Part two of a discussion on pro-life "cool" with the crew from Life Training Institute (www.prolifetraining.com).
Part two of a discussion on pro-life "cool" with the crew from Life Training Institute (www.prolifetraining.com).
So I’m scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook the other day and see a link to a story on ABC about Focus on the Family running an anti-abortion ad during Super Bowl XLIV starring Tim Tebow. I may have been the last person on the 'Interwebs' (that’s what my 65 year old dad calls it) to see this, but it sparked a few thoughts. In the article, Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, is quoted as saying, “There is nothing political or controversial about the spot.” Are you kidding me? Nothing political or controversial… right. Focus on the Family has become synonymous with both politics and controversy due to its strong alignment with crazy right-wing ideologies.
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A discussion of pro-life "cool" with the crew from Life Training Institute (www.prolifetraining.com).
It depends. What do we mean by "cool" and what will we do to achieve it? But I think abortion is the greatest social justice issue of our time (despite a growing Evangelical aversion to the issue) and therefore, we've got to think carefully about how we communicate the pro-life message. Check out part one of my "cool" discussion with the Life Training Institute crew, in their most recent podcast. |
I’m a bit perplexed by the initial Christian response to the health care crisis. Now, you might not know there is a crisis. If you are college educated and employed, you are likely to have Aetna’s golden ticket tucked into your wallet. Go get a check up, laugh at the $15 co-pay, and be grateful for living the American dream. But what about the others? And what’s driving this crazy health care debate/debacle/disgrace? I look forward to writing a couple of blogs that track through the issue of health care. I know, me and 10,000 other writer-wannabes, trying to scale Mount Everest in slick Adidas sneakers. But I hope we can see Conversant Life do what it does best - create a platform for a healthy discussion. I don’t mind if you disagree with me or others who post, just think first and post second. If you are one of the wing nuts who recently took up screaming at Congressmen in crowded town hall meetings, head back into the attic and unravel the next conspiracy. The rest of us want to have some adult time.
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We knew this was going to happen. A couple of weeks ago, as we were discussing the Christian support of torture, we could see it coming. Suddenly, without warning, Christians were going to emerge miraculously “Pro life.“ Like a mythological Phenix rising from the still hot ashes of a failed Presidential campaign, they would rise. OK, so I’m being dramatic. But really, we did know this was coming, right? I had to take a very deep breath the other night, as CNN showed the President looking campaign-like in glorious South Bend. Now,I’m no fan of Fox, but I have to say that he looked a little smug in the graduation regalia, with his blue velvet robe stripes glowing in the bright camera lights. Like he had won somehow, before he even spoke. And he was right. He did.
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My post on the CatholicVote video has generated some interesting discussion on the Stand to Reason blog. Scott Klusendorf, pro-life master jedi, has weighed in with some wise thoughts that speak to the value of the video and its liabilities:
I must confess to thinking similar thoughts the first time I saw the
clip. If that's the extent of our message--or even our primary
one--we're not doing our job as communicators.
However, given the morally untutored culture we live in, the imagery and message of the clip may still prove helpful. It's hard to change how people think on abortion if you don't first change how they feel about it. On that level, the ad provides a valuable assist. For example, I've met many pro-lifers who initially joined our ranks because of a slogan I think suffers from the same problem Brett identifies above. The slogan reads: "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart." I dislike it, because elective abortion is wrong even if performed prior to the detection of fetal heart activity. Thankfully, many of those same pro-lifers have moved on to more sophisticated and intellectually credible arguments.
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Alright, since I'm on a pro-life blog kick, let me get out one or two more posts on the subject... CatholicVote.org has put out a compelling pro-life video. Tools like this are a powerful way to put our pro-life arguments into narrative form. Unfortunately, I think this video inadvertently gives the wrong justification for the pro-life message. Watch it and then ask the following question: "According to this video, what is the grounds for human value?" The video mistakenly communicates that human life is valuable merely in virtue of its instrumental value.
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Last week I claimed abortion is the greatest social justice issue of our time. That’s a bold claim so more must be said.
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I know, I know. That's the least coolest thing I could've said. If I really wanted to be a hip young evangelical, I would've said poverty or the environment or pointed to some need in Africa (and certainly, these are very important issues). Recently, it’s been trendy to move away from “out-dated” and more volatile social issues like abortion or homosexuality. Oh well. I'm not much for being cool anyhow. Today marks the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, in which seven Supreme Court justices gave us license to kill growing human fetuses in a mother's womb. Oooh, sound harsh? There should be nothing controversial about that last phrase because it accurately describes abortion. "To kill" is accurate because the fetus is alive biologically, so whatever it is, we're killing something that is alive and growing. That's supposedly the problem, right? "Human fetuses" is accurate because it’s in the fetal stage of development and it has human parents. Human parents are only capable of procreating something human. And of course, "mother's womb" is accurate because that's its location.
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