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October 30, 2004

the post-abortion era

Dawn Eden has an interesting post about a pro-life woman who went to an abortion clinic to offer a general apology for Christians who had behaved badly in the name of the pro-life cause. Of course, the idea of reconciliation assumes the end of this ideological conflict. I believe the pro-life cause will prevail. But it's intriguing to think about what that will mean for our culture.

The harsh judges of the abortion era of American history will quite likely be the liberal left. They have never shown a sense of history in the causes they embrace or reject. Regard how they championed slavery and later segregation; today they are styled the party of racial tolerance to the point of legislating quotas and affirmative action. Regard how they were the progressive proponents of eugenics; today they want nothing to do with that lingering stigma on our past. Today, despite the left's legacy of appeasement toward Hitler, they now reject their socialist brother and his campaign of genocide. They incorrectly make him out as a rightist, and turn his stink upon the very people who now resist the culture of death in our society.

Hitler went down, and he went down hard. Consequently, the tide of history shifted quickly, and it's instructive for us today to look at what that was like. Hitler is a pariah today as he well should be. I read the stories of the French citizens who resisted him, and I want to feel it was one of France's finest hours. The Resistance was dedicated, efficient and ruthless. They often used gangland-style assassinations, perfecting the American rolling hit, spraying with machine gun fire the lunchtime cafeteria full of relaxing Nazis. After the war there was an old man who, with a twinkle in his eye, invited allied soldiers to his garden to show them the graves of sixteen Nazi officers whom he had quietly killed and secreted away. After the war was over, as a people, the French rose up against all things Vichy, executing public officials and shaving the heads of prostitutes who had consorted with their late oppressors.

Today, hatred of Nazism is nearly universal, both on the right and on the left. Do we not hold a special place in our hearts for those who used violence against the Nazi death machine? If we were to discover a story of a person who planted explosives in the administrative offices of Auschwitz and detonated them in the dead of night, would we say that he misrepresented the Allied forces and brought shame upon our just cause?

Please do not assume I endorse the use of violence against our fellow citizens who labor in the abortion industry, for I do not. Despite the millions who have been aborted, this is a different struggle. I agree with those who say we must win a war of ideas. But I also fully expect that one day we will win that war, prevailing ideology will shift, and fashion will follow. When that happens, be prepared for the liberal left, in pursuit of their latest cause celeb, to paint the party of Lincoln as life-haters, baby killers. Don't be surprised when, without a trace of irony, they will smear us as recidivists who want to turn the clock back and restore the awful specter of abortion.

Posted by joel at October 30, 2004 01:29 AM

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