Alexander Hamilton said in Federalist Paper No. 1 that, “a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people . . .” If it’s not about a woman’s right to choose then what is abortion about? If it’s not about a homosexual’s right to marry then what is redefining marriage about? What exactly is that ‘dangerous ambition’ that Hamilton noted? It is the opposite of the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; death, despotism and tyranny over mind and body.
Legislators as Moral Authorities?
My good friend, having a conversation with his 30 year old lesbian niece, asked this question during a conversation about New York State’s redefinition of marriage that occurred at the end of the last legislative session: “Where do rights come from?” My friend’s niece believes rights come from, “the government.” Does it bring you comfort to think that a State government provides your rights? If that is the case then that same government can take those rights away – at any time. The U.S. Declaration of Independence states that men are, “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
A moral humanist (or rationalist) believes humanity does not need an external set of moral standards to keep people from trampling each other’s rights. They argue it behooves us to act fairly toward one another because of our obvious mutual need for peace and commercial prosperity. The notion that a godless utopia is an attainable goal has not only failed throughout history but has been the cause of the bloodiest of modern turmoil (i.e. Stalin’s Russia, Mao Tse Tung’s China, Hitler’s Germany, etc). In every case it is the belief that legislators, or in the cases mentioned above, a supreme Legislator knows best and sets the standard for what is right and wrong. To force upon a population legislation that declassifies as human a child in the womb, as did the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, presumes that people who hold public office believe that rights are given by a State government and that the State is the highest moral authority and not God. And children die. Pitirim Sorokin noted that when categorical moral imperatives are eliminated it takes from man his “invisible armor that unconditionally protected him, his dignity, his sanctity, and his inviolability.” So if man is truly not made “a little lower than God” (Ps 8:5) and is simply a collection of biochemical reactions then why not abortion? Why not euthanasia? Why not human stem cell research? Why not physician assisted suicide? Why not homosexual marriage? Why not reduce medical ethics to mean “whatever the patient wants” or better yet “whatever the State deems suitable?” And people die.
Jeremiah 5:31 says, “. . . the priests rule on their own authority; And my people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?” The logical end to this humanism, this godless rationalism is either chaos or tyranny. Chaos because right and wrong is in the eye of the beholder and tyranny because the government must enact tighter control on the population in order to maintain order in the face of increasing lawlessness. Only belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and an intentional life disciplined to live according to the Christian core values of devotion to God and sacrifice for others can give a person the ability to govern himself within first a family, second a community and finally a nation. These principles can only be taught to children in families with a female mother and a male father who also believes in the God whose character reflects those principles and Who will one day hold them accountable to them.
Women facing an unplanned pregnancy are a symptom of the moral aimlessness of our society. They are made to seriously consider abortion primarily because they are being coerced and pressured by self-interested others like friends, family, the father of the baby, and the consumerist expectations of an inhumane culture. The network of CompassCare’ centers serve thousands of women in this circumstance each year and we have found that women have abortions out of the fear of the unknown future. In medicine this reality reveals a coercive situation. To allow a patient to be coerced into any medical procedure, say nothing of ending the life of her child through abortion, is unconscionable.
CompassCare supports a woman’s true autonomy by ensuring complete information and support enough to give her a sense of empowerment to make the most difficult choice and have the baby.