By Judie Brown
The left-leaning Daily Kos has reported that in “deep red” Arkansas pro-aborts have succeeded in placing abortion on the upcoming ballot. If this is supposed to frighten those who took it for granted that Arkansas is a pro-life state, then let it be made clear right here and right now that no preborn baby is safe in any state regardless of color codes, polls, or elections. And there is a reason for that. Its name is godlessness: “the state of not believing in God.”
Among the most recent examples of this is Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, who is featured on the Freedom from Religion website. But one need not be honored in that way in order to be found among those who deny that God is our Creator.
Such attitudes are firmly entrenched in American politics and in daily life, as well as in much of the pro-life movement’s work. As The Hill stated, “Prominent anti-abortion, evangelical, and social conservative groups are pressuring the Republican National Committee (RNC) not to moderate its stance on abortion,” yet the truth is that such debates give credence to the well-known fact that even among the learned, deciphering the difference between politics and truth is fungible at best, abandoned at worst.
While we understand that opposing the killing of innocent people is not a topic for political debate, including what the so-called moderate position should be, in today’s culture it is apparently the way things are done. You see, as a people, Americans do not address the tragedy of killing a single innocent person, born or preborn. According to the latest polling data, they prefer to render to each person the decision to abort or not abort their baby.
We are living in a time when the question is no longer based on science or evidentiary examples but rather on feelings and opinions. Regardless of whether a human being is just beginning or about to reach the end of life, this is never a good thing.
Even the unethical practice of in vitro fertilization is now relegated to the question of political decision-making even though, as American Life League’s latest video makes clear, the practice of IVF kills more people than it claims to help, and it does this repeatedly.
So it follows that when we see pet euthanasia services being done in the home some of us yawn, not realizing that such deadly acts are currently being debated for human beings as well. This prompted pro-life expert Wesley J. Smith to write that “culture-of-death ideologues not only want doctors to help suffering people die, they also want taxpayers to foot the bill.”
All of this deadly business comes to a head on that same pin on which angels dance. This is so because when it comes to respect for the dignity of a single person—regardless of her age, state of health, or place of residence—there should not be debates about who lives and who dies but rather respect for the gift of life. We witness Republicans rushing to ensure fourteenth amendment protections to be recognized in a platform but hear and watch members of that same party propose limits on which babies can live and which will die.
This is literally political pish posh—nonsense personified. Either every innocent human being’s life is precious or no person is safe. It is not a red versus blue question; it is not a serious political question at all. Rather, it is an example of the situation that unfolds when man loses his sense of God.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone offers one way out of this morass, writing: “In a de-Christianized age that is becoming increasingly inhospitable to any traditional sense of religion, the Church needs to operate on all cylinders. The traditional Latin Mass and the beauty it inspires is one of those cylinders. That even nonbelievers can feel an attraction to it in itself proves this point.”
The Traditional Latin Mass, one of the most beautiful celebrations of Christ’s Eucharistic gift to every person, is the perfect response to the madness of our current age.
Unless we wish to live in a nation that is red and blue but dead all over, we should give serious thought to how much America needs the Church to step into this abyss, witnessing to Christ and operating on all cylinders, beckoning every soul home.