rather than waiting for government to redistribute money coercively. The government cannot give its own money away; instead it must take from those who have wealth and give it to others, even though it isn’t theirs to give. Even so, with this scenario the government is seen as the great benefactor. It becomes god in the eyes of those who receive “help.” Such practices foster an unhealthy and unrealistic dependance on the state.
If you care about the poor, don’t wait for the government to take your money in the name of “helping” them. Instead, give to charitable organizations who exist to help the poor! Roll up your sleeves and become involved in benevolent work. Volunteer!
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- Sixth, understand this reality. Focusing on the needs of the poor and claiming to be pro-life while essentially ignoring the abortion issue makes a mockery of the term pro-life. No one, and I mean NO ONE, can really be pro-life and be pro-abortion, or even indifferent to abortion. Increasingly, Democrats are claiming to be pro-life and, at the same time, advocating full-term abortion, and even infanticide. This is ludicrous!
Focusing on the needs of the poor and claiming to be pro-life while essentially ignoring the abortion issue makes a mockery of the term pro-life.
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- Seventh, with their redistribution proposals, the Democrats are advocating socialism. Do not be fooled by the emotional rhetoric. Socialism will bring a nation’s citizens—all of them—to poverty. The elite will live in luxury—until the nation dies. If you want to know what socialism will do to a country, look at Venezuela. This video was released by Prager University on August 28, 2017.
If You Really Are Concerned About the Poor…
So, as we have said, if you’re really concerned about the poor,
- get involved in helping them directly.
If you’re really concerned about the poor, get involved in helping them directly. What’s stopping you?
Please, though, don’t just help them with financial resources and by interacting with them and teaching them skills.
- Oppose the Democrats’ push for “compassionate” government programs to alleviate needs, because such programs are counterfeit solutions. They will come back to bite in the end and spread deadly, poisonous venom.
Efforts to participate in direct relief as well as to oppose socialist “solutions” that have no chance of working are both consistent with the pro-life cause, but the foundation of that cause is and must remain opposition to abortion and infanticide.
Without life, all other assistance is meaningless.
Copyright © 2019, 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages have been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
1A gentleman by the name of Bruce Wachter responded to A Letter to our Conservative Parents with a letter of his own. His response is available here.
2See item #3 on this page.
top image: Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash