three little sparrows
This is a catholic and pro-life tumblr. I try to keep this blog on topic and my posts are generally abortion or Catholic related, but sometimes something else might squeeze it’s way in.
Abortion gravely violates the dignity of an innocent human being by taking his or her life. Abortion is not just another surgical or medical procedure; marginalizing abortion marginalizes the sanctity of human life itself and dehumanizes the members of society. Abortion denies one’s right to simply be a member of society, or even be alive. Abortion denies individuals their fundamental humanity. Do not think you will find peace and justice in this world if you tolerate the slaughter of the little ones.
Just because I focus on abortion, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other issues that are very important to me. There most certainly are. Abortion is the most crucial issue of our age because the right to life is the foundation of every other human right. If that right is not inviolate, then no right can be guaranteed.
All of the various social justice issues (like war, the death penalty, immigration reform, and poverty relief) are based on the idea that human life has intrinsic worth. If we say that some human beings do not have intrinsic worth, we open the door to include those who don’t quite “measure up” in terms of intelligence, usefulness to society, criminal record, national origin, disability, etc.
If we deny the right to exist to the poorest among us, the unborn, with not even a thread of clothing to call their own, then how will we respect the poor we can see?
If we cannot welcome the stranger among us in the womb, then how can we welcome the immigrant from another country?
If we refuse to acknowledge the right to life of the most innocent, the unborn child, then how will we ever acknowledge the worth of the life of even the criminal on death row?
Either we all have inalienable human rights, or none of us do. If we get abortion wrong, we get it all wrong.
If you neglect the unborn, you are not representing all the people. Roe vs. Wade excludes them from protection; we demand that they be included. A public servant cannot legitimately ignore an entire segment of the public that is being destroyed. The foundation of a house is only one of many parts of the house, but it is essential in order to build the other parts. That is why the Catholic bishops have repeatedly asserted that among the many interrelated issues within a consistent ethic, abortion deserves “urgent attention and priority.” If someone cannot stand up for the smallest of children, how will he stand up for the rest of us? The right to life comes first. It precedes and under girds every other social issue or group of issues. This is why Blessed John XXIII listed it as the first human right in his great encyclical on world peace, Pacem in Terris.
“America has serious problems of poverty, discrimination and homelessness. But no Americans are poorer, or more discriminated against, or more homeless than the aborted babies- nameless, helpless, defenseless, penniless, naked, abandoned by their own parents, forced out of their uterine homes, forsaken by society, stripped of all legal rights, labeled as sub-humans, denied sacramental baptism, denied the last rights, denied anesthesia, tortured, murdered, cannibalized for their organs, denied decent burials, cremated or discarded with the trash, and then, totally forgotten.” — Fr. Paul Marx
As Christians, we are expected to bring the Gospel to each generation. There are certain things in life God has called us to be, but being silent is not one of them. The Bible commands us to offer protection for the weakest and most vulnerable members of humanity. Psalm 82:4 tells us to, “Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” Proverbs 31:9 says, “Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.” Ask yourself, does abortion defend and protect the most vulnerable members of the human community or does it destroy them?
“Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each other – whatever the cost – so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time.” — Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
“Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.” — Pope Felix III
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
