Having moved to a new state this winter, I am participating in this spring’s 40 Days for Life vigils at a different Planned Parenthood site than in the past. It is on a college campus. And this may help explain the excessive pro-abortion advocacy voiced at the site.
In years past, I have endured insults, the middle finger, and the yelling of obscenities from passersby. But I have never experienced the overwhelming anger, rage, and hate that was expressed at this site.
I am sure that many who participate in pro-life vigils have experienced similar encounters. But, I think it is important and informative to report such incidents. We need to fully realize what we are dealing with in opposing abortion, especially with some of its advocates. In turn, I think it is also important to reflect on what such experiences have to say for our faith journey.
The devils minions?
Besides people stopping their cars and rolling down their windows, and even to getting out of their cars to yell their obscenities, several women walked among us on the side walk yelling and screaming at us. “Freedom,” or “My body my choice,” etc., they shouted. But all of this, to a certain extent, is to be expected.
What was not expected was the vitriol and the targets of some of the comments, especially from one man who had the loudest voice. He expressed every kind of obscenity against our Holy Mother, Jesus Christ, God, the Church, and Christianity as a whole.
There were also obscene statements directed to me about “raping my wife” and “sexually abusing my kids.” Such was the kind of extreme anger the pro-abortion crowd expressed.
I may be 80, but the old warrior in me wanted to punch the guy out on the spot. However, being part of the 40 Day vigils means signing a pledge to not respond to hostility, to be peaceful, and to not get drawn into a type of confrontation. So I bit my tongue – many times over – during the course of an hour.
The Planned Parenthood security guard even had to come out several times to tone the pro-abortion advocates down. It very much reminded me of the hysterical chants of rioters I had to deal with in the past as a military cop.
From a faith perspective, I thought of the Jesus narratives of dealing with evil spirits in the Gospels. Were those pro-abortion advocates possessed? I cannot answer that, but their actions demonstrated they were serious contributors to the evils of abortion.
All the while, the contrasts were visibly noticeable. Those of us on the pro-life vigil silently walked the street with our signs, saying our rosaries.
Love thy enemies
A recent Saturday mass Gospel reading (Matthew 5:43-44) about loving our enemies came to the forefront of my mind. Truth be told, it is very difficult for me to meet that obligation. It has not been my “modus operandi” in the past. But this situation forced me to “own up” to Jesus’ challenge. I even helped lead a prayer for conversion for those pro-abortion supporters including that one man. I felt that encounter brought out the better angels in me in spite of my inclinations.
In reflecting on my faith journey, it has been an ongoing one of new experiences, new faith insights, and new behaviors. However, I know I can’t get too comfortable from this. I must never forget that my journey is also one of promises broken and failures to live up to what Jesus wants me to do – including showing love for my enemies. As CS writer Bob Kurland wrote recently, “It’s Hard!”
St. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 that faith is a transformative process:
“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”
We may never know where or when or in what context that transformation process may occur. For some it may be one gigantic change. Or, as in my case, it is mostly a series of little changes over time. That 40 Days for Life vigil experience served as one of those opportunities.
12 thoughts on “A 40 Days for Life Experience and the Faith Journey”
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“If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray.” 1 John 5:16-17
So what is the deadly is?
“whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” Mark 3:29
God has given us free-will, so for those who freely reject God and His Church (excluding invincible ignorance) will have their choice respected by God, and He will not “forgive” their sin.
“This question can only be resolved, if we admit that there are some sins in brethren more grievous than the sin of persecution in our enemies. For thus Stephen prays for those that stoned him, because they had not yet believed on Christ; but the Apostle Paul does not pray for Alexander though he was a brother (2 Tim 4:14), but had sinned by attacking the brotherhood through jealousy. But for whom you pray not, you do not therein pray against him.…For who may dare to affirm that they prayed against those persons themselves, and not against the kingdom of sin?”
Augustine of Hippo
See websites below: I think you are getting far afield from the issue as I see it – the overwhelming actions of the Church to support life and support for pregnant mothers. It isn’t about your complaints of Church abuses or positions on homosexuality etc. Those are topics for another day.
https://helpinyourarea.com/texas/
https://www.liveaction.org/news/40-days-for-life-20000-saved/
Much of what was shouted at you had to do with other issues on which they disagree with Church teaching. Nobody seemed to be advocating abortion, just like that.
The web site you linked so claims over 20,000 babies saved but doesn’t document that number. Maybe some women saw the vigil and decided to turn back. How do you know they didn’t simply reschedule (for a later and therefore riskier procedure)?
CaptCrisis: You say the Catholic Church should get out of the way. Who would fill the void? FYI The Catholic Church especially the Knights of Columbus have been at the forefront. I know that from my “self centered” personal experience for years. I would suggest you google Priests for Life and 40 Days for Life to learn of the huge effort being made and the number of babies that have been saved.
I did the google as you suggested and could not find any figures as to how many women were dissuaded from having abortions. Perhaps you can give me a link.
If, as the polls tell us, 20% of all Americans believe abortion should always be illegal, 20% identify as Catholics, and 47% of self-identified Catholics oppose abortion, that means that slightly more than half of all those opposing abortion are non-Catholics. Fetal rights used to be an issue that cut across the left-right divide. In 1970, most conservatives were pro-choice. By 1980 that had totally reversed. Liberals underwent a similar, though less dramatic, change. Abortion opponents began to embrace tax cuts for the rich, capital punishment, homophobia, misogyny, and eviscerating the social safety net, and liberals drifted toward being pro-choice.
It is perfectly possible to look into the facts of pregnancy and be horrified at what abortion actually is — and yet support increased access to contraception, as well as gay rights and other liberal positions.
You do not understand “what you are dealing with”. Also you are too self-centered; this is not about your “faith journey” but about saving babies’ lives.
These people are not possessed by Satan. Let me help you as to where they are coming from. I am not excusing their language, but:
“Raping my wife”: yes, it used to be Catholic teaching that a wife had no right to refuse sex from her husband, even if she was pregnant or sick in bed. See Thomas Aquinas on this.
“Abusing little boys”: your embrace of the Catholic Church (or refusal to leave it) after all that scandal makes them think you are o.k. with it.
You also think people in gay relationships are committing mortal sins, and are opposed to contraception, and believe that in the Church women are second class citizens. Then you ostentatiously bring out your rosary and inflame them further (some of them might remember Matthew 6:6). Is this helpful?
You might be saying “don’t have an abortion”, but to them you are also saying “condemn your gay friends”, “don’t use birth control”, “only men have the keys to the kingdom of heaven”. You are also probably a Trump voter which also allows them to color you with his many sins, bigotries and hatreds.
The anti-abortion movement would succeed much better if the Catholic Church got out of the way. A gay-accepting, woman-honoring, contraceptive-accepting, social-service-net-supporting movement would be much more effective in saving babies’ lives, if that is what you really want.
You say, “The anti-abortion movement would succeed much better if the Catholic Church got out of the way.”
This is how abortion got started:
“We systematically vilified the Catholic Church and its ‘socially backward ideas’ and picked on the Catholic hierarchy as the villain in opposing abortion,” Dr. Nathanson revealed. “An inference of this tactic was that there were no non-Catholic groups opposing abortion. The fact that other Christian as well as non-Christian religions were (and still are) monolithically opposed to abortion was constantly suppressed, along with pro-life atheists’ opinions.”
Dr. Bernard Nathanson co-founded the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL).
I haven’t said anything about PP’s depiction of the Church. I have only pointed out what the Church says about itself, and what it has done in the past.