Who Broke the Baby?--Language and Manipulation
Who Broke the Baby? -- by Jean Staker Garton
This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read about abortion. But, surprisingly, that is not the main reason it had such a powerful impact on me. Rather, it is because this book goes beyond a specific moral issue to the larger issue that lies behind every moral issue: the matter of truth.
While this book is keenly perceptive in tearing away the deceptions abortion proponents must use to ease their conscience, it is even more perceptive in its recognition of how truth itself is twisted and language misused and manipulated in an attempt to justify evil. Therefore, this book actually touches on the much larger issue of how evil deceives people and draws them away from the truth. It is for this reason that I recommend it to every person who loves the truth (Jesus), so that they will know how the enemy of truth (Satan) operates and not be deceived but rather cling ever tighter to truth.
Garton begins by stating the truth that abortion involves a semantic deception that, while effective and persuasive, lacks integrity. "The inaccurate ideas fostered by abortion rhetoric escape the notice of the less critical. Language is an agent for change, and when language lies--when words are warped and twisted perversely--true meaning is lost. The linguistic deception of the pro-abortion argument 'tells it like it isn't'." Is that not the oldest method of deception known in our world? The serpent in the Garden used words and twisted their meaning, in order to accomplish his goal of deception.
To illustrate this point, Garton points to the puzzling fact that many tall buildings have no 13th floor. This is a concession to the cultural fear of the number 13. Just because we call it the 14th floor does not make the reality of the 13th floor cease to exist. Garton then goes on to say that "the unborn child has become the 13th floor of the human family."
"To make sound moral choices, however, requires us to use language to describe reality (not create it). For an increasing number of people, moral choices are made on the basis of feelings apart from facts or truth. . . . It has become possible for intelligent, educated, and religious people to embrace all sorts of illogical absurdities that set aside not only truth but also responsibility for their own actions and for the well-being of others."
From this point on, the book goes down a list of the commonly heard phrases or arguments used by abortion proponents and brilliantly exposes the deception and language twisting involved in them. I want to emphasize that none of the insightful material below is my own; I have simply condensed some of the author's perceptive, common-sense comments to make a summary of her points, such as the following:
Every woman has the right to control her own body.
Every woman . . . What about those females who are aborted? This slogan advocates elitism for powerful women (the power to end a human life), rather than equality for all women.
has the right . . . Legally, no one has an absolute right over her own body: disease carriers can be quarantined, drunk drivers prevented from driving. Rights emphasis tends to lose responsibility to Someone (God) for someone (the child in the womb).
her own body . . . There are two bodies in a pregnancy, not one, as abortion advocates would have us believe. What if it's a male in the womb? Can one body be both male and female at the same time? The fetus can have a different blood type, thus identifying it as a separate body. And what if it dies and is carried for some time? Can one body be alive and dead at the same time? A pregnant woman is literally a woman with child.
Every child a wanted child . . . This roots the value of one human being in the desires of another. It reduces the child to an object of desire. The irony of women advocating the right to abortion is that for years, they have protested being viewed as objects, as property of males, and of being disposed of when inconvenient and unwanted. Now they demand the right to do the same thing to the unborn child.
Another charge often leveled in connection with this phrase is that unwanted children become abused children. Abortion is child abuse resulting in death. The unwanted child is a victim not of its own shortcomings but of those in a society trying to solve social, economic, and personal problems by the sacrificial offering of its children (Micah 6:7).
Women should have the freedom to choose. I wouldn't have an abortion myself, but I support the right of others to choose.
Let's change a few words and see if you feel the same way:
I wouldn't enslave a Black, but I support the right of others to choose . . .
I wouldn't gas a Jew, . . .
I wouldn't . . . (fill in the blank)
It is not a question of freedom but of right and wrong.
What about the charge of imposing one's morality on others? The "freedom to choose" when applied to ending the life of an innocent human being lets an individual impose her morality on the most defenseless of human beings. The freedom to choose is not the right to choose.
What about the hard cases: rape, handicapped?
Rape . . . When a woman exercises her right to control her own body in total disregard of the body of another, it is abortion. When a man acts out of the same philosophy, it is rape. Abortion is a destructive approach to a human problem involving the harmed and hurting woman in an aggressive act which cannot relieve the pain of the first tragedy..
Handicapped . . . Is being different a reason for not being at all? How different does one have to be to be unacceptable? The elitist attitude of superiority over others lulls abortionists into thinking of themselves as great humanitarians when they seek to rid "unsound fetuses" of the ordeal of being born. It is, to them, a compassionate correction to the "mistake" made by God. Yet God says otherwise (Ex. 4:11).
We who are "normal" are not greater; only our responsibility for the protection of those differently made is. The handicapped are not our problem; we are their problem. Why are their handicaps unacceptable while ours--moral and spiritual--are ignored? Is the destruction of such life the best our society can offer? It is not. We can do better. The question is, "Do we want to?"
Abortion is not the question. It is, "What does it mean to be human?" Abortion is not the solution to a problem; it is the elimination of a human being perceived to be the problem. It is the dividing issue between two opposing irreconcilable viewpoints on who human beings are, why they exist, and whether or not there is a God who created them and to whom we are held accountable for how we view and treat our fellow human beings, including the unborn. It is the visible arena where is sharpest the invisible war between good and evil.
|
|
Author: wisdomsfriend
Location: Onalaska Wisconsin USA
Gender: Male
Age: 64
Blog Entries: 36 (archive)
Blog Comments: 15
"you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. i praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, i know that full well. "my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in the secret place. when i was...
view full biography
"we accept man's testimony, but god's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of god, which he has given about his son. anyone who believes in the son of god has this testimony in his heart" (1 jn. 5:9, 10).......
view full testimony
Song-and-Dance Routine of...
The Mystery of Fantasy: H...
HOW DO YOU OPEN BLIND EYE...
Success, truth, and the e...
The Most Powerful Force O...
The Two Most Important Th...
Why Hell Is Forever: The ...
The Danger Of Trusting Go...
Beethoven's 5th Symph...
And Books Were Opened: Th...
|
Log Into Chatroom 
