John 3:30 – He must increase, but I must decrease.

Does the Abolish Human Abortion organization support the human sex trafficking industry? Using the normal logic they employ, they just may. Bear with me as I flesh this out. Firstly, I do not believe AHA promotes sexual trafficking or child rape and prostitution. So don’t take statements from this post out of context.

The Premise

Recently, there was an unfortunate Facebook thread concerning the Vineyard Church of Columbus and an apparent attack by the Abolish Human Abortion organization.

The post was focused on a particular picture, but more so, the events surrounding the picture. According to AHA,

This “church” does not want to “expose evil” (Ephesians 5:11) it wants to “ignore” it (VineyardCulumbus) [sic].

The spelling error is theirs, not mine

The picture depicts the Vineyard Church encouraging its members and passersby to ignore the protesters. Sadly, the AHA resorted to a typical sensationalistic tactic of marketers. The sign put up by the church is referring to the protesters when the word “them” is used. But the caption on the FB picture is clear – Vineyard Church wants to “ignore” evil. It allows skimmers to get the wrong idea immediately.

The Problem

Please allow me to point out that it tells you a lot about AHA when they put quotation marks around the word church when describing the Vineyard. This is clear attack on the authenticity of this body. These types of attacks may be warranted at times, but I do not believe that because this church refused the AHA’s teachings and resources that this qualifies them to be publicly attacked as a false church. The continued testimony in the thread is, in fact, of a group of people who for the sake of Jesus Christ are actively opposing abortion AND providing resources for mothers and families.

The implication that Vineyard Church intends to ignore evil and the babies who need help is a lie, as well. Maybe we should protest lying on their property.

This is what prompted this video by the producers of Babies Are Murdered Here concerning the AHA.

More Irrationality

An advocate of AHA posted the following on the thread. The first portion, enclosed in “\\” is this user quoting another user who seemingly is a member of the church.

\\This is my church, and for the past 6 weeks we have to tell our kids to close their eyes as we drive in and leave because of the obscenely graphic banners of cut up children this group displays along the road. My kids are 6 and 7. They don’t need to see this at that age.\\

I’m less than heartbroken for you.
Did you know that every day you do that, 3000+ children are murdered in this country? Why are people so often so much more concerned over the PORTRAYAL of evil rather than the actual evil itself?

I’ve seen this line of thinking before. People politely (or impolitely) request that people stop exposing their children (or themselves) to gruesome signs depicting murdered babies. Here are a few examples of the types of responses I’ve seen:

• You are more offended by the portrayal of evil than the evil itself.
• If you don’t like it, why don’t you do something about it.

The Analogy

Let’s look at the rationality of this by considering an analogy. Every day, hundreds of thousands of already born humans are used by perverts in the fastest growing criminal industry in the US. It is called human sex trafficking. Average ages of sex slaves from a variety of websites are 12-14 years old. Human sex slaves are forced to perform sex acts with several people daily, resulting in a horrific lifestyle filled with disease, captivity, degradation and poor nutrition. Many of these young people are actually enslaved by the person they had trusted to help them from what they thought was a more dire situation. Becoming pregnant, they are forced into abortions.

Many of them people probably wish they had been aborted themselves. This is a different discussion. Please do not use this to say I advocate for abortion.

Logical Fallacies

Now, do you think it is right to say that the AHA supports human sex trafficking, particularly the trafficking of children for sexual abuse because they are not currently picketing this evil? It is a well understood evil in our society, and can happen anywhere; they don’t even need a facility! But that is the general logic employed by AHA concerning abortion. If you or your church are not actively picketing outside a clinic – you are not truly pro-life. What I think you would find is there is likely an inconsistency in AHA’s application of these principles.

But let’s go further. What if I decided to print images of child rape on posters and display it on the sidewalk outside where AHA members’ children would view it. Does anyone honestly think that is a good idea? The fact that no one wants to or needs to necessarily see the evil depicted visually has no bearing on whether they actually abhor the evil. Did you catch that? It is non sequitur, or logically fallacious, to make the claim that because someone doesn’t want to see pictures of aborted babies, or because they even protest the use of those pictures where their children’s eyes will take them in that that person does not, in fact, oppose abortion.

I strongly oppose human sex trafficking. Not only do I not want my children to view images or videos exposing this evil, but I do not want to see these images myself!

There is no biblical precedent which AHA uses to lambaste churches who don’t do “enough”, and there is no biblical precedent for holding up signs depicting evil. There are evils which are not even to be spoken of. AHA likes to use Ephesians 5:11 to defend “exposing evil,” yet ignored the verse following:

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. (Ephesians 5:11-12 ESV)

It is shameful to even speak of some of things done by evil doers. It may even be possible that it isn’t necessary to publish visuals of some of these atrocities as well. Not to mention the face that AHA has no authority over a local church.

Concluding Thoughts

The following has needed to withstand correction. I have been corrected by a number of people that the official stance of AHA is that of only truly born again Christians. They oppose yoking with nonbelievers. I apologize for misrepresenting this point. In my defense, the very first person I met from AHA was as self-professing Catholic who told me they are an organization of Christians who oppose abortions from all denominations. I simply took this at face value.

Look, I’m appreciative that there are people out there who oppose evil. But I am reminded that the AHA opposes evil in a few ways which I do not.

1. They oppose a particular evil more than others.
2. They oppose a particular evil at the expense of the gospel. Even though their stance is that of gospel-centered, my personal experience (as can be seen in this comment thread at times) does not seem gospel centered. AHA seems all too defensive and ad hominem attacking all too quickly. I have found (a few) of them to be difficult to have a rational discussion with.
3. They use tactics which are designed to elicit emotional responses, (incendiary signs), instead of attacking the real problem, the heart. I also oppose the tactic they’ve chosen concerning abortion in regard to protesting a local church.

So, when you feel you are attacked by people who say you are not doing enough about abortion, instead of going on the defensive, ask them how many sex slaves they’ve freed. When you are vilified for wanting to keep your children eyes from imagery that may scare them deeply, ask them if you can show their children a depiction of child rape and its after effects.

Sadly, it seems organizations like this are doing more to hurt the cause than help due to the unbiblical nature and practices of the members. Remember to be compassionate toward these folks, too, as you would any person relying on their own self-righteousness for Heaven’s sake. And if you meet a true believer from this group, greet them as a brother and maybe you will be able to have a useful conversation about the hows and whys of our behavior and association (yoking) with non-believers in spiritual endeavors.

[Note: Some comments have been removed as there was a misunderstanding concerning some links that hadn't been shared.]