From Fr. Robert Barron’s, “Word on Fire”, excerpt:
Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, the legendary retired President of Notre Dame, was mentioned several times in President Obama’s speech as a model of the dialogue and openness to conversation that he was extolling. Does anyone think for a moment that Fr. Hesburgh, at the height of the civil rights movement, would have invited, say, George Wallace to be the commencement speaker and recipient of an honorary degree at Notre Dame? Does anyone think that Fr. Hesburgh would have been open to a dialogue with Wallace about the merits of his unambiguously racist policies? For that matter, does anyone think that Dr. Martin Luther King would have sought out common ground with Wallace or Bull Connor in the hopes of hammering out a compromise on this pesky question of civil rights for blacks? The questions answer themselves.
Then why in the world does anyone think that we should be less resolute in regard to the heinous practice of abortion which, since 1973, has taken the lives of 43 million children? Why does anyone think that further dialogue and conversation on this score is a good idea? I think those questions answer themselves too
This comparison has been made before but Fr. Barron puts it quite effectively. The culture at one time accepted slavery for the most part. The same happened in the case of the evil of racism and segregation. The consensus changed over time largely due to the efforts of the abolitionists. Anybody who made arguments for slavery or racism now would be properly ostracized for holding such an evil view regardless of their other views. Hopefully one day the same will be true of abortion and that people will look back and wonder how people could have supported such an evil.
The reality now though is that in regards to abortion the culture is very similar to when racism was much more accepted. We are still in the phase when this evil is accepted as something viable to believe in. There was no real common ground between the slave owner and the slave and the same is true for the abortion supporter and the innocent child in the womb. The child being murdered will not be mollified that somehow abortions are somehow suppose to be reduced. When the scalpel, chemical, or suction machine comes to end their life the idea that some government program will make things better will not take away the pain they feel as they are murdered.
It was an unreality when people pretended that a fellow human person could be treated as property or seen as less human or worthy as others. We live in another unreality where human persons are treated as property of the mother and/or looked at as less human or worthy of life.
When people call themselves Catholics and then engage in Obamagetics to justify his support of murdering the innocent they are prostituting themselves to Moloch. They have accepted government funded pottage and forfeited the birth right of others. These modern Esau’s think they have made out on the deal, but they are no less foolish and even worse they provide cover for intrinsic evil.
Funny how it has been the Democratic Party that has been on the wrong side of history so often. Gov. Wallace and Bull Connor were of course Democrats and it was Democrats like Al Gore’s father who tried to defeat the Civil Rights act which was approved larger percent of Republicans (69% of Democrats & 82% of Republicans). People made excuses for them as now just as we have the torture apologists in the Republican party.
It has been the Catholic Church that has been on the right side of moral history. Centuries before the consciences of many saw the evil of slavery the Church had already condemned it and placed excommunications on those involved. In the United States segregation really first saw it’s decline among Catholics in their educational institutions before it became a national issue. At times Catholic supporters of segregation were excommunicated. The same is true in regards to abortion and Jesus through his Church is once again standing up to a culture that would dehumanize others.
The evil of abortion has been helped along by Catholics who are willing to make excuses for their favored candidates instead of condemning the evil they support in the strongest terms. Way too often with Catholics who call themselves both pro-life and Democrat there is always a “but” coming or some relativistic comparison of intrinsic evils with areas that Catholics can prudentially disagree on. What should happen with pro-abortion Democratic politicians is that they should get as little traction as pro-abortion Republican Rudy Giuliani. But Catholics of any political stripe are too often willing to turn a blind eye when it suits them. I say the Hell with any political party that would help me to earn a millstone as hat ware. I will go all Don Quixote pointing at polling booths before I cast a vote for a politician who supports the murder of innocents. Sure voting to choose the lesser evil is an acceptable choice, but you better know what evil is in the first place and to let the Church be your guide in discernment.
I would also like to point out this excellent response to Fr. James Martin S.J. by Carl Olson.
2 comments
Bravo. Well written.
all I can think, as to your questions why? is that 43 million is a statistic, as opposed to coming face-to-face with 1 dead, dismembered baby