Roe v. Wade—and the dishonest decades-long defense of its mandate to kill unborn children—has left a legacy of badly distorted public reasoning. To reach a pro-choice outcome, judges twisted justice; to constrain dissent, legislators silenced opposition; to appeal for public support, journalists and teachers redefined the plain meaning of words.

Lest prolifers be tempted to fight fire with fire, let us remember that we are all held to God’s standards, not merely to the moral standards of our political opponents. God calls every human person to respond to the gift of reason and speech with a respect for the truth. But we are duplicitous, guileful people, prone to deceiving others and deluding even ourselves about our own motives and goodness.

The classic biblical example is Jacob, son of Isaac. He conspired with his mother to cheat his father and brother and then fled for his life. Near despair, he had a vision of “angels of God ascending and descending” on a stairway near him, a promise that God would continue to be with him and watch over him. Jacob went on for many more years, cheating and being cheated by his extended family, his wives, even his own children. Despite the unnecessary trickery, God turns it all toward holy purposes, and even renames Jacob as “Israel,” honoring him for having wrestled his way above his family rivalries.

Fast forward maybe two millennia. At the beginning of John’s Gospel, Jesus, making his first public appearances, encounters his future disciple Nathaniel, and with spiritual and literary irony, announces: “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathaniel is startled at Jesus’ insight and, forgoing circumspection and diplomacy, declares, “You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel,” ascribing to Jesus the titles of the political heir of David.

For Jesus, however, it is insufficient for Nathaniel simply to get the politics right: “You will see greater things than this!” (I imagine Jesus addressing Nathaniel with a wink, a wry smile, and a New York Yiddish lilt.) “You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus wants Nathaniel to understand that he is fulfilling all of God’s promises to be with and to watch over even those who, like Jacob of old, seem to be failures or decisively alienated from God.

Fast forward another two millennia. You and I (and the rest of us duplicitous, guileful folk), are still works in progress, vulnerable to delusion and self-deception. For much of my life, I have winced when pro-choicers trumpeted the worst examples—those who attacked or murdered abortion providers; those who seemed to revel in humiliating terrified and confused women—as typical prolifers. Now I also wince when prolifers do the same, singling out the meanest and nuttiest pro-choicers and citing the worst caricatures from social media, as if these were typical of our political opponents.

We bear false witness when we adopt the distorted reasoning of pro-choicers. We imitate them when we encourage prolifers to think with the “spirit of the age,” no longer the inebriated irresponsibility of the 1970s, but the political resentment and retribution of the 2020s. When we deploy misleading rhetoric, even for the just cause of protecting the unborn, we nevertheless choose to ignore the 8th Commandment.

Jesus’ remedy is to remind us of the angels. They signal that God is with us, and that God watches over us. But angels also remind us of our accountability to truth and justice. The New Testament word for “angel” simply means “messenger,” i.e., messenger of God’s truth. However, even in ancient legends inspired by the Old Testament, and in medieval theological speculation, angels are understood to be spiritual powers of superhuman intellect: formidable creatures who apprehend the whole truth of the material universe in an instant, and who will be God’s instruments of justice when we are held to account.

God has given every human person his or her potential for perceiving the truth and choosing accordingly between good and evil. Let us not be like the pro-choicers, who pretend not to know what the humanity of others requires of all of us. Let us instead always be mindful of our calling to seek, speak, and serve the truth—for the sake of the unborn, and for the sake even of pro-choicers. The angels are with us, and they are watching.