The Sixth Commandment, Equal Protection, and Sidewalk Counseling
All of the rights of men depend upon the right to life. Our bodies are more valuable than any gift that could possibly be given to us. We are made in God's image - and the very fact of this demands the sixth commandment: "You shall not murder."
Having recently put a lot of thought into this commandment, I'd like to share a few things I've learned about it in the past week or so as I've read different theologians and dug into God's word. I've found that its truths are intimately applicable to true pro-life work in the state of Indiana.
Luther so famously summarized the command as follows:
"We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need."
Rightly so, all biblical commentators worth their salt, when expositing the Decalogue, recognize not simply the negative command "You shall not..." but also the teaching of positive imperatives. Puritan Thomas Watson said that the sixth commandment requires us to faithfully promote whatever would defend the lives of our neighbors.
The Heidelberg Catechism states:
Q. 105. What doth God require in the sixth commandment?
A. That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor, by myself or by another; but that I lay aside all desire of revenge; also, that I hurt not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger. Wherefore also the magistrate is armed with the sword to prevent murder.
Q. 106. But this commandment seems only to speak of murder?
A. In forbidding murder, God teaches us that He abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge; and that He accounts all these as murder.
Q. 107. But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?
A. No; for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves; to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness towards him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; and that we do good, even to our enemies.
Furthermore, even within literal command forbidding murder, as Watson aptly puts it, "all sins are forbidden which lead to it, and are the occasions of it."
While certainly the crime of murder is more narrowly defined in the Scriptures, (see Genesis 9:6), the sin or sins that lead to breaking this commandment, and which it warns about, are much broader. (Notice, we distinguish between biblical crimes and sins, something critics of God's Word and its application to politics don't understand).
After all, that is the nature of sin - it doesn't come in neatly sectioned-off pieces, but rather it is like black ink saturating everything it touches.
The sins that lead to murder could be anger, envy, hatred, and many more. From the more inexperienced pro-life counselor like myself to the veteran sidewalk warrior for life, any honest examination of the constant vitriol from those procuring abortions for their preborn children will reveal a many number of these sins. Greed is probably the biggest one; the idol that Francis Schaeffer spoke of, "personal peace and affluence" which leads to many image-bearers being destroyed at its altar. Convenience. Rejection of God's truth that children are a blessing. Hatred of God and therefore hatred of those who bear His image... I could go on and on recounting individual stories of hardened individuals appealing to certain vices to justify the abortion of these little ones.
Herein lies the contradiction of those that believe all women who choose abortion are "victims." You cannot make an absolutist claim of this caliber, as I can document many pro-life leaders have, (and have argued for certain public policies based on), and then pretend to offer God's "forgiveness" for abortion to these same women. If you don't see the contradiction in this, you may need to peel back a few layers of cultural conditioning.
I am not saying there are not women who are victims of abortion. In fact, there are many I am sure. Some of my collegues have witnessed these situations.
Certainly, coercion can, and does happen. Indeed, any bill of abolition would allow there to be prosecutorial discretion - just in every other homicide case. But is that the norma normata? Should these statisitically low in number, although certainly existent scenarios that pro-lifers mention, categorically define our rule and law?
Nope.
Which commandment does the average woman in full knowledge of what mifepristone does break when she swallows those first pills? Or when she puts the misoprostol behind her cervix?
The sixth commandment of God's Law, indicates the finger of the Living God.
"But so many women are deceived by the abortion industry!"
True. But so many are not! Wasn't our mother Eve also deceived, and yet held responsible for her actions? That's the nature of sin itself, it is deceitful. And, since this cultural subterfuge is so prevalent and widespread, no doubt in part to obedience to the original Roe decision and its subsequent precedential affirmations, how much greater then could righteous and just legislation (equal protection) be to train the culture in a godly way?
To those of the Lutheran persuasion who have so vigorously fought against the cause of abolition in Indiana, read your Small Catechism! The Law is a curb - it deters sinful behavior. Would not equal protection do just that?
Typically, this position, that women who receive (receive is most definitely a euphemism in most cases...) abortions are not to be held criminally responsible, can be reduced to absurdity pretty easily.
There are all sorts of steps, as previously mentioned, that lead to murder. God does not simply forbid murder... he also forbids all of that which it consists of. Provoking to anger, slander, wrath, envy, strife, all of these which Paul often refers to in his epistles. Indeed, when discussing the sin of murder, (again, opposed to the CRIME of murder), our Lord helps us immensely by doing the hard exegetical work for us.
From Matthew 5:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire."
The Jews themselves were guilty of believing that the sixth commandment simply meant no more than the literal proposition. That it didn't apply to other areas of life which should be under its authority and righteous judgment.
And, so too many in the pro-life community also needlessly restrict the meaning of the sixth commandment to fit their own secular agendas.
Let us not fall into that trap either, and affirm, just as our Savior did, that it was designed also spiritually in nature, extending to the inward thoughts and intentions of man, as well as the external act of murder itself. If we do so, we'll find this balanced approach has fruitful application both in the civil legislative sphere, as we treat abortion as a crime, and in the sphere of law/gospel presentation to those at abortion clinics, as we treat it as a sin.
Some closing thoughts:
1. Phrases from pro-life legislators such as "Just punish the abortionist!" are (1) extraordinarily ignorant of the nature of chemical abortion and its prevalence and (2) woefully mistaken on what God says constitutes moral culpability, even in cases of a biblical crime. A true reading of the sixth commandment and its surrounding context makes this clear.
An abortionist, according to Merriam-Webster, is "one who induces abortions." Women who take pills to kill their babies are then, BY DEFINITION, abortionists. In these scenarios, it is the woman who is doing the "actual killing", so, assuming the woman had full knowledge of what these chemicals would do, one would have to argue the person who prescribed or sent her these pills, the one who had significantly less influence in the physical act of abortion, is more morally culpable. In fact, this is the argument I have heard from pro-life figureheads in Indiana.
"Well... interesting point... I guess then we should just punish those who prescribe the pills."
Really? You are going to ground the basis for our criminal code on abortion upon the ad hoc mental gymnastics required to defend your farcical anti-abolitionist witticism?
Nonsense. We. Have. A. Book. And in that book, we receive a commandment which is wholly germain to this practice of abortion in our land which is polluting our soil.
My words for the Hoosier legislator? Stop thinking that your opinions, or those of any number of lobbyist organizations, apart from God's Law and Word, can constitute any meaningful form of civil code.
""The point is not only that society should be Christianized; it is that Christianity is the very precondition to society itself." Jared Longshore
Look to the general equity of the Holy Bible. It is your only hope in life and death for your soul, as well as for your work in writing law. Indeed, God's word speaks to ALL matters of life.
2. In sidewalk counseling, it is damning to purposefully abstain from exhorting mothers to trust in God to provide for them, forgive them, or mention what God says about those who willfully destroy His image.
These words of the incarnate Son of God do not, yea, CANNOT cease on the sidewalk. Christ was not ashamed of us on the cross when He saved our lives; let us not be ashamed of Him when we fight to save others.
3. Yahweh is our God. Only He is autonomous, and His Law is King - the king must not be law. It is biblical fact that this King has bound all nations to render to Him obedience to His Law. Their governments must be His ordinances and these ordinances must be embodied in all civil institutions.
Samuel Rutherford in Lex, Rex is extremely helpful here. The magistrate is to punish the crime of murder "Not as Sin, but as Civil Scandals Against Good Order, unto a Judicial Expiation of Positive Order."
Using the sixth commandment as the firm foundation that we argue from is a mighty bulwark of these glorious truths. Alongside other objects of important enactment, it helps us know when a legislator is doing God's bidding, or when they are working against His commands.
To not use the sixth commandment and its teaching when fighting for legislation to save lives of preborn children, one's efforts are ultimately reduced to arbitrary possibilities, being "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." (Eph. 4:14).
So when pro-life legislators, such as Rep. King who sponsored SB1 in the House, state "To support pregnant women, the new law moves abortion procedures to hospitals or hospital-owned ambulatory centers where we can ensure they will be surrounded by the best possible care," we must analyze these claims in light of the sixth commandment.
Does caring ever involve breaking the sixth commandment (aborting children, even if in a hospital)? Nope, because fulfilling it in its truest sense is true wholistic bodily and spiritual care.
This is the utility given in the sixth commandment that many ideologically pragmatic Christians simply do not comprehend. Far from God's Law being a barrier to true fruitful ministry, it, coupled with the true Gospel of God's glorious grace for sinners, is the fount and source of it.
Psalm 94:20–21
Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
Lastly, meditate on this somewhat lengthy quote from Abraham Kuyper in his lecture on Calvinism and Politics, and compare its biblically saturated reasoning with that of current "Christian" political involvement:
From the ends of the earth God cites all nations and peoples before His high judgment seat. For God created the nations. They exist for Him. They are His own. And therefore all these nations, and them in humanity, must exist for His glory and consequently after his ordinances, in order that in their well-being, when they walk after His ordinances, His divine wisdom may shine forth.
When therefore humanity falls apart through sin, in a multiplicity of separate peoples; when sin, in the bosom of these nations, separates men and tears them apart, and when sin reveals itself in all manner of shame and unrighteousness -the glory of God demands that these horrors be bridled, that order return to this chaos, and that a compulsory force, from without, assert itself to make human society a possibility.
This right is possessed by God, and by Him alone.
No man has the right to rule over another man, otherwise such a right necessarily, and immediately becomes the right of the strongest. As the tiger in the jungle rules over the defenceless antelope, so on the banks of the Nile a Pharaoh ruled over the progenitors of the fellaheen of Egypt.
Nor can a group of men, by contract, from their own right, compel you to obey a fellow-man. What binding force is there for me in the allegation that ages ago one of my progenitors made a “Contrat Social,” with other men of that time? As man I stand free and bold, over against the most powerful of my fellow-men.
I do not speak of the family, for here organic, natural ties rule; but in the sphere of the State I do not yield or bow down to anyone, who is man, as I am.
Authority over men cannot arise from men. Just as little from a majority over against a minority, for history shows, almost on every page, that very often the minority was right. And thus to the first Calvinistic thesis that sin alone has necessitated the institution of governments, this second and no less momentous thesis is added that: all authority of governments on earth originates from the Sovereignty of God alone. When God says to me, “obey,” then I humbly bow my head, without compromising in the least my personal dignity, as a man. For, in like proportion as you degrade yourself, by bowing low to a child of man, whose breath is in his nostrils; so, on the other hand do you raise yourself, if you submit to the authority of the Lord of heaven and earth.
Thus the word of Scripture stands: “By Me kings reign,” or as the apostle has elsewhere declared: “The powers, that be, are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God.” The magistrate is an instrument of “common grace,” to thwart all license and outrage and to shield the good against the evil. But he is more. Besides all this he is instituted by God as His Servant, in order that he may preserve the glorious work of God, in the creation of humanity, from total destruction. Sin attacks God's handiwork, God's plan, God's justice, God's honor, as the supreme Artificer and Builder. Thus God, ordaining the powers that be, in order that, through their instrumentality, He might maintain His justice against the strivings of sin, has given to the magistrate the terrible right of life and death. Therefore all the powers that be, whether in empires or in republics, in cities or in states, rule “by the grace of God.” For the same reason justice bears a holy character. And from the same motive every citizen is bound to obey, not only from dread of punishment, but for the sake of conscience.