My dear friend Jan Mickelson[1] at WHO-Radio has virtually thrown in the towel in the public fight against the murder of unborn children. This was illustrated in his call-in show on Friday. He chose as a topic of conversation the lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Midland for the unlawful distribution of the abortifacient morning-after pill. But he made it clear that he didn’t want to talk about what the pill actually did (intentionally kill human beings), but he wanted rather to talk about the method of distribution as an illustration of the wonders of modern medicine.
“The Iowa Medical Board, the regulators, The Iowa Board of Medicine decided they’re not going to go after Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has this really unusual way to deliver – this is not a story – I’m not starting this story to talk about abortion. We could do that endlessly. This is a story about the delivery of medical services”
Audio Clip of Jan’s Introduction of Topic
One obnoxious caller[2] tried to engage Jan about the issue to no avail:
Pay no attention to that caller….
Let’s go back to the year 1940. The location, WHG-Radio, Germany. Suppose a broadcaster had the opportunity to remind the world of the atrocities being committed against Jews. Let the talk show host explain:
We are not going to talk about the Jewish Problem. Today, the discussion is about the fascinating remote-controlled, combination gas chamber-high intensity ovens that create optimum output at a lower cost to the Nazis, as well enhance safety for those working in this area of medicine. The machines automatically extract gold fillings and also create fine quality lampshades, to boot. Please focus your comments on the technology and the economics, folks, we’re not here to pontificate about the Jews. That is so passé.
Jan’s argument is that abortion has been talked to death. (If I were a Charismatic I’d jump in here to suggest we talk it to life, but alas…). As a strategy, Jan believes that we have lost the battle and we are wasting our time. There is nothing new to be said. On one hand, perhaps he is right. It could be that no amount of talking is going to change things. But talk show hosts, Republican political talking heads, and the conservative pundit class have continued to talk, talk, talk, about high taxation, government intrusion on liberties, and unconstitutional spending for years as the debt continues to get higher and higher and higher. But it appears, we continue to be more concerned with our own wallets than the slaughter of unborn children. Shame on us all.
After a 35-year battle to speak up for life, some are ready to surrender, unless it can be used as a fundraiser or a way to get votes. Take for example the absurd fight over “partial-birth abortion” pro-life pundits and politicians have been waging for years. What a waste of energy, time and money! This crime was graphically presented as plunging scissors in the back of the skull of a viable baby who was about to be born. But not a single life has been, or ever will be, saved by banning this exceedingly rare practice. Even if the ban were successful, blood-thirsty physicians would simply use a variation of killing different enough to skirt the law. The effort was the equivalent of creating a law that banned murder by driving into a swimming pool with children strapped in the backseat (while specifically allowing all other kinds of murder, including driving into ponds and lakes with children strapped in the backseat).
Why was it such a big deal, then? The falderal provided a pretext for politicians who would not lift one finger to save a single child’s life to call themselves “pro-life.” They could shed some tears and even show some outrage.
It appears many pundits and politicians don’t want to talk about social issues. Glenn Beck thinks we should stop talking about it. Haley Barbour doesn’t want to waste energy on these topics either: “you are using up valuable time and resources that can be used to talk to people about what they care about.” Perhaps Mike Huckabee understands better than most the relationship between social issues and the economy. Shane Vander Hart summarized Huckabee’s views when he was in Des Moines, Iowa in December:
Social issues he notes also impacts the economic issues… talking about the Dad deficits – it impacts how much is spent propping up families, we see an increase in our juvenile system. The family, Governor Huckabee said, if its sanctity is not protected he said it won’t matter how much we change the tax code. It sparks the culture of entitlement, Huckabee said we’ll end up with a “generation of spoiled brats.”
All the presidential candidates for 2012 ran and hid from the debate on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Will the same retreat and surrender “tactic” be used by them on gay “marriage?” Will they be intimidated by loud and obnoxious voices from the libertine wing of the Republican Party who want not only to win the issue but stifle all debate? Or will the dangling of a few carrots, like Memberships to Club PC[3], be sufficient to keep us quiet?
For sure, some of the candidates may try to differentiate themselves on some minutia on the issue, but will any viable candidate risk votes and take a clear, unequivocal stand for the God-ordained institution of marriage? Or will they continue to close every speech with “God bless you, and God bless America” while ignoring the same Creator who gave us the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
[1] This is not the insincere courtesy title given a colleague on the Senate floor. Jan and I go back 20+ years and I consider him to be a fine Christian and outstanding citizen with intelligence and knowledge vastly superior to my own. We just disagree on this one (and perhaps a few hundred) other issues. Jan once irritated the daylights out of Planned Parenthood by doing a broadcast only giving answers from racist Banned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s writings. Jan also allowed me on his program many times during the 1990s during my time with Iowa Operation Rescue.
[2] That would be me.
[3] Politically Correct