Dr. Edward Sri notes the similarities of Pilate’s indifference to the truth that sent Jesus to death and modern society’s indifference to truth that sends the unborn to abortion.
Transcript:
Host: We go to Rita in Dittmer, Missouri listening on 1460 AM. Rita, you are on with Dr. Edward Sri.
Caller: Hello Doctor. You know, I—my husband and I have prayed at the abortion mill. There’s one last surgical abortion mill in Missouri, it’s at Forest Park and Boyle in St. Louis, and we’ve prayed there for many years. And one of the best things that I’ve ever seen, Abraham Lincoln, he has a quote where he quoted, he said, “No law gives us the right to do what is wrong.” And I think since it has been legalized all these so many years now, and 60 million babies dead since the beginning of that legalization, I think a lot of people have talked themselves into this being perfectly fine. To look in their faces, whether it’s somebody going in to have their grandchild killed, and they’re bringing their daughter in to kill a grandchild, or whether it’s a husband or a boyfriend, whether it’s a worker, I find it hard not to simply at least, at the very least, say “God loves you, you know, you don’t have to do this today.”
Host: So Rita, real quick, the question then, could you formulate it as a question for Dr. Sri so we’ll get an answer in?
Caller: My question is, what would you say, what is—what would you say to these people, whether it’s a worker, whether it’s a girl going in to have her baby killed, what would you say to these people? And again, this is all about relativism, the people have talked themselves into this.
Host: Okay, let’s let Dr. Sri take a shot.
Dr. Sri: Okay, great. Yeah, and, you know, in my last chapter of the book I actually talked about—the chapter “What is Truth?” You know, that was the question Pilate asked. And that’s not just an abstract philosophical question; it’s something that leads to serious problems. Like because Pilate didn’t believe in truth, what happened? He did what was just most convenient for him that day. He wanted to save his job, he didn’t want to have this big riot on his hands, as they’re all shouting “Crucify him!” So he sent Jesus off to be killed. An innocent person was killed because of moral relativism that day.
And that’s what’s happening in our culture, and I think in the end we’ve got to see, when we deny that there’s a real truth outside of ourselves—and I could just make up my own truth–then I can do what Pilate did. I can send an innocent person that’s inconvenient for me—yeah I know this guy is innocent, he probably shouldn’t die, but it’s better for me—and we end up exerting, asserting our own will over other people. John Paul II said that’s what we do in abortion; the most innocent life, that needs us the most, we view as an inconvenience, and we assert our will over them. Let’s proclaim truth so we can proclaim life.