Respecting Life
My wife and I are coordinating a trade show booth at the County Fair to distribute literature promoting life. Seems like a no-brainer. Who could be against life? Is not the most basic, fundmental right afforded to every human being the simple right to exist?
Well, the hard reality is that we live in a nation that has legally killed an average of 1,000 babies per day since Roe V. Wade because they were too small and the prospect of them coming into this world was too (inconvenient, scary, burdonsome, embarassing, whatever) for their mothers and fathers. That' about 41 abortions per hour in a 24 hour day...every day.
In Oregon we have kicked it up a notch and now kill our most vulnerable adults, the terminally ill, by advocating euthanasia as a viable option to end their lives. So whether you are coming into this world or getting ready to leave it, your life is at risk here.
The more I research the topic, the more I am totally convinced that the advent of the birth control pill in the 1960's marked the decline of civilization in America as we know it. Pope Paul VI tried to warn the planet that this tampering with the intent of God's plan for sexuality would have dire consequences, and he has proved to be a prophet. Divorce is way up. Abortions are way up. Women are more objectified today than ever before. Men shirk their familial responsibilities. Women put career and self-advancement on even par as family. All of this because we established pregnancy as a problem to be solved versus a gift from God.
We have struggled to get volunteers to work in our booth. Most people, even Catholics, don't like the prospect of defending a position that the culture is so firmly set against. In Oregon a child has to get a permission slip to get her ears pierced, but she can have an abortion without telling Mom and Dad. And the fact remains that many Catholic women struggle with the Church's teachings on these life issues and fall victim what Pope Benedict XVI describes as the "dictatorship of relativism."
Mother Theresa once described America as the most impoverished place she had ever been. This from a saint who served the poorest of the poor, the very least of our brothers in India. The poverty she saw in our country was the lack of moral certitude, and our willingness to neglect and even kill the most vulnerable of our society.
My favorite quote from her on this matter is what I will close with on this hot, Portland evening:
Well, the hard reality is that we live in a nation that has legally killed an average of 1,000 babies per day since Roe V. Wade because they were too small and the prospect of them coming into this world was too (inconvenient, scary, burdonsome, embarassing, whatever) for their mothers and fathers. That' about 41 abortions per hour in a 24 hour day...every day.
In Oregon we have kicked it up a notch and now kill our most vulnerable adults, the terminally ill, by advocating euthanasia as a viable option to end their lives. So whether you are coming into this world or getting ready to leave it, your life is at risk here.
The more I research the topic, the more I am totally convinced that the advent of the birth control pill in the 1960's marked the decline of civilization in America as we know it. Pope Paul VI tried to warn the planet that this tampering with the intent of God's plan for sexuality would have dire consequences, and he has proved to be a prophet. Divorce is way up. Abortions are way up. Women are more objectified today than ever before. Men shirk their familial responsibilities. Women put career and self-advancement on even par as family. All of this because we established pregnancy as a problem to be solved versus a gift from God.
We have struggled to get volunteers to work in our booth. Most people, even Catholics, don't like the prospect of defending a position that the culture is so firmly set against. In Oregon a child has to get a permission slip to get her ears pierced, but she can have an abortion without telling Mom and Dad. And the fact remains that many Catholic women struggle with the Church's teachings on these life issues and fall victim what Pope Benedict XVI describes as the "dictatorship of relativism."
Mother Theresa once described America as the most impoverished place she had ever been. This from a saint who served the poorest of the poor, the very least of our brothers in India. The poverty she saw in our country was the lack of moral certitude, and our willingness to neglect and even kill the most vulnerable of our society.
My favorite quote from her on this matter is what I will close with on this hot, Portland evening:
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you can live as you wish."
posted by David Jackson | 11:30 PM
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