Thoughts After Dobbs #4

Pro-life means not only to speak against death, but to care for all life, from the womb to the tomb, no matter what it looks like, or how able or disabled, or how useful it seems or not to us. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to love as Jesus loved. A tall order! And one we will always fall short of. But one that the love of Jesus for us compels us to do.

That being said, those who are pro-abortion often accuse us of caring only for the yet-to-be-born baby and not for the mother. While I do not think that entirely true, maybe we need to look at ourselves and acknowledge the grain of truth here - that we need to be doing a better job at this. Encouraging fathers to be fathers, supporting mothers and families, providing the help that they need. Being there for the elderly, and helping those caring for the elderly. And much more.

The early Christians in Rome did this by going to the garbage dumps and rescuing babies who had been thrown away. You could do that then! But if all life is valuable, precious, and important, those early Christians knew that had to act like it, and they were compelled to act like it. And that opened the minds and changed the hearts of many Romans.

The Church (it seems to me) used to be much more active in this, but the government has taken over and because of all its rules and regulations has forced the church out. But maybe this is the time for the Church to step up again. And step in. If the government is not going to care for all - and not only allow, but also perhaps encourage assisted suicide, mercy killing, abortion, and other forms of death - then the Church will have once again rescue lives that are being thrown away; lives the world does not want. But lives that Jesus wants. Lives that Jesus died for. Lives that are worth our lives, too.