"As if all of the above points were not enough to make any sensible, rational, moral person recoil in disgust or sadness, we add one more irony to this pastry of perdition. There are more bans against smoking than against abortion. There are more campaigns against the evils of taking a puff than against the evils of ripping an unborn child to pieces or burning him alive. People talk about smoking as if it were the scourge of mankind while speaking of abortion as it were a facial, a dental appointment, or a facelift. You can be arrested for smoking in the wrong place, but you cannot be arrested for performing an abortion as long as you are qualified to do so. You can protest against cigarette companies with much more support and protection than you can against abortion providers. The media supports the fight against smoking and paints the cigarette companies as evil, materialistic ghouls while supporting the right to kill the unborn and painting Pro-life forces as evil, fanatic ghouls."

    The sweeping changes in smoking bans were never made more apparent to me that when I was in Italy a few years back and realized how prevalent, and public, smoking is in that country. Every restaurant included good food, fine drink, nice music, and enough fog to shame San Francisco. By the end of my trip, I honestly believed that a visit to a cemetery would reveal clouds of cigarette smoke drifting peacefully heavenward from each tombstone! The difference between smoking in Italy and in New York City was truly striking. While one would not have been surprised to see a horse with a cigarette in its mouth in Rome, smokers in New York are treated as outcasts purged to the streets where they congregate in huddled masses like some meeting of future cancer patients. As if the irony of that contrast is not enough, an infinitely more harrowing contradiction is seen when comparing attitudes toward smoking and abortion.

    While Abortion is a definite sin - a vile evil, smoking is not a sin, but rather a vice which, if it is not balanced with virtue, could lead to other sins. Yet, though they might both be considered evils, smoking is far, far the lesser evil and there is nowhere in the holy Bible where the "sin of smoking" cries out for vengeance, whereas we know abortion does, as well as sodomy.

Legalized Death

    At first glance it may seem that there is little in common between smoking and abortion, but a closer look will betray that first glance. In both cases, legal authority has allowed a practice to exist which basically kills. The evidence that smoking causes cancer and other ills ultimately leading to death and that abortions kill unborn children is patently clear and obvious. Yet, in both cases, the law allows this harm to life to exist, in a sense allowing legalized murder. The old saying that jumping off a bridge is illegal but committing slow suicide by smoking is not is nothing if not amusingly valid. In a sense, there is hypocrisy to a society which wails against atrocities of all kinds while condoning suicide by addiction and the murder of innocent children.

The Profit of Sin

    Another common element between smoking and abortion is that both evils are huge profit-making enterprises. The millions of dollars involved in getting people to smoke or murder their unborn children cannot be overlooked much less denied. The cigarette companies and groups such as Planned Parenthood turn a pretty penny pushing perdition on the public, be it physical or spiritual. Anyone doubting that this is all about money need only pretend that making and selling cigarettes and performing abortions suddenly became a financially disastrous venture. The despicable slogans painting smoking as sophisticated and abortions as divine right would collapse as both cigarette manufacturers and abortion providers raced to the exits! The hypocrisy of those who pretend that what they are doing is done for some noble cause while they count their blood money is vile to say the least.

Spreading the Addiction

    Everybody is aware that smoking is no different than alcohol addiction. Both ensnare and strangle their victims like some snake coiling around a hapless, vulnerable target. Despite the multitude of reasons not to smoke or drink, the addict either falls or rationalizes repeatedly unable to escape in a downward spiral. Is not abortion likewise an addiction? How many women have repeated abortions? How many women do not really want to kill their child but are seemingly dragged there by delusions, illusions, misconceptions, and pretenses not of God? How many feel remorse after taking that puff, that drink? and that deadly betrayal of their own flesh and blood? Worse still, do not cigarette companies, Planned Parenthood, and other pro-abortion forces entice, tempt, ensnare and lure their victims with notions of freedom, independence, self-autonomy, choice, etc? Is there not evidence that these dark forces actively seek to ensnare the young in their trap? Despite the current campaigns by cigarette companies, do you really think that either they or the abortion providers want to inform, warn, empower, or educate their victims? Does any rational person really think that these devils ever think of the welfare of those they serve, not for good, but to the demons of vice and death? A casual review of Planned Parenthood's literature, website, and efforts clearly shows that, for them, every little girl is a potential abortion, a potential buck, a potential customer just as cigarette companies have always sought to ensnare young people.

Key Differences

    Despite the striking similarities between smoking and abortion, there are key differences to consider. First, while smoking may be a harmful vice and therefore morally negative, abortion has an infinitely more destructive and transcendent moral dimension. People do not go to hell for smoking, but they do go there for performing and undergoing abortions unless they repent and seek forgiveness! Second, smoking harms life gradually and abortion is an immediate, graphic termination of life. Third, smoking is a long-term process which can be stopped and reversed at many stages while there is no such thing as stopping an abortion when only half of the child has been torn apart!

Third Party Dimensions

    Both smoking and abortion have third party dimensions which must be considered. The research of second-hand smoke is plentiful, and it is obvious that when a woman has an abortion there is often an impact on her husband, her other children, her family, and her relationships with others. Above all of this, of course, is the impact on her relationship with God Almighty, which is greatly damaged needing repair as soon as possible. Just as anyone who convinces or encourages another to smoke is partly responsible for that subsequent addiction and harm, so too anyone who promotes, encourages, protects, performs, or facilitates an abortion will be partly responsible for that evil as well. It is therefore obvious that neither smoking nor abortion is a one victim evil. Both corrupt, stain, and infect others as well.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

    In both smoking and abortion, what is not readily seen is ignored despite its value and significance. Smoking kills gradually and does not leave visible wounds, blood, or crime scenes. Likewise, abortions are not performed publicly for all to see their horror. Despite their often bloody and graphic nature, they are hidden from public view so as not to reveal or remind of just how inhuman, barbaric, and despicable these horrible procedures really are. Have we not seen people recoil when shown a cancerous lung or a shredded fetus? The public does not want to see the result of these evils. In fact, it is considered bad taste or improper to show people such photos, like some violation of decency or their privacy. What of the rights of the victims of such horror? Did they not have rights as well which should have been protected? I am reminded of the horrors of The Holocaust and those vivid photos of corpses and dying prisoners. People turn away from these images as they turn away from the poor, homeless and sick. Ignoring outcasts and victims of barbaric inhumanity, be they in concentration camps, city streets, medical clinics, or abortion mills does not prevent, eliminate, or otherwise make these horrors go away. A good rule of thumb is that if one would prefer not to see an image of suffering, pain, violence, or harm, then that is precisely the evil that one should seek to end!

The Ultimate Prejudice

    There has been considerable evidence that smoking and abortion campaigns have specifically targeted certain groups such as the young, minorities, the poor and others viewed as most likely to fall for the spell of these lies. Our society wails against injustice, prejudice, bias, and harm against everything from trees to snails. It waxes poetic about nature, life, the environment, and social justice. Every political, social, media, or entertainment empty suit or clueless imbecile is ready to decry civil rights and discrimination. Despite all of this, this very society inflicts its own brand of prejudice and injustice in many forms, all under the guise of other fanciful virtues and noble causes. In the interest of personal freedom and choice, we freely choose to kill ourselves, each other, and the most innocent and defenseless of victims. Many Jews who wail against those who would deny the tortures of The Holocaust or how Hitler treated them as non-persons support the torture of the unborn and deny their right to live while treating these unborn as non-persons. Many minorities who wail against injustice, slavery, and discrimination support these evils against the unborn. Those who lecture about being sent to the back of the bus or denied equal rights push the unborn off the bus and deny them the right to live! Women who argue that eliminating their right to an abortion is akin to rape willingly allow a doctor to violate them and remove the most intimate and treasured part of their womanhood….their child!

    Those who would march for their rights, for women's "lives", or against the killings of war would not take a step to save a beautiful little angel whose only sin is being unwanted, unappreciated, or seeking the chance to live their lives as we do. Please do not tell me about prejudice, rights, choice, freedom, or virtue when you kill innocence for convenience and whim. Please do not pretend to lecture others about freedom, noble causes, life, and what is right and just when you deny these to the most innocent among us. Please do not talk to me about apathy toward the disenfranchised when you ignore the most disenfranchised of all, the unborn!

The Frosting on The Hypocrisy Cake

    As if all of the above points were not enough to make any sensible, rational, moral person recoil in disgust or sadness, we add one more irony to this pastry of perdition. There are more bans against smoking than against abortion. There are more campaigns against the evils of taking a puff than against the evils of ripping an unborn child to pieces or burning him alive. People talk about smoking as if it were the scourge of mankind while speaking of abortion as it were a facial, a dental appointment, or a facelift. You can be arrested for smoking in the wrong place, but you cannot be arrested for performing an abortion as long as you are qualified to do so. You can protest against cigarette companies with much more support and protection than you can against abortion providers. The media supports the fight against smoking and paints the cigarette companies as evil, materialistic ghouls while supporting the right to kill the unborn and painting Pro-life forces as evil, fanatic ghouls.

    Both smokers and those against smoking have more rights than unborn children, who have few if any such rights. And other rights are fast being taken away such as the speaking out against sin. Who knows, in the future this article could be considered a hate crime because I love my neighbor and want to help wake him up to the sin of abortion. In the future that could be classified as I am being intolerant. Such is the state of society in the present day and the day soon arriving. We must pray for the day we all await, the Coming of the Lord. As for the topsy-turvy conditions of black now being white, good now evil and vice versa, well, if you made this hypocrisy up in a non-fiction novel, your submission would either be sent back as too absurd or reclassified as low-class fiction.

Conclusion

    Yes, smoking and abortion have much more in common than one would think at first glance. However, the sad reality is that there is one thing that smoking and abortion do not have in common. While smoking is generally viewed as a vice which should be eliminated, many in this society see abortion as a good which should be continued. Despite the recent elections and many polls showing that most Americans see the evil of abortion, the political, social, media and other powers-that-be continue to push for its acceptance by distorting and spinning reality their way. It is sad but true that a society which aggressively seeks to limit or eliminate smoking from many if not all walks of life cares little about the most innocent of its members. The society which sells patches to help people overcome the vice of smoking cannot patch the enormous moral hole created in its collective resume by the most despicable, inhuman, and detestable of evils. The society which seeks to tear cigarettes away from the hands of the vulnerable young gives lip service to a procedure which tears the most vulnerable, the youngest, to pieces so someone can preserve their figure, avoid economic hassles, or just stay carefree. The society which outlaws women from using their body for prostitution or places great limits on how people abuse their body through smoking suddenly decides that it cannot tell women what they cannot do with their bodies or place any limits on how they abuse their body and psyche through abortion. This society will surely pay the piper for this great sin, and it should heed the warning that abortion is indeed hazardous to its salvation!

Gabriel's Clarion
January 11, 2005
Volume 16, no. 11