In Which I Rejoice Over That Ohio Law

In Which I Rejoice Over That Ohio Law December 8, 2016

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This is great and delightful news. When all around all the headlines seems terrible all the time, it’s encouraging to hear the efforts of hard working pro-lifers are paying off. I’m linking the buzzfeed article in the spirit of enjoying the sadness of mine enemy, who I am totally going to pray for as commanded by our Lord himself.

I particularly enjoyed this bit. “‘Politicians resorted to underhanded tactics to try and sneak through this harmful legislation without notice,’ Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund told BuzzFeed News.” Good. It’s nice to see some shrewd politicking going on on the right somewhere. It’s been so depressing over the decades to watch conservatives repeatedly suckered by the left’s skillful maneuvering.

And then, I also really enjoyed this bit. “’It’d be nice if the legislature would actually be doing something about jobs and doing something about renewable energy standards and keeping the economy growth going that way instead of passing unconstitutional bills,’ the senator said, going on to list pieces of legislation he believed Ohio’s lawmakers should be working on.” I think it’s nice that the legislature took the trouble to pass laws to protect the lives of those who can’t protect themselves. What good are jobs when so many have their blood spilled out upon the ground? Jobs forsooth. Less killing first, then jobs.

And finally, this bit gets me teary every time, “‘We have evidence that shows that banning abortion does not make it go away — it just increases the chances that people will seek care in potentially unsafe environments,’ Horvath-Cosper said.” Well, Horvath-Casper, we have evidence that laws against theft don’t stop all theft, and laws against drunk driving don’t stop all drunk driving, and laws against murder don’t stop all murder. But because those things are wrong, and the state has a vested interest in some level of moral standards for the peace and comfort of its citizenry, it goes ahead and doesn’t allow those ways of life even though people do them. Not everything that is wrong is against the law, but some very egregious wrongs are against the law. And that’s not a concept unimaginable in other areas so we can probably imagine it here.

Also, I’m just going to notice that most ordinary people, however evil they are, don’t really want to break the law. They may not care a wit about God’s perfect righteousness but they stop when there’s a stop sign, and they don’t just walk into stores and take money out of the registers. If something is against the law, there is often a pause, a consideration before carrying on. And that’s very good.

I was wondering to myself the other day why I am able to comment so freely about this injustice, but I generally steer clear of other grave injustices out there in the wide world. It’s not like the killing of babies before they’re born is the Only bad thing happening. There is the persecution of Christians around the world, the mistrial of that police officer in the south, the economic and social devastation of African American communities by the stupid war on drugs. I could go on. But I think it comes down to two factors, for me.

First, the only innocent human being was Jesus. Any bad thing that happens to me or anyone else can be unjust in its particulars, but in a general sense, we deserve evil all the time because of the great evil that resides in the human heart. There aren’t any clear cut justice issues because of the constant and inextricable presence of sin. But the closest you get to innocence is a person who hasn’t even been born. Who hasn’t had even one moment to put into practice the wrong orientation of the heart. And so, my ability to grieve and be angry is greater here than for any other injustice.

But second, so much ugliness flows out of the darkness of killing the unborn. Want to be angry about racism? Start with being angry about abortion. Want to be angry about a brutal and coarse culture? Start with the ugly way that babies are killed, the assault on the body of a woman and the body of her child. Want to be angry about lying? Start with the hideousness of the lie that if you kill another person you get to go free, emotionally, spiritually or in any other way. A woman may be walking around no problem and no one may know, but consigning her to live through that experience, carry it with her, and then rejoice, is just cruel.

And, really, its almost Christmas. And at Christmas I love to consider the strange and catastrophic way that God broke in to our darkness–through the body of a woman as a child that grew in darkness to give light to the world. All the other great evils of the world can find their solution, their unraveling in the fountainhead of Mary’s yes to her Savior. So, it’s not that I don’t care about all the other stuff, it’s that I think if you work on this one thing, other things get untangled and sorted out. Other injustices are broken open and people with burdens can lay them down.


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