Arrests and Imprisonments in Opposing Abortion
00:00:00.000 | Today is the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court.
00:00:08.320 | And Pastor John, on a day like this, I think listeners may be interested to hear of your
00:00:11.200 | involvement in the anti-abortion demonstrations back in the 1980s and 90s.
00:00:15.400 | Share with us where that burden came from, how many times you've been arrested for trespassing
00:00:19.040 | because of it, how much time you spent in prison, and then maybe, if it's not too much,
00:00:22.920 | maybe a principle or two for how you think through civil disobedience in the defense
00:00:26.340 | of the unborn.
00:00:27.340 | There was a season in the late 80s and then the early 90s, maybe about three years, where
00:00:35.520 | I was deeply moved by the rescue movement that originated pretty much, I think, in Atlanta.
00:00:44.680 | Noel and I were sitting in a pizza hut, watching the monitor of a television show, watching
00:00:52.600 | people being picked up by the police, put into buses and dragged away, who were not
00:00:59.720 | doing anything but sitting there in front of an abortion clinic.
00:01:02.920 | And as I watched that happening, I said to Noel, "That's right.
00:01:09.080 | That's just right."
00:01:10.080 | It just came over me with such a strong conviction.
00:01:14.460 | And the rescue movement grew and lasted for two or three years, and we became very much
00:01:20.600 | a part of it here in the Twin Cities, which means that we would get up early, pile into
00:01:25.880 | buses and go sit in front of an abortion clinic so that nobody could get in without stepping
00:01:32.480 | on us or opening the door.
00:01:35.080 | And then we would be accused of trespassing and they would tell us to leave.
00:01:39.920 | And we wouldn't leave because we believed that we were there to try to rescue children
00:01:44.960 | from being aborted.
00:01:45.960 | And so the police would come and pick us up, put us on buses and haul us down and let us
00:01:50.040 | go, usually after they had told us not to do it anymore.
00:01:55.080 | That happened, I don't remember how many times, maybe, I don't know, half a dozen times.
00:02:00.960 | One of those times, we were sentenced to one night in jail.
00:02:05.800 | It might have been two.
00:02:08.640 | And here's just a little anecdote.
00:02:12.440 | Spending that night, and next door to me in the cell was another member of our church
00:02:17.960 | named Rod, and we were talking through the night about this and he said, "You know, there
00:02:27.160 | are other methods we could use."
00:02:30.960 | And there was born in his heart the MICA Fund, Minority Infant Child Adoption Help, out of
00:02:38.800 | that experience in which we created a fund that still exists for helping people adopt
00:02:45.720 | little babies who were rescued from abortion.
00:02:50.960 | But the principle behind this was Proverbs 24, 11, "Rescue those who are being led away
00:02:57.680 | to death, hold back those who are tumbling to the slaughter, if you say, 'Behold, we
00:03:04.920 | did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts perceive it?'"
00:03:09.240 | That was a very powerful text for me, because these children are being led away to slaughter,
00:03:15.440 | and if the power to resist is there, then use it.
00:03:21.400 | The way I think through civil disobedience is fundamentally to say, number one, that
00:03:26.840 | submission to the state, according to Romans 13, 1-4, is right.
00:03:32.520 | I try to keep the speed limit, I drive on the right-hand side of the road, I pay my
00:03:36.160 | taxes, I cut my grass, I don't shoot squirrels in the city limits, I obey a hundred laws.
00:03:41.760 | I think I should.
00:03:42.760 | I think I should submit.
00:03:45.200 | But the law of God, and submitting to God, takes precedence over that.
00:03:52.840 | The Apostles said, "Whether in your eyes we should do what you say, we must obey God
00:04:00.160 | rather than man," and that text was driving me to say, in this situation, at this time,
00:04:08.120 | this method of rescuing seems right.
00:04:13.280 | I was putting myself in the situation of the midwives who were saving babies by breaking
00:04:17.480 | the law of Pharaoh, or you can point to other instances like Esther, who said, "It's
00:04:26.480 | against the law to walk into the King's presence without being bidden, but if I perish,
00:04:32.320 | I perish, I will go and risk my life," and he lifted the golden scepter and she saved
00:04:37.520 | her people.
00:04:38.520 | That seemed like a parallel to me, to go against the King's ordinary laws.
00:04:45.800 | One last principle is, our own laws, I think, are being undercut by this.
00:04:50.880 | I think the principles of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence say, "Life,
00:04:54.960 | liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all our people," and we're denying that
00:04:58.600 | so that the laws that protect abortionists to kill children are laws that are contradicted
00:05:05.800 | by other laws, and so our country has already, I think, given a green light to those who
00:05:14.480 | would say, "No, you can't do this."
00:05:18.400 | One last comment, how did it go?
00:05:22.400 | I think it made a significant impact, and I think for that season, it was a good strategy
00:05:28.080 | and I don't regret being involved in it.
00:05:31.360 | The reason it didn't continue, I think, is because partly the price became very high
00:05:38.880 | for a lot of people, and people lost their livelihoods and people got sued and lost their
00:05:46.560 | possessions, but mainly, I think, it's because the Christians, we ourselves, could not maintain
00:05:55.560 | the kind of suffering, humble, quiet attitude that would win the day, as in the civil rights
00:06:02.600 | movement.
00:06:03.600 | There were just too many loudmouth, feisty, pro-life people that couldn't keep their mouths
00:06:09.480 | shut when we were mistreated by the pro-abortion people that were there or by the police, and
00:06:17.800 | since the spirit was lacking in so many, it backfired, and so it ceased to be an effective
00:06:27.680 | tool in the rescuing.
00:06:29.480 | Whether God may raise up some other means like that along the way, I don't know, but
00:06:35.440 | for now, I think everybody should obey that text in some way or other.
00:06:40.080 | Rescue those who are being led away to death.
00:06:42.840 | Hold them back from the slaughter.
00:06:45.040 | You already know what's right here, so do something for the sake of life.
00:06:52.040 | Yes, thank you, Pastor John, for sharing your story and for encouraging all of us to get
00:06:56.400 | involved in some way.
00:06:57.980 | For more on this subject of abortion, see the e-book titled "Exposing the Dark Work
00:07:01.720 | of Abortion."
00:07:03.120 | The e-book contains a collection of three John Piper sermon transcripts, and it's available
00:07:06.520 | for free as a download at DesiringGod.org and multiple versions for various e-readers.
00:07:12.240 | And if you have a question for Pastor John, please send it to us via email.
00:07:14.880 | Send those to AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:07:17.920 | Please include your first name and your hometown.
00:07:19.680 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:07:21.040 | Thanks for listening.
00:07:21.680 | [END]
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