“Based on his hipster beard, Jeff Durbin could be your local barista.”
Lulz. That was the first line of the video from the New York Post. Spot-on. Dirty, rotten hipsters.
In fact, it was the title “Extreme Hipster Wants to Execute Women Who Have an Abortion” that got my attention in the first place. While Durbin is extreme by the standards of whatever highbrow feminist literati who captioned the video from the confines of her Ivory Tower safe-space, the Phoenix Pastor probably doesn’t want to personally execute women who have murdered their kids.
For example, I don’t want to execute child molesters, serial killers or treasonous spies guilty of domestic espionage (I barely had the stomach to put down my dog last year), but I do want them executed. Because, you know… justice and stuff. One cursory glance at the headline might make you imagine Durbin’s magnificent bearded mane covered in the blood of an innocent post-mom, guillotined head in hand. Of course, Durbin wasn’t arguing he wanted to pull the lever.
What Durbin is arguing for is as refreshing as it is consistent. If abortion is murder [trigger warning, snow-flakes], and follow this train of thought, then someone who murders their kids should be executed. Are you tracking with me (you heard that in Matt Chandler’s voice, didn’t you?). That is, we should be executing murderers if the Noahic Covenant still stands, and because I saw a rainbow a couple weeks ago, I presume it does.
Few in the Pro-Life movement agree. Karen Swallow Prior says that abortion is not murder and calling it such is unchristlike (link). Russell Moore opposes the criminalization of abortion, if it means punishing the mother (link). It’s not uncommon for The Gospel Coalition and other parachurch cultural commentators to speak of abortive moms as victims only, and not as perpetrators (link).
It’s nice to hear someone say:
- Abortion is murder.
- Therefore, if you have an abortion (or perform one), you are a murderer.
- As a murderer, you should be treated like every other murderer.
Since before Roe v Wade, “pro-life” folks have called abortion murder, but when it comes time to treat abortion as murder, have passed legislation that has made it very clear we consider abortion less-than-murder, sort of a “murder-lite” type of offense. This was noticed by the 1973 Supreme Court that declared abortion to be legal based upon the laws in Texas that penalized the abortion “doctor” and not the mother; the court findings claimed that if the mother was not punished for the act, the state of Texas did not recognize it as murder. Here we are, all these years later and we still can’t get “pro-life” individuals to act as though abortion truly is murder.
But Jeff Durbin seems to have a dose of rare mental clarity (not rare for him, but rare for the culture).
I rejoice to see Durbin lead the movement that many call “abolition,” as I am most certainly an abolitionist. I believe that compromise with sin is itself sinful, and much of the incrementalist legislation that has been produced (and lauded by the pro-life movement) has served to undermine our position that life begins at conception and that taking that life is murder. I also rejoice to see someone lead this abolitionist movement who is not estranged from the local church.
While there are certain secondary or tertiary matters of disagreement with this dirty, extreme hipster, I think we should all admit by this point that his leadership on the issue of abortion has proven effective and even admirable.
Godspeed, you extreme hipster.
[Editor’s Note: You can watch the video here]
