Introduction:
She was married to her era but divorced from its restraints. She passionately wrote of politics when women, without the use of pseudonyms, only ventured to express thoughts of relationships, childbearing, and of house and home. But, strangely enough, that very genre is foundational to her political crusade, one which turned the great empire of her day on its head. And when those lessons are applied to our modern lives, they will live again, influencing our world to change for the good.
She knew William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. Her writings most certainly influenced her cousins across the pond to move their nation, as well. Names like Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”; William Lloyd Garrison, whose anti-slavery newspaper “The Liberator” was first published in 1831, the same year she passed from this life. Her cause was enjoined with other famous names of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: Frederick Douglass, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Sojourner Truth, and Abraham Lincoln. They all stood steadfast alongside untold millions in radical opposition to the greatest evil of their day, one which reduced a human being to unspeakable degradation and cruelty. The evil is known to all as slavery.
She wrote this opening question to address the sincerity of her audience:
“To which party do we really belong? — to the friends of emancipation, or of perpetual slavery? Every individual belongs to one party or the other; not speculatively, or professionally merely, but practically.”
And she was right. There was then, as there is now, No Middle Ground.
Isn’t It Clear To All?
However, this short essay today is not focused on doing battle against slavery, because in the minds and hearts of rational, compassionate, and thoroughly educated people from all walks of life resides the knowing that you cannot own another individual or treat them as sub-human. All human beings have innate, intrinsic value and worth from the moment their biologically established uniqueness begins at conception. [Fertilization; a miraculous moment preserved on video by scientists known as the “zinc spark”.] And yet, for thousands of years before its demise (and, sadly, in the darkest pits of society today), so many people have seared their conscience to the ubiquitous truth that slavery is inhumane and evil; turning a blind eye to it.
But why is that?
History clearly teaches us that to those citizens of the English monarchy in the early 1800’s (as well as in the American Southern States) it was all about financial gain. Excuses were made to the general public, lies and misinformation to be more precise, which declared that plantation conditions were more ideal than reality demonstrated. Claims were made that slavery was a necessity in some areas for commerce; but don’t be too concerned, for the “Slave Trade” was dealt a crippling blow years earlier. And, of course, don’t forget that these slave owners were generous with their filthy lucre, sending it northward to the pockets of British politicians.
Filthy Lucre Lives On
Fast forward to our time to see that, sadly, not much has changed. It’s still about money, in the pockets of abortionists, abortion providers, and the politicians who keep them in business if only to garner donations for their re-election in a quid pro quo for their legislative support.
The abortion mills have created a thriving business model with multiple streams of income, receiving money from governments (Federal & State), and then charging the women for “services” that taxpayers have already underwritten. The evil makes its final curtain call as the aborted human tissue remains are sold (or bartered away) in a display of depravity of which Josef Mengele would heartily approve. From start to finish this process is sanctified and sanitized by an industry of proponents, in government and media, who have their roots in the same spiritual underworld as did their forerunners who promoted slavery. Out of sight, out of mind. A horrendous evil cloaked in euphemistic language that hides its inherent brutality, was then sold to the popular culture in a manner that numbs the conscience to allow the day-to-day life to carry on unencumbered by the burden of knowing, acknowledging, and acting upon what God calls murder. They have even mendaciously called it “Healthcare”.
But what was the historicity of those who fought slavery? How was the prevailing societal sentiment overcome?
Faith In Our God
Quite simply, for so many, it was their deep abiding faith in God’s design that all human life is created with equality of value and purpose. Even though that Biblical precept was commonly understood, the typical position was to compromise, winning small battles along the way in the hope that, someday, it would end. But that was not how it played out. Gradualism begat more gradualism, which begat complacency, which begat defeat in the prevailing face of decades more death and human suffering.
In spite of the forces arrayed against them, they overturned it all with resolve. They pledged to reject the culture of their day by refusing to allow gradualism to infect their resolve to stop slavery’s passive drift ever onward into oblivion. Her political crusade demanded, as the title of her work stated, the “Immediate not Gradual Abolition” of slavery. The woman we honor, along with her compatriots, gave us a road map to follow in our battle against abortion: there are No Exceptions, No Compromises, and there is No Middle Ground.
The intensity birthed within the abolitionist movement of her day must transfer and then ascend to the same epic level within the abortion abolitionists of today. For if the abortion industry remains left to its own devices, buttressed by those powerful forces within politics, education, and media, the goal will go unrealized in our lifetime. That’s why we must fight as they did, with ferocity in both the physical and, more effectually, spiritual realms.
Know Her Name
The woman’s name was Elizabeth Heyrick. She was an English philanthropist, a Quaker, a writer, and a tireless advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire, specifically in the West Indies, where plantations both large and small, refused to give up the financial privilege they gained by enslaving their workforce. Although the Brits, in 1807, passed legislation that outlawed the “slave trade”, inconveniently for some, it did not translate to those already caught in its grip.
The title of the pamphlet she penned, which was briefly mentioned earlier, also declares a pathway to victory in an almost prophetic prose which every person who is now engaged in the fight for the preborn should, at all times, keep in mind: “IMMEDIATE NOT GRADUAL ABOLITION, or, AN INQUIRY Into the shortest, safest, and most effectual means of getting rid of [emphasis mine] West Indian SLAVERY.” Her choice of words took on the appearance of a prophetic vision, and it made sense. It would ultimately convince her countrymen to abolish slavery all together, even though from the date of the pamphlet’s publication, it took 8 years to reach the finish line with the enactment of the “Slavery Abolition Act” (1833).
The Nuclear Option
The parallels seen in these two monumental human societal struggles against evil, the abolition of slavery and the abolition of abortion (even though vociferously denied by abortion proponents), are as clear as day. And while her work should be required reading from cover to cover, I have just enough space to speak on her use of the “nuclear option” of her day: the most powerful weapon that will, for us, have a devastating effect upon abortion. Let me share her words:
“Is there nothing to be done, as well as said? Are there no tests to prove our sincerity, — no sacrifices to be offered in confirmation of our zeal? — Yes, there is one, — (but it is in itself so small and insignificant that it seems almost burlesque to dignify it with the name of sacrifice) —it is abstinence from the use of West Indian Productions, sugar, especially, in the cultivation of which slave labour is chiefly occupied.”
Simple. Brilliant. Effective. The exercise of the human will to abstain. To say with conviction and permanence, that I will not participate in the consumption of what you’re selling. If it has to rot in the warehouses to get your attention, then so be it. And what an effect her boycott had, driven mostly by the women of England, with crockery, dinnerware, and other household sundries made with the imprinted message of abstinence. Her political crusade was, at its core, a humanitarian undertaking, which took on monumental proportions all throughout Great Britain. In spite of the protestations from her adversaries who speculated that the slaves would be worse off, that plantation owners would come to ruin, and that the country as a whole would suffer, the battle against slavery continued to gain ground, as none of those imagined casualties of war materialized.
So then, the logical question for us today is: What does that degree of commitment to a cause look like for us? How do we abstain?
Quite simply by withholding our vote.
Our Authority Retained
It is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal, both in the natural world, but more importantly, in the realm of the spiritual. And if those with whom we, as believers, would more often align politically (due to the stance made on other important issues of the day) decide to blast us for our decision to abstain from voting for a particular candidate because he is, essentially, Pro-choice, it is crucial to remember that we do so in order to achieve a greater victory, to gain more ground more quickly because of our stand. For by refusing to partner with this evil, no matter the degree, we retain the full spiritual authority to usher in its defeat, through our partnership with the power of Almighty God. That is the plain truth.
It makes as much sense today as it proved to be in Elizabeth’s day. Certainly, a man who abuses his wife has no spiritual authority on a grander scale to rid his world of such a deed. The thief cannot preach and pray against stealing when he is knee deep in spiritual hypocrisy. Neither can an individual hope to fight in the spiritual realm, where the battlefield truly resides, if they’ve partnered with a politician who, although their economic philosophy tickles our ears, embraces the death of preborn, intrinsically unique, and valuable human life because it’s a reasonable political stance to take.
But then some will say: isn’t abortion an evil we must accept, especially in this political reality? Here’s what Elizabeth wrote:
“It is often asserted that slavery is too deeply rooted an evil to be eradicated by the exertions of any principle less potent and active than self interest — if so, the resolution to abstain from West Indian produce, would bring this potent and active principle into the fullest operation, — would compel the planter to set his slaves at liberty.”
Her point being that by abstaining, we use the power of sheer numbers to get their attention; after all, politicians look out for number one (and that’s not you). We, in turn, force a deeper understanding of the issue; we give it the human face so many callously ignore. We show the political establishment that we’re serious, while at the same time declare to those who are like-minded on other compelling issues, that making a stand can and will change the course of this debate, for good. We change minds by making people think.
It seems counterintuitive to many believers who, through a self-reliant approach, have been convinced by Christian influencers that voting for the lesser of two evils is the Godly way of things. Not so. For God would never ask us to partner with evil to see His Will accomplished. Would He?
Roe may have been overturned, but the enemy of our souls has not thrown in the towel. On the contrary, he and his human partners have redoubled their efforts; even more reason to not see our battlefield strength diminished by making an electoral contract with evil. We must retain the full spiritual authority needed to defeat their plans by not partnering with any politician (or position) that affirms abortion as an option.
Yes, We Can Too
So, if Elizabeth Heyrick and her army of abolitionist soldiers were able to make such a difference in the minds and hearts of a nation, so that even the dull and self-serving politicians of her day finally relented, then certainly we can have an equally momentous victory in our day over the barbarous practice of abortion. This fight most certainly needs all hands on deck, but this ship of destiny must be piloted by His Daughters. Women are uniquely able and eminently qualified to take this fight to the Nation. And now that it’s no longer one national battle but 50 smaller battles, we shall divide and conquer and abolish the evil that is abortion.
It takes an act of our will to throw off the doubts and fears of the uncertain, and do this God’s way. We must tell our political class that we will not partner with them as long as they decide to partner with gradualism on abortion. We must firmly stand against what the Lord has called evil, and not succumb to the whines of those who see compromise as our best way forward; because it’s not, as it only leads to delay, which leads to more babies dying.
Here’s how she said it nearly 200 years ago:
“But this GRADUAL ABOLITION has been the grand marplot of human virtue and happiness; — the very master-piece of Satanic policy. — He [the devil] saw very clearly, that if public justice and humanity, especially, if Christian justice and humanity, could be brought to demand only a gradual extermination of the enormities of the slave system, [that it would be] …the most effectual way of crushing a great and virtuous enterprize, … to gain time, to defer it to “a more convenient season”.”
We agree. Abolish abortion now. No Compromise. No Exceptions. No Middle Ground.
