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| A New Idolatry for the Contemporary American -- Part One | |
Elijah stepped forward and said to the people, "How long will you sit on the fence? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." (I Kings 18:21; New English Bible)
Another election year is approaching as well as the 35th anniversary of the infamous U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, a decision which turned what was already in many states a steady stream of carnage into a bloody coast-to-coast massacre of innocent unborn human lives numbering in the tens of millions. Even prior to that decision of the high court in 1973, the issue of the practice of abortion had been a hotly debated topic among Americans. Over the years "reproductive rights" a.k.a."Choice" has grown to become in many quarters not merely a controversy of law like "affirmative action" or the "decriminalization of marijuana," but anymore the defense of the legality of abortion has become a "hill to die on."
Having spent the better part of my adult life giving slavish, unquestioning obedience to the teachings of a charismatic, authoritarian cult leader (Herbert W. Armstrong), I have a somewhat different view of the nature of "pro-choice" ideology. Looked at another way, the fanatic loyalty of most of those sympathetic to "Choice" might also be understood as the emergence of a new, bizarre religious sect whose object of devotion is something called "Choice." Listen closely to the carefully-scripted responses and "proof text" defenses of self-proclaimed "pro-choice" politicians, news analysts, leaders of mainline denominations, and academics. It is ever clearer that we in the pro-life movement are no longer dealing with just a radical feminist-driven ideology but with a full-blown cult. This explains the bloodthirsty demand that embryonic research must continue when it was announced last week that stem cells could be obtained by ethical means. Destroying tiny human beings has become an act of worship in the cult of "Choice." Remember Planned Parenthood's ghoulish "Christmas" card inscribed inside with the slogan "Choice on Earth?"
Many of us in the pro-life community were shocked at the shrill rhetoric and histrionics displayed in response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court's decision (Gonzales v. Carhart). Despite the suggestion of misleading headlines, this decision did not make late-term abortions illegal, but only forbade one brutal method by which such abortions have been performed.
Another indicator we might be dealing with a cultic mindset is the manifestation of "cognitive dissonance." The term was coined by Social Psychologist Leon Festinger to describe the ability of a person to sincerely hold two contradictory and mutually exclusive ideas as true at the same time. I can speak from firsthand experience that once a person is convinced of the "rightness" of a particular belief or position, no matter how absurd, no item of fact will deter that person from continuing to hold to that belief — even when he is willing to acknowledge the fact that contradicts his belief. But cognitive dissonance is very uncomfortable — after all, God gave us our minds to apprehend truth. It provokes hostility, even rage, against anyone who tries to press the person to resolve the cognitive conflict.
Take for instance, the Catholic legislator who in the morning proclaims to the Catholic press reporter that he affirms the sanctity of life and reaffirms his devotion to the Catholic Church, human rights, and blah, blah, blah. This same person, in the afternoon, tells a "pro-choice" audience that he will continue to defend a woman's "reproductive rights" meaning by that, "I'm going to do everything in my power to keep abortion-on-demand legal and oppose any legislation that might diminish the availability of abortion-on-demand."
Like every religious or cultic movement the cult of "Choice" has its own set of rules that govern the words and deeds of its adherents. Let's give these rules a quasi-religious title and call them:
The Ten Commandments of Choice
(Please excuse the Protestant numbering, but it made a better fit.)
Hear O America, I am ABORTION thy Choice that delivered thee out of the land of Motherhood.
1. Thou SHALT have no other Choice before me, for neither single motherhood nor adoption are true Choice.
2. Thou shalt NOT make or display for yourselves, or the general public, any graven fetal images, or any likeness of unborn children that are in the womb, whether by fetal model or ultrasound image, artist illustration or computer animation.
3. Thou shalt NOT take the name of ABORTION thy Choice in vain, for NARAL Pro-Choice America will not hold her guiltless who claims there is another Choice.
4. Remember January 22 every year, to keep it holy, for on January 22 the United States Supreme Court made ABORTION-on-demand a constitutional right based on nebulous legal penumbrances of privacy (i.e.: "out of nothing!").
5. Honor thy contraception and sterilization, that thy body may remain childless in the land in which ABORTION is always thy Choice, should they fail.
6. Thou SHALT kill (an unintended pregnancy), by means of morning-after pill, RU-486, vacuum curette suction aspiration, saline injection, dilation & curettage, or any other method of thy Choice.
7. Thou SHALT commit adultery, incest, same-sex acts, or any other sexual deed, as it is also thy Choice.
8. Thy news media shalt NOT steal positive media exposure of pro-Choice advocates by granting unbiased news coverage, interviews, or equal airtime to informed, articulate proponents opposed to Choice, nor shalt thou grant any but the most superficial coverage to major national public anti-Choice events or outspoken anti-Choice political candidates.
9. Thou SHALT bear false witness to disguise what ABORTION really means, using instead vague euphemisms like "reproductive healthcare," and "removal of the products of conception," and similar phrases when making references to ABORTION.
10. Thou SHALT covet more and more taxpayer funding from state legislatures and the U.S. Congress for the purpose of increasing subsidies for organizations and other entities that provide ABORTION services (and calling it "family planning" funding).
Have you ever seen an instance where an ardent pro-choice advocate has consciously violated even one of these rules? Does anyone on the political left, in the major news media, or in higher education dare? One snubs the Goddess "Choice" only at his or her peril!
