Why would the leader of a pregnancy center agree to speak at a rally for religious freedom? Not simply because he is religious in the traditional sense of the word referring to orthodox Christian belief. It is because belief in a knowable external God provides the basis for understanding the ultimate nature and purpose of man. And it is the fact that man is made in the image of God that we derive an understanding of how men should treat one another. Without a commonly held set of beliefs about the higher purpose of humanity we can have no commonly held set of ideals or virtues that would be considered helpful to a man or all of mankind in fulfilling that ultimate purpose. Wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage are all descriptions of behavior patterns that if employed consistently will help both a man and his fellow man attain that higher level of humanity, reflecting ever more closely the character of God Himself.
What happens if a nation replaces traditional spiritual religion with, say, a material one? Mankind’s purpose could not rise above the level of random, complex biochemical reactions. Once materialism takes root a sense of meaninglessness infects the general public. And what if that general public was living within a governmental structure that valued individual rights and equality above all else? Every man’s belief about what is right and wrong would grow inward like a bad toenail as he would begin to forget everyone else but himself swimming in a sea of putrid physical pleasure (since the physical material world is all there is). Materialism’s formula for attaining the highest good for a man is maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. And as Tocqueville prophesied in 1833 in Democracy in America, “I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, constantly circling around in pursuit of the petty and banal pleasures with which they glut their souls. Each one withdrawn into himself, is almost unaware of the fate of the rest. . . . Over this kind of men stands an immense, protective power which is alone responsible for securing their enjoyment and watching over their fate . . . . It would resemble parental authority if, father-like, it tried to prepare its charges for a man’s life, but on the contrary, it only tries to keep them in perpetual childhood. It likes to see the citizens enjoy themselves, provided that they think of nothing but enjoyment.”
It is this future that only true Christian religion can stave off. It is only true belief in the One Emancipator Jesus Christ that can permit a democratic form of government from drifting into despotism. It is belief in Christ that alone causes men to discipline themselves and manage their own affairs without destroying other men in the process. If we do not have a God who does not depend on humanity for existence but is above it and its solitary judge based on moral laws as unchanging as gravity then the mob will forever be at the mercy of the whims of rich madmen who slowly dehumanize whole segments of the population (like pre-born children), reclassify morality as personal, deconstruct the family by redefining its roles, delude children through education, demean women through feminism, and demoralize men through the opiate of pleasure and entertainment.
Why does a leader of a pregnancy center speak at a rally for religious freedom? Because to do otherwise is to reject the fundamental solution to abortion and all other social ills–a rejection of apathy and a return to Jesus Christ. Join me at noon tomorrow outside the Federal building in Rochester at the corner of State and Church streets (the irony does not escape me either).