Inequity is Iniquity—The Problem of Regulationism

Some may wonder why abolitionists are so opposed to the regulation of abortion.  

As Christians, we unashamedly call for repentance and abolition of government permission and protection for the murder of the weakest of our neighbors.

We call out the wrongness of making bills that dictate that:
—abortion mills must be clean, have wider halls, etc.
—abortive mothers must wait 24 hours, have parental permission if minors, etc.
—abortionists must be licensed, cannot kill after some arbitrary age of the child, etc.

Some think that we are against it because it is JUST NOT ENOUGH.

The reality is that we are against it because it IS NOT JUST.

The incremental and regulatory treatment of this horrific holocaust fails to establish equity for the preborn.

Some abolitionists have coined the expression, "Inequity is Iniquity."

This is a true statement!  

We live in a culture of great iniquity, in which even Christians who are seeking to oppose the evil of abortion are doing so using inequity.

I hope this post may shed some light and awaken my brothers and sisters who may not have thought it through.

FIRST and (I hope) obvious.  Not only is abortion iniquity, but unjustly opposing abortion is also iniquity.

For instance, if someone says that the baby in the womb is not a human or we should regulate their murder (treating homicide as healthcare) rather than call for immediate repentance and abolition, they are in favor of allowing for a child to be murdered at ANY arbitrary point, or IN CERTAIN EXCEPTIONAL CASES. 

They are, in word and deed, bearing false witness against their neighbor. They are sinning. 

Iniquity is a word we generally use for sin.

SECOND, the definition of equity is "justice, right, having impartiality, being equal." To be equitous is to be impartial when distributing justice.  

Demanding equity is calling for equal protection and justice for all human beings, without respect of persons.

Please consider seriously...

That the LORD Himself is equitous: "Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: in righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity" (Psalm 98:9).

And that God commands that we not support any perversion of justice and equity, (i.e. even if the pro-life movement tells us it is a good idea):  "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment: Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause...Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.  Keep thou far from a false matter; and the innocent and the righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked" (Exodus 23:2-3,6-7).

We should never be partial in dealing with people—giving favor because of their station or financial status, or based on their ethnicity, age, level of development, present location, state of dependency, or whether they look like us yet.  We are to live with equity.  

When we stray from what is just, from that which establishes equity, no matter what we say in rationale, our actions become a deviation from true righteous judgment—it becomes a judgment of appearance, rather than reality.

Jesus said: "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).

It displeases the Judge of all the earth when men do not act according to truth, justice, and equity:

"And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter...and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment" (Isaiah 59:14-15).

In James, we find the following exhortation concerning treating people with inequity: "My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons...Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?...if ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself', ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors" (James 2:1-9).

The word avon, often translated as iniquity in the Old Testament, means "perversity, to crook away, to turn from righteousness.  This carries the concept found in Isaiah 53 of "going one's way."

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every on to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).

The root of sin is selfishness.  Choosing our own way over God's.  Thus iniquity can be used to describe that which may be REPULSIVE to society like rape or slavery, or that which may be RESPECTABLE to society, such as cleaving to Mormonism, Islam, Catholicism, etc. for salvation rather than in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Iniquity can be ascribed to whenever one departs from God's commandment to do what is right in their own eyes.  People who seek to "heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace" are NOT doing righteously according to God (Jeremiah 8:11).

Even if we FEEL that we are doing some good, 
following the experts, 
being pragmatic, 
or obeying God and trusting Him, 
it is UNJUST, thus INEQUITY.

As one young abolitionist said recently,

"Christians shouldn't support regulating murder.  They should support ending it.  The movement needs to be to end it, not celebrate with compromises.  Continual compromising has been going on for 40 and won't end it.  Pro-life laws value one age and circumstance or another.  Pro-life laws, while they do save a few lives, are unjust laws."

Inequity is Iniquity.  

To promote any pro-life regulatory law is iniquity—and it should never be celebrated.  We are to have charity (agape love) towards our neighbors, and according to the "love chapter", charity "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth" (I Corinthians 13:6).

THIRD and finally, consider the etymology of both words.

Equity: L. oequitas, from oequus, equal, even, level.

Iniquity: L. iniquitas; in and oequitas (which is THE SAME WORD AS ABOVE).

"Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal.  Hear now, O house of Israel; Is my way equal? are not your ways unequal?" (Ezekiel 18:25).

Iniquity, at its root, means not equal—not just—not lining up with God's word, His character, and His way.

Inequity IS Iniquity.

Equity and Justice must be established.  

We need to:
1. Treat the preborn like who they are (image bearers of God).
2. Treat abortion like what it is (murder).
3. Treat Roe v. Wade like what it is (a perverted opinion). 

Abortion must be abolished.

Using Images of Abortion Victims - Why? Three Basic Reasons

Some have asked about the use of graphic signs (more properly termed victim images) which are used by many abolitionists, and other Christians, who oppose preborn murder (abortion).

I would like to devote this post to explaining why I choose to use victim images?

There are at least three basic reasons why.

1. It follows God's pattern.  We find in Scripture that when God sent His prophets with a message to preach to the people, He did so with an object or an illustration in order to grab attention--Nathan, Jeremiah, Jesus, Paul, and many others utilized this method.  

The one who may have used the "object lesson" type of teaching most was Ezekiel.  God asked Ezekiel to do some crazy things to pound His message home:

-shave both head and beard,

-cook his food with manure,

-shake and quake while he ate,

-break in and loot his own house,

-NOT mourn when his beloved wife died

...get the picture?

In one specific place, God told Ezekiel to SHOW the city their bloody abomination within the gates.

"...wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations" (Ezekiel 22:2).

When I hold up a picture of a preborn baby that has been brutally murdered, I am simply following God's specific instruction to Ezekiel.  Many cities in our Nation have baby butcher shops.  Within these United States, we have slaughtered over 60 million preborn children.  We have filled the land from one end to another with innocent blood.  And God says that the "hands that shed innocent blood" are ABOMINATION to God (Proverbs 6:16-17).  I will continue show these pictures so that I might soberly show the city "her abominations" and that I might bring light to the dark deeds which the world wants to keep hidden.

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1).

2. It is effectual.  The impact of such an image is powerful.  Notice that I did not say it is necessarily pragmatic--but it is powerful.  

A. It CHALLENGES people to face the facts.  This was a baby, not a blob of tissue and  this precious little one had ears, a nose, cute little fingers, toes, and eyelashes.

The humanity that these images reveal is why the pro-choice crowd fight against allowing these pictures to enter the debate.  It is the exact same reasoning that Holocaust deniers use. The picture proves them wrong.

B. It CHANNELS the message quickly.  People driving by may not be able to read all the words of some signs, but one look at the picture of an aborted baby WILL get the message across immediately.  They know what we're talking about.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

It puts me in mind of a time I was recently standing at an intersection in Wichita.  A woman passenger in a car driving by looked out of her closed window, and mouthed the words, "What is that?!" and then as her eyes widened with horror, she mouthed the words, "IT'S a BABY!"

C. It can be used to CHANGE hearts.  

I have seen a father look at the posters and go back into the mill in order to rescue the mother and baby. 

I have seen mothers turn away from having an abortion. They tell me that it was the picture of the aborted baby that made them stop for they were confronted that "the thing inside my womb is a real child."  

I saw a woman who drove by the victim images pull over to sit and weep uncontrollably for the children.

I met a medical doctor who once openly supported the abortion cause.  His own wife had had an abortion.  They believed the lies of the "establishment".  But when he saw the pictures of babies that had been aborted, it transformed his thinking. In fact, when I met him, he was lifting up a sign of an aborted baby above his head while calling to women going inside of an abortion mill.  

People often drive by with looks of disgust and I say, "Does this picture not horrify you?  Are you not grieved?  Let us be stirred to stop any more babies from having to suffer this child's fate.  'Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?"  Babies are being butchered for a price--what will you do to stop this abuse?  Remember this picture when you are drinking your coffee! When you are talking with your friends! When you are standing in the voting booth!  And remember that these precious babies are being destroyed on your watch!  If we do nothing to protect them, their blood is on our hands!"

3. It is Just.  Those aborted humans have the right to face their accusers.  In our nation, it is recognized that no one is to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law."  It must be proven that they are guilty of a crime worthy of capitol punishment.  

The Bill of Rights justly guarantees Americans a broad range of rights.  This includes the right to face one's accusers--as the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, 

"In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall the enjoy the right...to be confronted with the witness against him."  

Yet these preborn infants are denied that right.  The right to a trial by jury!

The right to be assumed innocent until proven guilt!  

The right to face their accusers!

They are guilty of no crime, yet they are executed in ways that we don't even execute serial killers and mass rapists in those ways!  "These things ought not so to be" (James 3:10).  God provided cities of refuge for manslayers to flee into until they could get a righteous trial (Joshua 20:9).  

Even the Roman empire had this practice:  Acts 25:16 "To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him."

If manslayers are to be protected in this manner, shouldn't innocent children more?

Therefore, I show these pictures, that these babies may testify in the only way they can now!

That they are babies.  

That they were murdered.  

That thousands of others like them are being slain EVERY DAY!

That this killing must end.

Abortion Must Be Abolished!