Moral High Ground

To be clear, I'm going to lose some of you on this one. That's ok. You are as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine. For you, I am dust. (Matthew 10:14)

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): You cannot claim the moral high ground on the 2nd Amendment and gun control argument if you support abortion. You cannot call gun owners barbarians and despicable and still support abortion. Likewise, you cannot support the uncontrolled sale of guns while painting abortionists with a red brush. Murder is murder. Sin is sin. Life is precious - at any stage. Whether you take a life with a firearm, a scalpel, or a vote, you and I are accountable to God for our choices. Make no mistake: You have nothing to fear from me in disagreement - God is our judge and no one escapes His throne.

"You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13, NKJV)

Servant Leader, we cannot love our neighbor and kill our unborn and still call ourselves servants of Christ. Likewise, we cannot turn a blind eye to gun violence following 231 years of technological advancement since the drafting of the 2nd Amendment and call ourselves neighbors. The two conversations are linked.

Connective Tissue:

"'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31, NKJV)

And who is my neighbor? He who shows mercy. (Luke 10:29-37 paraphrased)

Friend, Neighbor, Servant Leader, we can all agree that death, while a part of the circle of life, is tragic. Whether we lose our elder to age, our friend to an accident, or our child to abortion, death hurts those who remain and robs someone of their potential. Loving our neighbor means being merciful to everyone. Mercy means not killing an unborn child as much as it means not using a weapon of any kind to choose to kill another human being. Simply put, voluntarily causing death, whether through abortion or gun violence, or through bad choices like driving drunk or any other act, is murder and clearly contrary to God's will. (Note: justifiable homicide such as self defense or defense of another, a soldier's legal actions during war, or Capital Punishment, even if premeditated, are not defined as "murder" and warrant their own, very complicated and detailed discussion.)

If you are still reading this, some abortion supporters are mentally linking surgical abortion procedures to "pulling the plug" on a terminally ill patient and absolving physicians' actions as "legal" and "State sponsored" or "equivalent to a soldier's actions in war." Equally, some 2nd Amendment protagonists are defending the sale of automatic weapons as justified by the aggression of the State, the advancement of State weapons technologies, and their "undeniable right" to defend themselves against State overreach.

Let me be clear, elective abortion for any reason not tied to the morally unambiguous and medically defensible choice between one life and another is murder. Inconvenience is a slippery slope. It is inconvenient to become our parent's caretaker as Alzheimer's or dementia take hold, but we don't abort them. (That's called euthanasia and it is illegal in the U.S. as well as being immoral.)

Likewise, the US has strict laws governing the sale of military style weapons. No civilian without a legitimate business purpose has any God-given right to automatic weapons. The justifiable 2nd Amendment argument "in defense against State aggression" died with the rise of the Atomic Age. Self-defense against crime is justifiable, but does not require military weaponry. As a Marine Corps veteran, I know the difference.

At the end of the day, Servant Leader, the choice is simple. Either we love our neighbor or we do not serve the same God. Loving our neighbor means protecting the unborn child as much as it does preventing the next mass shooting.

If you disagree on either, you have lost the moral high ground.

God's word is all or nothing, Servant Leader. Either we love our neighbor, or we don't.

"You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." (Deut 4:2, NKJV)

"For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Rev 22:18-19, NKJV)

"Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar." (Prov 30:5-6, NKJV)

(Photo: thoughtco.com)