Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus makes it very clear that His disciples are to love one another and so emulate His love (“As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 13:34-35).
Every Christian is called to this charity. Love is to inform everything that we do. Indeed, the heart of the entire moral life is precisely this love, this charity.
While it has been said before, it bears repeating here, namely, that moral principles are ultimately principles of love. Whether we realize it or not, our moral life is a demonstration on some level of our living out the commandment of Jesus in practical, every day ways.
As pro-life people, our deepest motivation for defending the dignity of human life must ultimately be this same love. We recognize this great dignity fully present in the newly conceived and those near the end of life alike, and out of love for them, and love for the God whose image they are created in, we seek to defend their lives from those in society who do not see them as valuable or deserving of full respect.
Love is, and must always remain, our basic motivation for this. Therefore, we must guard against the temptation to fall into a less than charitable defense of it, lest we demonstrate a fundamental failure to heed Jesus’ command in our efforts to defend His gift of life. A lack of charity on our part undermines our claim of being truly and completely pro-life.
This temptation can creep into our lives in at least a couple of different ways. It should not surprise us that it is often a cunning ploy of the enemy to undermine the Christian charity of those committed to defending God’s gift of life. If the enemy can do this, our efforts and our message lose power and credibility.
Perhaps the most obvious way this happens is to allow our righteous and justified anger at the casual disregard or destruction of life to become hatred toward those who oppose us. Hatred can also be a strong motivator, but it is not one a Christian can adopt.
If I find myself wishing ill upon those who fight against the pro-life movement, or relishing thoughts of how God will punish them for their sins, then one must wonder if Christ’s command to love — even to love our enemies — has been forgotten.
Rather, charity demands that I desire what is ultimately good for even the most vile abortionist. Instead of simply hoping to see them defeated or humiliated, I must hope for their conversion and repentance.
But there is another way that charity can be undermined in our pro-life efforts. This way is perhaps less obvious and even more insidious. It happens when we begin to attack each other. Sadly, this goes on far too often.
We are upset at what seems to be a weak message given from the pulpit or by this person or group and we launch personal attacks against them. Our desire for the complete end to abortion leads us to criticize mercilessly those who “only” make progress in limiting its scope or reach. In our mind the only victory is an absolute one.
All too often committed pro-lifers can end up treating uncharitably or unfairly those who are tasked with fighting the battle on the front lines because they don’t win a complete victory. Some who level such criticisms may view themselves as more committed pro-lifers, but if those criticisms lack Christian charity, they are not truly advancing the pro-life cause in its fullness.
Defending life un-apologetically, especially when it is most vulnerable, is a necessary task for us as Christians. But in our efforts we must remember that the cause of life is never truly won without Christian charity.