Since this week is “Sanctity of Life Week” I thought I’d post this clip of Chad Estes giving a fresh perspective on the pro-life movement.
Any thoughts?
Updating…
Chad Estes has a blog called Captain’s Blog. The blog’s tagline is “A journey from fear to love, from rules to relationship, and from religion to freedom.”
Totally helpful vid…
I’ve been wondering when someone would bring up the “life in pro-life” question. I’m personally affected by a child with autism and family members with mental illnes, and the message in our great state of CO is “hell with em– if they die, they die. We’d all be better off financially and as a society if they went away.” In my circles, we all talk about this injustice, but it seems that the public in general is not interested in advocating for the most vulnerable of all people. I’d love to see more talk about these aspects of ALL people in ALL walks of “life”, and perhaps the abortion debate left alone for awhile since it’s truly going nowhere.
Hey Tami,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and being vulnerable with this topic.
Chad
One wonders how many of those who decide how to vote (for instance) based on the one simple issue of whether the candidate is “pro-life” in the late 20th century right-wing-evangelical-american sense also work on weapon (in the larger sense, including ammunition, planes, tanks, etc. etc.) assembly lines in some of America’s wealthiest corporations (I’m thinking ATK, Honeywell, Boeing, etc.) Or how many of the same people don’t bat an eye at the Bush doctrine, or Obama sending 30,000 more guns to Afghanistan, or a US$700 Billion (that’s US$700,000,000,000) “defense” budget.
What if “pro-life” actually meant to stop being afraid–to stop letting fear of life and death and pain and insecurity dictate our actions? What if “pro-life” meant letting love-of-life and hope dictate our actions instead?
Ben, good idea!
Might be too much to hope for, though— kinda like asking for world peace. Ghandi, King, some of those folks– were way ahead of us on this. Notice these type offolks are most often assasinated… Good idea, but not popular! =0)
Tami
This sounds good and in some way I embrace the celebration of life, even amongst those living whose lives can’t aspire to the common perception of normal. Sadly this clip ignores the issue in question which is not the value of life but rather the sanctity of sexuality. Unwanted children result when sexuality is misconstrued to be an end unto itself. Valuing life includes the longing for love that is sexually confused and damaged. Since the virtue has been placed on the sexually active trumping all the lives ruined in such a pursuit, it seems a hollow argument to seek to embrace “life” as Chad attempts. If life is of no value in utero because of economic, societal pressures etc, what would make it of value in any other place?
Our society pushes sexuality on us every single day. And for a very long time I bought into society’s definition. The result was 4 abortions. I could justify my reasons. And in my circles, those reasons stood soundly. But after the first when I was merely 14 years old, I wrote in my journals questioning whether I was a murderer or not. After the first, the others were easier to choose. Of course the price has been astronomical. I have lived 27 years with the knowledge of what I am truly capable of and of how truly selfish I can be and the knowledge that I am by definition a serial killer. And that knowledge tainted every choice I made after, from addiction to how I view my children. As a society, when we devalue life (and I mean any life, from the unborn to the person on death row), we are making choices based on authority that we do not have nor are we capable of wielding responsibly. I know now that I have no right to choose for another. God never gave me that authority. And I don’t want it because I know what I will do with it.
I was sexually active because I didn’t value myself. I could blame my parents, my siblings, or society. But the bottom line was that nobody forced me to have sex and nobody forced me to choose to abort. The choice was mine, even at 14. If I couldn’t find value in myself, I couldn’t value a child inside of me. And after the first abortion, I valued myself even less so my actions became more destructive–to myself and any “inconviences” I might find myself dealing with. But the impact has been far greater than the decision itself.
And I would still be on a destructive path today if I hadn’t reconnected with Jesus. His blood shed for me, even though He knew what I would do, shows more love and forgiveness that anything else could. I used to be pro-choice and pro-death penalty but I have been given a second, third, fourth and fifth chance on this one issue alone, how could I possibly deny someone else another chance?
It seems like this is actually skirting the real issue… Is human life, ALL of human life, valuable? The elderly, the broken, the sick, the poor, the young….
Tami
Great presentation……… glad eyes were opened……. but the truth is that the Church has been taking care of all of these……. very often we get blamed for womb caring, but the Church is the greatest service sector in the world. When I think of my own diocese & parish, I cannot help but think about how we minister to help in adopting, opening our door to recovery meetings, feeding the hungry, educating the ignorant, taking care of the homeless and the homebound, assisting with the grieving, etc, etc, etc.
Hi frjimt,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
I am really glad that you have experienced such a healthy expression of the church enveloping all of those types of pro-life expressions. I have seen some unbalanced and nasty things myself. When I was taking the 306degree communication course in college I went down to a pro-life march. The “church” was on one side of the street trying to shout down the protesters on the other side of the street. It was so chaotic and I couldn’t find Jesus amidst the signs, judgments and screams. It helped me realize that how we were responding in this particular instance wasn’t helping us get near our goal of saving lives. I’ve been on a journey of understanding and responding differently since that day.
Chad
frjimt,
I believe the Church is DEFINITELY the PERFECT venue for care to happen, too!!! Yay!
I’d love to check out your diocese and parish sometime– sounds a little like the Refuge, where I call home here.
Problem is, most “little c” churches i’ve ever experienced won’t give the time of day without all sorts of strings attached, if at all. A local church I used to work at told me “we just don’t do that sort of thing” when my husband was jobless for a short time and we asked for help to pay for our little girl’s glasses. Years later (with hopes they had changed), I asked if one of my softball teams could practice in their student center gym (we have insurance even!) when it was cold and rainy one day, and they replied, “no– if we do that, then everyone in the community will want to.”
I’m still wondering what in the world would be wrong with that!!!!??? =0)
So I ask myself– “If churches are so friggin stingy they won’t even let a bunch of little girls practice throwing and catching in their gym, then how do they ever expect to really love on people in the community in their sanctuary?”
Your parish is the exception, not the rule, to life lovers…
Oh, and I’ll say it again… =0)
***I can’t wait for the day when the Church steps up and puts social services out of business.***
It’s my life’s mission to be part of it!!!! =0)
Hey Tami, I thought I’d throw in an extra little thought to your last statement.
I used to be very vocal about what I thought the role of the Church was supposed to be in society. I came to the ugly realization (in fact here is a short article about one instance http://captainestes.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-problem-with-food-banks.html) that what I really expected was that the local church institutions were responsible for the social aspects of the Kingdom.
What this tended to do with me was put love in such an organized structure that it often took the personal touch right out of the equation.
I do believe that the heart of the Church will minister to the needs around us, I’m just not sure that it is always best handled at the little ‘c’ church level.
I guess that’s what I’m processing… I’ve come to the realization that “little c” thinking is just that… little thinking– very little. I love how we all come on here to bare our souls and wrestle with things that have our hearts wounded and raw.
I suppose what came up for me was that horrible hurt that is just almost too much pain to take– when “our own” shoot us down when we’re vulnerable. Wow, it still hurts…
At my own basic, personal level, I am simply hurting like crazy still over folks who say they love the creator of all life, but then rip out my heart or my loved ones’ hearts, or my brothers and sisters of another country . Now that can be as simple as saying I’m not important because blah, blah… or my loved ones do not matter as much as blah blah blah… or my brothers and sisters in some other country even…
We are all capable of doing it, I know. I’m there. I’m just thinking we need to support eachother in a very intentional way to stop slashing eachother like that… Seems to me that at this very basic level is where all things “pro-life” begin.
The little c is part of the BIG C. If things can’t be handled at that level, how do we ever expect to get the concept to flow through the BIG C??
I connect with what you are sharing, Tami, and your pain. As to your last statement/question, my experience is that the little c is very easily entangled in its own affairs which becomes counter culture to love. Maybe it is better to start with our relationship and purpose in the big C and let that define what our little c actually looks like. Just a thought…
Sounds like a good idea, Chad… I’m in.