Last night I attended our parishes Respect Life Committee meeting. First one where I have been assigned as the Clergy duties for the Church. I am friends and acquaintances with most everyone on the group so all went fine… none of the awkward who is this guy and what is he going to do stuff. But it led me to think about the average person. What do they think of when the words Respect life are said?
The fight that has been going on since long before 1973 come to mind I imagine first. We all take a bit of wordsmithing when we hide behind the word Abortion. It sounds clinical and sounds like something that can be ignored. After 47 years, with the ruling of Roe vs Wade the privacy issue has wound its way through the medical and American culture. We find it couched so nicely in HIPPA as well as other medical things. After all we don’t want our doctors talking about our specific illness or problem with just anyone… But with the killing of the unborn, I think just about anyone could agree that the privacy issues reach a squirmy turn. After all who is protecting the rights of the child?
The USCCB in its recent vote decided (rightfully) to continue to include the words,
The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself,4 because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.
Preeminent Priority
So Abortion is the largest by far attach against Human dignity and respectfulness of life. Since 1973 officially there has been about 60 million babies killed. I would imagine that these numbers are unfortunately smaller than the reality. Be it due to misrepresentation, unreported or other reasons. I imagine that it is larger. But official estimates say that about 61 million babies have been killed in the womb intentionally. Worldwide since 1980 that number is staggering 1,5 BILLION. That is 1/4th of the population of the people on the planet! That is not rare and for all these babies it certainly isn’t safe. But the problem is perhaps with the word abortion, because it means the stopping of a process. That can happen for any number of reasons. So I want to clarify that the issue that I am speaking about is the intentional killing of a child while it is in the womb completing its development as a human person.
If we are to believe that life is good and a gift from God the numbers by itself show why it must be the preeminent priority. But that is not nearly where it ends. The mental and physical pain felt by the “other” victims of Abortion. The parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters’ aunts, uncles, etc. etc. Thankfully there are groups that work to help this pain, but most people do not know that there is help out there… and many do not even know that their experience is the reason. The human brain gets the concept of killing another. If the mental and physical pain of shooting a robber in your house stays around… imagine the pain when you realize you have killed a defenseless child.
Purpose
Now my purpose in writing here is not to bring pain and misery. But to proclaim that there is help to be found Project Rachel, heartbeat international etc. There are programs for Catholic, and other Christian Denominations. Jewish, Muslim etc. etc. Speak to your Pastor, Iman, Rabbi, etc. If you are not comfortable there I suggest calling the Catholic Diocese in your area (I know there is one covering all of the world) They will be able to help get in touch with the people you can speak to… to find the help you need. Remember the Catholic Church is there for each and everyone in this world, when it comes to helping you with your need philosophical or religious thought is not the focus… it is helping you.
So while the killing of innocent children in the womb is the preeminent issue there are lots of other issues that fall under Respect Life or Maybe a better way of putting it. Human Dignity. Let us take a quick look at a Scripture passage that just about everyone should be at least vaguely aware of:
From the Gospel of Matthew
Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you? And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
There is about 6.5 billion people on this planet. Each one of us need something…. Some people need more some less. Some need carnal goods (Food, dwelling, clothes etc.) Some need spiritual goods, teaching, learning, freedoms etc.) But none of us have everything we need to be perfect as the Father is perfect. We lost that sometime in history.
Do unto others
So we are instructed to take care of all others as if they were Jesus. And when we receive something we are to act as Jesus to the other. We remember that there are things which each of us need to fulfill each of our dignities. We are each made in God’s image and likeness. From that we should each understand that each person should be treated well. This would be naturally found so that even an atheist can and should understand that each should be treated as one would want to be treated.
I remember many a conversation that I had with Rob Sherman who was an Atheist (I hope that he is now a Catholic after his death in a plane crash a few years ago.) He understood that so many of the “rights” which we talk about are bound not so much in religious speech but are found in nature. I took thing to the next step that they came from God… he would not make that step that I am aware of… but we could agree that these rights existed.
How do you love?
What are examples of these goods being given. The local Soup Kitchen that ours and probably your church participates in. The services to the elderly such as Bingo, Party nights or even playing cards and reading books. Serving lunches to school kids during the summer as food programs during times when school is not in session do not exist.
There is of course the medical front where perhaps there is a group of people that get together and help people get to appointments or hospitals/doctors.
There is a whole area of Respect Life that we touched on and that is the end -of life decisions that are being made daily. There are lots of medical powers of attorneys and other medical related paperwork. Much of the talk in these pages are legal ese that have very important consequences to our lives. There are papers put out by all kinds of groups who have their own political agendas. Do you know what those are?
Tentacles go deep
That is another part of the Respect Life arena. Medical Directives what they say and who they support. We don’t want to give permission to doctors or nurses or even to non-trained people to do things we don’t want them to do. How do we get information out to people about each of these articles and what they mean? A non-resuscitate order is find but what if I have just knocked out my breath and am fully functional otherwise than for the next 10 seconds I have stopped my normal breathing rhythm? Does that give the doctor who might be near you the ability to kill you? Some of the pro Euthanasia forms would allow just that.
If the intentional killing of an unborn baby is wrong… then the intentional killing of anyone is wrong. For those in the Judeo Christian mindset there is an explicit commandment stating that we should not kill… There really are no exceptions. Jesus clarified things a bit by clarifying the commandment. Killing someone with words and slander is Justas bad as physically killing them.
It would be obvious that killing in any form would be an immoral act but there is the issue of self-defense. This brings in a supposed gray area into the mix. But does it really? If someone is shooting at you with a gun it is pretty obvious what self-defense is. This though brings up the entire issue of conscience. This is also a very large mediator. How well is the conscience formed? What responsibility do we have to form our conscience? And by what standard do we use? Even if we can decide on natural law to guide us… this prohibits the destruction of another human being without cause. Our discussion above concerning killing still stands in that one does not want to be killed so you should not kill another.
A beginning
This fairly short blog has brought up a number of issues that Respect Life means and it brings up also a number of thoughts I propose for others to think about. It brings up the concept of ethics and mores. IT brings up conscience and its formation. These are things that are brought up by anyone discussing Life Issues. But one must be informed what the words mean one must understand what the other sides of the issue are saying. But ultimately it is up to the individual to speak with God and to speak with his or her own formation and struggle with their own conscience. One should not here a sound bite and run with that. They should be breaking it down and grappling with what it actually means using logic and other customary means to decipher how it directs the thought.
The struggle to show the world that life is important and that each and every life should be protected has been going on for much longer than the 57 years since Row Versus Wade. It really continues due to each of our own advocacy for sin. Sin by its very definition, is far off the mark of what humanity should be doing… yet we all sin. Everyone who tries to respect life also sins… but stands up for themselves and the people they are standing for. Each and every human person in the world currently, that have been in the world and will be in the world. This is why we call ourselves Catholic. We look to universal truths for the entire universe. God is the author of life… everywhere. As much as can be done we need to protect life
Be good, play nice, Think God!