It was 1978 and I had no interest in politics.
Zero. Zilch.
I thought it a waste of time to even vote.
Watergate had disillusioned me.
I was going through some teenage rejection of my upbringing (I had been raised in a family deeply immersed in politics).
And, most of all, my newfound faith in Christ so consumed my heart and mind that I simply didn’t have time for worldly ventures.
But something happened to drastically change my perspective and it happened in a matter of minutes.
I saw the pictures.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the ones I saw were beyond ten thousand words.
They were indescribable.
The were pictures of aborted babies.
And there was something so evil, so sickening, so shocking that I’ve never forgotten what I saw.
Those pictures changed me forever.
Prior to that afternoon, I’d never even heard of “abortion.” Just five years into legalized abortion, it still wasn’t talked about often — at least not in my circles. I guess it mattered to Catholics and radical feminists, but I didn’t much hang out with either of those groups. When I saw those pictures and someone explained what they were, I literally had no idea that such a procedure was even possible.
In fact, when we thought Roz might be pregnant, we went to a clinic where we heard we could get a free pregnancy test. After discovering she was pregnant (we were thrilled!), we were given literature about “terminating” the pregnancy. We were in an abortion clinic! And I still left that afternoon having no idea what they meant by “terminating our pregnancy.”
But that all changed when I saw the pictures.
My world was shaken that afternoon.
Does this really happen in the United States of America?
My head had been in the sand and suddenly I saw there was evil all around me in ways I had never even imagined.
Babies, hundreds of thousands of them, were being murdered right here in my country.
How could this be?
That afternoon began a transformation in how I viewed politics.
Edmund Burke is known to have said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
After seeing those pictures, I could no longer do nothing.
I had to do something.
A deeply sinister evil was on the march in my very own country that required good men to take a stand.
So, I educated myself on the issue.
I talked with people on both sides.
I prayed to God.
I spoke up.
I wrote letters.
And, for the first time, i believed my vote mattered and so, I voted.
I was part of a sleeping giant — what was then a “moral majority” — that woke up as a result of legalized abortion. Millions of us Christians who honestly didn’t much care for politics were now recruited into a battle we really preferred not to fight, but one from which we were convinced we could no longer be AWOL.
In time, I became convinced that the single most important role of government is to protect the lives of innocent people (Romans 13:1-6). If it fails at that, nothing else really matters. And I have become convinced that the most innocent of all people are those yet to be born.
Thus you can imagine my disappointment when, after over 35 years of steadfastly clinging to the pro-life position, of skillfully and gracefully arguing it and of sticking to my conviction to only ever vote for pro-life leaders, our Republican majority in the House (and Senate) caved to the fear of “alienating women” and “millennials” by failing to further meaningful pro-life legislation.
Yes, I am grateful that Republicans passed a bill seeking to restrict federal funds from being used for abortions — and Democrats will fight tooth and nail to make sure your tax money funds abortions for whoever wants one.
But I’m deeply saddened that Republicans yielded to the voices of its “moderate” members on legislation that would have blocked most abortions after 20 weeks. This despite polls which indicate 84% of Americans want legal abortion limited to the first trimester (13 weeks)! 20 weeks is half-way through a pregnancy! I’ve actually seen babies who were born at 20 weeks who survived and went on to live perfectly healthy lives. After 20 weeks, there’s no euphemism of words to call it a “blob of tissue;” we’re talking about killing babies that would survive outside the womb!
And so where do we go from here?
Because we are principled people and evil never rests, we will not rest either.
We will never give up.
We will continue to educate ourselves, to speak up, to pray, to take a stand.
Yes, we will continue to vote, and though we will not be vengeful, we will remember.
We will NOT put our faith in government or politicians; we will ultimately hope only in the Lord and cry to Him for justice.
I issue a special plea to WOMEN and MILLENNIALS to stand up and raise your voice on behalf on the helpless and innocent. You must carry on this fight against this shedding of innocent blood.
Maybe for you, it will start by simply seeing the pictures.
Tom Short 