Moving Forward

As you can probably tell by the tone of my post last night, I’m disappointed in the results of the election. I’m especially disappointed in the coverage regarding pro-life legislation and the candidates’ positions. Flipping between several major news networks, I never once heard a mention of how abortion played a part in the results. They were quick to mention the economy, the race and age of the candidates, even the religious views of the voters, but no mention on how the candidates’ position on abortion played into the results. As pro-lifers, we need to work to make respect of life a more front and center issue in the 2012 election.

Echoing many other conservative Catholic bloggers, we need to be respectful of Mr. Obama and those who have been elected to office. We can disagree with their positions and argue against what they stand for, but we must not fall into the trap of attacking the person that many fell into during President Bush’s terms in office. To engage in ad hominem attacks is completely uncharitable and will not help advance the pro-life cause. We need to pray for those who hold elected office, engage them charitably without name-calling or insults, and debate without yelling or slander. In short, we need to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” Sound familiar?

I wish to congratulate President-elect Obama and all those who achieved political office during this election season. May God bless you and this country, and may you serve this country with the respect of all life.

That’s all folks

Pretty much every major news channel is saying that the President of the United States will be Barack Obama, and he’ll have a Democratic Congress. I admit to being disappointed by the results, as unsurprising as they are. We now have a president who is unabashedly pro-abortion (excuse me, “pro-choice”) and House and Senate majorities who agree with his position. Now, instead of making any further movement towards ending abortion in this country, slight though it may have been under McCain, we likely will end up going back to 1973-era free and open access to abortion on demand.

How do we who have fought for the respect of life respond? With prayer, lots of it. We can’t change the end result of today’s election, but we can get on our knees and humbly ask God to soften all our hearts. We can’t give up — the lives of the children at risk depend on us not to — but we need to make sure that we’re in tune with God’s will.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve felt that we need to get the pro-life message out into the public more strongly than we already have. With the results of today’s election, it becomes even more important. Groups like Face the Truth have been doing a good job getting the pictures of aborted children out to the streets, but we need to do more. Rachel’s Vineyard has a fairly large and noticeable billboard right off of Main Street here in town, but we need to do more. We need to get the pro-life message so pervasive that it doesn’t matter if abortion is legal, no woman ever wants to have one. I don’t know how to do it, I don’t know how much it’ll cost, I definitely don’t know how long it’ll take, but we need to get the pro-life message so ingrained in our culture that abortion mills go out of business for lack of clients. Frankly, the only way this will happen is through God’s grace, so we need to pray for guidance and pray for His mercy upon our country.

Please pray for President-elect Obama, all the elected government officials, and for the respect of all life from conception to natural death.