Okay, I’ve seen the articles. I get it. Christians haven’t done a great job of helping real people bear the burdens of real life. Life that includes a lack of food. Not enough money to pay both the heat and the water bills. Medical needs that there is no money to cover. Clothes that aren’t warm enough for the winter that’s going to hit any day. Not to mention all the social issues and people groups and justice concerns that inundate our news feeds.
You are right. We aren’t doing enough. And we can do better.
If you want me to be more aware, more truly invested, fine. I need to be. If you are arguing that I need to engage in real community issues, in my community, especially on behalf of the marginalized people groups in my community, you’re right. If you want me to care more about others than I do about myself, I agree with you. I need a real change of heart in that area.
But please, can I, please, address a couple of things.
First, please stop insinuating that I don’t care about little boys going hungry or mommas who can’t afford clothes for their kids or families who are struggling to make ends meet or older folks who can’t afford their medications. That I don’t love gays or muslims or the boys picking chocolate in Africa or the small ones (and grownups) dying in Syria as we speak. I do care. I care to tears. I don’t always respond well or know how to get involved, but I DO care. More than you could ever know.
And second, I must address the (slightly condescending) declaration that I have to do all of these things … YOUR way.
To you, it seems, I am not pro-life unless I am also pro- your preferred programs. I am “pro-birth” because I do not also support the giving of tax dollars as YOU see fit. Unless I define “help” or “acceptance” in all the same ways that you define “help” or “acceptance,” then I don’t really see the problem. And I don’t really care about its solution.
And that, I cannot agree with.
Yes, I need to do more. Believe it or not, I am doing something. I do define “life” well beyond the mother’s womb. But okay, I can do more. Because yes, I do struggle to look into the eyes of the real people who need. I don’t always know how to talk to people whose beliefs are different from my own. Yes, I’ve been taken advantage of enough times that I’m a bit leary of some who ask for “help.” Yes, I know that I hesitate to make eye contact with those who’ve accepted their “brokenness” and asked for what they need. You’re right. I need to be broken with them and for them and instead of them: the children and parents and men and women who just need a kind word, eye contact, a welcoming hug, and a non-judgmental hand. I can do more.
You’re right … about that.
But please do not equate “do more” or “do better” with “do it my way.” There are good ideas and logic and anecdotal evidence on both “sides” of this debate. I am not anti-life because I believe that what works in one area will not be the best solution for other areas. Yes, I’m still learning. I know I’m way behind. And I’ll own all the spaces where my real-life education is well-less than it should be. I’m working on it.
But do not say that “pro-life” means “doing it your way.” Because to be “for life” is not a program, a plan for tax spending, or a political party. It’s not a my-way-fits-all “solution” to problems we can never entirely solve. No. Pro-Life is a way of seeing.
It’s seeing people as God sees them – made in His image and infinitely valuable – and then acting toward them as God would do in my place. That is what Pro-Life really is. And there is more than one way to get there.
What we really need is not a program or for everyone to say “we’re all okay just as we are and anyone who disagrees is not pro-life.” What we need is for God to help ALL of us really see people. All people. To reach out to each other and for each other. We need to look for ways to be life-givers and life-speakers and life-protectors. We are ALL to be HIS hands and feet … right where we are … because that’s the life He’s called us to. And that’s what it means to be FOR life. For everyone.
