Joe Daniels, former detective with the child-protection unit of the Jackson, Mississippi, Police Department believes it was by God’s design that he was on call Saturday morning May 14. He had swapped hours with a colleague, and before the day was over, his commitment to his Christian values cost him his job.
A police dispatcher got the 31-year-old Daniels out of bed to send him to an abortion clinic to look after children whose parents would likely get arrested for trespassing. Some 150 people, including nine pastors and seven seminary students, staged a protest. Many of them lay down or knelt near the clinic’s entrance.
Daniels arrived at the scene and ended up making three arrests. On the way to the police station, those he arrested confronted him about his role in contributing to the deaths of unborn children. One woman told him she had had two abortions and today wishes someone had blocked her path.
Soon after, Daniels decided to resign. “I was overcome by the irony,” he said. “As a police officer, I was charged with the fundamental duty of protecting children. Instead, I complied like a good little Nazi and cleared a path for the destruction of our nation’s children.”
On the citation, Daniels wrote that he arrested the three for blocking access to an abortion clinic “in an effort to prevent the killing of children.” He then wrote a letter of resignation, which he regards an an act of repentance. Right-to-life groups in Jackson say they will look after the needs of Daniels, his wife, and two small children.
The protest in Mississippi is part of a growing “rescue movement,” coordinated mainly by the Binghamton, New York-based organization Operation Rescue. Over 800 were arrested during a weeklong protest May 2–6 in New York City. Also last month, 15 evangelical pastors were arrested at an abortion clinic in Rochester, New York.
Randall A. Terry, national director of Operation Rescue, said between 10 and 15 similar protests are planned for this summer in cities throughout the U.S. Terry said the movement is undergirded by the conviction that “God’s law is above man’s law.” He said, “The prolife movement has been so nice nobody pays any attention to us. If it were our children being killed, we wouldn’t be wasting time writing letters.”
Terry believes the need for action is urgent: “The blood of these babies is crying from the ground for vengeance. Unless we give God a reason to show mercy, he is obligated to avenge that blood and judge this nation into oblivion.”
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
A Christian reconciliation group in Israel and Palestine warned that war would come. Now the war threatens their relevance.españolالعربيةFrançaisрусскийУкраїнська
Beyoncé’s right. Whether listening to Cowboy Carter or reading theology, diversity is a good thing.
