By Judie Brown
Michael Pakaluk wrote of the Republican party decision regarding its pro-life posture, “Some say—I say—that in removing this plank, the Republican Party dissolved itself, and that that fact will become clear over time.”
His words called to mind Christ’s words to His disciples in Matthew 7:3: “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own?”
The removal of the Republican party platform’s previously public pro-life plank and replacing it with a much weaker statement is not only a reflection of political strategy run amok, it is a sign of a much deeper problem in our nation as a whole. The United States is sinking deeper into the clutches of secular humanism, including the sixth tenet that reads in part, “We believe that intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct. The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized.”
Godless belief systems, dating back to the pagans of days gone by, have rendered our nation susceptible to all manner of crimes against God, the Creator of each human being. While He is all knowing and all loving, flawed human beings frequently set aside His will in favor of their own. It is called sin. Recent events underscore these truths of our faith in ways that writers of fiction cannot surpass.
For example, doctors have asked the Supreme Court to include abortion as a part of stabilizing care under federal law. If you were to consider what exactly is sustainable about killing an innocent preborn baby, I daresay you would be hard-pressed to explain it. Yet in America, such acts are part of the status quo.
Is this an excuse for watering down a political party’s public position? We think not!
Joining in the rhetorical dilution of morality, Catholic bishops have chosen this moment in time to reiterate not that every abortion takes the life of a person and must be eradicated, but “the church’s concern for both mother and child, [saying we are] called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.”
At first glance it seems that even the Catholic Bishops’ Conference has fallen in line with partisan advocacy for some or all abortion.
On the other side of the life-or-death coin, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry has signed a law classifying the abortion pill regimen as a controlled substance. This means women must have a prescription to acquire the deadly cocktail. One would have thought this would be a commonsense requirement in the first place, but these days there are planks in a lot of different eyes. Thus the truth grows more difficult to protect.
Or perhaps the problem is not that speaking truth is harder but that there are far too few willing to stand up and proclaim it. As Saint Paul wrote in 2 Timothy (4:1-2), “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.”
Our fellow citizens are drowning in rhetorical quicksand—the idea that abortion is no longer considered a crime. After all, if it is but a simple medical procedure or a jot on a prescription pad, as so many suggest, why all the fuss? Apparently, most folks enjoy their visual impairment created by planks that distort truth and permit all manner of evil to parade through as simple topics about which thinking people can disagree.
This may sound absurd, but remember that when someone has a timber in his eye, he is blinded to the obvious, which in this case is that abortion kills people.
