Operation Rescue calls upon Constitution Party members to heal rift and fight along side fellow pro-lifers to defeat the Specter agenda.
Now that the election is over, we at Operation Rescue are getting many messages from staunch pro-lifers and Constitution Party supporters, voicing anger that our efforts may have helped elect George W. Bush to his second term. Some even question our commitment to the pro-life movement.
First, we humbly assert that there is probably no ministry that works harder or more passionately on behalf of the pre-born than Operation Rescue. Anyone who would question that is invited to come and spend a week working with us to see for themselves the long, hard hours put in by our dedicated staff on behalf of the innocent children.
While idealism of those Constitution Party members who are unhappy with the election outcome is admirable, we believe that it is misguided.
As much as we admire and agree with the tenants of the Constitution Party, the strident rhetoric frightens the average conservative voter. The outcomes of the Bush and the Keyes campaigns should be instructive on this point to the pro-lifers who are upset with the Bush win.
It is being widely reported that the church-goer who based his vote on moral issues carried the day for George W. Bush. This represents a significant cultural shift from the voting patterns of the last presidential election where most voters in this demographic stayed away from the polls. In other words, we are making progress! Christians have more power in the voting booth than they give themselves credit for, and are finally beginning to realize that. The Sleeping Giant awakened on November 2nd.
In contrast to this is the failed candidacy of Alan Keyes for Senate in Illinois. No one could articulate our Christian passion for moral issues better than he. But he frightened and alienated the people of Illinois, who looked at him as a fringe candidate not to be taken seriously. The nation simply is not ready for those who espouse the principles we hold dear in such strident terms. (This rhetoric works for ministries like Operation Rescue, but it turns off those in the political realm.) However, the Bush win tells us that this is changing, albeit more slowly than we all would like. We pray that this trend continues and one day the hearts of our nation will gladly embrace a man of the caliber and stridency of a Phillips or Peroutka. But that day is not today.
Pro-lifers upset by the Bush win have brought up the question of pro-abort Arlen Spector and the “Pennsylvania Betrayal.” Bush spent time there campaigning for Spector, and once he won, Spector immediately came out and warned Bush that as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he would block any pro-life judicial nomination that Bush sent his way. We are told that our support of Bush has come home to roost in the form of this “betrayal.”
But let us look at who was really betrayed. According to our sources inside the Pennsylvania political arena, Bush campaigned for Spector with the assurance that Spector would help Bush get his judicial nominations through easier than in the current term. Many good judicial appointments were blocked in Bush’s first term as being too “conservative.” (The accusation by some that Bush did not appoint many pro-life judges is hollow since he COULD NOT get the ones he did nominate confirmed by the Senate.)
However, before the majority of Americans could read the text of Bush’s acceptance speech in their morning newspaper, Spector came out with his arrogant remarks. Spector was clearly challenging Bush, knowing that it was his desire to appoint conservative judges. It was Spector that betrayed Bush. Bush did not betray the pro-lifers. Those who say he did do not understand the process by which politicians negotiate with each other in order to gain the support they need. We are not saying this process is right or that we agree with it, but the process exists nonetheless at every level of politics.
Now, Spector is taking enormous heat for his remarks and his appointment to the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee is now in question, as of this writing. Operation Rescue is helping to sponsor a prayer vigil at the Senate office building and is lobbying to prevent Spector from being able to fulfill his threats. Support for him among his Republican peers is fast eroding. We are hopeful that the pressure that Operation Rescue and others is helping to bring to bear will create a backlash to Spector’s remarks that will work against him, allowing Bush to be able to appoint pro-life judges. But one thing is certain: if Kerry had been elected, rabid pro-abortion judges would have been his only appointments. Would the pro-life anti-Bush people be happier with Kerry?s appointments?
Finally, I ask that those dissatisfied with the presidential election outcome stop and think about in whose company that places them. Planned Parenthood is reeling today after the Kerry loss. NARAL, NOW, Kate Michaelman, and Patricia Ireland have just had their hopes dashed for another guaranteed 30 years of abortion on demand. Michael Moore is crying in his beer. George Soros is lamenting the fact that he may as well have flushed his $5 million dollars down the toilet as invest it in the Kerry campaign. Frankly, this alone should make every Christian rejoice and be glad.
In the end, all of us who identify ourselves as pro-life are really on the same side. The election is over. We must trust that God, in His Sovereign will and infinite wisdom, has placed President Bush in this position for a reason. Therefore let us put aside the acrimony that stirred some to opposing sides during the election and unite in prayer behind our president, beseeching Heaven that he will rise to the challenges that this moment in history holds and dutifully fulfill the purposes that God has planned for him.
