The Clean and Empty Stable

I've been working from home since Christmas, though I'm going back to the office next week. Call me old fashioned, but I'm not into the 100% remote thing. I need some balance; thankfully I have a 3/2 schedule (3 days in, 2 days remote) which is the sweet spot, in my opinion. Gets me out of the house and also gives me some flexibility on my WFH days. Of course, working remotely has its perks but is not without its challenges, especially when kids are young and can be wild and crazy when you have meetings and things. The house is also a mess and hard to keep clean consistently.

Still, I can't fathom at this point in my life the mentality of those DINKs that have been in the news a lot--Dual Income, No Kids (typically Millennials) who choose intentional sterility and financial leveraging over any kind of inconvenience children may bring into their lives. A true short-sighted and self-centered poverty and social contagion that has the aura of health and wealth. Reminds me of the proverb: “Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but increase comes by the strength of an ox.” (Prov 14:4). Exhibit A, your Honor, and Exhibit B. I'm not gagging, you're gagging.

The silence when the kids leave the house with my wife is a nice little respite sometimes; but after an hour or so, the silent noise of emptiness begins to crescendo. On the flip side, when I am downstairs working and I hear the kids upstairs with their mom all piled on the bed laughing and talking--it's a sweet white noise to know there is life in this house, the currency of family. I try to soak it in, hold on to it as a cached memory for the times in our future when it will get quiet, empty, and yes, a little lonely. 

Sure, it gets crazy at times now. We may have more money in our checking account if we had forgone them kids. But the cutting, icy burn of that emptiness when you have prioritized things over people I imagine would catch up to you. No wonder we are such a lonely society. 

Here's the truth: you can never really "afford" kids and while I can sympathize with these Millennials who are finding it hard to live in the current economy, I also suspect that even if all the economic factors were in their favor, many would still choose not to have children, or limit them. Because we are an anti-life society of consumers. Not just here in the U.S., but globally. 

These DINKs are supposedly living their best life. Contraception, of course, has made this familial derth possible; a harbinger of the kind of dystopian future that we are reaping with our rejection of the natural and moral law of fruitfulness and right order and self-deference. The DINKs seem to have it all. Peace and quiet. A clean house. Complete autonomy. A perfectly planned life. 

What a pity, what a poverty, to never hear that song of children playing upstairs, of a home filled with messy life and expensive laughter and costly love. "As the sound of the playgrounds faded," she said, "the despair set in. Very odd what happens in a world without children's voices."

AboutFace

There is a saying in the preaching world: "A good example is the best sermon."

As Christians, we are taught to be good. The Church is not of this world, but as a system of spiritual machination, the goal is to produce saints, as it says in scripture "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (Ps 116:15). As we know from history, in the saints She has produced (or, rather, recognized) there was great diversity in their modes of sanctity. The goal of Christian life is not uniformity, but conformity--that is, conforming our hearts, wills, and lives to that of our master Christ. 

It is human nature to want to choose the way we serve God; we have a consumer heart, whether we realize it or not, and even if we give up 98% of our lives to Christ, that precious 2% we often reserve the way Ananias and Sapphira held back some of their offering (Acts 5:1-11). Even St. Peter perhaps had this mind when he was given fair warning by our Lord that "Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (Jn 21:18). 

And so, we learn to piece together our spiritual and corporal lives in ways that are largely presentable within the Church: feeding the poor, attending Mass, making Holy Hours, being kind and forgiving one another, honoring our religious superiors and authorities, tithing. These are great stories for the local diocesan newspaper or issues of Catholic Digest because they make us feel good. They are what a good Catholic is supposed to do. Because a good example is the best sermon.

But what happens when a Catholic becomes what seems to be a bad example, when they do things that step out of the uniform "good" line and start to make people feel uncomfortable? Our good Lord set the example which he expected us to follow; he began his public ministry helping an embarrassed party with wedding details, cured sick folks, blessed children, and miraculously fed thousands in one sitting. But somewhere along the way, he started making people (namely, the religious authorities and by extension, the Romans) a little nervous. He did things that were 'illegal,' in violation of law and custom. This itinerant preacher's following was starting to swell, and those charged with maintaining order (both religious and civic) were starting to notice, as we see in scripture,

“What are we accomplishing?” they [the chief priests and Pharisees] asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (Jn 11:48-50)

Our Lord's precedent was not that we become good Jews or good people to gain eternal life, but that we share in his baptism of death (Rom 6:3) to accomplish that purpose. Whether we experience that death literally (in martyrdom) or spiritually (in various desolations and privations), none of us can become united to the risen Christ without drinking the cup of his passion. God does not call all to the witness of physical martyrdom, but to some, he does. We all have our own cross tailor made for us, and we we sin by omission when we attempt to shirk it as he lays it on our shoulders.

Speaking of the cross, it is such a ubiquitous symbol in our religious faith as Catholics that we can become numb to it, a kind of iconoclastic white noise meant for walls and background or necklace chains. It's slightly unbecoming to have actual blood stains in the sanctuary carpet, after all, and hard to raise one's hands in song and praise when you have nails in them that have shattered your second and third metacarpal.

In our faith, we often complain about the people who don't seem to really believe "all this stuff," meaning the articles of faith that inform how we live our lives. Whether you call them cultural Catholics or cafeteria Catholics or what have you, we convince ourselves that because we do believe and profess everything the Church teaches--as opposed to those who don't--we stand justified. We are like the "good Jews" who don't associate with the uncircumcised or eat unclean foods. We want to bathe Christ's whole body when he gives us his soiled feet to wash instead. We make bold proclamations of dying before denying him, but then when a simple servant girl notices our association with him, we denounce him. These are tough lessons, and if you didn't notice, St. Peter had to learn all those aforementioned the hard way. And so do we.

Back to the cross. Christ, by his death on the cross, rebranded it so we could enjoy it's spiritual fruits. Of course Christ was not the first or last to undergo this method of torture and death. But what was the cross a symbol of prior to his resurrection? Who were the ones who were crucified, and why? 

"Crucifixion was fairly broadly practiced in the ancient world, but the Romans used this particularly brutal form of execution as a means of producing social conformity. It was, the Roman politician Cicero says, the “most cruel and hideous of tortures.” The bodies of the condemned would remain on crosses for days. 

Once dead, some were allowed to rot in public, others were taken down and thrown to wild animals, while others were buried. By maximizing the public display of torture the message to onlookers was quite clear: undermine the empire and the same thing could happen to you." [1]

 

Bart Ehrman takes this a step further on the topic of why Romans crucified people and who crucifixion was reserved for:

"The crucifixion was not invented by the Romans, but they used it a lot.  It was thought of as the most horrible, painful, tortuous, and humiliating form of execution possible.   If Romans wanted simply to kill someone without a fuss, there were plenty of other means available – for example, beheading.

But there were lots of special cases.  Two of the most common were low-life criminals and enemies of the state.   These are two very different matters – they are not the same thing.  Low-life criminals would include, for example, slaves who had escaped from their masters and committed a crime.   If caught, a slave could be crucified.   There were two reasons they were subjected to such a tortuous, slow, and humiliating death.

They were receiving the “ultimate” punishment for their crime.  But possibly more important, they were used as a spectacle to warn any other slave who was thinking about escaping or committing crimes about what could happen to *them*.

Worse than escaping as a slave or stealing a horse –very much worse – was opposing the Roman state itself.  This is something the Romans WOULD NOT tolerate.  Enemies of the state were shown what the power of the state was.  And crucifixion was how it was done.   If you were a resistor to Roman military action – crucified.  If you were caught attacking Roman troops – crucified.  If you plotted to overthrow the local Roman government – crucified.

Crucifixion was a particularly poignant statement when it came to enemies of the state.  Those who were opposed to Rome. I don’t mean those who didn’t much like the Romans running the show, those who wished things were different, or even those who hoped something better would come along. But instead, those who actively sought to oppose the state, or at least were *thought* by the Roman authorities to seek to oppose the state.

They were unceremoniously condemned to be crucified precisely in order to show how absolutely HELPLESS anyone is who thinks they can oppose the power of Rome.

Roman power was very real, very tangible, and very palpable.  And it was played out on the bodies of those who tried to oppose it.  Crucifixion was the perfect mode of execution for anyone engaging in, supporting, or endorsing violent opposition to the Roman state.  Do you think you can oppose US?  Well then, this is what we’ll do to YOU to show you how powerful you really are.

Your hands and feet are nailed securely to wood and you are left to hang in a position where you cannot fend for yourself.   You are not able to move your body, wave off the scavenging birds or kick away the roaming dogs.  Powerless to lift a finger to help yourself.  We can do this for you.  And if you oppose our power, this *is* what we will do to you.

Crucifixion was not merely death by torture.  It was a symbolic statement that WE are Roman power and YOU are nothing.  And if you oppose us, we will prove it, by rendering you absolutely, completely powerless, while we wrack your body with pain and make you scream."

I've been thinking about all this in the context of the pro-life witnesses who were recently sentenced on charges of violation of the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act. For those who aren't aware of this law here in the U.S., 

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE or the Access Act, Pub. L. No. 103-259, 108 Stat. 694) (May 26, 1994, 18 U.S.C. § 248) is a United States law that was signed by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, which prohibits the following three things: (1) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is obtaining an abortion, (2) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, (3) the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship. [2]

When I wrote earlier about the gradients of Catholics--from those who "believe all this stuff" to those who don't to those who take it literally and attempt to live it--that same mindset applies to those in the pro-life movement. There are gradients of activism: from 40 Days for Life and sidewalk counseling to the more seemingly "extreme" like Red Rose Rescue who seek to physically "stand in" for the helpless and oppressed by non-violent direct action. What this entails, however, is literally doing so by blocking access to abortion centers and as a result, violating (whether intentionally or unintentionally) the FACE Act (I should note that I find it strangely ironic that articles 2) and 3) group "reproductive health care facilities" with "places of worship"). 

(Edit: from Monica Miller: (Red Rose Rescuers do not block anything during the rescue. That's why we have never been charged with FACE. Also. The 11 years is because these Rescuers were slapped with the additional charge of conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.)

Rescuers might be the pro-life equivalent of St. Anthony at the age of eighteen hearing the Gospel of Matthew (19:21) being read in church about selling all you have in order to be perfect and then....selling everything he had. Or St. Francis standing buck naked in public after removing all his clothes and giving them back to his father, renouncing his hereditary rights. These are pro-lifers who really do not just believe that abortion is the killing of innocent life (as most of us "good Catholics" do), but who also feel that they cannot stand idly by while those innocents are slaughtered. They're not making memes and doing fundraisers. They are simply exercising the logical and compelling action of such truths. Say anything you want about their methods--they are not hypocrites.  

In doing so, however, they stand not just as a witness to the unborn, but a source of discomfort to those (like many of us) who "believe" but do not act (Ja 2:17-18), who would rather venerate the plastic corpus on the wall so as not stain the sanctuary carpet with our own blood. Getting sentenced to 11 years in prison for such an act is not only painful, but humiliating. Because the Church no longer stands against the State (who defends and upholds the legality of such slaughter of innocent life by abortion and who is in bed with the abortion industry) but abets it, one has become not only a literal criminal in the eyes of the state, but a "bad" (ie, 'radical'; ie, one who believes and acts) Catholic, a proper leper among polite Catholic society. 

And when it comes to FACE and the five defendants, that's exactly the point. To alienate, humiliate, and publicly make an example of anyone who may also be considering such sedition against the State (and, by extension, the abortion industry) in the same way crucifixion made an example of criminals and insurrectionists. 

Roman (read: governmental) power was very real, very tangible, and very palpable.  And it was played out on the bodies of those who tried to oppose it.  Crucifixion was the perfect mode of execution for anyone engaging in, supporting, or endorsing violent opposition to the Roman (read: U.S.) state.  Do you think you can oppose US?  Well then, this is what we’ll do to YOU to show you how powerful you really are.

All that being said, I do maintain that just as not all are called to the same martyrdom (or called to physical martyrdom at all), not all are called to be Rescuers. When Christ asks James and John if they can drink the cup he is going to drink, they answer affirmatively, to which Jesus responds "You will indeed drink from my cup" (Mt 20:23). We all must drink the cup of suffering as Christians and we all must heed our consciences always and without exception as well, but that will look different for each person and will only be in accordance with the will of the Father when it is discerned accurately. God gave to James the Greater the cup of beheading while James the Lesser was thrown from the Temple and stoned. Thomas was speared, Phillip was impaled by iron hooks. They were not all Zealots, but one out of the twelve was (Simon). Yet all died following and professing Christ even when they were not afforded a share in his particular method of torture, which was crucifixion. And so likewise there is a place for Rescuers, even if we are not all Rescuers.

Legal crucifixion is the weapon of choice in our country, and the Five are being hung out as "bad examples"--'domestic terrorists', 'insurrectionists', 'criminals,' 'zealots' for all to see...including those in our own religious ranks. I pray they share in Christ's own strong cup of humiliation and his alienation from his own people, from the "good Jews" of his day, that at their trial when they stand alone before the One True Judge, they receive their just reward.

"50 Years of Marching": A Sober Reflection From The Trenches By A Veteran 'Lifer'

The following are the reflections of a good friend of mine who has tirelessly devoted her life to ending abortion--on the sidewalk, outside the mills, in the statehouses, with advocacy and witness. As I have never been to the March for Life (for a myriad of reasons, none of which are relevant here), and as someone whose own contributions to pro-life work pale in comparison to her own, I asked her what she thought about it. This is her reply (published with permission):

"I went on the first March for Life in 1974 with my parents while in high school. I continued to go during  high school, then while in college, also while a teacher back in Delaware and then as a board member of Delaware Right to Life, where  I organized the annual trip for almost 20 years.  I’ve missed very few Marches for Life.  

I’ve seen the event morph from a grass-roots protest against abortion with exclusively home-made signs and wall to wall people from all over the U.S., to a media event complete with live music, celebrity-status speakers (instead of a row of uncomfortable-looking bishops) Jumbo-trons, and a celebratory atmosphere that promotes “consensus.”  

Because there were zero activist options for pro-lifers until the rescue movement started in the late 80’s, I, like everyone else, made my annual pilgrimage and figured I had fulfilled my duty to help end abortion. 15 years of marching yielded only more speakers and longer delays to starting the March, slick, pre-printed signs whose messages grew every more syrupy, and a strong propensity towards hero-worship of politicians who did nothing to end abortion but talk about it.  15 years of “Hey, hey, ho, ho; Roe v. Wade has got to go!”  shouted by teenagers who largely disappeared from sight, sound, mind and body at March’s end.

I grew disenchanted with the slavish reliance on politicians (and Supreme Court judges) as potential saviors.  I also resented the Catholic clergy who swooped in on their capes for the photo ops and swooped back out, never to march, only to spread those capes over the Church’s gaping sin of omission before making a speedy exit.  I breathed open contempt at the politicians who left town the day of the March so they wouldn’t have to meet with us.  “Lobbying” legislators after the March was replaced by  pints at the Dubliner’s Pub, just down the street.  We lost our purpose, our rag-tag zeal, and our desire to change the status quo. We didn’t see that abortion was hardening us, too.   

The Rescue Movement that lasted from 1988-92 gave the first real glimmer of hope that something besides a political savior or Supreme Court decision could bring an end to abortion.  Housewives, teens, older folks, and everyone in between stopped abortion simply by sitting down in front of abortion clinics, sometimes 10 people deep.  Courage and conviction swelled and then was crushed by vicious politicians who enacted FACE and RICO laws to target the protesters with steep fines and jail time.  Clinton’s executive orders, signed on his first day in office in 1992, are still in effect.

The Happy Pro-Life movement emerged, looking to find “common ground.”  The new millennium saw ever-increasing numbers at the March for Life, as celebrity speakers and Christian rock bands took the stage.  There was (and is) an increasing tendency to compromise principles.  Nellie Gray’s “Life Principles” which demanded no exception, no compromise were already on shaky ground before her death in 2012, with a slew of regulatory laws on the books (such as the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, 2002, and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, 2003).  That these laws were routinely ignored by the pro-abortion community and unenforced by any regulatory agencies was never discussed by pro-lifers.  And still they marched and the March became a huge social event, a place to catch up with people, spot “famous” pro-lifers, and yes, still go home and tick off your duty to the unborn for the year.

The apotheosis came with President Donald Trump’s appearance of at the March in 2020.  The crowd was jubilant and enormous.  The speeches drew the expected adulation and a million cell phones captured the moment.  And that is what the March for Life has become – a social media virtual reality event.  It requires no discomfort beyond standing in the cold for one day.  It demands nothing of the participants once they get back on the busses and leave DC. but that they post their pictures.  

We have marched for 50 years and not only has nothing changed; it has gotten worse.  We entirely neglected to consider the cumulative effects of child-killing on the general populace and as I stated earlier, we, like so many proponents of abortion, have become hard.  Roe has been reversed but the state laws taking its place are far worse.  They reflect the implanted evil that Roe has spread in its time, an evil that has taken over the culture.  

No protest march at the state capitols is going to reverse this trend.  

No state law banning abortion or heartbeat law will make a whit of difference when abortion pills are available through the mail and at your local pharmacy and Abortion Funds are willing to transport women to another state for a surgical abortion.  

No marches anywhere are going to change a society that doesn’t want to be changed; it wants its child murder as much as it wants its pornography and drugs.  It is addicted to decadence.  And we who are fighting it are addicted to comfort.

The only thing that will change the lust for death in this country is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, the triumphant return of Christ the King into the hearts of men.  But that Church is as fragmented and demented right now as the society it serves.  It, too, has lost its way.  A small Church militant is rising, but the future is uncertain.  

It comes down to being willing to suffer and die for our beliefs.  

It’s a lot to ask."  

-------------

*See also my post 10 Nov 2021 post People Want Abortion and 17 Dec 2021 post The New Art of War

Have All The Babies

 Note: This is a repost from June 2021. It's my youngest's birthday today. We celebrated with Chinese food, a DIY obstacle course, and a homemade Spiderman cake. My wife was 43 when he was born five years ago--a miracle of sorts...our second-chance miracle of grace. We've made peace with the likely reality that we will not have any more children. I'm trying to take in the noise, the mess, and the crawling in between us in our bed. Because the fact is, each passing day erases a little bit of the childhoods under our roof the way a sand dune gets eroded a little bit each year. In five years, my oldest will be driving. In time, our house will be clean and quiet. But that makes me sad, truth be told. 

The self-serving trend towards millennials choosing a child-free life (and 77% reportedly being happy with the "freedom" gained by doing so) doesn't bode well for our future. A quote from the film Children of Men that stayed with me was when Kee's midwife reflects on the beginning of the infertility crisis in 2009, when people stopped getting pregnant and giving birth. "As the sound of the playgrounds faded," she said, "the despair set in. Very odd what happens in a world without children's voices."

Anyway, here's the repost:

 I don't give advice very often, but if anyone in their twenties or thirties was anxious about having kids and wanted my opinion, I would tell them at this point, "just have all the babies."

The concerns are always understandable--for me early in my career, when I wasn't making much money and we were juggling a lot and at our wits end with our two, it can be tempting to not be so open minded (and open-ended). This is the faulty promise of contraception, that you can "be done" and just get on with your life without the constant worry and anxiety that comes with being open to life.

But where does this anxiety come from in the first place? The contraceptive mentality is so prevalent in our culture it's like the air you breath or the water you drink. New life is a barrier to autonomy; it throws things off, wrecks best laid plans, causes financial hardship, and generally makes life harder. 

Is that such a bad thing? Satan wanted to be autonomous, loosed from the bonds of the Divine. Yes, new kids "throws things off," and sometimes upends our best laid plans--but when I think of the 'best laid plans' I have laid for myself and what God has put in their place, I'm constantly reminded that I don't always know what's best for me. Do kids cause financial hardship? Sometimes they do. Life is hard to begin with, but sometimes the hardest things bring out something good in us that wouldn't otherwise if we weren't pushed to trust that it's worth it. 

Babies are not a threat--they are pure gift, and the reason we all exist in the first place. We seem to have forgotten this. We don't "live to procreate," but take having babies out of the picture and it wouldn't be long before we all die out (see Children of Men). Underpopulation, not overpopulation, seems to be more a threat today in many countries thanks to the scar of contraception and may lead many countries to a demographic winter where there is no easy turning course on.

But no one has babies purely because they want to "save the planet." Some people do, however, choose not to have them because they "don't want to bring children into this world" or are fear-mongered into thinking they are being "irresponsible" by doing so or consuming "too many resources." 

I was talking to a mom at our fellowship get together on Wednesday at our house, and she mentioned that St. Alphonsus' Uniformity With God's Will (which we were studying and reflecting on during the course of the evening) felt kind of over her head. I told her that's ok, in scripture St. Paul says that women are saved through childbirth. "I've never read that," she said, with a bit incredulously. "Yep. First Timothy 2:15," I told her, and we looked it up. "Well, I'll be," she replied. "So take heart," I said, "You're doing great!"

The fact is, we are all saved through childbirth. Abortion and contraception introduce nothing but disorder, throwing a monkey-wrench into God's divine plan for happiness and salvation for mankind. This is not to speak of those who want children and can not have them (by way of infertility, for instance), but the decision to delay or prevent children for the sake of the things of this world and our short-sighted plans is, in my opinion, regrettable. I can say without doubt that as a father, "the children have made the man." The notion of sacrifice and protection is wired into us as men, but becoming a father organically taps into those primal characteristics and brings them to fruition. 

The Catholic plan for life is to be generous in regards to life. Some people do in fact have grave reasons to abstain through the use of NFP, but one should dig deep to look starkly at those reasons and discern their gravity. God is not trying to shortchange us--He wants to fill our cups to overflowing with the choicest wine. I think that children are that wine. Can they be overwhelming, taxing, hard to deal with? Sure. Are they worth it? You bet. 

I wish we would have been more open to life earlier in our marriage. Who knows how much more we would have been blessed. We changed course a little late, but God is good all the time, and we still pray that He might use us as His instruments to bring saints into the world. They can't do the work if they are not born. Who knows--you might be the soul they save in the end.

So have all the babies. It's my one regret in life, that we haven't had more. But we trust Him still. Listen to our Lord, "Fear not, for I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). Some of the richest people in the world are the most alone and unhappy. But for those rich in children, who may not have much but you trust that God wants them here--"You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us" (1 Cor 4:8).

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!

Qu'est-ce que 'Ye'?

 

Kanye (now legally known as "Ye") West's 2004 album College Dropout rose to number 2 on the Billboard 200 at about the same time my feet were leaving earth and my mind entering the stratosphere of manic-psychosis. That I remember adopting West's Jesus Walks track on that album and playing it over and over in my apartment during that time is telling--there was something about 'Ye' that seemed to "get it." He saw things no one else saw. I didn't even know he was bi-polar until years later. I just knew it was a great album. Not genius as he claims, but really good.

That manic trip that led to my hospitalization was a wild ride--exciting, euphoric, unnerving, and eventually out of control. I never forgot that time in my life, and I also never want to relive it. As it stands now, a little blue pill (thanks "Big Pharma") keeps me in the mental black and allows me to live a more-or-less normal life. Normal is not bad. Normal is perfectly acceptable. I'm grateful for being on solid ground, mentally speaking, for over twelve years now. 

Which is why watching the Kanye interview with Lex Fridman was so difficult--triggering if you will--for me (admittedly, I couldn't make it through more than five minutes of it). Because it was all so familiar. 

For those unfamiliar with him, Lex Fridman is a young Russian-American, Artificial Intelligence researcher at M.I.T who also happens to have a pretty popular podcast in the vein of the Joe Rogan Experiece. He's a little on the cerebral dry side personality wise, but he's patient, non-judgmental, a good listener, and engages his guests thoughtfully--which is a good recipe for skillful interviews. Those skills would be put to the test when he had Kanye on his podcast recently.   

Not to judge by appearances, but Kanye came on looking (deliberately, I would wager) like he just got off a house-painting job--ball cap, rough beard, dirty-looking hoodie. He did not seem well, mentally speaking; it was all too familiar for me, personally. The thing about being "crazy" (I prefer the term "mentally ill") is it's very hard for anyone to break through to you in those moments. You are 100% convinced you are right, your judgment is sound, you are seeing clearly. 

I remember in the height of my mania, when my family and friends started to get the feeling that something wasn't right, sitting in a psychiatrists office talking about the CIA and how they were on to me, how no doctor or friend should attempt to derail me from my "mission," and why couldn't they "wake up" to what was "really going on?" I still remember the psychiatrist nodding and looking slightly tired and annoyed at the same time. For him, it was just another day at work having to deal with a delusional patient in the throws of mania. For me, it was the first day of the rest of my life. Everything was new. Everything was enlightenment.

I never felt Kanye was a genius by any stretch. I kind of saw him as a more arrogant, less jovial brother-from-another-mother whom I shared a diagnosis with who just happened to be rich and famous. His wasn't a shtick--he really believed in himself first and foremost, and everything he purported as gospel. Nothing really that original, just recycled ideas with a new stamp.

Unfortuantely, Kanye in his interview with Lex doesn't do the pro-life movement any favors. Yes, he bluntly forces the points that "50% of black deaths a year is actually abortion ... The most dangerous place for a black person in America is in their mother's stomach." Which is true. "It is factual that the CIA removed the leaders from the black community, put crack in the communities, put guns in the communities, and locked up all the leaders ... Locked up all the leaders, locked up all the fathers. Now, 72% of black mothers are raising children by themselves. This is an agenda, like a Tuskegee experiment, set on my people." I don't know about the CIA stuff, completely possible, but the statistic of 72% I had seen before.

He also goes on fairly early in the interview--again, somewhat out of left field and without context--"We are still in the Holocaust. A Jewish friend of mine said, 'Go visit the Holocaust Museum,' and my response was, let's visit our Holocaust Museum: Planned Parenthood," not realizing that Lex himself is Jewish. Would that/should that change how Kanye makes this point? Perhaps.     

My point is that he "spits this truth" inoganically, as if just spent a night googling "Conservative...Black....Abortion...Stats...Jews...Reddit" and made some mental notes before going on air. Or maybe his association with Candace Owens is rubbing off on him more lately?

Again, these inconvenient facts are not untrue. But in the context of the rambling, tangent-heavy monlogues in which he does not appear to be listening (unlike the interview with hip-hop producer Rick Rubin, who was completely thoughtful and articulate with Lex)--coupled with his remarks about "the Jews," the optics are horrible. Lex pushes back gently but forcefully, while still being respectful and desirous to salvage something of value for the audience in trying to tease out Kanye's humanness. I'm sure it was a tenuous and emotionally taxing thing for Lex to land that plane but he did it deftly as an interviewer, from the limited time I spent watching.

I remember not that long ago when the professional provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was in the news all the time. Same for Ann Coultier. Now, you hardly hear about them. It's a short half life for these types of celebs. In the wake when people start to yawn at their verbal antics and they find themselves alone wondering what it is they actually believe and stand for when they are no longer in the spotlight, you would hope they grow, mature, and mellow out maybe. 

Mental illness is expensive. Kanye is already being dropped (or, if you like, "canceled") like a bad habit from sponsor after sponsor, bleeding out over a billion dollars reportedly from lost contracts, all over his white Yeezy sneakers. I can't say if I was Adidas I would necessarily want that look either. 

The thing is, I used to be in Kanye's shoes...without the fame and riches, and without the ethnic tyrades...but ill none the less. I lost friends on it's account. I lost loves. I lost jobs. I made a fool of myself, and was the last to know. Now I take a pill a day and it keeps me on the mental straight and narrow. It took years to find the right combination, and it took persistence to advocate for myself to tirate down from seven medications to just one eventually. Even that one pill, in terms of dosage, was a bit of a goldilocks scenario--too high a dose left me lethargic, too low a dose left me prone to mania. I've been on a "just right" dosage for twelve years now, and so far so good.

I don't know if Kanye is on medication, but he should give it a try maybe. Anything's better than what we got on Lex's podcast. It's a real cross, mental illness. But there is hope. There is healing. There is redemption. It is possible. 

But you have to have the humility to hit that shameful bottom and say "enough." Maybe I'm not the genius I thought I was. Maybe I'm not the Christian I thought I was. Maybe this life of fame is overrated. My life is a mess and I need professional help. The truth is not in the delusions of grandeur. It's not in the provocation and cliche fact-spitting. It's not in being a contrarian for the sake of contrarianism. 

In fact, the truth may not be in you at all. "For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he is deluding himself" (Gal 6:3).

Take care of yourself, Ye! Trust in the Lord, your deliverer, and let Him be the savior of the world. 

The Two Lungs of the ProLife Movement

Pope St. John Paul II described the unity of the Church, saying, “The Church must breathe with her two lungs!” Here, he speaks of the mutual interdependence and healthy tension that should exist between the East and West so that the Church, as a whole, fully can benefit and her mission become more effective. In Fides et Ratio (1998), he spoke of faith and reason, which "are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves" (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).

The pro-life movement is in the spotlight now that RvW has been overturned; the truth is, the pro-life movement itself has these two lungs, two wings, in which the truth--the flowery truth that all life is sacred and begins at conception, and the unsavory truth that abortion is the taking of a human life--is communicated, often in trying and unfavorable circumstances.

I have friends who are fervently pro-life, but approach the "issue" of pro-life (issues are theoretical though, and not the best term to use when real lives are at stake) from different angles. I have friends who, on the one side, devote their time, energy, and resources to sidewalk counseling--attempting to change the minds and hearts of women seeking abortions ("Love them both") in a few precious moments before they walk into the mill. They offer literature, resources, love, encouragement, hope...anything to make them reconsider the tragic mistake they are about to make that will alter their lives irreparably forever. This is the model 40 Days for Life has adopted, and there have been many "saves" from their efforts (in rain, snow, and unbridled animosity hurled at them)--a baby that gets to live, and a mother who had the courage to give their child a chance to live it.

I also have friends who may from the outside be seen as a more "militant" wing. Their signs are gruesome and graphic, because abortion is gruesome and graphic, and they hope to counter the lies of the abortion industry that seeks to gloss over the reality of abortion. "Clumps of cells" do not have eyes, fingers, toes, and organs. Some "cross the [literal] line" and put themselves between the abortionist and the women, offering them roses (Red Rose Rescue), and doing anything within the power while risking arrest to save a life. Their work is admirable, if not without controversy in the press (which doesn't understand what is truly at stake from the vantage point of these pro-life warriors). They are branded as terrorists, agitators--whatever can be used to distract and deflect from what is actually taking place: a global holocaust of innocent life. 

These are battles in the war being waged, and each battle has its own tactics and merits. I am involved only peripherally with both camps, but part of my struggle is seeing as if one is "the right way" and one is not. In reality, though, I think they are two approaches that have merit and are needed. I may be inclined more towards one than the other based on temperament and personal discernment, but the only "wrong way" is to not do anything. Even if prayer is your weapon, use it. Even if you can't be on the sidewalk every day rain or shine, but can go once a month, go once a month. If you have other gifts (financial, talents, etc), use them rather than burying them. If you speak or write truth, you may mobilize a mind and heart that works for greater things years down the road.

One unfortunate thing (as an outside observer) is in-fighting. I can't speak to this, but I'm sure it happens. It happens with liturgy, it happens with politics, and I'm sure it happens in the pro-life movement. There is no "one way" to win this war. And Yahweh Sabaoth is the one who leads. We are simply the foot soldiers, taking orders and doing the brunt work. Some are generals, some are officers, some are ground troops. 

When I was in college, the "Williard Preacher" would stand outside the Williard building on campus and preach repentance. Rain or shine, cold weather or hot, day in and day out, for years. He was old school, but he was dedicated, which I'll give him credit for. I don't know how many hearts he changed, but if a person was "cut to the heart" hearing their need for repentance and turning away from sin and need for Jesus Christ, I would think that would be a win in Heaven. Maybe this is what the "graphic" sign holders who bring light to the holocaust are doing. How effective it was, I can't say. That's for God to judge. 

Also in college, there was a couple (the husband became a deacon, eventually) who befriended me, invited me to their home for dinner (I had only been Catholic for a year), encouraged me, etc. That also was a way to preach the Gospel and build up a person, one at a time. It wasn't any kind of official "ministry"--just kindness and encouragement. Maybe this is what sidewalk counseling is like. How effective it was, I can't say. That's for God to judge. 

If anything, RvW's overturn has knocked down the fence posts--there's no fence sitting anymore. Where someone stands on the fundamental issue of life will tell you a lot about a person. But that doesn't mean their hearts can't change. That's a grace in its own right, and it belongs to the Holy Spirit. 

But the agents, the soldiers on the ground doing the work of fighting for the right to life--rather than the right to end it--will at least have the scars of vitirol, arrest, and weariness covering their bodies from the battles waged here on earth when they come before the Lord. 

It's the lack of scars that should concern one getting ready to face their judgement. Something I need to pray about myself.

A Christian Response To Abortion Advocates

 

Because I work in a secular and largely left-leaning environment, I don't have the benefit of people often having a Christian worldview. They may have a respectful curiosity about religious practice (assuming they are people of good will), so it is good practice if conentious issues come up to have a response that is concise, accurate, and hopefully allays ignorance of pre-conceived notions about religion. If someone is antagonistic from that point it is on them, but at least you can stand on your convictions and be able to articulate them with charity. As St. Peter says, "But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you" (1 Peter 3:15)

Remember, though, you can make arguments against abortion apart from religion through the light of reason and the Natural Law. But were one to take a religious (Christian) approach, that argument can be made as well. Here is one such (imagined) response I formulated at the kitchen table in prayer this morning.

Interlocuter: "Why are you against abortion rights? Why do you consider yourself anti-abortion?"

Christian: "The God I worship, Jesus Christ, became man through the womb of a simple woman, Mary, a virgin. She was chosen by God to bear God in her womb. Her circumstances were not ideal; she was poor, away from her home, and ended up giving birth in a stable. But everything hinged on her assent, her "yes."

You know the story of Eve, the mother of humanity, who lost the grace and friendship of God through disobedience in eating the fruit in the garden. Humanity was lost, but Christians believe God wanted to redeem them, but could only do so by becoming one of us. He did that through Mary, who conceived by the Holy Spirit. 

Mary did not say no to God; she said "yes." Just as the Ark of the Covenant was the dwelling place of God in the Old Testament, Mary's womb became the new ark, God's dwelling place. The womb is a sacred place where life comes from.

The opposite of life is death, and spiritual death is what all humanity merited after the Fall in the garden. God entrusted Mary to bear the Christ in her womb, and gave women a share in this divine creativity by bringing forth life from their wombs. 

Abortion takes the ark of life in every woman and turns it into a place of destruction, violence, and sacrilege. It is the anti-thesis of Christian belief in the sanctity of life, the sacredness of the womb, and the goodness of creation. It results in physical death, spiritual death, and says "no" to the gift of life that the God who created everything invites us to participate in. It can never be justified or condoned by any believing Christian." 

Not Your Truth

 Some truths need to be stated unequivocally. When you teach your children tolerance, that tolerance should not extend to undermine the truths we hold to be self-evident. 

Truth must be believed and stated unequivocally in the face of opposition. On the topic of abortion, one should never start off with "I believe life begins at conception."

Life beginning at conception is not a matter of faith--it is a matter of science and common sense. We do not "believe" that life begins at conception--Life Begins At Conception. Period. You need to stand behind that hard fact, in an uncompromising posture, to have any pro-life standing in the lion's arena. Anything less than that is not only intellectually dishonest, but morally compromising, and undermines any argument one with pro-life sensibilities may have. 

The "that's your truth" argument is pervasive today. The pro-abortion advocates are 100% wrong on this issue, and their "truth" is not a truth at all but a fallacy. 

If a Roe overturn comes down the pipeline, dig your heels in, because you will be accosted from all sides. Remember the words of the Lord during those times, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Mt 24:13).

"My People Perish For Lack Of Knowledge"

 Someone left a comment on my recent article Even If Roe Ends We Still Have A Culture of Death:

"This once again misses the mark completely. People being evil is not the main driver of abortion. The main driver is the economic cost of raising and having a kid. There is a reason that so many people who have abortions are under 200% of the federal poverty level. And crisis pregnancy centers do nothing to help in that regard. Anyone who thinks for a few seconds realizes that the vast majority or cost and hardship associated with having a kid happen after birth. Crisis pregnancy centers are not a solution to abortion."

It gets tiresome having to respond to comments that may be well-intentioned but aren't essentially thoughtful, but my editor encourages me to do so so I make an effort. My response to this one, offered here in lieu of an original blog post:

“Crisis pregnancy centers are not a solution to abortion.” Great strawman, thanks for that.

Dr. Monica Miller, Executive Director for Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, was very sober in her assessment in a recent interview after the Dobbs v Jackson hearing:

“Let’s say they seriously restricted abortion. Our country still needs to be educated, it needs to be converted, the Church needs to be strengthened…as we go forward we’ve got another hundred years of evangelization to do on the life issues. And let’s be honest and frank about it–abortion is the consequence of a disordered sexual ethic. 75%-80% or more of the women walking through the doors of an abortion clinic are having out of wedlock pregnancies, they’re not getting support from the fathers who have beggetted these children. So there’s the crisis. Stop that, and you will stop abortion. The two things are connected. Abortion is not just a life issue, it has to do with what is the meaning of human sexuality and sexual commitment. That also has to be healed and attended to, and then we can advance a culture of life.”

I’m essentially arguing something similar in the article: “In other words, even if Roe is eventually overturned, we still have to deal with our rampant culture of death and the fact that people want abortion as a component of their lifestyle.”

From PP’s own Guttermacher Institute:

74% of women seek an abortion because “having a baby would dramatically change my life.”

73% because they “can’t afford a baby right now.”

48% “don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems”

38% “have completed their childbearing”

1% were the victim of rape

0.5% were the victim of incest

So, 98.5% of women (and men) are engaging in sexual relations voluntarily and seeing abortion as a way of getting out from underneath the responsibility (financial or otherwise) of having a child (which, obviously, comes from engaging in sexual relations).

To your point about “so many people who have abortions are under 200% of the federal poverty level”:

“Using National Survey of Family Growth Data from the Centers for Disease Control, women living at 100 percent or less of the federal poverty level (single households earning approximately $11,200 per year or less) who are not actively trying to conceive are twice as likely not to use contraception as their wealthier counterparts (those at 400 percent or above of the poverty level, or earning over $44,700 per year). Poor women not trying to conceive are also three times more likely to get pregnant than their higher income counterparts (9 percent compared to 3 percent), and ultimately at 5 times more likely to give birth. In addition, abortion rates among the poor are lower, with 32 percent in the highest income bracket having an abortion compared to 9 percent of low-income terminations.” (Brookings)

Abortion is evil, but my point in the article is because I am skeptical of the “If Roe v Wade is overturned, we have won” and everyone gets to go home. If anything, the cultural battle has just begun. Ask anyone on the street, your random citizen, “what is the purpose and end of human sexuality?” and I will bet 99.8% will give you an answer that is not in line with the Church’s vision (God’s intention, not to mention the Natural Law) of human sexuality. This is the light of not only human reason, but the redemption of our fallen nature in Christ’s death and resurrection. But alas, the words of St. John seem to hold true: “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

People have accepted a counterfeit vision and are perishing and losing their souls as a result, as scripture says ” My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). If Catholics committed to spreading the Truth and Light of the Gospel and the dignity of the human person in a fallen, post-Christian, essentially pagan society thought it was hard-going pre-Roe….just wait til it gets overturned. That’s when the real work (and suffering) begins."

 

I don't have pat answers to this inhumane mess, and it's not my job to fix the world. All I know is that you can't just kill innocent people to make your problems go away. 

Related: Abortion is Slavery ("If We Are Wrong, God Almighty Is Wrong")

The Ugliness Of Sin

Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me

Judge me, God, and discern my cause from an unholy nation, from the man of blood and violence deliver me. 

When I used to lead men and women in evangelizing on the streets, in the back of my mind I always wondered 'Is this really worth it? Are we really doing any good, changing any hearts, winning people for the Gospel?" I realized, after a while, that I was directing my focus on the wrong spot. Because I found that it was the Catholics who would join me on the streets who were undergoing a conversion.

What do I mean? Well, doing anything in public is often uncomfortable. For Catholics especially, since we are used to clocking-in and clocking-out without much interaction or challenge. We don't talk about the faith much, and regard it as "personal." Our comfort zones are pretty defined and comprised of limited boundaries. 

So when I would ask Catholics to consider stepping outside of their personal safe spaces to follow the Holy Spirit and "make disciples of all nations," the ones who took me up on it were like, "Wow, this is really uncomfortable. I've never done anything like this before." And then after a few hours and several interactions sharing rosaries, Miraculous Medals, and the gospel message, they are charged up. Doing something uncomfortable (and even objectionable) took them to a place in their faith they had never been before. Like peeling back a layer of an onion. What else might be inside this mystery we call faith?

I was thankful a lot of the guys in our men's group decided to back up our Right to Life group here this morning in giving a counter-witness to Planned Parenthood, who had organized a "woman's march for reproductive rights" downtown at the courthouse. We were outnumbered about 4:1 in terms of size and presence. It can feel ineffectual at times, standing there with your signs and rosaries, when you know that the vast majority of hearts are hardened and blinded by the demonic lies of this sanctioned and wholesale slaughter of innocents.  

For a number of the men, this was the first time doing anything like this. As one guy told me, "this is really uncomfortable." It is. As opposed to the on-line world, where you can hide behind your keyboard and define your boundaries, on the ground it's often messy and chaotic at times. One guy was rabidly hurling curses and vitriol at us, belittling our presence and accusing us of being anti-Semites. One woman approached us and spitefully asked us how many children we had adopted or fostered as a way of shaming those who hadn't done so. The Planned Parenthood escorts formed a human fence to block our signs and blot out our presence. 

In the midst of it all, though, was a living meditation on the raucous and spiteful nature of the mob that must have jeered at Christ during his trial and on the road to Golgotha. The sneering, the insults, the ridicule. The denigration of the good and the true. The thirst for blood that will not be satiated. The blindness--"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." As I held my ABORTION IS NOT HEALTH CARE sign over my head to make it visible, my arms ached after a few minutes. Our Lord stretched out his arms for hours upon hours in agony, shifting his weight with no relief on the cross, struggling to breath, in unspeakable pain from the nails in his hands and feet. He sought comfort and no comfort was to be found. He sought consolation, and no consolation was given. "Oh God! Oh God! Why have you abandoned me?"

One thing was very clear from the deck, though, of being on the "right side of history" on abortion. And that is apart from the obscurification of truth, the false solidarity, the coercion, the motivation of profit, and degradation of human dignity that abortion-rights advocates promote, there is a crass ugliness to their party. They speak in utilitarian terms of rights and outcomes and choice and empowerment because there is no love, no truth, no spirit in their message. It is like staring at a Communist-era apartment complex: there is nothing beautiful there, just cold and gray functionality. Abortionists paint themselves as providing the utilitarian "solution" to the "problem" of children being born. They are not in the comfort business, or the business of telling the truth, or having anything to do with love or concern. Their's is a ruthlessly profit-motivated business of emptying wombs for money. 

As uncomfortable and seemingly futile such encounters with this ugliness are, it did our men good to train at ground zero, to enter in more deeply (and maybe for the first time for some) into the "uncomfortable" reality of the crucified Christ, the ugly reality of sin, and the lies of the enemy working through the powers and principalities we are at war with. 

"It's Not A Fight, It's A Grind"

 I was reading r/personalfinance Reddit today on a thread titled "Can't afford to live at this point" about a single guy trying to get out of, basically, poverty. Lots of people suggested National Guard, Merchant Marine, working 14 hours a day minimum with multiple jobs, etc. One person commented, "We have to fight for the future we want," which was followed up with this, which I gave me a lot to think about:

"It's not really a fight. It's a grind. That's what people fail to realize and why they get discouraged. They make a plan, feel great about it, start executing that plan. but they didn't anticipate the grind of putting in the work every single day, day after day, year after year. And so they bail on the plan, or look for shortcuts, and that nearly always goes badly. 

Mentally prepare yourself for that grind. Girder yourself against it. Getting rich is a SLOOOOOOOW process for most people."

This (IMO, great) advice goes beyond personal finance. It could apply to your spiritual life; a healthy living routine; overcoming depression. I recall even Fr. Ripperger saying he has no real charisms apart from just "grinding it out" during exorcisms. 

I imagine it would also speak to my pro-life friends who have been in the trenches for years fighting the good fight. I am heading to the courthouse in the city on Saturday to take part in a pro-life counter-rally to the abortion advocates gathering there. My "fight" and witness is sporadic at best. I get knocked down fairly easily; I never anticipate the grind. 

But this is the long-game, and it is also a spiritual war, with many battles to be waged daily--not only on the street, and in the courts, but in the chapels and bedsides as well. You need thick skin and a broad back, but also callouses on your hands that develop over years. The blindness is probably the hardest part. No one is persuaded by the logic of life and the illogic of abortion; and people are in fact, looking for the 'shortcuts' that abortion offers. They make it 'easy' but it costs so much in the end. 

We are fighting a spiritual war and grinding it out in the daily battles for those who fight them--not only in the fight for life, but in the daily spiritual grind to "work out our salvation in fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12). We need to mentally prepare for that grind. Girder yourself against it. Few people earn their crown overnight. For most of us, it's the one foot in front of the other on the way to Calvary.

"If We Are Wrong, God Almighty Is Wrong"

Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins. For they seek me from day to day, sad desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God. Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden. 

(Is 58:1-2,6)

I used to think the abolitionist/anti-segregationist argument used by those in the pro-life movement was just another rhetorical angle to strengthen the argument against abortion; another "arrow in the quiver," so to speak. 

Logically, it made sense. If life (personhood) begins at conception, the "deprivation of life" protected against under the 14th Amendment seemed to naturally apply to the unborn. The most vulnerable in society have been snuffed out, legally, for almost fifty years--a modern day holocaust. 

In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail, the great civil-rights activist drew deep from scripture and adjured those who know the moral law to apply it in civil-disobedience to address the issue of segregation, as he wrote: "An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law." He continues,

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law”

I have known people involved in Red Rose Rescue who have been arrested and jailed in defense of innocent life, both religious and lay. I will be bluntly honest--I have always felt it admirable but pretty extreme. For those not familiar:

"During a Red Rose Rescue a team of pro-lifers enter the actual places where the innocent unborn are about to be "dragged to death." In the words of Saint Mother Teresa, they enter the "dark holes of the poor."  Red Rose Rescuers peacefully talk to women scheduled for abortion, with the goal of persuading them to choose life. They offer to them red roses as a sign of life, peace and love. Should the unborn still "totter to execution" Red Rose Rescuers stay in the place of execution in solidarity with their abandoned brothers and sisters performing a non-violent act of defense through their continued presence inside the killing centers remaining with them for as long as they can. The Rescuers stay with the abandoned unborn, as the manifestation of our love for them recognizing that unborn children, as members of the human family, have a right to be defended.  The rescuers will not leave the unwanted, but must be "taken away." 

 

A year or so ago I wrote to pro-life witness Mary Wagner, whom some familiar with the movement may know, while she was serving a prison sentence. She was arrested (yet again) for prayerfully and firmly applying what was written in scripture: Rescue those being dragged to death, and those tottering to execution withhold not. If you say 'I know not this man!' does not He who tests hearts not perceive it? (Prov 24:11)

Though I can't remember exactly what I wrote, I was basically confessing my lack of courage and commitment to the cause. When I received her response by mail from Canada, I really did feel like I was holding what might be a relic at some point years from now. She was quietly confident in her words, prayerful and reassuring, encouraging that we have nothing to fear, and that she is merely following her conscience, not trying to be heroic. 

This evening I watched The Long Walk Home, which recounted the early days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama in 1955. What struck me in the film was just how deep-seated and normalized racism and segregation was, and has been for much of our history. As the white wife and mother in the film who has affection for Odessa (Carter), her black maid, recounted her childhood as a white woman in the South, "When the rest of the world is just living that way you just don't think about it anymore." At one point, her husband sits her down to set her sympathies straight, "You don't know her life, and you will never know her. It's like a dog knowing a cat. It's a different species." 

"Different species." "Clump of cells." Does this language of de-humanization sound familiar? Not to mention, 

“The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, letter to Clarence Gamble, 10 Dec 1939) 

(note: good luck finding this on the internet; it has been completely scrubbed. The only source from this quote I was able to track down came from a 27 November 2017 article in America Magazine (of all places!), which links to the Sanger files at NYU (since scrubbed)). 

The wife/mother in the story is troubled by her conscience over the injustice blacks faced everyday, personalized in her household maid. She eventually begins to take part in the organized carpools undertaken by sympathizers, "Once you step over that line," Odessa tells her, "you can't ever go back." It's a sobering proposition in light of the pressure to keep things "as they are" and live a comfortable life, not to mention the very real threat of violence and intimidation. 

I began to reflect on this issue in parallel, and I couldn't shake it all evening. I sat down and read Dr. King's Montgomery Bus Boycott speech which was delivered on December 5, 1955 and remembered the words of the white husband in the film who mentions to his wife, as the civil rights movement was gaining steam, "Even I thought this boycott business was silly at first."

When I speak with the seasoned pro-life activists I am friends with who have been on the front lines for years and who started meeting in basements and each other's houses to organize, they sometimes speak of the weariness they experience when it seems like it's just setback after setback of advocating for not only the overturn of Roe v Wade, but the complete abolition of abortion supported by "unjust laws." 

  

"We are here, we are here this evening because we’re tired now.  And I want to say that we are not here advocating violence. We have never done that. I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation that we are Christian people. We believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus.  The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest.  That’s all."*

 

Civil disobedience is not neat and tidy. When Odessa begins walking to work instead of taking the bus to work all day, she is so tired, and her feet so battered, day after day with no end in sight. Yet she draws on a deeper source (the church meetings she attends with other blacks, to be fortified in faith for what is ahead) to continue the work. Those who enter abortion mills to offer roses and speak to women waiting for abortions, pleading with them to give the life in their womb a chance, are painted by the media as extremists, zealots, "trespassers and criminals." I think of the quiet, resolute, prayerful, and peaceful witness of Mary Wagner and others who see clearly what is happening and "desire to see right exist"

My friends, don’t let anybody make us feel that we are to be compared in our actions with the Ku Klux Klan or with the White Citizens Council. There will be no crosses burned at any bus stops in Montgomery. There will be no white persons pulled out of their homes and taken out on some distant road and lynched for not cooperating. There will be nobody amid, among us who will stand up and defy the Constitution of this nation. We only assemble here because of our desire to see right exist. My friends, I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city.*

The thing is, as Catholic Christians, we know abortion is unequivocally wrong--not just an unjust law, but a moral evil. We are not on the "wrong side of history" in working for a culture of life and seeking legal protection for the unborn. We are not blind, but see.

But if abortion is unequivocally wrong, how wrong? And laws supporting it unjust, how unjust? When the President of the United States not only tolerates, but advances support for this sanctioned killing in the name of "reproductive rights," keeping things comfortable and not rocking the boat for those who choose to do so, are those putting it on the line because they know an unjust law when they see one wrong?

And we are not wrong, we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong.  If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong.  If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie.  Love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.*

When I reflect on my reticence with regards to pro-life activism (such as Red Rose Rescue), and I see my friends being arrested and jailed in conscience, but how few of them they are out there doing this work, I see that I am not much different from those whites in Alabama in 1955 going about their daily lives to the point where one "just doesn't think about it anymore." When one lays down, and then another, and then another, a critical mass begins to build. But when those who know what is right and don't act sit on the sidelines, the brothers and sisters go to jail alone.

I want to say that in all of our actions we must stick together.  Unity is the great need of the hour, and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve. And don’t let anybody frighten you. We are not afraid of what we are doing because we are doing it within the law. There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest. We reserve that right. When labor all over this nation came to see that it would be trampled over by capitalistic power, it was nothing wrong with labor getting together and organizing and protesting for its rights.*

The early martyrs of the Church would not have died or endured the suffering and humiliations they did without the deep well of faith to draw from. And who was the source of this faith? Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. This is what I see in the vast majority of those committed to the pro-life cause for protection and assurance of life for the innocent, the most vulnerable, the poorest of the poor: you cannot commit to this cause without fortitude, and fortitude requires faith to endure for the long game.

We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. And now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality. May I say to you my friends, as I come to a close, and just giving some idea of why we are assembled here, that we must keep-and I want to stress this, in all of our doings, in all of our deliberations here this evening and all of the week and while—whatever we do, we must keep God in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all of our actions. But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian face, faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.*

What impresses me about those I know in Red Rose Rescue and other pro-life activism is they are learning to "take a beating" as blacks did for the cause of civil rights. This is not academic pontificating, "hearing but not doing" as St. James says. When one comes before God they will have to answer to Him for what they did, or did not do, for the least of these. And He will look for your scars.

The Almighty God himself is not the only, not the, not the God just standing out saying through Hosea, “I love you, Israel.” He’s also the God that stands up before the nations and said: “Be still and know that I’m God, that if you don’t obey me I will break the backbone of your power and slap you out of the orbits of your international and national relationships.” Standing beside love is always justice, and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion, but we’ve come to see that we’ve got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education, but it is also a process of legislation.*

We seem to be standing at a landmark moment, where abortion has become so normalized, so accepted, so rabidly defended, and yet so at odds with the Natural and Moral Law, at odds with science and the Hippocratic Oath, at odds with our own future as a human species, that future generations will look back at the barbarism of this era in the culture of death as we look back at the vitriol leveled against blacks who dared to take a stand for equality. They will view our age with disgust and amazement that this could have ever happened to a civilized people.

As we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. We are going to work together. Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future somebody will have to say, “There lived a race of people a black people, ‘fleecy locks and black complexion’, a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization.” And we’re gonna do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late. As we proceed with our program let us think of these things.*

My friend who was just arrested after a Rescue attempt will be holding a RRR meeting next month with Fr Fidelis (first picture, top). Her husband, too, has been to jail many times for his pro-life civil-disobedience. They put their money where their mouth is. Like the white mother and wife in the film, reticent but stirred by conscience, I will attend. It takes prayerful discernment to "step over this line," but I'm reminded of those who did in 1955, and what those in the pro-life movement are willing to put on the line as witnesses and collaborators today to put an end to the injustice and scourge of abortion.

But just before leaving I want to say this. I want to urge you. You have voted [for this boycott], and you have done it with a great deal of enthusiasm, and I want to express my appreciation to you, on behalf of everybody here. Now let us go out to stick together and stay with this thing until the end. Now it means sacrificing, yes, it means sacrificing at points. But there are some things that we’ve got to learn to sacrifice for. And we’ve got to come to the point that we are determined not to accept a lot of things that we have been accepting in the past.

So I’m urging you now. We have the facilities for you to get to your jobs, and we are putting, we have the cabs there at your service. Automobiles will be at your service, and don’t be afraid to use up any of the gas. If you have it, if you are fortunate enough to have a little money, use it for a good cause. Now my automobile is gonna be in it, it has been in it, and I’m not concerned about how much gas I’m gonna use. I want to see this thing work. And we will not be content until oppression is wiped out of Montgomery, and really out of America. We won’t be content until that is done. We are merely insisting on the dignity and worth of every human personality. And I don’t stand here, I’m not arguing for any selfish person. I’ve never been on a bus in Montgomery. But I would be less than a Christian if I stood back and said, because I don’t ride the bus, I don’t have to ride a bus, that it doesn’t concern me. I will not be content. I can hear a voice saying, “If you do it unto the least of these, my brother, you do it unto me.”*

Those who were moved by conscience in Alabama in 1955 faced a Goliath of opposition and intimidation. But their faith was in Jesus Christ and their assurance that they were not wrong any more than the God of the Bible was wrong. But it costs, and many have taken beatings on your behalf. As Arthur Schopenhauer noted, "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-​evident." 

And I won’t rest; I will face intimidation, and everything else, along with these other stalwart fighters for democracy and for citizenship. We don’t mind it, so long as justice comes out of it. And I’ve come to see now that as we struggle for our rights, maybe some of them will have to die. But somebody said, if a man doesn’t have something that he’ll die for, he isn’t fit to live.*

*: passages from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Montgomery Bus Boycott Speech," Holt Street Baptist Church, December 5, 1955