Some things we know by instinct, by a sort of God-given understanding. This is especially true regarding morals. You never hear Americans argue whether or not child abuse is okay. Some things are obvious, and this concept even goes a step further. Some things are obvious to us even when we don’t realize it. Such is the case with abortion.

Paul talks about this idea in relation to the existence of God. He says everyone naturally knows God exists and deserves our worship, but people purposely hide the truth (Romans 1:18-23). Paul says people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (verse 18, New American Standard Version), We don’t just hide the truth; we hide it from ourselves. We are naturally self-deceptive. You see this tendency in people with addictions. If you’ve ever had a conversation with an addict you’ve experienced the lies first-hand—not just lies to you but the lies they tell themselves. Deep down, they know they’re doing wrong. But they refuse to admit it, always staying one step ahead of the truth with a clever lie.

Stories can circumvent this tendency to self-deception. They can teach truths we all know even when we don’t know that we know them. Story writing happens in the heart as well as the head. When imaginatively exploring life and the human condition, a writer pens not only the truth he knows, but the truth he doesn’t know—the truth his heart knows even if his head has forgotten it. In other words, common sense often speaks up despite the fact that we’ve trained ourselves to think against it. Common sense, for example, teaches us that there are real differences between men and women, despite the most sophisticated arguments from radical feminists to the contrary. Based on this understanding, I can prove that abortion is wrong and most everyone thinks so—even Hollywood.

The proof is simple: there are no happy abortion movies. Tragedies show us the hardships, darkness, and difficulties of life, while comedies show us life’s joys—the things that make life worth living. And the simple truth is that there are no movies coming out of Hollywood in which people rejoice, laugh about, or otherwise celebrate abortions. A movie that came out some years ago, The Cider House Rules, was specifically written to argue that abortion is sometimes necessary. But beneath the lesson on ethics in film is the truth that abortion is terrible, miserable, awful—it’s there even when the film attempts to argue that abortion is good.

Comedies are more honest. Every comic movie that deals with a problem pregnancy follows a basic formula: a single woman gets pregnant without wanting to and wonders what to do but concludes that the baby cannot be aborted. And these are mainstream, Hollywood films! Sometimes the baby may be given up for adoption, but it is never “happily” aborted. On the contrary, the baby’s birth is a wonder and a blessing—almost spiritual in its significance.

How many movies are we talking about here? In Juno, a high school girl chooses to have her baby (and meet the couple to whom she gives it up for adoption). In Waitress, a woman is angry at her unborn baby because she is in an abusive marriage. She thinks the child will keep her tied to a selfish, violent, manipulative man for the rest of her life with no chance of escape. But she keeps the baby, despite not wanting it and despite the fact that her husband has already told her he won’t allow her to love the child more than she loves him. She thinks that, at least while she’s pregnant, her husband won’t beat her or demand sex from her. At the end of the movie, our heroine finds strength to stand up against her husband’s abuses. It happens at the very moment she holds her little daughter in her arms. Most recently, a film called Knocked Up, which otherwise has no redeeming value and I urge you not to see it, portrays the lives of a professional woman and a deadbeat man who have a one night stand that results in her pregnancy. From the outset she determines to keep and raise the child—abortion is simply no option—and the comic plot and vision for the rest of the film, then, revolves around the father’s choice to grow up, become a responsible adult, and help his child’s mother through her pregnancy and the birth.

Many Hollywood movies celebrate keeping the baby rather than aborting it (or having a baby rather than continuing to live only for oneself). She’s Having a Baby, Nine Months, Baby Mama, For Keeps, Three Men and a Baby, Look Who’s Talking—these movies show that Hollywood has known for decades the truth that many in Hollywood claim not to believe: abortion is wrong and babies are a blessing. There simply are no happy abortion movies. That’s the truth. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells