In what has to be the most ironic advertisement on behalf of abortion, Amnesty International has released a video urging Ireland to repeal its 8th Amendment outlawing abortion.
The narrator states:
A ghost haunts Ireland. A cruel ghost of the last century still bound to the land.
It blindly brings suffering, even death, to the women whose lives it touches.
Feared by politicians, this is a ghost of paper and ink. A spirit that lives in a constitution written for a different time.
Ireland doesn’t have to be chained to its past. It’s time to lay this ghost to rest.
Repeal the Eighth.
The black and white imagery throughout most of the commercial is that of an old crumbling church and the graveyard beside it. Then, near the end when the “Repeal the Eighth” message is revealed, the black and white goes away and a beautiful, full-color skyline emerges.
The intended message is clear. The words and image unite to say that anti-abortion laws and leaders are part of an archaic, outdated, black-and-white, world of the past. The institution of the church which gave rise to these laws is crumbling—literally, in the case of the buildings depicted, and should not be allowed to keep modern people and ideas trapped in the past. So the argument goes.
Ok, so how is the commercial at all ironic? The commercial’s intended message is pretty straight forward. No irony seems intended. But look at the commercial again.
Those gravestones. They provide the irony.
First, the gravestones remind us of the reality of the world we live in, where because of sin, death reigns (Genesis 3). And abortion is an ultimate example of that, as humans are brought from the womb to the tomb with no days or years or decades in which to live and breathe. So, the commercial’s emphasis on gravestones serves to remind us of the reality that abortion is death. In fact, you could change only the script—not the visuals—and easily produce a pro-life commercial. (Hint: an aspiring pro-life college student with skills in such things should do this and send it to me).
But second, those gravestones with their crosses on top remind us of another death, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The death and resurrection of Jesus paid the penalty of sin and defeated the enemy of death for all who would believe in Him. So, even while the commercial would like us to feel as though this thing called “the church” and “Christianity” is a relic of the past that forces outdated morals on the citizens of Ireland, the image of the cross actually serves to tell a different message altogether.
The death of Jesus Christ is not outdated, “written for a different time.” He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
In another bit of irony, the narrator is the famous Irish actor Liam Neeson, who also voiced the character Aslan in the movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan, of course, is the Christ-figure who laid down his life to save the traitorous Edmund in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
In this role, Neeson spoke about substitutionary atonement and the overturning of death:
“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
But then in the pro-abortion commercial, Neeson says, “Ireland doesn’t have to be chained to its past.”
Goodness! Somebody did not do their homework with this commercial. It is too clever by half, using the very symbols that represent the eternal overthrow of everything the commercial intends to accomplish. Like the White Witch, it thinks it knows enough about religion to overthrow it, not knowing that its defeat is already a fate accomplished.
The title of the commercial is “Chains” —again an unintended irony, as the breaking of the bonds of sin is a prominent Christian vision of salvation.
Like the commercial, the wicked only see God’s law as chains/bonds. They shout,
“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:3).
Sinners are in bondage, yes, but not to the law—they are in chains of sin. And it is the Gospel of Christ that proclaims the chain-busting good news from God:
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)
Or, in the words of the hymn writer:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
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