The Scariest Thing About Abolish Human Abortion November 27, 2002
An activist is someone who has the following characteristics:
- He believes that people can change.
- He believes that his actions can make a difference in the world.
- He believes that on the whole if he does it right, he will make things overall better rather than worse.
- He believes that even if the larger picture does not change, or if an evil or unforeseen use is put to what he does, then even so if he does the right thing he will make particular things better rather than worse.
- He believes in consistency. He has a blessed rage for order.
- He believes that it is right to sacrifice good things he could have in order to do the things that if done right will bring about changes that will be better for all and will establish a good and proper order in the world.
- At some point (and sometimes at all points) the activist is willing to set aside almost any relationship in order to accomplish something that his drive for consistency tells him is necessary to accomplish.
This is why we don't like activists. They drive us to think clearly on issues that we would rather leave fuzzy. We too (or if you are an activist reading this, instead of "We too" read, "Those around you too") have a drive for consistency that we (they) would rather not have awakened. Activists tend to awaken that drive. There is no resisting their logic. Next thing you know you are out there writing your congressman, putting together literature for distribution, or God forbid doing a sit-in.
So when contemplating a conversation with an activist often we realize that the best thing to do is stop now, walk away, enjoy your life, what's left of it. Because if you do not succumb to the logic of the movement, you will be written off their list of useful people. Who wants to be written off like that?
In this regard there is an eighth characteristic of activists,
- Activists tend to build their relationships with those who either join their enthusiasm, or who are willing to listen to them and not feel guilty or condemned. The rest they are willing to write off, offend, or even attack.
WOW! So why are we even thinking about having a conversation with someone who is into Abolish Human Abortion? It's you and I believe in Truth. And no matter what you try to tell yourself, to warn yourself, you recognize the Truth is in the Abolition of Abortion. You know that somehow they aren't activist trying to get you to be an activist in their special cause. AHA has many things you can do, of course, but they don't think that doing something on their list is what causes God's hand to move. Anyone in AHA believes to the core that God's hand moving is what causes you to do something.
"God moves you, not vice versa" is the concept which catapults them into a class of their own. I know of no movement (other than Rescue of course) who has attempted to deal with the murder of children from the perspective of God's sovereignty. If you are theologically inclined you will notice that the list of 8 characteristics of an activist are fairly heavily weighted on the works-righteousness side of the scale. And so Activists with their to do lists tend to make you feel guilty if you don't take up the cudgel in the cause of the hour.
I write this to put up front the fact that if you are afraid of this sort of a person then you need to get to know AHA. They are not an attempt to get you to join a movement and be an activist. You have already joined The Movement, you are a Christian saved by grace and you have a full life and range of obedient activities that God has called you to. You are already a member of the Abolish Abortion movement in all your life's callings.
It is in that full life that God will move in you to act. AHA doesn't need to recruit you to the cause so that your efforts joining ours will move God to act. Ending the murder of children is in all the things you do, like brushing your teeth, going to Church, earning a living, tithing, raising a happy wholesome and healthy family, learning more about your world and God every day, and so forth.
In each of the moments of our days in all the richness of your life and thought you will unfold who and what you are in Christ.
It is this common core that you have with AHA, that is all they are. This is a book that puts the battle for the lives of your unborn neighbors into the context of what we need. NOT MORE ACTIVISTS! We need more moms and dads, kids, grand parents, factory workers, supervisors, bankers, lawyers, politicians, cross walk guards, homeschoolers and university professors, politicians, - whatever you are in the full range and panoply of your life. We do not need more people who will throw out of their life all that makes it rich and full as if it were so much baggage and become a monk for the monastic cause of fighting child killing.
We need you who can see how God has given you a seed to plant, a stone to throw, a life to live in its fullness. You do not need to divest yourself of that fullness to serve God, but rather serve him in each aspect of what makes life good. It is this overflow pressed down and running over, the spring of eternal life welling from God's throne in your innermost being that transforms and makes us intolerant of that which is intolerable and nurture that which will change the world.
The body of Christ needs all its members and prolife ministry is part of the ministry of that body in all its parts. Don't go giving up what God has made you in order to become what God has made Troy or Cheryl. See how in your banking, your spanking, your mealtimes, your business your pleasures and your labors and all other parts of the world God has put into your hands... see how many ways God gives you to bring the good news of life in a way that fits the circumstance, seasoned with salt in terms of whatever it is you are doing. You never have to change the topic to Christ, or God or Pro-life issues. To know you is to immediately see the strongest argument for life.
This is what this book attempts to recruit. People like you who see the opportunities God has put in your hands right now. This might mean you carry a sign, it might not. It might mean you go to China and teach English or stay home and get married. I don't know God's plan for your life. Indeed I do not think he has a plan as if your life may be boiled down to one abstract thing or purpose or gift for which he has put you on earth. God's plan is as diverse for your life as all the different things in your life. This book will help you see how whoever you are and wherever you are there is something you can do in all you are.
An activist strives after works that if done right will please God and change the world - particular those around him who in his estimation so desperately need changing to become more like him. The activist strives to recruit you to those works. But a Christian is already made in the image of Christ and seeks for Christ to be formed in others who do not know him and to build on the foundation of the cross in those who do know him - - a process that no deed however correctly done may accomplish, and yet every deed works together for Good to that end for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
Thus you will read arguments in this book that will not call you to stand for Christ as if when you fulfill the good things you might do for the cause you can then go home justified knowing that you truly stand for Christ. God forbid we reduce standing for Christ to something that your filthy rags can accomplish if you just do it the way the book says.
Instead this book will call you to continue the stand Christ has already taken in your life with a deeper understanding of the life and death that depends on you being what Christ has called you to be in all your own fullness and uniqueness. Biblical man and woman is about Grace, not a to-do list which the Pharisees of righteousness want to reduce your life to. You are about being transformed, not about pulling yourself up by your boot straps. You may or may not do everything on the list that an activist would do or Troy or I think you should do. But God is at work in you and that confidence breaths from every page of this book.
It is in this spirit that I commend this little book to you. It could change your whole understanding about what God wants us to be to change the world.
Joseph Foreman November 17, 2002 Rivendell, Virginia
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But wait... is that all you have to say for activists? After all you were an activist are you not repudiating who you are and what you have done?
No. I was never an activist. I was always a Christian first. There is much in activism that closely mimics and parallels Christian living. Much that is good about activism comes from this imitation. For instance, our belief that what you do does make a difference but it is only when it is God who works it in you to will and to do his good pleasure.
And of course we believe that change is possible after all, we "believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life who proceeds from the Father..." So of course we believe people can change and that God's order is desirable and we want to walk in it. But the similarity is akin to many things about true faith that have their counterpart in the world - and the world is usually a better place for it - none the less it is merely a mirror image, a likeness. The real thing is so much more than you could ask or imagine.
And so to we commend Christ to you and fullness in him and action that overflows from there, not a place on our organizational chain and a set of activities which if you are faithful in them you too might be considered righteous. I do hope this answers your question. Now lets quit talking about it and start reading this most remarkable little volume on the matter of blood.
As I was saying: Joseph Foreman November 17, 2002 Rivendell, Virginia