Pro‑Choice, Pro‑Life, and the Human Heart: Hypocrisy, Free Will, and the Savior Who Forgives
This is not an article about debating abortion rights, changing laws, or scoring political victories. It is an article about the human heart—its contradictions, its fears, its hypocrisies—and the God who sees all of it and still invites us to return to Him.
In an earlier article, Hippocratic Hypocrisy Hippopotamus :
“The Hippocratic ideal calls us to do no harm, hypocrisy reveals how often we fail, and the hippopotamus reminds us that God’s power dwarfs our pretensions.”
That line captures the tension perfectly.
We want to do no harm.
We claim moral clarity.
We pretend to be strong.
And yet we fail—spectacularly, repeatedly, predictably.
Most of us are pro‑life in instinct.
All of us are pro‑choice in practice.
And every one of us is a hypocrite in some way.
This is not said to condemn but to diagnose. Scripture is full of people who proclaimed righteousness while choosing convenience, fear, or self‑protection. We are not the first generation to wrestle with moral inconsistency, and we will not be the last.
1. Why Most People Are Pro‑Life (Until It Costs Something)
Humans are wired to protect the vulnerable. Even young children understand that harming a baby is wrong. But adulthood brings complexity—and with it, the temptation to bend morality around our circumstances.
We say:
- “It’s complicated.”
- “It’s not ideal, but…”
- “It’s not my place.”
- “It’s not the right time.”
We become experts at moral exemptions.
We become theologians of convenience.
We become selective defenders of life.
Scripture, however, is not selective:
- “You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13–16).
- “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5).
- “If you afflict them… My wrath will burn” (Exodus 22:22–24).
- “Let the little children come to Me” (Matthew 19:14).
- “It would be better… to have a millstone hung around your neck” (Matthew 18:6).
The Bible is consistent.
We are not.
2. Why Some Choose Death: Fear, Wounds, and Spiritual Darkness
People rarely choose abortion because they despise children. They choose it because they feel trapped.
Fear of shame.
Fear of poverty.
Fear of abandonment.
Fear of losing control.
Fear of the future.
Fear is powerful.
Fear makes hypocrites of us all.
And Scripture also acknowledges darker influences. The destruction of children appears repeatedly in moments of spiritual corruption:
- Pharaoh’s slaughter of Hebrew infants (Exodus 1:15–22).
- Israel’s sacrifices to Molech — “They burned their sons and daughters in the fire” (Jeremiah 7:31).
- Herod’s massacre in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16–18).
The Bible does not treat these as mere policy decisions.
It treats them as symptoms of a deeper sickness.
3. Free Will: The Gift That Makes Us All “Pro‑Choice” in a Theological Sense
In Hippocratic Hypocrisy Hippopotamus:
“God’s will is that all people have free will.”
Exactly. God dignifies humanity with real, consequential choice.
- “I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
- “You refuse to come to Me to have life” (John 5:40).
- “All day long I have held out My hands” (Romans 10:21).
God allows us to choose.
He even allows us to choose wrongly.
This means every human being is “pro‑choice” in the theological sense—not in the political sense, but in the sense that God dignifies us with the ability to obey or rebel, to bless or destroy, to choose life or death.
But free will does not make every choice righteous.
It simply makes every choice ours.
4. The Collision: When Hypocrisy Meets Holiness
Hippocratic Hypocrisy Hippopotamus observed:
“Hypocrisy is the mask we wear when the truth is too costly.”
That line belongs here.
The modern debate often collapses two different realities:
- God‑given freedom
- God‑revealed morality
When these collide, hypocrisy emerges.
We defend life selectively.
We condemn sin selectively.
We apply compassion selectively.
We practice righteousness selectively.
Jesus confronted this kind of selective morality constantly.
He called it hypocrisy—not to shame, but to awaken.
And He still does.
5. The Biblical Witness: God Values Life and Condemns Its Destruction
While Scripture does not use the modern term “abortion,” it speaks clearly about the value of unborn life and the horror of child‑killing.
A. God forms and knows the unborn
- Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
- Jeremiah 1:5 - Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you, before you were born I set you part;
- Luke 1:41–44 — “The baby leaped in her womb.”
B. God condemns the destruction of children
- Exodus 21:22 I f people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows.
- Leviticus 18:21 — “You shall not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech.”
- Jeremiah 19:5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.
- Matthew 2:16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under
C. God defends the vulnerable
- Psalm 82:3–4 — “Give justice to the weak and fatherless.”
- Proverbs 24:11–12 — “Rescue those being led away to death.”
- Matthew 18:6 If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea
The biblical pattern is consistent:
God protects children. Hypocrisy destroys them.
6. The Honest Confession: We Have All Chosen Wrong
This is where hypocrisy becomes personal.
We have all chosen wrongly.
We have all harmed others.
We have all justified what God condemns.
We have all excused what God calls sin.
Some choices are public.
Some are private.
Some are visible.
Some are buried.
But all of them need forgiveness.
7. The Hope: God Forgives Those Who Repent
And here is the Good News and Hope that exposes hypocrisy and heals it:
God forgives.
He forgives fully.
He forgives joyfully.
He forgives immediately—when we repent.
- “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive” (1 John 1:9).
- “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
- “A broken and contrite heart You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
- “There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
God does not expose hypocrisy to humiliate us.
He exposes it to heal us.
8. The Final Choice: I Choose Jesus
In Hippocratic Hypocrisy Hippopotamus, we concluded:
“When the masks fall and the illusions fade, the only honest choice left is Jesus.”
That is the heart of this reflection.
Free will is real.
Sin is real.
Hypocrisy is real.
Forgiveness is real.
Jesus is Lord.
And when the world demands that we choose between two competing visions of morality, the Christian makes the only choice that leads to life:
I choose Jesus.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You see every hidden place in us—the fears we carry, the compromises we make, the hypocrisies we hide behind. You know the choices we regret, the wounds we carry, and the sins we try to forget. Yet You do not turn away. You call us to come.
Have mercy on us.
Forgive us where we have chosen wrongly.
Heal us where we are broken.
Cleanse us where we are guilty.
Strengthen us where we are weak.
Teach us to love what You love and protect whom You protect.
Give us courage to defend life, humility to confess sin, and compassion to walk with those who are hurting.
And above all, help us choose You—
not just once, but daily, deeply, honestly.
We ask this in Your holy name.
Amen.
