Obama, Israel, and Motherhood

As we approach the inauguration of President-elect Obama the euphoria of the press remains a bit 'over the top'. This is no surprise, of course, but it is getting old. It remains difficult to be happy about bringing in a president who has promised to increase abortions on his first day in office by removing any barriers that he can, even for the abomination of partial-birth abortion. Since the MLK holiday is tomorrow, the day before inauguration, it is instructive to look at some comments from MLK that were pointed out recently in the Winter edition of 'The City' ( 'The City' is a quarterly journal that you can subscribe to free from Houston Baptist University at www.civitate.org). In the article Ryan Anderson points out that MLK, in his 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' refers to the philosopher Martin Buber in arguing that racial segregation substitutes an 'I-it' relationship for the 'I-thou' relationship that is intended by God, thereby relegating persons to the status of things. People are not to be treated like things. That is a powerful argument against racial injustice as well as against slavery, and it is, as Mr. Anderson points out, exactly the same thing that abortion proponents do, making the unborn child an 'it', relegating that new life to the status of a thing instead of a person. Their crime is no different than killing a slave that you 'own'.

As a racial minority, Mr. Obama as well as blacks in general should understand this. Yet it seems to be lost on them. Blacks continue to account for abortions at a rate about 3 times the rest of the U.S. population. It is maybe a strange connection, but with Israel in the news recently due to their fighting with Hamas in Gaza and with the Christmas holidays, I was reminded again of how Israel gave birth to the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. He was the promised child of Isaiah 53, and Revelation 12:1-7 paints a vivid picture of Israel as a woman giving birth to this child. It struck me that for a woman to kill her own baby is very much like Israel killing the Messiah to which she gave birth. Israel, of course, fails to see this just as abortion supporters fail to see their own crimes. If it is justified to view a baby has an 'it' to be terminated at our convenience, why not view black people that way? Or old people? Or sick people? We should point out this at every opportunity: for a black president to rejoice that he is no longer relegated to the status of a thing while doing his best to relegate thousands of others at the verge of birth to that status is hypocrisy of the highest order.