"Over the past seven years, the partial-birth abortion ban as a fundraising technique has brought in over a quarter of a billion dollars" for major antiabortion groups, "but the ban has no authority to prevent a single abortion, and pro-life donors were never told that," he said. "That's why we call it the pro-life industry."
In Rohrbough's view, partisan politics is also involved.
"What happened in the abortion world is that groups like National Right to Life, they're really a wing of the Republican Party, and they're not geared to push for personhood for an unborn child -- they're geared to getting Republicans elected," he said. "So we're seeing these ridiculous laws like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban put forward, and then we're deceived about what they really do."
The critics are absolutely right - many Christian conservative political leaders have become little more than get-out-the-vote managers for the Republican party. Many of the religious right's biggest players have been seduced by political power, placated by trinkets and photo-ops, selling out Jesus for a failed political agenda.
Here is hoping that Billy Graham will inspire more Christians to ignore the self-proclaimed Christian political leaders and seek first the Kingdom of God.
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Here's hoping is right. I think your book is really helpful in this regard, pointing out what Washington can and cannot accomplish - which is very different from what many have been told. Jesus is the solution to our problems, not politics (although that's not much in the way of a fundraising slogan :) )
I have never believed this could be regulated by government. We have a prison system filled with human beings that many no longer consider human; we are in the midst of a war in which hundreds of thousands of human beings have been injured and killed - including our own soldiers; we have urban and rural school systems that fail to educate or inspire the human spirit in each child; if we don't understand the humanity in those people - how on earth can we understand the life that is in each child. I often think that we need to start backwards - start thinking about the lives - the not so innocent lives that we take without conscience - once we are sensitive to those human beings, perhaps we will be prepared to understand life in the womb. I think Joseph Cardinal Bernardin - one of the saints in my world - called an awareness of the sanctity of human life - a seamless garment - there are no exceptions. Now living in a world like this one - we will find exceptions and compartmentalize our pro-life stance. Pro-choice people really and truly do not see the embryonic human being as life. Many pro-life people cannot understand the pacifist view that war is an affront to the sanctity of human life. But, I think, we can all learn. To accuse the other - with rage and hatred - won't work. To learn to be respectful of all humanity is a hard task. I know a few who seem to have captured that ethic. Those few live lives of quiet reverence for any person they encounter. I look to them to teach me when I fail. A woman named Mary Kay Meyers (she died this past winter) - she was the first one to model this for me. Sister Helen Prejean (I had the honor to meet her this winter) is another. Sister Helen says that honoring every life is a bit like hanging on a cross. Somebody will accuse you and hate you and you just hang there in the certainty of God's love for every human being ever created. We convert others to a pro-life stance - not by demonstrating or manipulation of voters, but by honoring the dignity of every single person we encounter. That requires a conversion in our own hearts rather than a change iin others. It is much harder.
Abortion is first and foremost an effect of povery. Rather than be focused on who is pro-life and who is pro-choice, we should focus on halting and diminishing the abortion as much as possible and the best way to doing that is reducing poverty as much as possible.
Also, we need to work on education that helps prevent unwanted pregnancy, including talking about birth control options, etc.
Chance - it isn't just poor people who have abortions. Sadly rich and well-off people have them too. Sometimes its a personal choice, and those cases can be easier to overcome, but a lot of the time its peer-pressure from the male. he doesnt want to become a father so he gives the girl an ultimatum - the baby, or him. coupled with the fear of raising a child alone, im not surprised sadly that abortion is often considered a viable option.
And right on about the sex education. it wont help everyone - but it does help some people.
As I see it, and Abstinence BASED sex ed program, plus availabilty of contraceptives would greatly reduce the number of abortions performed each year. But many in the PL camps don't even want to discuss it, they want their abstinence ONLY sex ed, and no availability of contraceptives, because they say that will cause the kids to go have sex. This completely ignores the fact that thirty years ago, when I was in school, we had no sex ed, little access to BC, and teens having sex.
As history has shown (and as shown in countries where abortion is currently outlawed), making abortions illegal won't stop them. And making contraceptives available won't increase teen sex.
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