It may not be politically stylish to be Pro-Life in California as a Republican Candidate, but the evidence still remains that it is the truest position to hold as you run for any political office that oversees the lives of millions as it relates to life, liberty and independence.

I just returned from an eight-day trip to Hong Kong, China and the Philippines. 

I traveled with a group of 12 radio professionals, talk show hosts and mission experts. We were determined to experience the worst poverty the world has to offer and end the trek walking within the borders of Communist China.

The journey in the Philippines started with 10-million people packed into her Capitol City of Manila.

From the renowned ‘Smokey Mountain Dump-yard neighborhood’ to the shores of the ‘community of the cripes’, we saw the worst conditions for humanity. The poverty of the Philippines – as it is throughout Southeast Asia – is hard to comprehend and has no comparison in the United States of America.

We state often that the United States has no ‘poverty problem’; that truthful point can’t be made any clearer than walking the out-skirts of Manila and visiting her homeless communities living at the dump yard, the sea shore and the community cemetery on top of cripes of human remains and bones. 

Poverty is the by-product of life in Manila. America has no poverty problem; but I’ll save that topic for another day - a day that features some political rhetoric about the ‘poverty level of American citizens’ and the need to offer more tax dollars to solve it.

But I do have one story to share, a story that relates to another political football – one that the Republican Party seems to think has lost its ’sex appeal’ to the California voters at election time.

I believe a pro-life position, as it relates to abortion, is the truest option of liberty and mercy; even as you consider the extreme state of poverty, disease and lack of education, economic advancement and overall hope in the Philippines.

As it is in California, the same holds true for Filipinos running for public office; you may support the $2 street corner abortions that tend to control the population, the spread of disease and the overall decay of the future of the country…that is until you encounter Jonathon.

I met Jonathon in Dumaguaguete City, Philippines.

We were eating a prepared lunch by the local church establish there 15-years prior. Jonathon came to speak with American radio reporters, missionary leaders and fellow Filipino residence. He was determined to be heard and to make his point before we left.

Jonathon is 41-years old man, and the first feature you notice about him is his hands. 

His hands are deformed, his fingers are either gone, severed or replaced with what looks to be flesh wrapped around ‘balloons’ just to give some presentation that what remains at the end of his arms are supposed to be hands.

Jonathon was to be aborted when he was 8-months old – in the womb.

He told the story of his mother’s scream for the abortionists to stop after she felt him moving, kicking and leaping in her womb to avoid the abortionists instruments of destruction.

Jonathon’s mother had no hope, she was 18-years old with a child that she couldn’t care for; so she was doing the honorable thing – aborting the life in the womb so the child wouldn’t have to live a life of ‘greatest poverty’ in Manila.

But another option was about to be heard.

As the $2 an hour abortionist placed his suction, knives and tools inside of her womb, Jonathon fought back. In the process he lost portions of his hands and all of his fingers. In the end he gained his mother’s attention, and battled to gain his liberty and his life.

As Jonathon was talking to us about his new career – organizing ministries and starting churches while feeding the children of Dumaguaguete City – we noticed that he was carrying a guitar with him. We asked him, “what is the guitar case for?” It was at that moment that the first tear rolled down my face in the humid air of the Philippines.

Jonathon leaned down and picked up an old, worn-out guitar and placed the instrument in his lap and asked us if we would like to hear him play a few songs he has written over the past few years.

As Jonathon sang his heart out for the Americans, my heart was drawn to the millions of Californian lives, in the womb, that are refused what Jonathon was offered – the chance at life. In California, these lives are not only ended, they are also ignored – for it is illegal to tabulate the number of abortions each year in the Golden State. 

Here before me was Jonathon’s life, one of great impact. He has the intelligence and skill-set to advance his community.

How many lives have we ended for a cause of convenience that eventually would have help solve our very own community ills?

How many lives have been prepared by God for our generations discovery? Jonathon experiences liberty – he lives it and appreciates it.

The history of the United States is littered with cemeteries celebrating those who gave their lives willingly so others could have life in liberty. I visited Manila’s Cemetery, where over 150,000 crosses rest because General MacArthur fulfilled his promise to return to Manila. Men and women, who have offered the ultimate so that other may benefit in the ultimate: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Yet today, many Republicans run from the issue because of lost votes and remedial surveys that tell a tale of caution surrounding the pro-life position. How cowardly and weak, especially in the face of the strong man I was tapping my toes to in the Philippines. 

Jonathon has overcome deformity and extreme poverty at the same time, two of the most prevalent reasons given for a choice of ending additional lives.

Jonathon is now a ‘change agent’, a difference maker - at one time he was a target for an easy choice of deletion from creation’s field of God’s lilies.

How many Jonathon’s have we ignored as a Republican Party due to the cowardly fear of facing ridicule from a voting constituency that ignores the most basic principals of government - life and liberty.

As we seek to discuss the future of the GOP, the strategies of the gubernatorial campaign and the take the surveys that encourages us to ignore the social ills of the nation and her golden state, remember the song of Jonathon.

May his music forever be the chorus of a party that has the obligation to represent those who can’t represent themselves - at least not yet.