Law-abiding criminals

"...you will be dragged before governors and kings..."  - Mt. 10:18a RSV

The two posts below entitled "Pro-life strike: It's the law" and "Pro-life strike: It is the law" made the point that a pro-life strike or tax resistance movement is not unlawful. Indeed, we must obey God's Law, and if that means running afoul of human government, so be it.

Pro-life warrior Mick Hunt has, without intending to, become the target of an unjust kangaroo court for his pro-life activities. Mick's "offence" was in manning large, provocative visual displays of abortion through the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP). The First Amendment legality of such public displays has been well established, but, in one instance, a human judge has opined that Hunt et. al. are guilty of illegal trespassing. Read more here. I have not yet heard whether an appeal is planned. (Later Note: An appeal is planned, as clarified by Mick in the first reader comment for this post.)

Mick's blog details many such GAP displays, and the impact they are having upon consciences. (Most are without legal incident.) Mick has also written about conscience and unjust laws in an article entitled "Resistance v. Collaboration.

David Little, by contrast, has deliberately challenged the Canadian laws regarding abortion and taxes. You can read more about his pro-life work in the "David Little" post below, or at his website. The legal story is found at this web page. He is currently preparing for a decisive appeal scheduled for Oct. 24, 2008. Please pray for a favorable outcome.

What's my point? Well, first of all, pray for these two pro-life men and their respective battles against an ungodly system. Secondly, acknowledge that such as these are to be respected for their courage and principled stand. And then, recognizing the state of our culture and our legal system, consider that their examples are to be emulated.

Pro-life strike: Why not?

There are a number of ways in which God's people can respond to systematic injustice. The first response, the final response, and the response that must permeate and instruct all others is prayer, an earnest crying out to God to correct the wrong that is being done. And so it is with the criminal injustice of legalized and government sanctioned abortion. We must never cease pleading with God to change hearts, and put an end to the slaughter of the innocents. Lord, please speak to the mother facing a troublesome pregnancy; give her a tender heart of compassion to give life to her child. Change the heart of the abortionist to repent of his evil ways. Change the hearts of legislators and judges to restore legal protection and government's rightful responsibility to secure the basic human right to life. Change the hearts of our fellow citizens to support life matters. Enlighten and embolden our bishops, priests, deacons, rabbis and ministers to teach clearly on the inviolate sanctity of human life.

The first heart that is changed by earnest prayer is, of course, the heart of the one praying. So, pro-life people pray, then get up off their knees and take specific action. They offer help to the unwed mother. They write letters to their representatives. They vote pro-life. They make their prayers public by praying in front of abortion clinics and government buildings. They may go further. They may take actions which could be considered extraordinary, or even radical.

One such radical action is the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which jolts people's consciences through large, provocative visual displays of abortion. (The graphic image at right is from their site.) You can see more at this blog.

Another is Life Decisions International, whose focus is the defunding of Planned Parenthood by publishing corporations known to be contributing to PP, and facilitating the boycott of these corporations.

I could go on and on. But the list of extraordinary things pro-life people are doing would not include one very obvious action: To my knowledge, no one but myself is advocating or practicing an actual economic strike or tax resistance movement to end abortion. People do this kind of thing for crassly economic motives. They do it for other, lesser moral and ideological reasons. Why not do it to end legalized and tax-funded abortion? The idea is simple enough. The goals are surely worthy. So why not?

The next post will be my attempt to answer the inverse: Why we should organize a pro-life strike.