How the Pro-Life Movement Has Been a Trojan Horse for a Greater Sin

'As noble as the pro-life cause is - and it is very noble - there is no excuse to do what was always considered mortally sinful', praying in common with heretics.

From Crisis

By Kennedy Hall

While noble, the pro-life movement has led many single-issue voters to fail to see the greater problem within the American political system.

America is a fascinating country to watch from a political perspective as an outsider. Not only is the political arena in America filled with drama and intrigue, but it is also filled with notable and often very noble zeal and principled action. I am not American, but given Canada’s proximity to the US and the fact that our media is flooded with American news and entertainment, I have long followed the national political happenings of my southern neighbour (that’s “neighbor” for my friends to the south).

One of the most heroic aspects of American conservatism has been the decades-long fight to combat abortion, a fight that many have taken on with a herculean effort. Never were the fruits of that effort more acutely seen than with the support of Donald Trump in the 2016 election which resulted in the joyous overturning of Roe v Wade. Of course, abortion has not ceased in the US, but American pro-lifers enjoyed a great victory in 2022 that resulted from Trump’s judicial selections.

We have a significant pro-life push in Canada as well, even if the political results have not been as momentous, and it is not uncommon to see thousands marching in pro-life marches, or praying outside of clinics, or at least in the general proximity since laws have been passed in certain regions that prohibit prayer too close to the abortion-mill. 

However, there has always been something a bit “off” about the pro-life movement that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. After all, how could there be anything wrong with a movement that unites men and women of goodwill who fight for the rights of the most vulnerable people, the unborn? Well, from a Catholic perspective, there is, in fact, a hidden or overlooked danger that has been seemingly embraced as part of the pro-life cause, and I believe many Catholics have been oblivious to this fact, or have overlooked it as something best not considered in pursuit of the noble goal of ending abortion. I speak here of the danger, we might even say heresy, of religious indifferentism.

Recently, as the Republican Party took a notably more morally “progressive” path by removing traditional social-conservative values from its platform, I watched with keen interest how many commentators and well-known Catholics reacted. 

Understandably, many are enraged at the squishy pro-life stance of the present iteration of the Republican Party and feel betrayed. Let me say that this feeling is justified, especially considering the fact that social conservatives have been the backbone of the GOP for some time. For so long, the Republican Party was the “pro-life” party, and this heartened Catholics devoted to this cause.

However, it is my opinion that this insistence on “single-issue” voting facilitated the blind spot to religious indifference so common to the pro-life movement. Since the Second Vatican Council, the notion that Protestants and Catholics should not pray together has gone out of fashion, even though it is a perennial Catholic practice. Of course, Catholics may pray with non-Catholics as long as Catholic prayers are being said, and Catholics have always been instructed to be respectful when attending non-Catholic ceremonies for reasons of charity, such as funerals or weddings of non-Catholics.

However, public displays of religiosity with non-Catholics were always forbidden, especially those led by heretics and schismatics, for obvious reasons pertaining to scandal and the risk of imbibing heresy, among other things. Nonetheless, anyone who has spent time at pro-life events will know that Catholics, by the thousands, will often be led in prayer by heretic “ministers” and display a general “Christianity” in ecumenical settings. 

As noble as the pro-life cause is — and it is very noble — there is no excuse to do what was always considered mortally sinful. Furthermore, it is my opinion that the single-issue voting mentality — pro-life above all — has led to a type of myopathy in political thinking that has failed to consider the grave evil of fraternizing in a religious setting in ceremonies that is hateful to God on account of the heresy and sacrilege associated with Protestantism.

A divide seems to have arisen between Catholics of goodwill who are responding to the change in platform in different ways. Both sides see it as a terrible shame — which it is — but some take a more pragmatic approach, admitting that the Culture War has essentially been lost, but are still zealous in their support of The Donald because he is obviously the best choice available. Although I cannot vote since I am not an American citizen, I relate to that sentiment, perhaps because I cannot even dream of what it would be like to have a pro-life party in Canada, so the fact that pro-lifers are welcomed and encouraged at all in the Republican Party is still monumentally more positive than any option here. 

Of course, those who take a less pragmatic approach to politics and would call themselves “single-issue voters” are also justified in their outrage, and expressing that outrage about a conciliatory attitude to the crime of abortion is not only reasonable but a healthy sentiment given the gravity of the evil. That being said, it is not uncommon to hear talk of “compromise” or “concession” if you still support the party, as if the abortion stance of the party has crossed a line, making it impossible to support them henceforth. 

Again, abortion is of course a grave evil, but there is a more insidious crime at the heart of all US politics. I should add that this same evil is at the heart of all post-Christendom nations, so please do not think I am picking on the US.

I often hear from Christians that “God will not support a nation that has abortion,” but what is often missed is that God has demonstrated throughout the Scriptures, as well as history, that He will withdraw His hand from nations for a crime that is even greater. 

You see, abortion is a type of homicide or murder, and therefore it is a sin against your neighbour. The order of the 10 Commandments is hierarchical, and sins against neighbour are listed after sins against God, in order of importance. 

The first three commandments concern the rights of God, and concern the crime of idolatry, blasphemy, and the right for God to be worshipped. After these, we have the commandment to honour our parents (which means, among other things, the established order of authority) and then we have murder, which would include abortion. 

The point is, that crimes against God are more serious than even murder, according to God. 

While pro-lifers are understandably upset over the recent abortion rhetoric from Republicans, I can’t say I have seen the same commentators upset about the glaring blasphemy that is at the heart of the values trumpeted by the Republican Party, and the nation — the whole West, for that matter — as a whole. 

Again, I am speaking of the false liberty of religious freedom. 

Before I continue, it should be noted that when we speak of religious freedom we are not referring to the notion of toleration, which happens even in a society that recognizes the Rights of Christ the King. It should also be admitted by all that the religious freedom of America and other Western nations is not a negative freedom but a positive freedom. Modern Westerners view religious freedom as a positive right, meaning they view it as a sacrosanct virtue afforded to all, and consider any assault on that “freedom” as an assault on the individual.

However, religious freedom is an assault on God, as it is an equivocation between God, false gods, and the devil. All deities — real or fake — are given equal rights with religious freedom. The devil has the same rights as Christ in a society with religious freedom, and America has always been a nation that will reject the establishment of a state religion as a matter of principle. 

By the very legal framework that upholds America, God will never have his rights officially, even if many do believe in Christ and belong to the True Church. 

Lest anyone think I am reaching or being a bit extreme, it is worth consulting the corpus of papal documents from the time of the French Revolution until the Council that express what I am saying with exactitude and very strong language on the matter at hand.

I say all this to demonstrate the fact that anyone who thinks the Republicans are beyond support because of their abortion stance, should by extension examine why they have supported them at all. After all, if it is wrong to support a party that permits the murder of the body, it is even more heinous to support a party that positively heralds the right to murder the soul as a matter of “liberty.”

Quite frankly, if you are a Catholic, you should be more upset that a Lutheran “pastor” — a man wearing a costume with no sacramental orders — prayed a “benediction” at the Republican National Convention. 

This act of false worship by a man who promoted a religion that is at the heart of the murder of Christendom is infinitely worse than some pseudo-prostitute (Amber Rose) speaking about how she doesn’t think Trump is a racist anymore — even if we can all agree that was shameful as well. 

It is worth remembering that prostitutes and murderers were not burned at the stake, but heresiarchs were…there was a reason for this. Murderers were dealt with by the application of strict justice, which often included execution or life imprisonment, but heretics were burned as a public spectacle in order to give the public the impression that the spiritually murderous stench of their heresies would be purified from the earth. One can debate whether burning heretics at the stake was a good idea, but the fact that they were punished more severely than murderers in Catholic societies should show us how much the Church of Christ hates heresy.

The Davidic kingdom did not fall because David murdered his friend, or because sexual immorality reigned in Israel; the kingdom was overtaken as a result of Solomon allowing strange gods to enter the fold. Not even the hundreds of concubines in his court were as repugnant to God as the devils brought in by pagans and heretics. 

The point is, ultimately, religious freedom is a blasphemy more serious than abortion is a crime, as it is a direct attack on God, which is worse than an attack on your neighbour. 

If the Republicans are deemed unworthy of support due to their abortion stance, this only comes after the spiritual adultery that undergirds the entire American experiment.

Ultimately, there is NO party in America that one can support without some sort of “compromise”, and, even if the Republicans were fully pro-life, their stance of religious freedom and indifference would still merit God’s wrath. 

Therefore, no one is in any position to chastise another for still supporting them, considering they are, objectively speaking, the ONLY option, as the Democrats are beyond support for a zillion reasons more.

The pro-life movement will never succeed in making abortion unthinkable as long as it remains a human-centred movement that compromises on the rights of Christ the King in pursuit of the rights of man. It is not enough that pro-lifers can unite on their love for Jesus if a significant portion of that love is expressed with the odious prayers of the so-called Reformation. 

Perhaps Providence has given Catholics an opportunity to reflect on the recent failures of the pro-life cause with the betrayal of social conservatives by the Republican Party. Perhaps pro-life Catholics can take this as an opportunity to consider that before attacks on human beings — no matter how repugnant — can become unthinkable, we must first realize how detestable heresy is to God, which is an offence greater than any attack on a human being.

It may seem impossible and unrealistic to propose that Catholics should shy away from the practical religious indifference that has animated the relatively successful pro-life movement for decades, but we can take heart in the fact God has given us a blueprint for how to do the impossible. Like the Jews of the Old Testament who found themselves enslaved in Egypt or Babylon, only when they stopped compromising on religious matters did God liberate them from their yoke so they could rebuild the true City of God where all crimes, including abortion, would be unthinkable.

The rights of God must come first, and no consequentialist mentality will please God, even in the pursuit of a “greater good” as noble as the establishment of rights for the unborn.