Coming Home

Today I wish to speak of two very different men, both of whom are African-Americans, both of whom are warriors, one of whom has gone to jail, and the other who may very well spend his remaining years rotting behind bars.

One is a hero to me, and a mentor.

The other is so twisted with evil that his actions rocket me past revulsion and leave me almost numb with bewilderment.

Kermit Gosnell

First up is Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the newly infamous butcher of Philadelphia whose four decades of infanticide performed on countless hundreds, perhaps even thousands of babies born alive during botched, illegal third trimester abortions has seared the consciousness of the nation. Much more on the story here.

His filthy, squalid office went by the deceptively bloated title of Women’s Medical Society, which conjures visions of participation in something larger than the lives of the desperately poor African-American and immigrant women who turned to Gosnell. It sounds so establishmentarian, so thoroughly professional. As with all evil, it was a lie.

Gosnell gorged himself on the desperation and misery of women from his own community. At 69, this is a man who knew the pre-civil rights era, and all that was fought for, and all that has been lost thanks to men such as himself. He gorged on misery and made millions in the process. Not even the KKK killed as many African-Americans as Gosnell, and seldom as gruesomely. Certainly none ever cut off their victims feet and kept them as trophies.

Gosnell has done the Klan proud.

The other man is Reverend Walter Hoye, who was arrested for the crime of approaching women entering an abortion clinic and in his humble soft-spokenness offered them the opportunity to explore their options before making an irrevocable decision. Pastor Hoye spent time in jail for his efforts.

Last week Pastor Hoye came to New York to help rally the communities of color to resist the butchers like Gosnell. Listen to his three-minute witness, especially the last 45 seconds.

I was moved to tears as Pastor Hoye described how he began to behold his son, behold the tiny details of the 1.5 pound body when he thought he was holding him for the last time, how he grasped the enormity of the humanity contained within that tiny, frail, and failing body.

Can there be any greater difference between these two men, between the choice faced by the community most ravaged by Gosnell and his peers? Gosnell is not only a depraved butcher, he lived through the worst period of racism in America and received a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical School. And this is what he did with that great opportunity and sacred trust.

Pastor Hoye is a living saint among us. He would suffer jail rather than stand by silently and see his community wiped out through Planned Parenthood’s genocidal agenda, shared by many others in the abortion community. Gosnell would risk prison rather than abandon his complicity in his people’s genocide, performed in the most heartless, cruel and illegal manner.

Today, on the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I pray especially for the African-American community, and their 60% abortion rate here in New York. I pray for courageous and holy pastors such as Walter Hoye whose love transcends their own fears of imprisonment and death. Such pastors are desperately trying to protect their flocks from being torn apart by wolves such as Gosnell.

In the coming year, may we turn an extra measure of attention and support toward the black and Hispanic pastors as they rally their fellow pastors to stanch the genocide that is raging out of control?

God bless them all.