Mobs, Moms, Murder and Mercy

Last week, Brent Leatherwood put on a clinic. He demonstrated how to work a crowd and how to read a politically savvy sound byte. He showed how to deflect and evade, redirect and change the topic to a popular applause line. When asked about applying equal protection to all humans, he made it clear that the ERLC, the SBC and the pro-life machine would rather pander to the pragmatists than address the issue of murder consistently. He replied "you're not going to get me to say that I want to throw mothers behind bars. That's not the view of this entity. That is not the view of this convention. It is not the view of the pro-life movement".

Congratulations Brent. Now, back to the issue at hand. No abolitionist is calling for any mothers to be thrown anywhere. We do wholeheartedly support the throwing of baby showers and also color flowers or confetti at gender reveal parties. And, just to get out in front of the ERLC's present trajectory for next year's conference, those colors are pink or blue only, with the blessed exception in the case of twins where you might have both. It's binary, baby. It's pink or blue. It's life or death. She's either a mother or a murderer. There is no ambiguity unless the religious elites choose to punt to secularism.

That's the problem with these career politicians who occupy lofty, ivory tower positions in the SBC (read Brent's bio if you aren't sure what I mean). They can't tell the difference between a mother or a murderer. So their reckless words garner reckless applause and lead to reckless positions supported by emotional folks who make a passing reference to the grace of Christ but neglect the truth of what He came to do. How will the church 'make disciples, baptize and teach them to obey everything Christ commanded' if we can't even clearly call sin, sin? And before anyone accuses the abolitionist of 'bickering over secondary issues', sin is a primary issue. Murder is a primary issue. The Gospel deals with both, head on.

No abolitionist is calling for mothers to be thrown behind bars. We are, however, calling for a woman who kills her child to be held accountable to a justly applied law that protects human life. A woman who hires someone to kill her child should be treated the same way as a woman that hires someone to kill her husband or neighbor. A woman who kills her own child herself should be subject to the same laws that would apply to the father were he to kill the child himself. It's not complicated.

The assertion that those who disagree with Brent's position are 'a mob', coupled with the standard chant of a graceless reply to sinners paint that binary distinction again. One one hand, the SBC wants forgiveness without repentance, grace without law and acceptance without responsibility. On the other hand, Abolitionists want churches to stand with the Law of God and the Gospel of Christ. One of those is the biblical approach. One of them is not.

As a father who has stood outside the abortion mills, I can tell you what a mob looks like. I can tell you what a mob sounds like, how they twerk and cuss and mock. Leatherwood, the ERLC and the SBC want to err on the side of not offending that apparatus and the parties that laugh at the slaughter of children. Abolitionists want to call churches, communities, States and Nations to repent of our wickedness before God causes the land to vomit us out.

If the largest protestant denomination in the United States gets weak kneed about confronting folks who murder children, there's not much hope for national repentance. If the largest protestant denomination of the United States can't call for laws concerning murder to be applied equally in all cases, then they have made it clear that bowing to Caesar is more important than standing with Scripture. Perhaps Brent and the SBC should be less concerned with throwing folks behind bars and more concerned with hearing 'depart from me...you workers of lawlessness.'

Pray with us for God's mercy.

Repent with us for our apathy.

Then let's work while we have breath in our lungs to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Kevin Wolf, Jr.
Abolitionist - Oklahoma