It’s happened again.  A well-known conservative makes a thoughtful and astute observation, and the supposedly more-tolerant left goes off the deep end.  This time the conservative was reality show star Jessa Dugger.  She decided to reflect on the deep impact visiting the Holocaust museum had on her, and she compared it to the practice of abortion.  Here is her Instagram post so you can judge for yourself:

I walked through the Holocaust Museum again today… very sobering. Millions of innocents denied the most basic and fundamental of all rights–their right to life. One human destroying the life of another deemed “less than human.” Racism, stemming from the evolutionary idea that man came from something less than human; that some people groups are “more evolved” and others “less evolved.” A denying that our Creator–GOD–made us human from the beginning, all of ONE BLOOD and ONE RACE, descendants of Adam. The belief that some human beings are “not fit to live.” So they’re murdered. Slaughtered. Kids with Down syndrome or other disabilities. The sickly. The elderly. The sanctity of human life varies not in sickness or health, poverty or wealth, elderly or pre-born, little or lots of melanin [making you darker or lighter skinned], or any other factor. “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?” (Proverbs 24:10-12) May we never sit idly by and allow such an atrocity to happen again. Not this generation. We must be a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves. Because EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS. #ProLife

This well thought-out post earned the ire of no less than the supposedly pro-female, Cosmopolitan magazine.  In a tweet the publication called Duggar’s post “extremely controversial” with a link to an article that went on to state, “That’s not just tone-deaf; it’s deranged. And it does bring to light just how extreme — and out of touch — the Duggar family values actually are. If only we didn’t reward them with a quirky reality show that whitewashes their radical views.”

Tone-deaf. Deranged. Controversial.  Extreme.  Out of touch.  Radical.  Apparently those are the descriptors to be used when someone dares to compare the dark evil of the holocaust to the flesh mills of the American abortion industry.  Well, allow me to wax even more radical.  I don’t think “holocaust” is a strong enough term to apply to abortion.

Now before I continue let me say I don’t want to minimize one of the darkest hours of history.  My grandfather was among the U.S. troops that first liberated Dachau.  The images of that horrific place haunted him for the rest of his life.  The systematic extermination of an entire race of people needs to be remembered as a lesson of what evil, when left unchecked, can do.  It needs to be stated that I am not being flippant, nor am I trying to trivialize such a painful chapter of World War II by comparing it abortion.

That being said, the numbers don’t lie.

The Holocaust.  It claimed over 10 million lives, six million of which were Jews.  That doesn’t include the imprisonment, torture, and dehumanization of countless others.  Compare that to abortion, which has claimed over 50 million lives in America since 1973, and continues to claim 1-2 million lives a year.  The unborn child has been dehumanized, and the collateral damage of guilt and shame that many women feel after an abortion is immeasurable.  It is no understatement that one of the most dangerous places for a child in America is the womb.  Lest you think I am being hyperbolic and using rhetoric, consider that in July of 2014 the Guttmacher Institute reported that 1 in 5 pregnancies in America (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.  Add to this that abortion is a bloody and gory act of violence¹ on a defenseless baby, and it becomes entirely justifiable to compare the practice to the evils of the Holocaust.  In fact, Holocaust seems to fall short, because we kill 20% of our citizens in the name of convenience and we label such systematic murder with whitewash terms like “freedom” and “choice”, and then we dare to pretend to be more enlightened, more civilized, and more compassionate than the Nazis of WWII.

A Christian Response

So how do we combat not only the practice of abortion, but the mindset that views it as a fundamental right of women in America?  With love.

Let us love the young mothers who feel they have no other choice by clothing them, feeding them and emotionally supporting them.

Let us love the guilt-ridden women who have had abortions.  Ten percent of American women will have had an abortion by age 45.  They are in our towns, in our schools, in our workplaces, and, yes, in our churches.  That means 1 in 10 women need to know that abortion is not the unforgivable sin, and they need us to invite them into a grace-filled relationship with Jesus.

Let us love the unborn by opening our homes to adoption or by pointing young mothers to an adoption agency.  If we want to save the lives of unwanted children, we need to provide a home where they are wanted.

Let us love the medical personnel that is involved with providing abortions.  Let us pray for them that their eyes may be opened to what they are doing.  Let us pray that God pricks their conscience to see the brutality of their actions and that repentance is never to late.

Let us love those who oppose our views.  This is not done with placards, bumper stickers, or political marches.  It is accomplished through relationships, healthy discussion, and authentic concern.  We can be passionate about our views as long as we are more passionate about the people with whom we share those views.

Let us love our legislators.  Pray for them.  Write to them.  Let them know you want them to succeed at their job while letting them know where you stand.  Even if you didn’t vote for them, love them.

And when you are called radical, out-of-touch, and controversial, respond with the truth, but do so in love.  That is how to change a world filled with hateful legacies like that of abortion and the Holocaust.

“There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.”
― Corrie ten Boom

¹I’ll spare you the details, but the recent trial of Kermit Gosnell should serve as enough evidence to support how barbaric abortion is.