Now being Pro-Life here in the US rarely requires us to endure mob violence or imprisonment. But it does require a little bit of social courage—a willingness to looked down on, to be excluded from certain circles. But isn’t it worth it?
To suffer a snub for the sake of justice, for the sake of witnessing to that inconvenient truth: that last year, in the US alone, there were 1.25 million violent—and legally-sanctioned—attacks on human life in the form of abortion?
This does number does not even take into account the tremendous emotional and spiritual injury done to the mothers and fathers of these children, many of whom were deceived into thinking they had no other choice. Few are sufficiently awake to this fact. For that reason, awakening others will require courage: people tend to be grumpy when they’re first woken from sleep.
Link (here) to the full post of Deacon Arron Pidel, S.J. at the blog by Jesuits at Whomsoever Desires
7 comments:
This is a great example of a courageous person being willing to stand up and speak for unborn children. We have way too many "Herods" or pro-abort politicians today.
I find the homily rather troubling.
For example: “Jesus was persecuted for the sake of righteousness.” is used to equate the pro-life movement to righteousness, and portray those who oppose it as opposing Jesus.
But that quote could be used to describe any organization, but it would not make them right and others wrong.
Our reality, and the judgments we must make, are complex. There are many different situations, many different values to weigh, many different individuals, and many different conclusions we could reach. These decisions are very complex, and we fail constantly, but that does not mean that we should abandon our values and substitute “rules” that apply poorly. Rules such as “don’t use your judgment, just always oppose abortion” and “forget humility and forget your community values, just assume that you are right” and “assume those who disagree are against Jesus.”
By way of explaining this complexity, I would point out that we all have values that are distant from God. Those values need adjustment, feedback, and results that are appropriate for lessons -- regardless of the actual decision that we make – even when the decision is the same one that God would make. So we might make a decision, and the result is then constructed to work out poorly.
We were put here to evolve our values and judgments, not abrogate that responsibility by using pre-packaged, ill-fitting judgments.
@TonyD
How is the pro-life movement not righteous and not like Jesus?
How is opposing the pro-life movement being like Jesus?
You are displaying relativistic arguments. That's why there is so much immorality in our society nowadays - people deeming or portraying evil as "good" and vise versa.
Teresa,
Let’s just both assume that you are right.
Being right and stating truth and protecting life are not the same as being aligned with God values. Values coexist. Trade-offs coexist. Imitation is not genuine change.
I’m not trying to convince anyone that my logic is better. I’m hoping that some people may change to give serious weight to the values of their community – even when those values are not right or true.
@TonyD
Would you please give an example of what your referring to when you state "values of their community – even when those values are not right or true."?
Teresa,
Consider parking meters. They represent a regressive tax. They apply even when there is plenty of parking. They are usually installed to raise money, rather than serve the public interest. They represent an investment, and are priced to provide a return on that investment. And, while I would like to blame politicians, most of the public does not stop to consider alternative goals, all the impacts, and alternative options to parking meters. The result is that the public typically supports parking meters.
So I support parking meters. That does not mean that I stop trying to get people to consider options. And that does not mean that I become someone who believes the simple arguments put forth to support them. But I don’t try to use commercials, marketing, and persuasion to pass laws that would “outlaw” parking meters to a community that supports them.
These pro-lifers do very little. How much do they really sacrifice? Are they really that serious about this cause?
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