Rev.
Mike Bray
by Michael Bray.
INTRODUCTION AND DEDICATION
Ensconced in this small Christian town in southwestern Ohio, we
have been enjoying a change in pace. Our annual March for Life, advertised
on the courthouse lawn, drew about 50 people; absolutely no opposition.
Shifting my efforts over to some prison ministry, I have been preaching
repentance and holy living to the inmates. Indeed, what does a convict
do when he is of a mind to repent and live an honorable and glorious life?
And what works of repentance and justice might he perform during a holocaust?
Hmm. (I am pleased to share the Gospel with any people group with no particular
target group in mind, yet I find myself subconsciously drawn toward arsonists
and demolitionists. But I digress.)
Anyway, I was distracted, just the other day, by another letter
from Planned Parenthood about yet another deposition. Seems another
Roe-worshiping judge has decided that I am not allowed to invoke the Fifth
in the collection process as PP tries to get its $800,000 or so (reduced
by the Ninth Circuit recently from $8 million) from me. Paul Weiss,
Rifkin, and Wharton, the New York City firm doing PP’s legal work, want
a deposition ASAP. (And this within two seeks of our filing with
the Supreme Court of certiorari on this whole obscene case!) Well,
here I am diverted from my prison work for the moment to dedicate some
more sound thinking to our present national moral quagmire. (My!
how the Lord does bring good out of evil.) Inspired by the
harassment of PP’s esquires, I dedicate this essay to this decadent law
firm with thanks to our Lord who brings about good according to his unfathomable
wisdom.
A FATHER’S RIGHT: THE EXECUTION OF ABORTIONISTS
When justice for womb children is re-established and abortion
is re-criminalized, the penalty thereafter for those who murder womb children
will be the punishment of death. In the meantime, we have argued
in defense of the use of lethal force to protect a womb child from death
at the hands of an abortionist (see A Time to Kill, by Michael Bray, 1993,
published by Advocates for Life Advocate Ministries, available at www.streetpreach.com).
In a society so morally debased as ours has become, severed from its ties
to Christian/common law, defenders of womb children have found themselves
ostracized, criminalized and persecuted when they exercise the protective
actions one would normally afford any innocent victim.
The replies to this simple thesis from ecclesiastical leadership,
theologians, and anti-abortion politicians and activists have been shamefully
absent, weak, or simply wrong.
We press on with dismay and yet with a touch of alacrity as we
set forth another ethical principle responsive to the continuing Holocaust.
The appalling dearth of apologists for defensive action (including justifiable
homicide) brings discouragement but with this disappointment comes the
opportunity to shine light in the darkness. For this privilege, we
take a certain pleasure in shining forth bright truth in the midst
of deep darkness.
Onward then.
THEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
The first time I spoke publicly on the matter of lethal force
in defense of womb children was at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary
in
New Orleans in 1990. It was at the annual meeting of the Evangelical
Theological Society where I delivered a paper entitled, “The Ethics of
Operation Rescue.” Convenient for those attending the session, was
the presentation of a paper by another theologian, Paul Feinberg, opposing
the actions of Operation Rescue as lawless and inappropriate “civil disobedience.”
My point was that the action of OR activists was higher than simple protest
tactics. It was the true rescue of innocent people inasmuch
as blockades served to directly postpone and even prevent the imminent
deaths of womb children.
One member of the audience, following my application of defensive
action principles to “anti-abortion activism,” logically asked whether,
therefore, I must not necessarily permit maiming or killing the assailants
of the womb child. To this question, I publicly gave my asseveration.
The normal principles of defensive action apply in the case of the womb
children because they are true children, true human beings. There
were no further comments or questions. The abnormality is only an
accident of our times when the abnormal toleration of abortion is regarded
as normal.
Three years later following the first case of lethal defensive
action performed by Michael Griffin in Pensacola when he shot Abortionist
David Gunn, I was asked by Advocates for Life publisher Andrew Burnett
to write a book examining the issue which had caused much discussion among
activists who had been practicing “non-violent” sit-ins or blockades of
abortuaries. Consequent interviews and much public attention drew
pro-abortion FACE legislation and lawsuits along with debate among some
activists and churches. On the other hand, many continued in their
silence.
To date, I have spoken only of the legitimacy of the use of force
for defensive (as distinguished from punitive) action. In summary,
defensive action is permitted any citizen when he appropriates such in
immediate defense of an innocent person as he is being assailed or under
imminent threat by an aggressor. Now, in 2006, I want to address
the use of lethal force not in defense of the innocent but for the punishment
of the murderer. What role, if any, does the private citizen have
in the execution of vengeance upon the murderer?
JUSTICE AND RETRIBUTION
In the particular capital crime of murder, God has required the
death of the murderer. The very principle, the “image of God” in
man, both prohibits murder and commands that the murderer be executed.
Just as men are required to refrain from murder, they are required to execute
those who commit murder.
As with all forms of injustice in the world, God, who loves justice,
will bring judgment in due time and right all wrongs. Those wrongs
of which we have knowledge but are unable to prove in court will not go
unnoticed or un-addressed by God. Vengeance is His and He will repay
and He delegates to human authorities the task of executing vengeance (Romans
13:4). That which escapes His earthly courts will not escape His
Final Judgment Day. In this we can find some comfort and hope whenever
we see wicked deeds go unpunished before our eyes. But this sad delay
in justice does not leave us indifferent to it. We are to love and
to seek justice.
Temperance of justice may be afforded the offender by the injured party
in the case of civil wrongs; e.g., one may forgive a personal debt and
thus extend godly grace. But the case of first degree murder is another
matter. There is to be no mercy shown. No judge has the right
to reduce the sentence to prison time or flogging or fine. Because
human beings are created in the image of God, those who murder them must
forfeit their lives (Gen. 9:6). There is no alternative for
execution; no substitute for the blood of the murderer (Ex. 21:12,14; Deut.
19:4-13; Josh. 20; Num. 35:27-30). “You shall not take ransom for
the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put
to death” (Num. 35:31).
The question of duty arises. Who is responsible to see
that the guilty one is executed? In civilizations with developed
legal systems, the answer may seem to require no thought: police, prosecutors,
jails, courts, prisons, and electric chairs all compose modern justice
systems so that responsibility never is in question. But in ruder
or simpler societies, the question of duty might be less obvious.
Tribal Israel was informed by the Law of Moses that the “avenger of blood”
(goel ha-dam) was responsible for administering the justice. In a
murder case this “avenger” is traditionally understood to be the nearest
male kinsman of the victim though some scholars have argued that he may
be a representative of the elders of the city, an official of government.
On the assumption that the duty of executing murderers resides
with civil authorities whenever they are functioning legitimately as just
authorities, what happens when such authorities flagrantly fail to carry
out justice? When is “vigilante justice” tolerable?
This theme is popular in literature and the cinema. Gresham’s
A Time to Kill featured the drama of a father sitting by as a court was
poised to slap the wrists of two men who had raped and murdered his daughter.
No reader or movie watcher reacted against the execution of the two men
by the father when he grabbed the rifle from the sheriff on duty and blew
away the two murderer rapists in the court room. Justice was served;
it was only for the court to bless it after the fact when the jury acquitted
the avenger of blood. One could find countless examples in popular
literature from Homer to Shakespeare to Dirty Harry. And even in
those instances of popularly accepted vigilante justice, it is not even
so grievous a crime as murder for which retribution is countenanced.
Ulysses executed the suitors of Portia for insolence: hardly a capital
offense. And Hamlet took vengeance on his uncle on the basis of quite
crude evidence: the testimony of a nocturnal visit from a shade.
So what if, in such a matter of murder, surviving kinsmen took
it as their responsibility to see that just vengeance was executed upon
the murderer of their relative regardless of the hand by whom the death
blow should be rendered? And upon the failure of the authorities
to execute the murderer, what if the obliged kinsmen believed it their
duty to do what the civil authorities were derelict in performance?
A PERSONAL CHOICE
I shall personalize the matter. I am the husband of one wife and the father of two sons and nine daughters. I live in a society of state and federal governments which permits the murder of womb children. Moreover this society appropriates public funds to promote murder and even to pay murderers to murder these children. This federal government has deployed its FBI and federal marshals to protect the practice of this form of murder. It has prosecuted and jailed those who have acted to protect the innocent children. It has passed laws which facilitate litigation by abortion practitioners against those who speak out for and protect the womb children. Under these conditions, should my wife’s moral and sensibilities and mental faculties fail to the point that she would ever seek an abortion, I cannot count on this government to protect my child or to punish those who would kill him. The same would be the case were my daughters to fall into such moral failure. My children and grand children would not be protected by this government; nor would justice be served upon those guilty of the crime.
THE PLEDGE
Therefore I declare as follows: I would not allow the murder of my children
or grandchildren to go unpunished. As this government would not bring
just vengeance against the murderers of my children, I would assume this
duty, the right of a kinsman, and personally execute them.
It is, of course, highly improbable that such a situation should
arise. My wife and children all know right from wrong as defined
by the Scriptures. They know the difference between a baby and puppy.
They understand that God abominates murder. But it as also true that
all human beings are capable of being deceived and committing great evil.
Should any of my children, by human frailty and confusion ever commit
such an atrocity, I would personally opt not assume any obligation to execute
them, but judge them to have suffered a type of “temporary insanity.”
I would limit my obligation as an “avenger of blood” to the execution
of the hired murderer of my child or grandchild.
At present I have a wife and three sub debutante daughters in
Wilmington, Ohio (with me), one daughter in D.C., one daughter temporarily
in Australia, and an adult son in California. It has occurred to
me that I ought somehow, as fair warning, to publicize to practicing
abortionists my intent to take vengeance upon them should they in the course
of their ill-chosen profession happen upon the misfortune of choosing to
murder one of my children or grandchildren. However, in the present
irrational legal climate such a fair, philanthropic warning would more
likely be taken as a criminal threat!
It seems best, then, to simply make this essay available for
interested and concerned readers and for Providence to use as a kind warning
to some, an education for others, and a defense for myself. Perhaps,
from time to time, I shall update the locations of my children as they
scatter, seeking their fortunes, to cities throughout the world.
HOPING ALWAYS FOR REVIVAL
The last word from the Old Testament is one of great expectation
of messianic intrusion into the affairs of mankind. It contemplates
the comings of the messiah, both his first and his second advent, “that
great and terrible day of the Lord,” and, perhaps any other “comings’ in
between. His “comings” are manifested in revival of his people from
time to time. In our own national history, the two Great Awakenings
come to mind, each preceding and providing the energy needed to conduct
the great wars (the Revolutionary and the War Between the States).
The very last verse speaks of the spirit of Elijah, the same spirit which
energized John the Baptist. That “spirit” comes to “restore
the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their
fathers” to the end that God does not bring severe judgment.
May fathers rise to the task of loving and protecting their children
and thus turn our nation from the calamity and destruction it is facing.
May they make and keep the promise to love and protect their children.
AOG Festivities at Christmas Abortuary Conflagration in Albuquerque
A Call for Prolife Orgs to Repentance
The Murder of God’s Prophet by Rev. Michael Bray
The Restoration
of Fatherhood
(Or Some Fresh Ideas for Promise
Keepers)
A Plea for
Aid and Comfort for Prisoners by Michael Bray
For information about Rev. Michael Bray's book, A Time to Kill, click here.
Back to Anti-Abortion Heroes of the Faith
Hebrews 12:29
For our God is a consuming fire.
Psalm 3:3
But thou, O Lord, art a shield
for me;
my glory, and the lifter up
of mine head.
To View babies Murdered
by babykilling abortionists click here.
Genesis 9:6
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed:
for in the image of God made he
man.
Numbers 35:33 So ye shall
not pollute the land wherein ye are:
for blood it defileth the land:
and the land cannot be cleansed of the
blood that is shed therein, but
by the blood of him that shed it.
To contact e-mail: Glory2Jesus@ArmyofGod.com
Telephone 1-757-204-4454
Or write to: Rev. Donald Spitz
Pro-Life Virginia
P.O. Box 2876
Chesapeake VA 23327
