I am writing with an urgent invitation, a personal explanation and renewed indignation.
First, the invitation. I invite you to join us this Saturday morning, August 22, at one of the 300 protest gatherings at Planned Parenthood sites across the nation. Find the one nearest you. It will be 9:00–11:00 a.m. local time.
(I will join others as part of the prayer leadership at the Twin Cities event at 671 Vandalia Street in St. Paul. Parking is sparse. Park far. Walk much. Small sacrifice.)
Your presence on Saturday morning would mean at least this: “Killing unborn human beings is not an acceptable answer to crisis pregnancies. There are better ways to care for mom and child and dad.”
If you have watched the investigative videos from The Center for Medical Progress about Planned Parenthood, I suspect you would want your presence to mean much more.
A Personal Explanation
I remember sitting in Pizza Hut with my wife in 1989, watching a newscast from Atlanta with the first glimmers of what became the Rescue Movement of peaceful protests in response to abortion. I was deeply moved, and said to her, “That is right.” I was part of that movement in the Twin Cities for about three years. Then it faded away. I have no regrets about participating. I think it was right, and did good.
My explanation for participating in Saturday’s protest goes like this.
1. They are killing human beings in there. They cut them in pieces—usually. Sometimes, as the most recent video shows, they manage to get an “intact fetal cadaver.” That is risky, since there is a law against killing a baby outside the womb. You have to kill it first, then take it out. The moral insanity of that position is worthy of a resounding corporate “No!”
2. For three years, I lived 15 miles from the Dachau Concentration Camp just outside Munich, Germany. I visited multiple times. They were killing human beings there too. Did the neighbors know? How quick we are to fault them! But we do know. We know beyond the shadow of a doubt. Yes, it is the same. Yes, it is the same. I don’t want to be complicit in the slaughter.
This passage of Scripture is as real and valid today as it was in the late ’80s:
Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:11–12)
