We've Brought Protest Signs to a Gun Fight

8:07 PM Marcellino DAmbrosio 2 Comments

This blog is specifically geared toward the childlike, and therefore, I feel it necessary to speak very seriously of children, and in their defense. There is no greater travesty, no more evil offence against the child than to be killed by its own mother.

I just got back from D.C this morning, after a weekend spent with what seemed like every youth group in the country who could afford a couple fifteen passenger vans and a few matching scarves. I’ll be strait with you about the reason I went. I did not go because I am “into” the pro life movement, or because I thought that this year maybe the march would do something. Strait up, I went to the march because it was a chance to unite with my household brothers. We’ve decided to go every year and to make that our annual reunion.

            Don’t get me wrong, the March for Life is something I encourage every Catholic I meet to attend. I think it is an amazing experience to see the countless thousands marching, dancing, singing, descending upon the capital building with flags and banners and signs re-presenting parishes, universities, and religious orders. It is an amazing experience going to the vigil mass and seeing the procession of seminarians, priests, bishops, and cardinals all bowing to the altar at the National Basilica. Hell, just being inside that church is an experience.  But the fact that I went to the March not for vision, or renewal in my own pro life work is telling. The fact that we’ve committed to going to the march every year is telling! People! We don’t believe its going to change! And what’s more is that we don’t believe its going to change for good reason!

            Us Catholics are always ready to argue. We will argue with pro-choicers till kingdom come. We can cite the bible, Aquinas, biology, and statistics; we can show pictures of aborted babies; we can “preach by example” (or whatever that means). What we can’t do is change anything. When your alcoholic nextdoor neighbor is beating his children, you don’t knock on his door and say, “You know, you really ought to respect your kids as human beings.” No, you grab a baseball bat out of your garage, break his freaking door down, and do what is necessary to ensure that he will no longer break his kids fingers for not having the right beer for him when he gets home.

            I don’t want to discount the work that many good people do in the pro life movement. But I do want to call into question the movement as a whole. If we really believed that PEOPLE ARE DYING, the extent of our involvement on the issue would not be putting a “Former Fetus” bumper sticker on the back of our Ford Taurus and arguing with the occasional pro-choicer when our paths cross. I asked a woman’s reproductive health advocate recently if he would die for “women’s rights.” I asked him further if he would kill to defend women’s rights if that was the only possible option. He said no to both.

            My friends, that is what will set us apart, and that is the question we need to ask ourselves. What are we willing to die for? Are you willing to die for your family? Your friends? Your faith? Are you willing to die for the baby that will never get to voice his pain?
            Ok, maybe we can say yes to that. We’re all about dying as Catholics. That’s much more socially acceptable than killing, but I’ll ask it anyway. We are ready to kill terrorists, but they are armed with bombs instead of scalpels. Are we ready to kill in the defense of the defenseless?

            My brother wrote an article on this that I believe really gets the point across, and I’ll post it up tomorrow. In any case, what we need is not philosophy. What we need is people ready for a fight. A real fight. I would propose that the reason why we are losing the prolife battle is because we have brought protest signs to a gun fight.