The New "All Lives Matter" #035
A Problem
A couple of days ago I was talking with my wife about a growing frustration I was experiencing after the Dobbs decision overturning Roe V. Wade was released. I finally put my thoughts in this post:
After the death of George Floyd back in 2020, I was stunned to see pastors, professors, and friends who I knew avoided political speech on their Facebook or pulpits rethink this standard. They not only expressed solidarity by affirming black lives matter (as one should), but now they were advocating for political solutions from both their social media page and pulpits. “Something has to be done.”
On its face, I don’t have a problem with this, the church and pastors have a long history of advocating for political change and many progressive and black churches have never stopped advocating for political change. The church is and should be a powerful voice on justice issues so I was excited to see my apolitical/agnostic friends turn the corner on this. The church should avoid being partisan but not avoid being political. In my mind, that’s the difference. Yet, something felt extremely off watching it happen in real-time.
This *off* feeling was never about the content of what was being posted. In most instances, unless what they were saying was untrue (which sadly happened way more often than not), I supported their points and found their solutions/political ideas interesting. What bothered me at the time is that many of these same people posting BLM slogans, turning their profile pictures black, or posting how they reaffirmed from their pulpits that “something had to be done”, were also the ones at some point who chided me for seeking and advocating for political solutions in the fight against Roe v. Wade. If we both were advocating for protecting life, using our social media influence and pulpits, why was “something has to be done” okay for BLM and not for abortion?
The Whiplash
The pro-life position is pretty straightforward.
A new unique human life is formed at conception and unless the life of the mother is put at risk, it is always an act of injustice and abuse of power to take the unborn human life.
In order to call oneself pro-life, you have to believe this is true. And if this position is true then abortion is one of the worst systemic genocides committed by a State ever recorded. To give you an idea, we estimate that 10 million people were enslaved in America in total during chattel slavery, yet to date, almost 70 million unborn children have been aborted. It took the slave trade hundreds of years to reach that number while it took legalized state-sanctioned abortion nearly 50. If those who are pro-life actually believed what they say they do, wouldn’t “something has to be done” not nearly be enough? Wouldn’t the very nature of the sin of abortion demand Christians constantly advocate for its undoing with at least the same fervor and advocacy Christians used for overturning the slave trade? Wouldn’t the overturning of Roe be greeted by unanimous praise and celebration in our churches and by pastors who affirmed they were pro-life?
Evergreen.
Don’t we undermine our message of the severity of the sin of abortion when we minimize, rationalize, or nuance it? Don’t we undermine our message that black lives matter when we are silent about unborn black lives? And is it not quite the whiplash to see folks who spent the summer of 2020 preaching, teaching, and marching to affect change for black lives while posting that “silence is violence” or demanding Christians no longer be silent about racial injustice in our churches, suddenly now go suspiciously silent (while still posting about a host of other things) for unborn black lives or nuance the systemic slaughter of the unborn with an “all lives matter” sort of response? Doesn’t it undermine the summer of 2020 by being silent in the summer of 2022?