One of our parishioners, Jim Kushiner, is also executive editor of Touchstone. Yesterday he made comments ("Little Ones and Unity") thoroughly exhibiting our parish's commitment to an anti-abortion and pro-life conviction:
Abigail, 5, is someone whom the doctors at a local hospital recommended be "aborted" by her mother, because she was "50-50" for surviving after birth. (She had a herniated diaphram, which meant many of her vital organs were out of place). Our daughter-in-law would have none of the doctor's advice, went on-line, and discovered specialists at Philadelphia's Children's Memorial Hospital, where she delivered Abigail and where Abigail had surgery.
It's not as simple as this sounds, though. Many of the babies who come there for delivery and this surgery do not survive. But the point was not to kill the child in the womb, but give her every chance of success. She is now thriving and looks great.
On the same day this weekend that we will be going to St. John's to celebrate this birthday, my wife, later that day, will also be participating in a minstry of St. John's that she just found out about last week. They are sewing little white gowns for babies, mostly premature, who die after birth at Cook County's Stroger Hospital. I have no idea how babies like this die at County Hospital, but the provision of gowns for the burial of these littles ones strikes me as the very least we can do for the very least of these little ones.
It's a hidden, quiet work of mercy, upholding the dignity of all human life. When my wife shared this with the women at our Orthodox Church, there was a strong response, a serious interest in participating.
I am so grateful for All Saints. I grew up in conservative evangelical churches that were pro-life and anti-abortion, and these churches did work in concrete ways to counsel, comfort and aid mothers contemplating abortion. But mostly the actions these churches took amounted to political activism. This is not a bad thing, but it is a very limited thing.
All Saints embodies a pro-life conviction that is thorough and holistic, from the public exhortation to fulfill the creation mandate, to private counselling and prayer over matters involving the use of contraception, to support for our mothers, to visible tangible care for mothers considering abortion (financial support to crisis pregnancy centers, support to families who take in pregnant mothers to assist them in their struggles, and personal relationships with mothers considering abortion), to support for adoption, and extending to respect for and support of our elder members. It is manifestly beautiful and good, and by contrast shows abortion to be the hideous and ugly moral evil that it is.
UPDATE
Jim Kushiner adds comments today to his thoughts from yesterday (above):
As a follow-up on what I wrote yesterday about “Little Ones and Unity,” I report on a dinner held last night in Chicago on behalf of CareFirst Pregnancy Centers & Prevention Services. Christians are not just “pro-life” when they vote, but try to do something about the crisis by offering charitable works.
The caricature of pro-life as right-wing haters is quite unfair. Around 1,800 people gathered last night at the Hyatt Regency to support a ministry that reaches out to women and supports them through troubled pregnancies. There was no talk of politics, legislation, voting, candidates, protests, or judicial strategies. It was all about life, the babies, the mothers, the fathers, and how to support them. Those who wish to make abortion “safe, legal, and rare” should be supporting such ministries.
Another thing CareFirst does is teach abstinence in schools. The idea that sex is for marriage, or minimally that abstinence has significant benefits, is now being promoted in an increasing number of schools, and it is being supported with government funding.Posted by Clifton at November 16, 2004 10:00 AM | TrackBack