Jameson Taylor is a writer at HLI. This article is reprinted courtesy of HLI Reports, a publication of Human Life International.
“The militants marched from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court in protest of American constitutional government, the basic tenant of which is the right to choose. President Bush addressed the marchers by phone, but refused to speak to them in person or address their primary demands. Political analysts suggest the president is distancing himself from the so-called ‘pro-life’ movement in an attempt to attract mainstream voters.”
Along with a massive increase in the size and scope of the federal government, one of the most important legacies of the September 11th attacks may well be the popularization of the idea that Christian, pro-lifers are “un-American” and “ideologically” equivalent to Islamic terrorists. So declared columnist Anna Quindlen in vilifying the pro-life movement as a “single-minded cadre of men who believe that their religious convictions justify violence, destruction and the murder of those whose choices they abhor.” Quindlen obviously did not attend this year’s March for Life. First, more women attended the march than men. Second, the marchers — large families with babies and toddlers in tow, rambunctious adolescents and vivacious teens, young-at-heart senior citizens, and everyone in between — were anything but “violent” and “destructive.”
The irony of Quindlen’s accusations against the pro-life movement — echoes of what Democrats are saying about the “religious right,” in general — is that terrorists and liberals share much more in common philosophically than do terrorists and conservatives. Terrorists believe that violence, rather than prayer and education, is the most effective agent of social change. If since the 60s liberals have stopped blowing up buildings, it’s only because they can now use mainstream media propaganda and big government bureaucracies to press their agenda upon the rest of us. Essentially, liberals and terrorists presume that all human interactions are reducible to relations of power and politics.
Zealous liberals like Quindlen take politics far more seriously than the average pro-lifer. Sure, we vote and march and run for office, but co-creating the Culture of Life does not ultimately depend upon what happens in Washington, D.C. As Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, affirmed at this year’s Vigil for Life: “Being pro-life begins in your heart and your soul. It is not only a banner you carry, but a spirit that emerges from deep within your being.” Love, not power, is the means by which the Culture of Life proliferates — one life and one conversion at a time.
Still, a few political victories would be nice. It would have been nice, for example, if President Bush had attended this year’s march. It would also have been nice if President Bush hadn’t waited until a Friday afternoon to declare 20 January 2002 “National Sanctity of Human Life Day.” And, it would have been nice if pilgrims at the National Prayer Vigil for Life had been treated to a rousing welcome, instead of an insipid greeting delivered by the “undersecretary to the vice president.” Finally, it would have been really nice if President Bush’s State of the Union Address had said something about banning partial-birth abortion and cloning.
Why didn’t President Bush decide to walk a few blocks to address 100,000 of his constituents, many of whom had come hundreds of miles to attend the March for Life? The president clearly thought it was more important to travel to Charleston, W. Va., to plug his energy plan and “economic security” package. Just to put things into perspective, the entire population of Charleston is only 53,421. While in Charleston, Bush spoke to the 500 or so employees of the Cecil I. Walker Machinery Company. Cecil I. Walker is closely affiliated to Caterpillar, Inc., a major donor to Republican causes.
Bush went to West Virginia to talk up “jobs,” to entertain the coal miners of that state with cracker-barrel slogans like, “Jobs are the most important part of one of my jobs.” Bush probably also went to West Virginia because the coal-mining industry, dollar for dollar, donated more to the GOP from 1999 to 2000 than even the oil and gas sector.(1) It seems the president agrees with Bill Clinton’s Marxist summation of American politics: “It’s the economy, stupid.” What Bush doesn’t realize is that he has nothing to gain by being “moderately pro-life.” The media already depicts Bush as a zealous “anti-abortionist.” The president might as well passionately defend the rights of the unborn and appease his electoral base, rather than risk alienating pro-lifers by his inaction.
Anyway, with the Democrats slandering us as terrorists and President Bush taking us for granted, this is a good time to remember that politics is not the instrument by which the Culture of Life will triumph. Human Life International spoke with Cardinal Bevilacqua at the March for Life and asked him what he and his fellow bishops were doing to foster the Culture of Life in their dioceses. The cardinal’s response emphasized the importance of personal sanctity as the key to our victory: “We’re going to educate. We’re going to sacrifice, through prayer and fasting. We’re going to try to make our people a holy people and an active people, but it must begin with holiness.” What the cardinal is saying, and what the Quindlens of the world don’t understand, is that being pro-life is not a policy preference, but a love affair with Jesus Christ.
(1) See the Center for Responsive Politics: www.opensecrets.org.
