Several years ago, my husband and I took a tour of the grounds of what was once a plantation in South Carolina.
The tour guide euphemistically pontificated, “These rice fields were tended by West African women who came over here to work.”
My blood boiled.
Oh, they got jobs here? Please tell me about their wages and benefits!
Thankfully, on a more recent tour of another plantation—the home of James Madison, former U.S. president—the staff of the museum was not at all prone to such denial.
Our tour guide never even used the term “slave.”
Every time she spoke of the people who had worked without choice and without pay on the grounds of that grandiose home, she used the phrase “enslaved men and women.”
Such intentional verbiage was part of a concerted effort by the organization responsible for the museum to restore the most important thing taken from the many men and women forced to work hard all their lives without one bit of compensation.
Their humanity.
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After touring the main house—the actual place where our Constitution was drafted, no less—we went down into the basement where the enslaved population once prepared food for the main house.
Many of the names of the 300 people enslaved for six generations there were written on a wide banner around the walls. Others were listed as “unknown.”
Glass sculptures etched with poems and images were displayed, bearing descriptions of various members of the enslaved group.
I read the first poem and burst into tears:
I was a mother
I was broken
I was tired
I was a singer
I was a worshipper
I was angry
I was property
Other poems described a father, a brother, a sister, a grandmother, a grandfather.
Every eloquent line brought out the humanity of precious individuals who lived and died here, never free for even one day of their earthly lives.
In another room, we read quotes describing how Scripture was twisted as if the Bible teaches that the race with advantage is not only allowed to, but should, enslave the race with less advantage.
The sense of injustice was palpable. Breathtaking. Painful.
The worst part of it was that slave owners simply could not see past their own economic dilemma. They couldn’t afford their lavish lifestyle without free labor making it all possible.
So they shrugged and decided there was really no other way to do things—no other way but to dehumanize another people group to maintain their advantage.
In reflecting on this later, I thought about important parallels between the thought process of abortion advocates and the arguments once made by slave owners.
In both cases, an entire people group has no agency or voice. That group is subject to the wishes and whims of another group.
The way the dominating group maintains control and abuses power is by dehumanizing the group which lacks power.
They are viewed and spoken of as less than. They are considered property, not people. Therefore, the dominating group can do to them as they please.
In this respect, abortion proponents operate under the same paradigm as slave owners did.
They dehumanize the unborn and refuse to let them have rights or agency. They treat the unborn as persons who do not matter.
Persons who are expendable.
They can be done away with, and it’s fine.
Here’s the thing: no matter what rationale is used, no matter how clever the argument, no matter how twisted the logic, it is always wrong to dehumanize God’s image-bearers.
It doesn’t matter what color a person’s skin is or what nation they come from. It doesn’t matter if they are old and gray or young and athletic.
It doesn’t matter if they have been born or are developing in the womb.
Human beings matter to God. He sees them. He loves them. He knows each one by name, even if they have not been given one.
Even after they are gone from this earth, image bearers deserve recognition. They deserve to be remembered and honored.
The memorial recognizing people who were enslaved by the Madison family for six generations serves as an important, concrete reminder for us that all human beings matter.
Memorials for the unborn do the same.
In acknowledging the preborn who have been lost to abortion, we honor them, and by honoring them, we honor the God in whose image they were created.
Unlike abortion advocates, we value all people, including the preborn among us.
Our ethic is consistent.
