A day for life and for living!

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.

---