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That seems incredible to us now, but that campaign of murder was supported by a broadly based set of deeply held beliefs. For many Germans, those beliefs did not start with hatred of Jews (although there was a long development of such hatred among a minority of Europeans). Rather, it began with a positive idea--concern for the German people. Acceptance of Nazi propaganda against Jews was born of the desperation of the Great Depression, made worse by the heavy penalties imposed on Germany after the First World War. Amazingly, the Nazis portrayed the German people as the heroic victims of the Jews they were murdering.
Four observations may be made. First, it made no difference that the Jews were largely innocent of crimes against Germans, since the appeal of the underlying attitude was not focussed on hatred of Jews but on love for the German people. Second, any attempt to resist the Nazis by force (such as the attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler) were counter-productive because they reinforced the underlying picture of Germans (and their herioic helpers, the Nazis) as victims of Jewish plotting. Third, once attitudes changed, those who resisted Nazi propaganda and rescued Jews, even at the cost of their own lives, are rightly seen as worthy of much praise. Fourth, it took an external force (the Allied armies) to defeat Nazi propaganda.
In Canada in 1997, it is legal to kill unborn babies. In fact the Canadian government says it is a good thing, and does most of the killing itself. This is an incredible situation, but, like Nazi propaganda, it is based on a positive attitude: concern for women. Like Germany before World War II, there is evidence that women have been oppressed in our society. Sexual and physical abuse are the most visible forms of that oppression, and abortion is often justified on the grounds that pregnancy results from rape and incest. Once it is widely believed that women are victims of men, all pregnancies can be seen as an atrocity committed against women. (It is somehow overlooked that abortion is an atrocity committed, mostly by men, upon women.) Incredibly, helpless, innocent babies are seen as oppressing the women who have them killed.
Four observations: First, it makes no difference that the babies are innocent victims. The focus of the pro-abortion movement is not on the baby at all (which is considered an incidental blob of matter called "product of conception"). Rather, the focus is on women. After all the oppression that women have suffered, how can we deny them control of their own bodies? Second, attempts to oppose abortion by force (blowing up abortion clinics, killing abortionists) are counter-productive because they reinforce the underlying attitude that women (and their helpers, the abortionists) are victims. Such attempts have made heroes of people who have murdered thousands of innocent children. Third, if we do not oppose abortion now, later on when attitudes have changed, we will rightly be despised as are those who helped the Nazis kill Jews and the millions more who stood by and did nothing. Fourth, it will take an external force (the power of God and His love) to end the atrocity of abortion.
Prohibition was a set of laws in the 1920s that forbade the sale and consumption of alcohol in Canada. Although it drastically reduced crime rates, it was considered a failure and was repealed. The lesson, we have been told for the last 70 years, is that "You can't legislate morality."
This is nonsense. Governments legislate morality all the time. Laws against murder and theft are widely accepted and generally enforced. What Prohibition demonstrated was that you can't legislate morality if at least a significant minority is determined to resist the law. Prohibition, after all, was approved by a majority of voters. However, Prohibition failed because a large minority was determined to sell and consume alcohol. It was simply unworkable to put 20 percent of the population in jail.
Many Christians think that if we could just elect the right government, it would make abortion illegal again and abortion would end. They are wrong. We had a law against abortion, and it proved to be unenforceable--because a significant minority, including abortionists, juries and judges, simply refused to obey the law.
The lesson of Prohibition can be applied in another way, however. The laws which try to enforce abortion cannot be universally enforced either if a significant minority are determined to disobey them. The laws which forbid picketing around abortion clinics, for instance, have not stopped such picketing altogether. More significantly, in some parts of the United States, abortions are increasingly difficult to get because most doctors and nurses simply refuse to do them. In fact, many vocal critics of abortion are doctors and nurses who took part in abortions and then realized the horror of what they were doing.
Abortion will not be reduced or stopped in this country by law unless we find a way to change the underlying assumptions on which legalized abortion is based. As long as pregnancy is seen as an atrocity inflicted on women by men, abortion will be seen as a necessary means to liberate women from oppression. Violent action such as killing abortionists, blowing up abortion clincs and even harassing abortion workers and abortion clinic clients are a terrible mistake not only because they are immoral and a betrayal of "pro-life" beliefs but also because they reinforce, rather than change the underlying philosophy. If, however, we can convince Canadian society of the perfectly logical position that abortion is an atrocity committed by men on women and innocent babies, then the law will be changed as a matter of course. Can we imagine a society when abortion is not seen as a heroic act of self-liberation but as the unthinkable horror that it truly is? Even more, can we envision a society in which most people oppose abortion because they have accepted Jesus into their hearts and now see unborn babies as precious lives made in God's image? If attitudes can change to make abortion acceptable, then attitudes can also change to make abortion unacceptable. If Canada can change to become a non-Christian country, it can also be re-evangelized. Abortion will not be stopped by the easy shortcut of changing a law; it will require a more fundamental change of the heart.
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