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Our God Is Pro-Life
In promoting healing, how to disagree without being
disagreeable -- that is the question. Charles Colson
has said that in some ways the pro-life protest has
backfired, as news footage shows Christians screaming
and waving their Bibles with faces twisted with hate
and anger.
Colson says that "we must woo people's hearts
towards righteousness." We wound our witness of the
truth of the Gospel and the love of Jesus Christ when
we go around bayoneting the walking wounded instead
of being a hospital for those in need. Confrontations
reduced to shouting matches only rub salt into already
open wounds being felt by the traumatized
birthmothers as they try to deal with their pregnancies.
Here is how Colson puts it:
A broken world will see either our faces
twisted in hate or anger or they see the face of
Christ, listening, serving, speaking the truth in
love. The consequences of that choice go
beyond even the saving of innocent lives. Let's
not let our stridency play into the hands as those
who would characterize Christians as stabbing
both our neighbors and our cause itself. We
should all be fighting this battle for unborn lives,
seeking both to rescue the perishing and to
pierce the callous conscience of a nation that has
chosen to allow the killing.
Moreover, I like Dr. Dobson's non-confrontational
attitude and tone in general toward the debate: "So
what is left for us, interpersonally? We must simply
agree to disagree and respond to one another with
love and compassion. I hereby extend that friendship
to you despite our differences. Until we are granted
His infinite wisdom on the other side, that's the best
we can do."
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