The Harbingers of Death

Almost a month ago to the day this time last year, I wrote a blog post titled People Want Abortion. In that post, I relayed a scene from a film:

In the 1992 movie Singles, urban planner Campbell Scott is having a passionate conversation about the future of transportation with Kyra Sedgwick in his apartment. His dream is to transform Seattle with his idea for a "supertrain:"

Scott: "Let me ask you a question. You think about traffic? Because I do, constantly. Traffic is caused by the single car driver. Single people get in their cars every morning. They drive and wonder why there's gridlock. 

This is what I've been working on. If you had a Supertrain...you give people a reason to get out of their cars. Coffee, great music...they will park and ride. I know they will."

Sedwick: "But I still love my car, though."

Scott: "Well... Oh."

There's another one, in which Scott has a sit-down with the mayor of Seattle where he gives the same pitch, and receives the same response: People love their cars. He gets flummoxed, his pitch-window closing quickly. It's as if he couldn't believe that people would hold such an illogical view (driving a car) in the face of all the seemingly obvious advantages of public transportation.

It's 3am the day after Election Day, and by the look of it, in my neck of the woods at least, the "red wave" many are calling for has failed to make its way to shore. Our state is a battleground state in politics, and a senate seat has been flipped Blue. Being "pro-life" on the ballet is not an asset, but a political liability. All three of the candidates--for the Senate, House, and Govenor--are unabashedly proud to be pro-abortion. 

This was most likely politically calculated, especially in the backdraft of the SCOTUS overturn of Roe v Wade. 80% of American's support abortion rights, according to a Gallup poll. An Associated Press/NORC poll in June found 87% support abortion when the woman’s life is in danger, 84% support exceptions in the case of rape or incest, and 74% support abortion if the child would be born with a life-threatening illness. 

Most people today don't choose abortion reluctantly, regarding it as "tough choice" and moral evil that they succumb to despite feelings to the contrary. They don't say to themselves, "I know it's wrong, I know I shouldn't kill my baby," but "my back is against a wall here." They shout their abortion. Or they rationalize and justify it. Or they go through with it figuring it's morally neutral.

I'm not sure why we think that "Life is Winning." Like the urban planner, we make all the arguments as to why you should choose life rather than infanticide. We shower support and resources, make parents willing to adopt available, show the ill-effects of abortion on one's mental and emotional well-being. But at the end of the day, people will nod and continue to ignore us while darkening the door of their local Planned Parenthood. As one local PP billboard in our area savagely reminds people of faith when our churches shut down during the pandemic, "(Theirs) Stay Open".

People want abortion, and they will fight to keep the right to it enshrined. "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9).

This is a wicked generation, and the Lord's patience is running out. Evil and disorder is in full view, and people are blind to it. I want to have hope of a Ninevah moment of metanoia for us as a country, but the Lord may just have to come to set things straight with the stick. We've tried reason. We've tried logic. We've tried the legal system. We've tried PR campaigns, film, ads. People still want abortion, and if the polls are telling the truth, they are willing to fight to keep it legal, accessible, and acceptable.

It's a rigged game. I also don't think a "red wave" is coming, despite how bad things are under Democratic governance. But things are always darkest before dawn. We know Our Lady will have the last say, but not without a vicious chastisement for these sins. Until then, may God have mercy on us!