Bullets or Babies?

Last night, my friend Bart McCurdy posed a hypothetical question on his Facebook page. I tweaked it just a bit without changing the premise. Ken Cook with CARM then posted the question on CARM's Facebook page, which ignited nothing short of a firestorm. Here's the question:

If the US Government said it would ban abortion if the American people would give up their right to bear arms, would you give up your gun(s)? Since this is a hypothetical question, it assumes the US Government would keep its word.

Many Christians said they would gladly give up their guns to save the unborn. Surprisingly, about as many Christians (and a few non-Christians) said they would not give up their guns. Here are some of the responses from people who answered the hypothetical question in the negative:

"No. The murder of humans would simply grow to include...anyone. Anyone the resulting tyrannical government deemed a "terrorist." If we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it."

"Yeah, with a disarmed population we'd be at the government's mercy. Oh, and ask the Native Americans about the US government keeping their promises after they disarm you."

"The second amendment [gives] us ultimately the right to self-preservation. Because tyrants and evil doers have guns the Bill of Rights defined it as the right to keep and bear arms. Before guns were invented the right still existed only in a different form. It was (and is) the right to defend your life, your family's life, and your neighbor's life with arms that will give you the greatest possibility of success against evil. That's why we need to keep semiautomatic weapons legal for honest citizens. The drug cartels are using them (many supplied by the US Gov's "Fast & Furious"), and so we need to have them too."

"Absolutely not. Our Family name . . . is only in America now after WWII. The unarmed Polish People, my family, were carted off to the labor camps of Siberia. An unarmed people will experience worse than mass individual immorality...Abortion is a symptom of complete narcissism ....Disarming a people insures they will not recover from the sins of Government.....two different judgments altogether. Punishing law abiding people at the expense of those who would not obey the law is ridiculous. Suggesting a half truth stems back to the "Garden"...."

"No! There is a reason for the 2nd amendment that no one wants to take into consideration. You can through in Obama care and I would still say no!"

"What bothers me though is that there are people who have put a price on their freedom. Some it's healthcare, some it's abortion. Our freedoms are endowed by God and there is no need in selling them for anything. Keep our rights, and fight the good fight."

"Our rights are inalienable - they are God given and inherent to who we are as human beings. These rights exist regardless of whether the government restricts them or take them away. It is our duty to take a stand against the evil."

"I would not bite on this one at all! It is a joke! Stupid question. The second amendment SECURES the right to LIFE, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. We are ALL dead without a right to defend ourselves against everything from law-breakers to tyrannical dictators."

"No I am not willing to comprise [sic] and give up our second amendment right to own and bear arms! Guns are not the problem sin is! Godlessness and a-morality are the real problem. Abortion stems from sin not from people having the right to bear and own arms. Also gun ban would not get rid of abortion and in all actuality increase crime. Just look what getting rid of the death penitently has done. We have basically shown that those who perpetrate such awful crimes that it's OK to do so by not requiring their life of them."

"That's a ludicrous question. Like, 'Did you stop beating your wife today?' The mind that asked this needs a refresher course in our constitution."

"No. One is murder and the other one is owning property. They are different."

My answer to the question is... yes. As a retired deputy sheriff who had to fire his gun on-duty to protect himself and others, and as a gun owner, I would give up my right to bear arms if such a sacrifice would result in the ban and criminalization of abortion.

Interestingly and disturbingly no one who answered the hypothetical question in the negative turned to Scripture to support their position. They treated the Second Amendment as if it were Scripture. Could it be that some Christians hold more dear the amendments of men than the commandments of God? I will have much to say about this on Sunday's (December 23, 2012) edition of Cross Encounters Radio.

Tune in Sunday, 6-8 PM (PST)!