If you love the Lord of life and you love the people made in his image you can not help but rejoice at the news that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. I am certainly rejoicing. In fact, when I heard the news I was at the church and my first impulse was to get up and go to the belfry and ring the bell until the whole town was curious to know what I was on about. And you might be wondering why I didn't do it after all. I didn't ring the bells because in November we are going to be voting on Proposal 5, the remarkably evil and ill-considered amendment to the State Constitution that would make Vermont a place so radically pro-abortion as to horrify even progressive Europeans. The "dialogue" leading up to that vote is going to be intense and will challenge our commitments to civility. Things will be adversarial enough without me striking a strident note of triumphalism now. I didn't ring the bells because of Abraham Lincoln's wisdom. I didn't ring the bells because this is a beginning on the path to justice. It is a long overdue beginning and it is a beautifully welcome beginning, but it is only a beginning. There are homeless families to house, hungry children to feed, distressed parents to equip, fractured institutions to fortify, and deeply entrenched systems of sin to dismantle. So, believe me, I'm rejoicing. I'm looking for a baby to hold and anoint with my tears of gratitude. But my neighbors and fellow citizens who are upset about this decision are not my enemies. The cause of life to which I am devoted extends to the inclusion of their life too. That means that if you are hurting or perplexed or angry about the Supreme Court's decision I can't pretend to feel the same way (personally, I am jubilant) but I do sympathize with how you're feeling and I'm less interested in being your opponent than I am in being your neighbor. God bless you, God bless the unborn, and God bless the United States of America.
2 Comments
Margaret Daly
6/24/2022 11:03:08 pm
There is no doubt about where I stand on abortion, but I did not feel happy about the Supreme Court's decision today. Our country does not need one more thing to divide us. After four years of "us vs them" and then a pandemic that brought it's own political divides, I was finally starting to feel like we might be able to start working together as Americans to heal our country. The fire was starting to go out and now gas has been poured on it again. I actually feel like this decision is going to make it harder for the prolife cause because before we were where women went when they needed support and solice. Now the prolife side have become the bully because six justices made a decision that was, in my opinion, politically motivated. Laws won't change abortion rates- caring for our neighbors will.
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Joel Tate
6/25/2022 06:07:20 am
I definitely see your point, Margaret, and share much of your concern. I am so very weary of all the division and am very aware today of how angry many of my friends and neighbors are and of how this may actually represent a setback for the pro-life cause. There is certainly part of me that prefers the relative peace that we enjoyed three days ago. But it's ultimately a matter of justice. Roe v. Wade was an unjust decision that persisted far too long with very damaging effects. I really don't know if the justices who overturned it were better motivated than the justices who were responsible for the original decision in 1973, but their motivation has no bearing on whether or not there is a constitutional right to end the life of an unborn baby.
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