The Fight for Life, God, and Choosing Sides

If this post looks familiar, you've probably read what started as a discussion of Father Paul Marx's death. About half-way through, I found myself writing about Representative Neugebauer, the sixties, and change.

I've copied the second half of that post and edited it a little. But not much:

"...When the Fight for Life is Finally Won...."

Not "if" - "when". There will be no final victory over death until this world is sorted out, at its end, but victory there will be.

I'm optimistic about the short term, too.

It may take a year, a decade, a century, a millennium or more, but make no mistake: We will win

Times are Changing

On a secular, political level, this isn't the sixties any more.

I think it's partly because so many of today's adults realize that they're the ones mother didn't have killed.

I'm not faulting the women so much. All too often it's the teacher, employer, boyfriend, or husband who pressured her into having his love machine 'fixed.' And the torrent of propaganda for "women's health" rights has been steady and massive.

Still, knowing that your brothers and sisters were offed - by your mom - must have an effect on your view of what's nice and what's not.

Whaddaya Know! It's a Baby!

Advances in imaging technology have changed the cultural landscape too, I think. When I was growing up, lines like "formless blob of protoplasm" worked: because very few people really knew what was going on inside the mother before birth.

Now, not so much.

Excerpt from an op-ed piece:

"Neugebauer: 'Outpouring' of support since 'baby killer' outburst"
Ben Smith, POLITCO.com (March 23, 2010)

"Rep. Randy Neugebauer said this afternoon that his shout of 'baby killer' amid Congressional debate over health care legislation Sunday night has drawn a 'tremendous outpouring' of phone calls, emails, and financial contributions 'telling me, "Congressman, thank you for taking a stand." '

" 'You wouldn't believe the emails and the phone calls of people calling and saying just, 'Thank you, Congressman, for taking a stand for the unborn,' he told POLITICO in an interview. He said he had 'no idea' how much money he's raised, though he addresses the subject just above a 'Donate' button on his campaign website.

" 'People are outpouring their support to me and that's whats important – this is not about money,' he said.

"Neugebauer maintains that his shout was directed at the health care legislation, not at Rep. Bart Stupak, and he said he called Stupak and then approached him on the floor of the House to apologize. But Stupak today said he thought Neugebauer should apologize more formally during House proceedings...."

Like I said, this isn't the sixties any more. Back then, "baby killer" was what we were being taught to call American soldiers who were fighting a war: one being micromanaged by the nitwits back in Washington. That was then. Not too long ago management trade journals were using Vietnam fairly often as an example of how not to run anything. And, outside a few urban enclaves, quite a few Americans seem to have shaken off the 'anti-military' conditioning.

This isn't the sixties any more.

Definitely.

God isn't On Our Side: We're on His

This is one of quite a few promises in the Bible:

"And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,¹³ and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it."
(Matthew 16:18)

I'd recommend reading footnote 13. It ends with:

"...The gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it: the netherworld (Greek Hades, the abode of the dead) is conceived of as a walled city whose gates will not close in upon the church of Jesus, i.e., it will not be overcome by the power of death."
(footnote 13, on Matthew 16:18, The New American Bible)

God, Power, Authority, and Me

Remember, I'm a layman, and have about as little authority in the Church as a person can have. What I say next is strictly my ideas.

I agree wholeheartedly that the power of death will not overcome the church of Jesus.

I think, however, that it may be a mistake to think of the power of death or of Hell as being in an entirely offensive role. Gates in a fortification may be used as outlets from which offensive forces may issue. But their primary purpose is not to attack. It is to defend.

Matthew 18:16, it seems to me, shows the netherworld as a walled city. One that is under attack - and whose gates will not stand against the attacker.

Yeah: We'll win. Not because God is on our side. Because we're on His.

Related posts:

• "Father Paul Marx, Human Life International Founder, Dead: Requiescat in Pace"
  (March 24, 2010)
  Particularly
  • Times are Changing
• "Prayer, Medicine and Trusting God"
  (March 4, 2010)
• "Rebellious Youth, Protests, and The Establishment: in 2010"
  (January 26, 2010)
• "Kennedys, Catholicism, and Abortion: So That's What Happened"
  (August 26, 2009)
• "Inconvenient Classes of Persons and Health Care"
  (July 26, 2009)
• "Donating Umbilical Cord Blood: Good Idea!"
  (June 15, 2009)
• "Medical Ethics and Human Experimentation: Why I Take it Personally"
  (February 3, 2009)
• "Life: It's a Single Issue, and an Important One"
  (November 2, 2008)

More:

• "Neugebauer: 'Outpouring' of support since 'baby killer' outburst"
  Ben Smith, POLITCO.com (March 23, 2010)
• "The Present Crisis through the Lens of the Laity"
  Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Commonweal Magazine, via USCCB.org (June 13, 2002)
  • About the Church and crises, not abortion