Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as Frank and April Wheeler in “Revolutionary Road” (IMDb), directed by Sam Mendes and based on Richard Yates’s 1961 book of the same title. Yet Frank and April’s relationship is so different from that of Jack and Rose in “Titanic” (1997). Thanks to the excessive foul language, plus April’s abortion and death (what I like to call sweet justice), I will never watch this movie twice. I don’t recommend it to anyone. I will never read the book either. And I will never see Leonardo and Kate the same way again.
What struck me was the nature of April’s abortion. The setting is 1950s Connecticut. Abortion isn’t legal, at least not after 12 weeks. Abortions must have been performed only at hospitals at this time. But that doesn’t bother April. In her own home (not a clinic) and without a doctor, she performs an instillation abortion to get rid of her second trimester unborn baby.
I used to think that if we got rid of RU-486 (abortion pill), abortion clinics, and Planned Parenthood — plus made abortion illegal again like before the 1973 “Roe vs. Wade” Supreme Court decision — that abortions would not be performed anymore. We would save all the unborn babies.
Yet after watching “Revolutionary Road,” I realized this just isn’t true. Getting rid of various legal means of abortion won’t stop every abortion. We still won’t save all the babies.
The real problem is the person who wants an abortion. It doesn’t matter if the woman has consensual sex or is raped. It doesn’t matter if she wants an abortion or is forced to have one by a parent, the baby’s father, an abortion clinic worker – or all three. It doesn’t matter if she’s single or married. None of this matters. Whether it’s legal or illegal, a person who wants an abortion badly enough will find a way to kill the unborn baby. Why? That’s the real question.
Frank rightly thinks his wife April is mentally unstable for wanting to kill their unborn baby. It would have been their third child. He doesn’t like her attitude toward their other two children either, as though they’re mistakes she has to live with that lead to their stereotypical way of life in 1950s suburban Connecticut. Yet April is selfish. All she can think about is escaping with her husband and children to Paris, France – away from the life she hates. She wrongly thinks this third baby will prevent their escape. April sees the baby as an inconvenience, not a blessing or gift, someone who will rob her of the new life she desires. She never acknowledges the baby’s right to live, his or her “otherness.” So April gets rid of it.
I applaud the efforts of pro-life organizations worldwide, especially Americans United for Life, Family Research Council, Feminists for Life, LifeNews.com, Live Action, National Right to Life, Students for Life of America, Youth Defence (Ireland) – even Anne Geddes (photography). What they’ve done this year at the local, state, and federal levels is astounding. 2011 has truly become the year of life. I pray 2012 is even more fruitful.
Yet the pro-lifers’ efforts are not enough. Too many are using carnal weapons. We must use spiritual ones instead: “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, KJV). Abortion is a spiritual stronghold, part of a spirit of death the devil has unleashed on the world. God is seeking “godly seed” (Malachi 2:15, KJV), but the devil is doing everything he can to prevent this. Two thousand years ago, using King Herod he tried to kill baby Jesus – what is called today the “slaughter of the innocents” (Matthew 2:16-18).
We can’t fight an abortion battle just through courts of law, Congressional hearings and legislation. This great battle is spiritual, not carnal: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12, KJV).
As individuals, families, churches, and nations we must “choose life” so that we and our children “may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19, KJV). In the name of Jesus, we must bind the spirit of death and loose the spirit of life (Matthew 16:19). We must wield our spiritual weapons: the belt of truth, the “breastplate of righteousness,” the shoes of the gospel of peace, the “shield of faith,” the “helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:14-17, KJV). Finally, we must pray continually in the Spirit (6:18). Only then will we save the babies of this world.
You know what God told me this morning? “Let us strengthen our hands for this good work” (Nehemiah 2:18). It means we should “set our hands to” it. Promoting life from conception is a “good work,” is it not? I once heard Pastor Stovall Weems say, “The supernatural is in the sweat.” When we work the works of God through his Holy Spirit, and through natural means he’s given us (hands, feet, lips, etc), we will see God move like only he can! He will do what we cannot do!