How should pro-lifers respond to “I love to sin?”

The bumper sticker on the abortion escort’s car is often positioned in a spot where we can’t avoid seeing it: “I ♥ 2 sin.”

We mostly ignore it. We’re there to do what we can in an urgent moment; to draw the mother from a place of lifelong regret or offer her a way through the self-loathing that will inevitably take hold as she confronts what she’s done.

I do think it’s worth pondering a bit, however. What can this phrase teach us—about the human condition, and the soul of the bumper-sticker bearer? To help me process it, once I was no longer in zero-degree temperatures, I posted the phrase to Facebook to see how my friends, nestled in their warm homes, might respond.

The reactions were surprisingly varied. One gave the escort the benefit of the doubt, saying, in essence, that it’s a fair indictment on Christians who try to change others by reason or proselytizing, rather than “an approach of living and breathing in and with the spirit.” He suggested we ask ourselves what we might be doing to elicit this sentiment.

However, most were repulsed by the message, including one who said that the phrase was “meant to stir, more than support their agenda or start a conversation,” calling it “rage bait.”

I wish the first respondent would stand with us and observe what really happens there on Wednesdays. I’m certainly not saying we’re always perfect and the escorts, always rotten apples. We’re all human. But there is light and dark, and one is not the other. 

As Christians, of course, we must look honestly at how we interact with the world—that’s what the Sacrament of Confession is all about. But after more than a decade of sidewalk advocacy and 57 years of life, my assessment about this bumper-sticker phrase is that utterances like these are the result of unhealed wounds.

With that in mind, I’d say that the escort in question, who often leaves hastily and has nearly run some of us over, speeding away angrily in her exit, and who often flips us the bird as a “goodbye,” is not acting in any kind of righteous way, but out of woundedness. I don’t think we need to assume responsibility for her unwieldly actions and sentiments.

As for the phrase’s actual meaning, sin might be fun initially, but it destroys lives, and it will destroy hers, too, if a change isn’t made. Jesus came into the world not to encourage sin, and give the message that it’s fun, but to expel demons and heal us; to rescue us from our sin and bring abundance of life.

I’m going to go even further here and say that the person who gave the escort the benefit of the doubt is also speaking from his wounds. There might be truth in what he said, but in the context of the sacrifices we make to try to help those in peril each Wednesday, it misses the mark.

Every person asked about the message on this bumper sticker will have a slightly different response based on their own life experiences, but I’ll venture to say the escort who chose this of all the bumper-sticker options, and then parked her car in the spot where we pro-life advocates couldn’t avoid seeing it… is hurting. Her response is that of a rebellious and wounded child who is, likely unknowingly, begging for a touch of grace. 

How do we respond? How do we offer grace when unhealed hurt is spewing all over us like vomit? Not only does it shock the senses of one trying to live in grace, but it goes against our deepest-held reality of all things good and just. 

“Pray for her,” came one response. And this, we do. It’s a tricky balance. But yes, we are to pray for our enemies, who often act out of lack. And we recognize that ultimately, we are powerless, and only God can reach this woman’s soul to help heal what has gone wrong.

I read an article recently about Catholic nuns who send Christmas cards to abortion facilities. Perhaps some of you who can’t join us on the sidewalk might try sending the souls in these dark places a note of hope? Just an idea.

And speaking of hope, we recently learned that “abortion is still banned in North Dakota,” as the headlines have put it. There’s reason to be hopeful, and to stay in grace, even when sin confronts and tantalizes us.
 
Let’s pray that someday this escort will be blessed to hear these sublime words, as have we: “Now, go and sin no more.”