How would you know?
This picture haunts me:
It’s just one of many pictures from a photo album full of pictures of the staff at Auschwitz relaxing and having a great time, sometimes with their children, during on-site retreats. I originally posted it as part of my post about “good people” and “bad people,” but I’ve thought about it many times since then.
For me, this picture symbolizes all average folks who ever lived during times where particularly dark shades of evil gripped societies. It reminds me that though today we can see through the distance of history the thick pall of darkness that overshadowed the world in which these people lived, many of them could not see it themselves when they were in the midst of it. Like being in a city with air pollution, it’s easy to think that the air is clean and fresh when you’re standing in it; it is only when you get some distance and look back that you can see the dark cloud looming over where you were, and know that you were breathing soot all along.
I tend to be an easygoing, optimistic person who focuses more on my little corner of the world than the macro issues of the day. I tend to want to believe the best about people, and guard against buying into hyperbolic rhetoric that makes generalizations about the activities of certain groups of people being particularly heinous — so often, upon reasonable analysis, that type of claim pans out to be nothing more than a lame attempt to vilify people you disagree with.
So I wonder:
If were a 31-year-old woman with three little kids in a busy house in Germany 1941, would I have fully understood the evil that surrounded me? As a woman living in 2008 I can see the horror that was going on there, but at the time there were some awfully sleek lies being told about the situation; it would have been really, really convenient to let myself be persuaded by the lies and just make the nasty little problem go away by telling myself that it wasn’t really a problem at all.
What if I were living in a time and place in India where it was common and accepted for wives to be burned alive on their husband’s funeral pyres? Or living in Rwanda when an entire race of people were murdered by their neighbors? Or a citizen of pagan Rome where newborn girls were frequently “discarded” with hardly a second thought? The people in those times and places had cheery, sunny days, went to birthday parties and get-togethers with friends with lots of yummy food, and had daily lives not terribly different than our own. There are no records in any of these cases that indicate that average people fully comprehended what was going on around them or were as outraged as they should have been at the atrocities in their midst.
It is sobering to realize that the odds are that I would not have been one of the very few people who saw it all for what it was.
Recently I was looking through some genealogy documents and noticed that a distant ancestor of mine owned a slave. My own flesh and blood, people probably not unlike me at all, participated in the horror of slavery. Can I be so sure that I would have seen the truth? Or, if I had lived alongside my ancestor, would I have included a human being on the list of possessions I owned? Even if I didn’t own a slave myself, would I have shooed the distasteful subject from my mind by surrounding myself with the comfort that all my friends seemed to think it was fine and, after all, it was perfectly legal? Evil’s most powerful tool is that it always works through lies; the lure to tell yourself that something bad is not really bad at all is a powerful temptation, and one that I’m not sure I could have resisted.
Sometimes I think about this, and wonder what advice I would pass along to my own descendants to make sure this never happens again; to help future generations guard against being blinded should they find themselves in the midst of a culture where something terrible is taking place.
But the question is: How would you know?
What litmus test could you offer that would apply to all places and all times as a way for a person to look around themselves with completely clear eyes, piercing through even the thickest fog of self-delusion and widespread cultural acceptance, and see that they are surrounded by grave evil? Is there any simple way for a person to immediately undergo an earth-rocking paradigm shift in which they look up and realize that the world around them is not what they thought it was?
One thing that stands out in all these examples is that the victims of the widespread evil were categorized as something less than human. In fact, though the exact level and degree of evil that took place may vary, one thing that unites all of these practices as worthy of a place in the Human Depravity Hall of Fame is not only that innocent people were killed or enslaved, but that their humanity was taken away by the societies around them. The Nazis classified their victims as sub-human, less worthy of life than the better members of the race; wives were burned with their husbands because they were seen as nothing more than property; in the 90′s in Rwanda the media fueled the genocide by assuring citizens over and over again that Tutsis were not fully human, referring to them as insects rather than people; the Romans accepted it as a matter of fact that baby girls inherently had fewer rights to live than baby boys; and in early America enslaved men, women and children were accepted by both government and society at large to be barely above livestock in their dignity and worth.
So here is the advice I would offer to my children, and to my children’s children:
Every decade or so, take a look around the society in which you live, and ask yourself if there is any group of human beings who are seen as something less than human. A big tipoff is if dehumanizing words — terms other than “man,” “woman,” “child,” “baby,” or “person” — are used to describe any category of people.
And if you ever see that going on, you might be in the midst of something gravely evil.
UPDATE: A Part II to this post is here: Abortion and Holocaust comparisons
RELATED: the Supreme Court documents of Stenberg v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Carhart. Also, how I became pro-life.
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Excellent post. Well-written with a poignant kick at the end.
I thought that is where you were headed and I’m so glad I was right. Excellent post!
I linked. Hope that’s OK.
Beautifully written post Jen. Thank you.
This may be the single best post you’ve ever written. Bravo, my dear friend.
Thank you.
Beautiful post. After recently having an argument with a pro choice friend, who really didn’t hear a word I said, I have to wonder if some of those people chose to live in ignorance because it was easier. It certainly seems to be that way for some. We always have to be aware. Otherwise history is apt to repeat itself.
I already commented to say I linked but now I’m commenting to comment.
A few weeks ago I was telling my sister-in-law about another of your posts. It was one of the quick takes with the story about the meteor shower. I told my sister-in-law that what struck me was that the slave owners’ reactions seemed to indicate that they knew that slavery was wrong. She sort of shrugged and something like, “I think people have always known it was wrong, but maybe they just pushed it down.”
It wasn’t until a few days ago that I made the connection between that conversation and the issue of abortion and wondered about broaching the subject to my pro-choice sister-in-law.
So, thank you.
What a fabulous post. I real enjoy your blog so much. I hope you don’t mind if I like to this in mine.
I think this was a beautiful post. Not only are aborted children known as ‘fetuses’, ‘blobs of tissues’ or worse yet, ‘your choice’ but also, physically and mentally challenged people are being called ‘drains on our economy’ (Google the recent case of a doctor denied Australian immigration status b/c of his Down’s syndrome son). As I don’t have to tell you or your readers, 90% of Down’s Syndrome babies are aborted. Because they are different (and some of them are probably misdiagnosed anyway), ‘lesser’, etc. Its funny in an age where we seek to be politcally correct and we praise blacks, Hispanics and other minorities for rising above their challenges (as we rightly should), that we cannot see we are denying the same rights..of life!!. . to other, lesser beings…
A wonderful post. If I were currently teaching Social Studies, I would link that video about the Holocaust to my middle schoolers. Very powerful stuff.
Thank you so much-I just finished Viktor Frankl’s riviting account of three years spent in a concentration camp and he mentions only being a number. In the camp, the prisoners were treated as one who had no name, family history or humanity. I guess the Nazis were able to do this by first not calling them what they were human beings.
Does anyone have any advice for discussing pro-abortion with friends, even with friends at work, who bring up the topic? It’s so difficult for me because I want to maintain the relationship and I want to speak the truth in love.
Thanks ,Jen, for your post.
Kathy
Thank you for this beautiful post!
This is such a provocative and excellent post.
Wow. This is so fabulous. I have shared and emailed it, etc.
Evil is sneaky. That is the way it works. And it sometimes makes us doubt what that whispery small voice tells us.
Awesome post. Amazing how desensitized we can become if we don’t stop and look around!
Beautiful post. Thank you! I’m emailing the link to friends and family.
Fabulous post. On a day that leaves me questioning, I needed the clearness of this. Thank you.
great post. i often think about that too in the time of hitler, what people were really thinking and if they were aware of the evil going on around them. it’s something we should never forget. thanks for posting an enlightening reminder.
Thank you. So well said.
Brava, Jen… what a great post. Thank you!
Thank you soooooo much for this post. WELL said.
I found your blog via Creative Minority Report. This post rocks.
I’ve linked to it from my own blog. Keep up the good work.
so perfectly done. i can’t wait to buy your book.
Great post.
Definitely the best anti-abortion argument I have read. You are the only blogger I read that has similar values as mine (I mean, we’re both Catholic and converts, so there’s that) and one day last week I happened upon someone’s blog who had had an abortion and spoke of the horror and hurt from doing it, but DOESN’T regret her decision. I really didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything at all. Perhaps like a German living in Nazi Germany.
I think about this a lot: How could one know if he is wrong…and the value of questioning one’s beliefs. I recently watched the movie Spartacus and one scene serves as another example that stands beside Nazi Germany, India, Rwanda…ancient Rome and their treatment of the gladiators. The scene involves aristocratic woman selecting men to fight for their death…all for their entertainment.
If anyone wants to enjoy a wonderful story of a young girl and her family that refused to go along during the Nazi era in Germany, I highly recommend the the life of Sophie Scholl. The movie is great, but treats only her adult life. The biography by Hermann Vinke shows how her parents’ formation rendered her capable as a youngster to critically evaluate the culture at large…and think/act contrary to her peers.
Excellent post, Jen. You’re blooming into quite the moral philosopher.
I’ve just one little quibble on the subject of “sati” (wife burning): the dehumanization did not seem to stem from a possessive objectification of the spouse per se, but rather from a subordination of the wife’s dignity in deference to custom and holy (though this was debated) tradition.
You’re so inspiring that you make me post things I would normally shy away from!
Thank you for posting this.
Excellent, excellent post. I just finished reading “Left to Tell,” an autobiographical account of the genocide in Rwanda. (Breathtaking read if anyone is interested).
I can’t WAIT for the day when we get to look back on this scourge of abortion as a smear in our country’s history. No doubt it will take longer, because unlike the Tutsis, the Jews and the Africans, unborn babies do not have a voice. Hey everyone – be the voice!
Thanks Jen – God bless you.
great post! I linked it up last night.
Very interesting. I think there’s a good deal of truth here. I came to some similar conclusions in this post:
http://traditioetvirtus.blogspot.com/2008/10/complicity.html
Great post, but I do have to wonder – even if abortion is made illegal – will it end? It went on prior to Roe v. Wade, and as you have pointed out, similar practices have always gone on- isn’t education a better way? Isn’t providing care and support for surprise pregnancies – (not everyone, unfortunately, welcomes these precious unplanned babies – and they *do* happen, just ask Sarah Palin’s daughter) better than a dangerous abortion for a girl/woman who may feel she has no other option? Wouldn’t it be better to educate ALL people about the options other than abortions, whether those abortions be legal or illegal, safe or unsafe?
Such a complicated issue, one not solved by legal and illegal, but maybe one that can be solved in our own homes with education of right from wrong (in the case of abortion), and good choices from bad (in the case of premarital sex).
It really isn’t up to the government. It’s up to us, as parents and Catholics/Christians, to bring abortion to it’s close. Our responsibility. Not our politicians.
Education and the teaching of welcoming new life will end an ill-perceived need for abortion, and the politicians can’t do that. Only we can, in our families.
It was either Belloc or Chesterton who said something to the effect that it is easy to be blind to an evil as long as it’s big enough.
Judy
Profound post. I still have chills. Written so humbly and honestly. It’s this kind of thoughtfulness that will change hearts. God bless you!
I’m with penney up there. Through individual example, through an outpouring of money into crisis pregnancy centers, through raising our children prolife, we can beat back this scourge of abortion. The tactics used up until now by the prolife movement have been counterproductive and polarizing.
For the person who asked how best to communicate prolife sentiments to proabortion people, emphasize the mother-to-be. You can proclaim until you are blue in the face that what they call a fetus is a baby, and you will not convince them. They base their arguments on the rights of the pregnant woman. So go where they are. Speak about the right of the pregnant woman not to be violated physically by an abortion; speak about her right to be treated as valuable even when pregnant; speak of her right to decent medical care and housing. And act on that. Make sure that everyone in this country has access to decent health care, make sure that everyone who is working 40 hours a week is being paid a living wage, make sure that a woman raising a baby alone can support herself. That will prevent more abortions than all the “life begins at conception” rhetoric that prolifers throw at them.
And, although I understand the similarities you are trying to illustrate by using the Holocaust as an example, you are alienating every single liberal Jew in the US by doing so. Granted, life is life, in the womb or out of it. No argument there. But you will never convince me that a 6-week baby killed in the womb suffers as much as a mother watching her children shot to death in front of her, or a mother who led her children into the gas chamber with her. Don’t even try to compare that suffering. It doesn’t work; and even as a prolifer, I am pissed off when I see it.
It’s not just you, of course, Jennifer; I’ve seen it everywhere in the past few weeks. It’s awful. And it doesn’t convert the people who need to be converted.
And lastly, as always, I love your blog.
To be able to educate with out preaching is such a gift. Your writing will resonate for generations in one way or another. Thank you for sharing this gift of the Holy Spirit that’s been poured out in you in such abundance!
SC -
But you will never convince me that a 6-week baby killed in the womb suffers as much as a mother watching her children shot to death in front of her, or a mother who led her children into the gas chamber with her. Don’t even try to compare that suffering. It doesn’t work; and even as a prolifer, I am pissed off when I see it.
My point was not that abortion is the exact same thing as the Holocaust, but that both are in a special category of evil that you only see when a group of people are considered less than human.
And thanks for your suggestions about how to evangelize the pro-life position!
What an incredible post. I was just telling my friend the other day how sad it makes me that I live in a society where whether or not killing your baby should be legal is one of the top issues dividing the country.
suburbancorrespondent,
I just want to say thank you for your comment. Your response has given me courage to post a comment here (I originally just emailed Jen with my thoughts).
You wrote:
And, although I understand the similarities you are trying to illustrate by using the Holocaust as an example, you are alienating every single liberal Jew in the US by doing so. Granted, life is life, in the womb or out of it. No argument there. But you will never convince me that a 6-week baby killed in the womb suffers as much as a mother watching her children shot to death in front of her, or a mother who led her children into the gas chamber with her. Don’t even try to compare that suffering. It doesn’t work; and even as a prolifer, I am pissed off when I see it.
It’s not just you, of course, Jennifer; I’ve seen it everywhere in the past few weeks. It’s awful. And it doesn’t convert the people who need to be converted.
Not only liberal Jews, but just plain liberals (me) who sympathize with what Jews endured in the Holocaust. I am pro-life and voted for Obama for similar reasons as you. As someone struggling with the Christian faith, I always find it a turn-off to see abortion compared with the Holocaust and those who vote for Democrats compared to Nazis. I’m not accusing Jen of this, but it is happening. I’m seeing it a lot in the Catholic blogosphere, where I often go looking for encouragement and insight. I desperately want to believe the Christian faith, but stuff like this does more to push me away than draw me toward Christ.
Phenomenal post. Thank you.
“The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his own age.”
G.K. Chesterton
Re-read Humanae Vitae. Things have pretty much played out the way Paul VI predicted.
“Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.”
I am pro-life. I also believe that similiar to prohibition in the 1920′s, making abortion illegal does not make something go away. It mearly drives it underground, back alley and dangerous.
The best way to stop abortions? Education. Education. Education.
SC -
But you will never convince me that a 6-week baby killed in the womb suffers as much as a mother watching her children shot to death in front of her, or a mother who led her children into the gas chamber with her. Don’t even try to compare that suffering. It doesn’t work; and even as a prolifer, I am pissed off when I see it.
Perhaps the child doesn’t suffer as much…. but the mother does.
Killing your child or seeing your child killed seem to me to hit equally hard and be equally evil.
I agree with Jen though, the point is about the evils we as a society excuse.
Evil is evil – there are not varying degrees.
Just like you can’t be kinda pregnant.
This is why gay and lesbian people are actually natural allies of the prolife movement, btw. And I know not a few prolife gay and lesbian people.
The specific argumentative problem with abortion, in my experience, is that one is really arguing over assumptions (that is, the assumption about where human life begins – in terms of argument, it more clearly fits the role of assumption than conclusion). And assumptions are notoriously difficult to argue about. My general recommendation is to save provocative overheated rhetoric for intimate one-on-one conversations, rather than general broadcasting, where the rhetorical overkill tends to subvert the goal of persuasion. Most people have the exact opposite tendency – they soft sell in person and shout at strangers, as it were. This has been the Achilles heel of most advocacy movements, and the prolife movement is not a notable exception in that regard.
They knew it.
At least by 1941 they knew it. Perhaps not in 1933, but increasingly over the years it became clear.
Of course, there were true believers — remember, National Socialism was called “nothing but applied biology” — who very much believed that extermination was, not only ethically justified, but a moral imperative because, in their twisted minds, Jews, handicapped, et al. are not “real” human beings, but parasitic vermin who are poisoning and threatening society, and so must be eliminated. The true believer National Socialist thought that what they were doing was “good,” not evil. It bears remembering that the origin and main impetus behind what ultimately became the Holocaust was not nationalist or racist philosophies, but instead came from the medical profession. That is, the racist Nazi monsters got many of their ideas from doctors.
Of course, most of the National Socialists recognized that such was not a universally-agreed morality. But they thought themselves to be superior to “traditional morality,” they thought themselves to be “beyond good and evil” as traditionally held. Still, few of them believed that what they were doing was an evil for which they would burn in hell for — otherwise, they clearly would not have done it.
Most Germans, of course, were not such true believers. Many knew in their hearts the evil they participated in, but they deceived themselves in order to be able to continue doing it. They willingly went along with the lie, knowing it to be a lie.
And then there were those who knew it was evil, and did not want to go along, but who also did not want to end up in a concentration camp or dead themselves. So, out of fear, they kept quiet.
And finally, there were those who did not go along, but who actively opposed the evil. Many of them became victims themselves – martyrs. Being the film buff that I am, there are a couple of good true history movies to consider -
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (2005), about the White Rose opposition movement
The Hiding Place (1975), about the Dutch ten Boom sisters who helped hide Jews in a kind of underground railroad, and ended up in a concentration camp themselve.
Thank you for the post and link. God Bless,
Kelly
Well written post. Here’s my thought process as someone who calls herself prochoice. Do I believe a baby is a “baby” from the moment of conception? Absolutely. Do I believe in abortion? No. Would I choose it for myself? Never. Do I understand woman who use it like birth control(and I have known a few)- no WAY. Does making abortion illegal STOP abortions? – NO. Therein lies the problem. History has shown us that on top of aborted babies whose lives were NOT saved by the fact abortion was illegal- we had a whole other layer of people who died or were maimed by these illegal procedures. I think the problem needs to be solved another way. Three fold- better counseling and pro adoption efforts as options for pregnant women, better sex ed and contraception availability for high risk women, and finally focus on the children whose parents did choose life- and then ruined it for them. I worked for many years as a counselor to mentally ill teenagers and let me tell you- the abuse these living members of society have endured most times at the hands of relatives or foster parents is unthinkable. They are here and they are hurting and focusing some of this pro life energy into pro- quality life could make a huge difference- help break the cycle. A cycle that could end in abortion otherwise.
about the language used to dehumanize others, may I add to conversation these terms: “illegals” and “illegal aliens.”
I recently heard a Holocaust survivor speak about his experiences and lessons learned. He has resided in the US pretty much since he was liberated from the last of 7 camps he spent time in.
He loves America and talks about this being a place where racial hatreds do not exist and where such a genocide could never occur. I would like to agree, but I think at some time in the future, if we continue along this path, we might arrive at that point. Certainly we are not close to that now, but if the seeds are there, they can be sown.
Though this is not on the level of the truly horrific evil of abortion, this post reminded me of the gravity of this other social evil that we cannot afford to ignore.
This post makes me think of other dehumanizing terms such as “illegals” or “illegal aliens.”
not as horrifically evil as abortion, but a social evil we cannot afford to ignore.
Liam,
Explain to me EXACTLY how the gay/lesbian rights movement is a natural ally with the pro-life movement.
Gays and lesbians got a shot at life. Aborted babies didn’t.
Gays and lesbians who are militant about gay rights want to tear down family, claiming that natural parents and natural family structure are about as important as what brand of breakfast cereal one chooses. Militant pro-lifers want to build family up and place proper value on parenthood, especially motherhood.
Charlotte
Dear Jennifer,
I linked on the The Four Mass’keteers. Great post.
Excellent, excellent post. I’ve always noticed the language used to by those who are pro-abortion and its attempt to euphemistically deny the humanity of unborn children. It was used by southerners to justify slavery, it was used by the nazis to justify the holocaust, and now these same techniques are being used by the pro-abortion (anti-life?) campaigns. And it is also being used by those who think that killing people with certain disabilities is acceptable and even good. Language itself can be a powerful method to prevent people from thinking about the truth.
Jen, This was an amazing post. So well written.
Gina,
You are very correct in saying that making abortion illegal, won’t stop it. I think most people can agree with that. No law ever stops any crime. We still have murder, and rape, and child abuse, and neglect, and stealing. We still have many horrible things. But, by making abortion legal, we as a society have said that this act is okay. Abortion is not ok. Having babies torn apart is not okay.
We live in a civil society, and if we recognize something as evil, we need to be truthful about it. Keeping abortion legal, and thus accepted within society, is not being truthful. It is a false witness to all of its citizens to say an act is evil, but at the same time condone it.
We need lawmakers and politicians to recognize evil for what it is, and speak against it through their words and their actions.
I, along with many others, do care about women who may obtain illegal abortions, and I would do anything to make it stop. But, we cannot condone the practice as a society.
So many people say they are pro-choice, and that they would never want abortion for themselves, or anyone else, but don’t want it to be made illegal. This position is confusing.
Can I make the same argument if I say “Parents shouldn’t abuse their children, but I support their choice to.” This is a false argument and illogical argument.
We need to call evil for what it is. Abortion is evil. There are multiple ways to deal with it, but by keeping it legal, we have made statement that it is allowed and it
is perfectly okay.
Aisha
Excellent post. We recently had Randall Terry speak at our Right to Life banquet and he made the same comparisons using slavery, the women’s sufferage movement, and child labor. When you compare the atrocity of abortion to horrific events of the past, it puts it into perspective for those who may not already see it.
It is said that some of the monks of Scetis once went looking for Abba Anthony, the father of all monks, to tell him about some visions they had had, to find out whether they were true or came from demons. As it happened the donkey they had carrying their few supplies died while they were traveling. When they arrived at Abba Anthony’s cell, Abba Anthony asked them, “How did the donkey which was carrying your supplies die?” The brothers were amazed and asked him how he knew that their donkey had died. Abba Anthony replied that the demons had shown him what had happened. The brothers were amazed and said, “This is what we were coming to ask about, because we have been having visions which often proved true.”
One lesson I take from this story, which is a paraphrase of the 12th saying of Anthony the Great in Benedicta Ward’s The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, is that demons prefer truth to lies. I suspect that only the weakest of demons use mostly lies, and even they stick close to natural human tendencies like our trust of friends. The Father of lies, on the other hand, may just cosy up to us, put a hand around our shoulder, whisper in our ear the true costs of discipleship in detail, and finish by telling us how profoundly we are lost. Then he lets us give birth to whatever lie we think will let us avoid effectively confronting the truth about ourselves and our society. After all, if we despair (and despair is a comprehensible response to the difficult issues of our day), we are his, and if we cling to a lie, we are still his. While exposing the lies to which we have given birth is a worthwhile endeavor, it becomes a waste of time when we don’t follow it up by doing everything we can to alter the reality that led us to give birth to the lie in the first place.
You asked what sort of litmus test could be provided to determine whether one is surrounded by grave evil. Your suggestion that where we see human beings being described as something less than human (something which is done regularly to glbt folks in other parts of the world) grave moral evil is probably present is a good one, but I think one might be as well served by praying daily (especially praying the psalms), avoiding unneccesary talking (although chatting has its place), listening a great deal, and focusing on showing others how they might live better in detail preferably by example while avoiding accusing them whether they are guilty or not.
Jon
May I add that I believe the same evil to be true of the word orphan?
Orphan is a neat and tidy word that we use to help us bypass the ugly, grim reality that there are 5 million souls roaming the earth with no one to care for them. Less than 1% are in orphanages. The others must fend for themselves (according to Unicef).
Let’s also stop using the word orphan and instead say child. Person. Human.
Hi Jennifer and everyone else,
I just saw this from New York’s Cardinal Egan and wanted to pass it on.
http://www.archny.org/news-events/columns-and-blogs/cardinals-monthly-column/index.cfm?i=9314
There is nothing dehumanizing about calling “Illegal Aliens” Illegal Aliens. This is a status, not dehumanization, and it’s no more dehumanizing than calling some people criminals if they violate the law. The Church states that governments have a right to control immigration, and to limit migration flows, so long as this is done humanely. Those seeking to enter our country, especially Christians, have a duty to obey our laws while doing so, and if they do not, they have committed an illegal act, and they are aliens. So where is the dehumanization in describing them as such?
Deporting people who enter our country illegally is NOT evil, if done properly and humanely. Can we please have a moratorium on describing every policy we don’t agree with as “evil”? It cheapens the term, and makes real evil harder to spot and combat.
Tschafer
Aisha intersting. Your statement about parent who abust their children -stopped me in my tracks. I guess that’s because it’s not considered by society as their choice- it’s considered wrong by society- which i guess is the whole point this post was trying to make. wow. I never thought of it that way.
So what pro-life is saying is let’s call this evil, make it illegal, and then together find a way to solve the problems having it illegal will create?
I have never heard that thought process- and frankly, it makes sense- that is something I could stand behind- a movement with a willingness to solve the problems not just throw opinions around- which is how I had always viewed “pro-lifers”.
This post made me think of the psychological phenomenon called the “uncanny valley”. A post that explores the uncanny valley in relation to racism is here.
Gina-
Yes. I would do anything to help women, but at the same time we need to acknowledge evil for what it is.
I want to help as many women as I can. There are various reasons why women get abortions, and various solutions. We need to come together and try to find solutions to these problems. I have such a huge heart for any and all pregnant women out there.
We, women, are so blessed to be able to carry new life.
Aisha
Thank you for the great post.
Aisha,
I agree with gina, your statement about abusive parents was a powerful one, and gave me another way of looking at the issue, so thank you for weighing in.
this conversation leads me to something i have been wondering about for some time, related to stem cell research as it relates to in vitro fertilization. (these questions are directed toward anyone here who might have the knowledge, not Aisha in particular). i understand the Church as being against stem cell research, is that correct? is the Church also against in vitro fertilization, knowing that some of the embryos will not survive the implantation process? and would the fact that embryos are frozen and in a state of suspended animation be considered child abuse? are there certain fertility treatments the Church approves of and others it does not? or are all fertility treatments seen as contrary to the Church’s teachings on marriage, procreation, and the dignity of life?
i know it’s off the original topic, i’m just curious.
How is it possible to put this? I think that it is true that, deep-down, we know abortion is anti-human, but dire situations remain. What do we do with women who have abortions? Are they criminals like the Nazis? Like slave owners? If abortion is murder, aren’t these women murderers?
Is it wrong to ask this question?
No, the proper term is “undocumented immigrants.” or “persons with no legal status.” The semantic difference is huge because of the very argument you make about breaking the law: it is not a moral issue. But turning away a stranger probably is.
At the moment, for many such persons, the difference between being a lawful permanent resident (=greencard holder) and an undocumented immigrant is simply time. The backlog of eligible people who are just waiting to have their paperwork processed is years long. For others, it is a (heavy) penalty fee. According to our laws, you are only deportable IF you do not qualify for a green card on grounds of family, an asylum case, a domestic violence case, and so on. Or if you have committed a serious crime. Not for simply being here without the proper paperwork. And the law also guarantees the rights of these individuals to proper hearings. These are OUR laws.
It is also against our laws to drive above the speed limit and is no doubt the cause of more innocent deaths than unlawfully present individuals, by their mere presence.
Toby –
You bring up a good and important issue, and one that the pro-life movement absolutely must address head-on. I think that Darwin hosted a good discussion of it here if you have any interest.
Charlotte, the current Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria has very publicly stated that they are lower than dogs because of how they express their sexuality. Very few of his collegues in Africa and South East Asia have shown any interest in either repudiating his words or in trying to get him to change his rhetoric. He also has supporters in the US who used to be part of TEC. In fact one of the major reasons he began trying to take over from the current Anglican church in the US is because we don’t beat up gay folks often enough for him.
Aisha, I’m generally against doing things primarily to make a statement, especially when the symbolic action is making something illegal, because it doesn’t seem to take the problem seriously enough. It also opens to door to unintended consequences. If one wants to make a statement it seems to me to be better to stick mostly with words, and when using actions stick to trying to effectively solve the problem. For example I saw some research probably a year or two ago which suggested that Americans have a low opinion of giving kids up for adoption (it gets compared to abandonment IIRC) and also suggested that ads suggesting that single mothers could maintain a solidly middle class or upper middle class lifestyle were very effective at getting people to be pro-life. At the time my only complaint against the ad I saw described in that study was that it seemed to be lying to folks about the very real challenges facing single mothers.
I think it’s also worth noting in passing that, while everyone is against child abuse, folks mean radically different things by the term. For example some feel that striking a child is never appropriate while others will make a kid go cut his own switch. This can make laws on child abuse difficult to write well.
Jon
Jen, I’ve prayed at Carhart’s clinic. It’s a sad, desperate, and horrible place.
A beautiful, powerful post.
Toby, no, you’re not wrong to ask that question. Levels of culpability vary … abortion is far more often about coercion, fear and desperation than it is about wanting to take a life. But the truth is that many women who are currently able to seek out a legal abortion would never pursue the twisted machinations it would take to achieve an illegal one. We should at least be able to say, as a civilized society, that this is wrong, that we do not sanction this.
Another good outlet for learning more about post-abortive options and about helping the mothers is the Eliot Institute, at After Abortion.
It’s interesting that many of the commenters have compared Nazi Germany and explained that the people had to know that evil was going on. I live in Warsaw, and much of the history we learn is about the people who fought back against the Nazis. I think it was much easier for the Poles to fight because they were all oppressed. One of my language teachers had her brother shot (along with all the boys in the neighborhood) on a street corner, and they were all ethnic Poles. So when that sort of thing is happening, it’s easy to determine what is evil. For the Germans in Germany it wasn’t as easy.
Auschwitz is in Poland (it was Poland at the time too, since the borders have changed since then). Sure, there were concentration camps in Germany (Dachau being the most well known), and there were horrors going on there, but the real horror was exported to other countries. And those people living around Auschwitz (which is a pretty small town even today) were doing what they could to help out, because they knew that no matter what they did, they could just as easily become victims.
I guess, when you are faced with evil, it’s very easy to fall into cognitive dissonance – “what should I do? This doesn’t go along with what I think is right.” So you wish it away. “It’s not as bad as all that.” And that’s where the non-human aspect comes in. A person convinces themselves that that being is less than human or somehow deserves it. The mind is very powerful.
Charlotte
Um, gay and lesbian people are among the many groups of people whose lives are often treated by others as less than human, even to the point of lethal violence (it's not a fiction, and if you think it's a thing of the past you are quite mistaken). Anyone who does not fit "normal" is liable to that.
Now, many gay & lesbian people have been deluded into buying into that idea that, because any legal protections they get have typically come under the civil law rubric of personal privacy – which was vastly expanded initially for contraception and abortion but actually has a long and less bedevilled history before that time – they should be "pro-choice".
But, with patient and persistent one-on-one conversation, one can engage them in seeing past that delusion into how their own dignity is much more firmly grounded in a pro-life perspective (albeit of a progressive sort) rather than a privacy perspective.
It does work. But in order for prolifers to have any chance of success, we have to get over assuming gay and lesbian people are natural enemies of the prolife movement.
And that itself takes a lot of work with some prolifers. So it's no surprise why gay folk might be wary of us in turn.
But you will never convince me that a 6-week baby killed in the womb suffers as much as a mother watching her children shot to death in front of her, or a mother who led her children into the gas chamber with her. Don’t even try to compare that suffering. It doesn’t work; and even as a prolifer, I am pissed off when I see it.
You’re right; they don’t compare. The one mother suffers as her child is killed in front of her very eyes. The other mother is so deceived by the lies her society has been telling her for years that she willingly chooses to kill her own child. Maybe the second mother or her child doesn’t suffer as much, but what it says about our society is infinitely worse.
And yes, abortions happened before they were legalized, but nowhere near the amount that happen post-Roe v Wade. By this logic, we should also legalize rape, murder, and child abuse because “they’re happening anyway, and some of the criminals are being hurt in the process”.
A Square Peg,
i understand the Church as being against stem cell research, is that correct? is the Church also against in vitro fertilization, knowing that some of the embryos will not survive the implantation process? and would the fact that embryos are frozen and in a state of suspended animation be considered child abuse? are there certain fertility treatments the Church approves of and others it does not? or are all fertility treatments seen as contrary to the Church’s teachings on marriage, procreation, and the dignity of life?
Your question is very close to me as my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for 2.5 years, but submit ourselves to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
First, the Church only opposes embryonic stem cell research, as in order to do that, embryos must be destroyed. Adult stem cell research, however, is morally permissible (stem cells are taken from the umbilical cord, etc.), highly encouraged and has actually had far more success in finding cures than embryonic.
Yes, the Church adamantly opposes in-vitro fertilization for precisely the reasons you named–in order to have one or two embryos successfully implanted, numerous more are created and frozen, left in test tubes in some lab somewhere. NOT an acceptable casualty for bringing that other child or two into the world (beside the Church’s rejection of any act that takes sex out of the procreative act, but that’s a topic for another post).
The Church is not opposed to fertility drugs, such as clomid, so long as the couple is willing to accept all of the children that could possibly be conceived from taking it (triplets or more and such). What the Church emphasizes, over and over again (and this includes weighing out the decision to adopt) is that children are a GIFT, not a RIGHT. So the fact that my spouse and I desperately want children is not reason enough for us to go out and adopt. We have to have set the priorities of the child higher than satisfying our own desires. It is a beautiful teaching, but very hard to live sometimes.
We have also looked at the moral permissibility of adopting frozen embryos (having embryos that were already created by others for in-vitro or what-have-you implanted into my uterus to give them a shot at life). Again, this boiled down to our motives for doing so (as far as I know, that Church has not come out against this practice–I’m not even sure that many people have tried doing it).
So some thoughts to consider as you reflect on the Church’s full pro-life stance.
Jen–awesome post!