Matthew Archbold at the National Catholic Register shared a deeply moving story about his interaction in college with a girl who was facing an abortion, and the lesson he learned from that incident 30 years later:
I’m thinking about that girl today because I heard Dr. Helen Alvare speak today at the Vita Institute at the Center for Culture and Ethics at the University of Notre Dame. And, if you know anything about Helen Alvare of George Mason University School of Law you know it was an amazing speech. But she said something about pro-lifers which brought me back to that night.
“If you’re not first and foremost a person who loves other people, people aren’t going to be interested in what you’re saying,” she said. “By correcting lies with logic and words you can’t win.”
It hit me. There was a girl sitting on a curb who needed love and I gave her logic. She needed hope or a hug and I gave her a dissertation. She needed support. She needed a miracle and I … moved on. And what makes it worse was I was proud of myself when I walked away.
I’m thinking about her now as I’m sitting about thirty yards from the Grotto on the university’s campus. I’m thinking that science and logic can do its part in the debate about life but faith and love are the absolutely crucial components to convince people that life is sacred. Women must know that we, as Christians, will not move on.
Science can prove that inside the womb is a human life but only faith can lead them to understand that every life is a miracle. I believe women must be told that God not only loves the wonderful creation inside their womb but that God loves them. And we can’t just tell them God loves them. We must show them God’s love. There’s a difference.
I don’t know if there’s anything I could’ve done that night to save that child and to help that young girl not lose her smile. But I know what I did wasn’t effective, wasn’t right. There was a young woman desperate for love and support and I presented her with a scientific argument. I moved on and a child died.
I’m not saying that science and politics don’t have their place in the fight for life. But I believe that love and faith are the only things that can really save women and the unborn. The issue of life is not at its heart a scientific or political one; if the heart of it isn’t love then it is nothing.
Be sure to read the whole thing here.
This is exactly what our church leaders and all people of faith (and all those who care about women and their unborn children) need to be conveying in our words and actions: that God, and we, love them as well as their babies; that we will will not just present our arguments and “move on;” that we will not abandon them to whatever pressures they are facing and to the cruelty of abortion; and that we will be there for them with whatever they need. And the same goes for those who are struggling with the aftermath of an abortion.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Cor. 13:1)
~~~
About the Church Awareness Project
Help your church break the silence on abortion and become a place of support, advocacy and healing for those at risk of or hurting after abortion. Join the Church Awareness Project to help educate your pastor and church leaders and encourage them to teach and preach on these issues.
Church Awareness Project Resources
Join the Church Awareness Project (and get a free pdf copy of The Jericho Plan)
Letter to Pastors and Other Church Leaders
Complete List of Church Awareness Project Resources
Church Awareness Project Activities and Ideas
Finding Help
Help During Pregnancy
Help After Abortion
