I am pro-life, pro-family, pro-woman, and pro-God. So why, then, do I feel like a criminal?
I took my pro-life views outside the Church and placed them in a public forum by way of a letter to the editor. I expressed my dismay that the ‘medical director’ of the local Planned Parenthood was given the ‘Women of the Year Award” and suggested a better role model for such recognition.
Now, I am being judged not only by the secular world but by those inside my own parish. What I saw as a simple letter has set off a few loose cannons in this small town and they are pointed in my direction!
Many who profess to be pro-life are silent. Do they not hear the words of St. Paul in last Sunday’s second reading? “An obligation has been imposed on me and woe to me if I do not preach it!” (1 Cor. 9:16).
As I feel the glares, read the words and hear the negatives, I realize with a cold shudder how counter-cultural professing a love of life has become. The contempt so many of our brothers and sisters feel toward those who stand up for the unborn is palpable. The perceived threat that a pregnant woman's so-called ‘freedom of choice’ will be taken away clouds the judgment and smothers the love of so many souls. Our society has truly and emphatically embraced a culture of death.
Presently, man’s law protects the murderer, not the innocent. Many, therefore, believe I am the criminal for speaking out against the unjust law that enables an entire industry to make enormous profits by snuffing out innocent, defenseless lives.
Nevertheless, I will not stop speaking out against this atrocity. It is my vocation. “Thou shall not kill” is a Commandment of God — a guidepost given to keep us safe, happy and close to the One who formed us in the womb and called each of us by name, just as He called the Apostle Peter.
How did the Apostle Peter respond when ordered by officials to stop preaching publicly in the marketplace? Did he appease the rulers by promising to preach only in private assemblies? Did he relocate his ministry to another town? No. He continued his public ministry and declared to the authorities, “We ought to obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29).
Colleen Miner, wife and mother of three daughters, lives in Saranac Lake, NY. She is a reporter/photographer for the Diocese of Ogdensburg. You can email her at cbm510@adelphia.net.
