There is nothing more poisonous than compromise when it comes to achieving the goals of a movement. Here are 6 ways compromise works to destroy your efforts.
1. Compromise shows inconsistency.
Back when I (Sam) was in the Pro-Life Movement, I watched a GOP legislator argue for a heartbeat bill against pro-abortion lobbyists. They blasted holes in every argument because there was nothing grounding them. He was arguing for an arbitrary standard and it was obvious. There is nothing value-giving about a heartbeat. He was combating functionalism with functionalism. Why was his arbitrary standard better than theirs? If they say brainwaves and he says heartbeat, why should mere opinion be forced into law?
Indeed, it was the compromise of Texas law that led to Roe in the first place. Blackman argued that, "If the fetus is a person, why is the woman not a principal or an accomplice?"
2. Compromise stifles urgency
Most pro-life leaders prior to Roe and even now have a pessimistic view. They don't believe abortion will be abolished in their lifetime. Their addiction to compromise has led them to defeatism. Gradualism is a tranquilizing drug.
In the words of William Wilberforce, "But this kind of half measure, however unintentionally, exactly answered the purpose of our enemies, by giving time for the zeal of men to cool, and providing an expedient by which, aided by a little of that self-deception which we are all apt to practice on ourselves on suitable occasions, they might feel the complacencies arising from an act of justice and humanity, without paying the price or making the sacrifice which those principles required."
3. Compromise corrupts
Rather than being an effective political tool, compromise is a kind of moral poison. For years, the commitment to appeasing culture has led pro-lifers to stridently argue that the mother should NEVER face criminal penalties.
Beyond being a legal absurdity (you can't abolish anything if there are no penalties for doing it) it is an immensely immoral position. It says that the mother, who should be the most compassionate and loving to you, is acquitted from carrying out the most heinous atrocity on you.
Even now, conservatives have taken the line that abortion is a state's issue. This flatly contradicts the 14th Amendment. But why wouldn't they? The Pro-Life Movement celebrated its return to the states loudly. Compromise replaces right with wrong and exchanges good for evil.
4. Compromise moves us in the wrong direction
Rather than forcing our enemies to move to us, compromise moves us closer to them. The absurd and ridiculous arguments of pro-life leaders have led to them saying things like aborted babies are being flushed down the toilet, harming the DRINKING WATER. In an effort to court environmentalists and push their priorities through that means, they degrade the preborn in doing so. Why should anyone care about them is a primary argument for protecting them is that their bodies pollute the water?
So close have they moved, that they now, as mentioned, applaud a pro-choice decision from the court that says states may CHOOSE to allow murder or not.
5. The devil loves compromise. God hates it
God is not impressed by pragmatism. He blesses the faithful efforts of His people who stand resolutely on His Word. The devil, on the other hand, loves compromise because it demonstrates a lack of faith in God.
When the devil offered Christ the nations in exchange for worship, it wasn't because Christ didn't want the nations. In fact, He had come for the nations. His commission to His disciples was to go and make disciples of them. Satan wanted Christ to compromise and win the nations through an easier route than dying on a cross and bearing the full wrath of God in our place. But Christ was faithful. Thousands of examples could be multiplied. Instead, read Hebrews 11. God loves faithful obedience and hates pragmatism that trusts in men.
6. Compromise delays
Simply put, if every pro-lifer in the nation was an abolitionist, abortion would be abolished in every conservative state AT MINIMUM.
[The devil] saw very clearly, that... if Christian justice and humanity, could be brought to demand only a gradual extermination of the enormities of the slave system... they could imperceptibly be brought to acquiesce in all this for an unlimited duration." - Elizabeth Heyrick, abolitionist of slavery
Conclusion: there is nothing gained, and everything lost, by compromise. There is no answer more pernicious than compromise with evil. To compromise with evil makes you a participant in evil. You must be light and salt. To lose that saltiness is to be worthless.
