Thought On Being Pro LIfe

One of my favorite blogs http://applecidermama.blogspot.com/ did a fabulous series on openness to life. I won't attempt to recreate what Mrs. Hudson has done but you should go there and read it for yourself!

Reading this article got me thinking about what being pro life means. I have been active in various ways over the years in supporting what I will now label as anti abortion activities. I have worked at crisis pregnancy centers and volunteered in various ways with the right to life movement. I am against abortions. But what Mrs. Hudson article opened my eyes to was that I had allowed myself to be defined by what I was against instead of what I was for. What I am against limits me but what I am for is broad and all encompassing.

This is another area where instead of the church defining pro life and the meaning of being such, that the political process has created the defining vocabulary. In the past, when candidates for political office attempt to reach their base, it is the abortion issue that gets trotted out. Even though the candidates themselves have no intention of doing anything about it the issue mobilizes conservatives. It no longer mobilizes moderates or what I purport is the majority of Christians. The left continues to define the abortion issue as a civil rights issue because it can no longer medically be sustained as a fetus not being life. By defining abortion as pro life we are seen only as the people who want to take away anther's "rights".

Being pro life is about believing that ALL human life is special and sacred to the GOD who created it. This includes but is not limited to the unborn child. Congress has actually debated how old an infant must be to have rights under the constitution. Pro Life includes any person, born or unborn, infirm or healthy, young or aged. It is not limited to those whose IQ is above average. Pro life should include all issues of life, including the morality of stem cell research using embryonic stem cells, cloning, genetic altering and infertility treatments. Does our pro life belief stop at wanting abortion to be illegal or does it stretch out the hand of love to include adopting a child and raising them or housing a single pregnant mother.

I have seen several awe inspiring accounts of woman who have chosen the life of their child over their own by refusing medical treatment for cancers that would kill or injure their child. I have read the stories of woman who so believed the life of the unborn child was sacred and special that they carried that child to full term knowing that it would die at birth. The woman who despite rape understand the life they carried to have purpose and meaning beyond what they see. The family who chooses to not genetically test their unborn child and then loves and raises a handicapped child believing that child to have been created to God as a special beautiful individual whose life has purpose and meaning. The elderly person who has an incurable disease or is dying of old age will die in God's timing in the timing of medical professionals. ALL life is sacred. As Christians this is the Pro Life that we should be defining us, not abortion rights.