Monday, May 23, 2011

My First March for Life

I'd always been a quiet pro-lifer.  I guess somewhere I'd gotten the message that abortion was something that you're not supposed to talk about in polite company, like religion and politics, I guess.  Many years and much thought later, I made the mental connection that someone I respected, that talked about this issue quite openly, publicly, also attended my church.  This got me thinking again. I was inspired by her courage, and I remember being struck by the realization, "we can talk about this!" So, the other week, when I noticed that the March for Life date was coming up, I really wanted to go.  I wasn't sure I would be able to for childcare reasons, but on realizing that my husband would be working at home that day, and so could pick up our older children from school, I scooped my two younger kids up, got them in the van, and headed to downtown Ottawa for the National March for Life. 
With some difficulty I found parking, got my kids' little wagon out of the trunk, tucked in my daughters and followed the cheers.  The thing that I was struck by, perhaps second only to the awareness that hey, I'm not alone, was the realization of how Christian the event was.  I might as well have walked into a church service.  From the Christian rock band that was playing to the clergy that was visable to the church service that closed the event, Christians appeared to be everywhere.  Why is that, I thought to myself?  So many questions that have been flooding my mind for the past several years came again to mind. Where do human rights come from?  Are human rights an intrinsically Judeo-Christian concept?  What is meant by the sanctity of life?  What does it mean to be made in the image of God?  Is this the idea that has shaped western culture? I imagine that I will be wrestling with these questions for some time to come, but it has occured to me that the abortion issue that we struggle with so deeply as a society, may very well be linked to many other larger questions.  http://www.veritas.org/Campus/Recordings.aspx?cid=38#e687