The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down the abomination that was the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions of 1973 and 1992, respectively. This has the effect of returning regulation of abortion to the states which will, inevitably, result in banning or severely restricting the practice in a number of states, thirty of which had laws against abortion on the books when the Court made its first, infamous, decision to legalize and federally protect it fifty years ago. The reversal of these decisions is a tremendous victory for constitutional law and is the result of decades of diligent pro-life advocacy and countless prayers. Even liberal jurists who supported the practice of abortion acknowledged that Roe was badly decided. While the Supreme Court’s decision is far from national repentance for the great evil of half a century of sanctioned bloodshed, it is a critical moment in restoring just laws and reversing federal overreach and protection of violence against the innocent. There is more work to be done, but overturning Roe and Casey is a major step in the right direction.
Since the decision was announced on Friday morning, many winsome and irenic Christians have winsomely and irenically offered wisdom online to help their barbarian, fundamentalist brethren navigate the contours of this issue, nuancing our discussions of infanticide in a way that shows sympathy, empathy, and wimpathy to our neighbor orcs. Their wise counsel may be helpful in discovering other areas where Christians have been unsympathetic and unwinsome, viewing morally complex issues with the reductionistic language of truth and right and wrong, and going so far as to assert that our views are more just and moral than those of unbelievers. So in the interest of being similarly winsome, I would like to take a moment to encourage us all to be a bit more nuanced in how we think and speak about the Holocaust.
First, we should acknowledge that, speaking as Christians, we think that mass murder and genocide are wrong and sinful. I am not speaking to public policy, and my comments should not be taken as trying to bind the conscience of others based on my own religious convictions. But as a private citizen, I am entitled to have my own moral convictions, so long as I agree to keep them private. And I am here to state quietly but fairly clearly that I think rounding up Jews and other minority groups in order to incarcerate, torture, machine gun, or gas them is a very bad thing.
Second, we should be very aware of and concerned about the dangers of pride. It would be easy to look down on the Nazis and say, “God, I thank you that I am not like them!” We must not deceive ourselves. After all, who among us has not fantasized about conquering an entire continent and attempting to exterminate entire people groups from the face of the earth?
Third, we should remember that not all Germans were Nazis, not all Nazis were bad people, and even many of the Nazi soldiers, surgeons, and executioners who did bad things may have been very sincere, albeit misguided, in their beliefs and actions. Beware of thinking that it is obvious that raping women, separating families, transporting refugees in cattle cars, torturing the vulnerable, and sending millions to their death by gunning them down in mass graves or marching them into gas chambers is morally inappropriate. Many of those who did such things probably had difficult childhoods, undiagnosed trauma in the aftermath of the First World War, or found themselves in need of work and unsure of how else to provide for themselves. We need more sympathy, empathy, and wimpathy for those who found themselves in the difficult but completely understandable position of torturing and murdering the helpless.
Fourth, we should not be so crass and reductionistic as to imagine that the Holocaust was only about terminating de-humanized minorities. The Nazi regime was the largest provider of healthcare services in eastern Europe. Their relocation camps provided affordable housing for millions of refugees. Their government service programs employed hundreds of thousands of people. And their programs stimulated the American economy, ended the Great Depression, and created a boom in federal and military industrial complex production. It would be hard to calculate how much good this regime did for the world economy.
Fifth, we should remember that while the Church has special revelation to guide her thinking on matters of morality and faith, the common kingdom is governed by natural law as perceived, understood, and applied by unregenerate people. Yes, there is a moral law, but it’s too much to expect unbelievers to know that it forbids things like murder. The Church is not to intrude in matters of the State, nor is the pulpit an appropriate place for politics. It is not the Church’s place to offer opinions on national policies for populations in places where it hopes to expand. Who are we to say what a government should do? Romans 13, after all. What we need is less moralizing application in the sermon and more reminders that we are only a pilgrim people and that while the gospel is God’s power to save, it isn’t very powerful beyond that.
Sixth and finally, Christians should never rejoice when wicked men are defeated. Do not boast when the wicked city which shed the blood of the innocent is cast down (Rev. 18:21-19:6). Do not pray for God to slay wicked and bloodthirsty men (Psa. 94; 139:19). Do not hate those who hate the Lord (Psa. 139:21-22), but rather love them, befriend them, and help them to see that we are allies who share the same values and concerns (2Chr. 19:2). The way some unenlightened Christians are celebrating right now, you would think they rejoice in vengeance and almost expect them to want to bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked (Psa. 58:10)!
Does this offend you? I truly hope so. You can be sure that when you speak about abortion in these ways, many of us are equally ashamed of you. –JME
