suck it up
The first week of Forty Days For Life has past it’s midpoint and as we head into our first Monday we’ve come to the realization that we do not have nearly enough volunteers to fill our many open time slots. We are blessed with some modern day saints who have agreed to cover the 1am - 5am for the entire 40 days as well as a few others who have adopted an hour. So far, in the 7th largest city in the United States, which has a growing number of abortion clinics to feed it’s demand- there are about a dozen or so individuals who have committed to making this thing work.
While I’m in no way a seasoned expert in the pro-life movement, my initial reaction is somewhat of disillusionment and disappointment towards what I sense to be a disinterested attitude towards taking an active role in the pro-life movement. I mean, I believe most Catholics are pro-life but am wondering if there is an underlying issue to why a majority of parishes and individual parishoners do not wish to support this initiative. In mean time, I know it’s an opportunity for me to suck it up and do more.
I made a poll to fill my own curiosity only. Also, we are open to any ideas or suggestions and of course prayers.
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It is *wonderful* that you are asking why every pro-life person doesn’t go for every pro-life initiative. I hope that my response will help - though it’s just my opinion. When I was single, I worked in a building that housed an abortion clinic. I went early most mornings to talk with women to try to dissuade them. I am answering based on my experience. I no longer do this because I am committed to other pro-life efforts and I know my limits.
I think the problem is that there is considerable confusion about what behavior is being promoted because we aren’t careful with our language. If we were more precise about what is and is not going to happen in front of a clinic, then more people may be intereseted. Some of us do not want to “protest” at a clinic because we believe it is targeting the wrong people with the wrong approach.
Prayer, and sidewalk coundesing are what should occur when a clinic is open. If you have ever done either of these two (pray or counsel) — you will understand the annoyance of having someone (well-intentioned) suddenly show up with graphic pictures or “Make Abortion Illegal” sign and a shrill voice screaming, “Don’t Kill Your Baby”, and absolutely destroying the rapport you (or someone else) just worked hard to establish with a woman. These types of encounters - the prayer and counseling ones - are very effective. However, they happen at the odd hours of the day, like 8 am when clients are waiting for the clinic to open. And the most productive sessions are when there are only two or three people there doing it, so that the abortion-bound women are not intimidiated by masses of people. Sure, some may decide not to go b/c they are afraid of the people, but is that really a victory? No, she will just go another day to another clinic.
Protest, on the other hand, is appropriate in front of a clinic threatening to open(like in Aurora), or perhaps at existing clinics but not during “business” hours, in my opinion. Even better, protesting should be reserved for abortionists homes, or surrounding the public appearances of politicians who vote to support abortion. Protest, by it’s nature, is provocative. We don’t want to provoke women going into a clinic, we want to gently invite them to turn away.
That’s my take on it.
Comment by monica — October 1, 2007 @ 9:10 am
thanks Monica. I agree with you totally on the importance of having a sincere sense of purpose, as God cannot bless our actions which have ulterior motives. There will always be extremists who are out there for the wrong reason and if one looks to a reason not to participate, this one should probably on the top of the list as I wouldn’t want to be involved in a type of confrontational and judgmental activity. I think the connotation that goes along with protest may be a problem.
In MY case I have the fear of being characterized and misunderstood as a judgmental, extremist, pro-life zealot. In other words my challenges = a little fearful, a little more prideful and a whole lot of not wanting to sacrifice my time.
Your comment actually helps me out a great deal due to the fact that I haven’t been stressing the prayerful and respectful aspect of 40 Days for Life. Also, I don’t want to minimize the impact of prayer and fasting.
Thanks
Comment by shelray — October 1, 2007 @ 9:40 am
In my experience there are two things that keep my friends and I away from sidewalk counseling and prayer for the most part. First, my friends who think it’s all yelling and screaming and protesting. They’ve seen this on the news and don’t want to be a part of that. I shared some sidewalk counseling literature with them though, and they’re not so against it anymore.
The second obstacle for many of us is childcare. I have a 2 year old and a very active 3 year old, and am expecting our third in the spring. It is simply not safe or practical to take my kids with me, particularly because it is not uncommon for people to purposefully speed past us extra-close to try to scare us when we’re out there sidewalk counseling. When I looked into getting someone to watch my kids for a couple hours once a week so I could support the sidewalk counselors by my prayer and presence, everyone either wanted to be paid or reimbursed with an equal amount of babysitting time. This got to be too much of a commitment. If there was a network of people who wanted to help out but didn’t feel called to go to the clinics themselves but offered to babysit free of charge for the moms who did feel called, a lot more of us would be out there.
I am going to pray outside of Planned Parenthood on our parish’s assigned day later this week, well, I’m either going to pray or to watch my friend’s kids so she can go, we haven’t worked it out yet, but we can’t both go since we have 5 kids between us, all under the age of 4.
Comment by Elisa — October 1, 2007 @ 3:54 pm