The Wrong Side of History

Unless you have been living under a rock, you are familiar with the phrase, “the wrong side of history.” People wanting to make a point about the rightness of their cause bandy it around all the time.

In his first inaugural address, President Obama declared, “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”  Since then he has repeatedly used that phrase, most often about international issues. (Google it and you will find a number of quotes.)

My LGBT friends use that phrase too, telling me that the church is on “the wrong side of history” about the issue of same-sex marriage. One friend even advertised a t-shirt that said, “I stand on the right side of history,” certain that time will bear out his point of view.

But what does the phrase really mean? What is someone trying to say to you when they tell you that you are on “the wrong side of history?”

The idea is loosely based on a quote from the mid-1800’s about the arc of the universe. (read it here) The phrase as we use it now, means that something you believe in will be proven false in the light of history – you will look back, see your mistake and recognize that your belief was in the wrong thing.

There are clear instances where you can look back and indeed, history does show wrongness.

• The south with their belief that slavery was necessary.
• Germany with their attempt (led by Hitler’s brainwashing) to become a “perfect” race.
• The US Government in their treatment and decimation of Native Americans. 

This week we saw another shining example of what “the wrong side of history” looks like.

The Center for Medical Progress released an eight-minute video that featured a hidden camera interview with Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services. Her job provides abortions through 24 weeks and oversees the practice of all Planned Parenthood affiliates. As she casually munches her lunch she talks about the dismemberment of fetuses and the use of their body parts.

“I’d say a lot of people want liver, “ Nucatola said, jabbing at her salad. “And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps…We’ve been good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part. I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

She goes on to discuss changing the baby’s fetal position in order to be able to harvest more useful parts, a procedure that sounds very much like partial-birth-abortion. (You can watch the video here, but be aware that it is disturbing.)

Even the most hardline pro-abortion folks were appalled.

I found myself wanting to write in bold caps, THIS IS WHAT THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY LOOKS LIKE!  (There, I feel better.)

To be clear, it was recorded with a hidden camera, Dr. Nucatola did not know she was being videoed.* Some people take issue with that. But it is a common thing in political campaigns. (Interestingly enough, people rarely seem to have outrage about this until a video featuring a person they support is “caught” saying something controversial.)

What the video showed us is the callousness of the argument that a zygote or fetus is not a real person. (Of course, science has been debunking that argument for a number of years.) You can call arms and legs and hearts and livers “tissue” all you want to, but they come from a human form.

It’s not much different than the callousness of the argument, popular in the United States in the late 18^th century, that the black man was not capable of taking care of himself. Even Thomas Jefferson, who regarded slavery as morally reprehensible, held slaves. The popular theory at the time was that it would be cruel to set them free because they would only fall into destitution. (Sort of like it would be cruel to bring that baby into the world only to have him or her grow up poor.)

It was a lie – an obvious “wrong side of history” moment.  We, as a nation, are still reeling from the significance and injustice of that belief. (You only have to look as far as the nightly news and the confederate flag to understand what I’m saying.)

The same is true of abortion…you can sugarcoat it however you want…but abortion is always about death.

And yes, there may be moments, as in the case of rape or the welfare of the mother, where the abortion discussion is at least understandable. But even then, you can’t dispute the fact that it is still about the termination of a life.

Its ironic that my left-leaning friends hate war and guns — they call them weapons of death. Yet those same friends will champion abortion as a woman’s right, disregarding the fact that death always has to happen in order for them to celebrate. (I find it equally ironic that my right-leaning friends are against abortion but clearly campaign for the death penalty. Again, death has to happen for their position to be true.)

Some say that they are both pro-life and pro-choice – they don’t believe in abortion but they also don’t believe the government should have the right to tell someone what to do with their body. Technically I agree…but that neutrality, straddling the fence so to speak, only serves their conscience. It doesn’t speak at all to the child being pulled apart in the womb.

Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

I think it is the same with those babies. Our neutrality is actually killing them.

Where are the champions for the unborn? The people willing to tear down the flag of death that flies over our nation?

In the same way we have had to come to terms with the ugliness of our history in regard to treatment of blacks and native americans, we must come to terms with the loss of 53+ MILLION lives.**

That’s right. FIFTY-THREE MILLION…

imagine someone dropping a bomb on the states of Texas and Florida and there being no survivors. That is how many lives we have lost to abortion.

We should feel collective sorrow over this. 

In fact, it should drive us to our knees. It should break our hearts. It should make us cry.

Just think of all the beauty we are missing.

It’s been 150 years since the Civil War ended and there are some who still argue that it wasn’t really about slavery. So I suppose it is no surprise that only forty-two years out from Roe v. Wade there are those who still argue that abortion is really only about choice.

The video this week gave us a glimpse of what our children and our children’s children will see when they look back at our lives. Will history show that that our country was right about abortion? Or will it show that we are on “the wrong side of history?”

I think the latter. I’m pretty sure those 53+ million babies would say the same.

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Deuteronomy 30:19

 

*Full footage of the entire three hour video is available from the maker.

**From 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions occurred in the U.S. (AGI).

For more statistics about abortion visit www.abort73.com