God Weeps! And, we should, too. We live in a world increasingly more barbaric, year by year. We look the other way and never flinch at the knowledge of a long list of government-sanctioned evils and imagine it won't ever touch us, but, oh, it does.
The very fact that we in an America - you, me, all of us - have tolerated the raw, shocking, direct, deliberate killing of our most helpless and entirely innocent babies yet unborn stains us permanently as a people no less demonic than past societies that sacrificed humans to unknown gods. Actually, we are worse! They had excuses - appeasing angry gods in the hopes that their weather would be good enough to raise their crops or that their enemies wouldn't slaughter them. What are our excuses? That conception control is too much trouble? That having a baby would be too much bother, a threat to our self-indulgence, our 'convenience?' That, well, I'd never have an abortion myself but if you think you might need to, I'll look the other way? That I thought you'd marry me for sure if I got pregnant and you won't so I don't want to raise this baby by myself? That if I carried this baby and gave him or her up for adoption, everyone would know I had been pregnant but if it's aborted, no one will ever know? That the doctor told me the baby might be handicapped? That my mother said she'd give me the money for an abortion but I'd have to leave home if I let the baby be born? That I need to finish high school or college first and I won't let this baby stop me!? That I'd vote Pro-Life but it's really only one of many important issues?
How many times have we heard, over the years, that those who don't learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat the same horrors? When, exactly, does a society fail? When does a country get so weak that others feel strong enough to invade? Learn from the Fall of the Roman Empire: from the heights of conquering 'the world,' they became increasingly rich and powerful but they couldn't persist in the hard work and discipline, then the Romans found themselves more concerned with self-indulgence, immoral, hedonistic lifestyles, including abortion. In effect, their society imploded, got weak from the inside. They simply lost the will to defend themselves. The northern barbarians were only too happy to invade, kill them off and walk off with whatever and whomever they wanted. Will that be the way of 21st century America?
Most of you reading this blog don't remember the day that the United States Supreme Court struck down all the state laws prohibiting abortion. It was January 22, 1973. We all knew for months that the court would consider this decision. I sincerely thought this would never happen in America, the Land of the Free where we had the Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Their decision took me by surprise. I remember crying and crying over this, I was in such shock. I was not a child; I was nearly 30 years old.
The Supreme Court's explanation of their decision muttered on about they didn't know when 'life' began, they didn't want to interfere with a woman's Constitutional Right to Privacy, as found in the 14th amendment. Google and read this amendment. The word 'privacy' is not there; I couldn't find anything that remotely would sound like this topic. Even 40 years ago, these reasons were outrageous! We all knew that when a woman was pregnant, she would have a baby, not a puppy, not a plant, nothing else but a baby. And when could life start but at the beginning, at conception? Only a moron or a fool would think otherwise!!
Thus began the Culture of Death in America. Newly-formed Right to Life groups warned us about the "slippery slope:" once a nation, like they did in Nazi Germany, decided that one group is not worthy to live, every one is in danger of legal killing. Legalized abortions were already happening in Europe before 1973.
So what did I personally do? In 1976 my little church in Danville showed a movie on what we look like when we are unborn, in the various stages of development. It was the most profound, beautiful movie I had ever seen. Before a woman knows she is pregnant, the baby's heart is beating, at 18 days of age. At 43 days of age, our brains are coordinating all our movements. When we are 9 weeks old inside our mother's womb, we have permanent, individual fingerprints. At 10 weeks, the sense of touch is intact, feeling comfort and pain. After the movie, several of us agreed that having legal killing of unborn babies was terribly wrong and we would see if anyone was interested in fighting this evil by forming a local Right to Life chapter.
With about a half-dozen of us, more or less, I worked at this (volunteer, of course) from 1976 to 1980. We eventually created a monthly Newsletter which reached 500 or so. A stay-at-home mom at the time, I was responsible for writing the newsletter. I read everything I could get my hands on that related to Life issues. It was heart-stopping! What went on then in the abortion mills, both in America and in Europe, was worse that the worst horror movie you've ever heard of. I won't recount this but just know that 'anything goes' in a place that will kill your baby, it cares nothing for you, just wants your money. The same filth, inhumanity, irresponsibility goes on today.
Today, my topic concerned Awareness of the Problem. In the next several days, I plan to address Learning about the issue, and then about the ways we - every single one of us - could Act to stop this Evil. Please hear me out, please don't sweep this Life Issue under the rug of your conscience. Your Life Depends on what YOU will do!
Oh, Lord of All, we pray for the heart to know how to STOP THE CULTURE OF DEATH in our beloved United States of America! We pray for the strength to carry out each and every activity to promote Life! We know you will guide us and help us!
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