Wasn’t Voting Republican Pro-life Enough?
Commentary by Thomas McKnight  

     For three years I had parked next to one of the busiest abortion clinics in the Midwest. Oblivious to the hundreds of babies being ripped from their mothers month after month, I strolled into the hospital across the street to take care of business. As a pharmaceutical sales manager I was in dozens of hospitals each month.
  All the clinics and adjacent buildings look alike after awhile, so how was I to know that babies were being aborted in Granite City? My route to the hospital never took me to the east side of the building so I had an excuse, right? After all I was pro-life. I had even supported a local crisis pregnancy agency and I certainly voted Republican. Wasn’t that enough?
     It was July 2000 and Operation Save America (OSA) held their annual week-long rally in St. Louis. More specifically, Flip Benham preached at my church on the first night of the meetings. Challenged by what I heard, I decided to attend their protest the next morning at the Hope Clinic for Woman in Granite City, IL. I had never been to an abortion clinic. I suppose I was as curious as I was convicted to stand with them.

Thomas McKnight
     On Monday morning I left my house before dawn to meet up with the folks from OSA. To my surprise and amazement their protest was across the street from one of my biggest accounts. I stood there in the quiet of the sunrise before others arrived and watched women, some visibly with child and some not, file into the clinic. On that muggy July morning my heart sank at the reality of death behind those dark cold walls. I watched as each young lady signed in at the security desk and then quickly disappeared into the building. I wanted to cry out, but didn’t know what to say. Babies were dying just a few feet away from me! The ‘issue’ of abortion was now taking place in front of my eyes.
     My ignorance to the location of the clinic was symbolic of my ignorance of God’s Word on matters of life, death and the church’s responsibility to protect the innocent and shed light on sin. I realized that having spent the better part of my adult life in safe, ‘seeker-friendly’ churches, I had grown cold to the Spirit’s voice. Like many Christians today I had thought that being against abortion in my mind was enough.
     As time went on and I began to really investigate the ‘issue’ of abortion, the Spirit began to convict me of an even harder and more disturbing reality. My years of silence and non-involvement were, in reality, nothing less than support of the killing of innocent children. By standing by and not speaking I was an accomplice to the carnage. By not educating myself on the facts and equipping myself to defend the unborn I was telling the world that Jesus does not care about the killing of innocent, defenseless human babies.
     Thank God my eyes were opened and today I am truly involved in doing something to save the unborn. My prayer is that the pews, pulpits and seminaries in our land would rise up against this evil in our land.
     I am thankful for our local Pregnancy Resource Centers and the other ministries dedicated to preserving life.  But we cannot leave ‘pro-life’ work to professionals anymore than we can leave evangelism up to pastors.  Every Christian must boldly speak out for God’s little image bearers if we are to stop abortion in our land.

Thomas McKnight works with the Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater St. Louis delivering Pro-Life Persuasion Seminars to equip Christians to defend life. He can be contacted at tommcknight@prcmo.net