By Dave Andrusko
Kudos and thank you to right to lifers around the country who have posted reminders that this is a very, very important day, the National Day of Prayer.
Our Movement’s ranks are filled with believers, people who put their faith into action in many venues but most particularly in the defense of unborn children, children born with disabilities, and the medical vulnerable.
For believers, prayer is instrumental, as essential to sustaining us spiritual as breath is physically.
None of us is under the illusion who our ultimate enemy is, nor do any of us believe we will win this most just of causes in our own power alone. If we are going to be His instruments, we must seek His face for strength, guidance, and reassurance.
I rarely agree with President Obama. His understanding of our obligation to our unborn progeny is as far from mine as the east is from the west.
But I do agree wholeheartedly with something he wrote in his Official Proclamation designating today the “National Day of Prayer”:
In the face of tremendous challenges, prayer is a powerful force for peace, justice, and a brighter, more hopeful tomorrow. Today, as we join together in fellowship, we seek to see our own reflection in the struggle of others, to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, and to keep faith — in one another, in the promise of our Nation, and in the Almighty.
Of course it was not Mr. Obama’s intent to make what is, to us, the obvious extension: the moral imperative to stand up for the littlest Americans.
But are we not our unborn sisters’ and brothers’ keeper? We remember who first asked “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The inability to protect them has costs beyond the frightening number of dead babies (more than 57 million) and untold millions of women scarred by their decisions. Decades ago we understood that once the death ethos came for “them”–the powerless unborn–it would be a dress rehearsal for a wider attack. The next categories of victims would be babies born with disabilities and the vulnerable elderly, each of whom would be “better off dead.” And such has come to pass.
So what do we take away from the call to “see our own reflection in the struggle of others”? Each of us would have a different take but mine is that I would be a lesser man–and a far lesser Christian–if I stood idly by, if I refused to see that my obligation is to do everything I can to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
If I chose to avert my gaze, to shirk my moral and ethical obligation, I am persuaded one day I will be called to account for that cowardice.
Thank you to all those pro-lifers who reminded me of the critical significance of praying for each mother in a crisis pregnancy, for each child whose life hangs in the balance.
Pray that she finds a helping hand and the courage to face down her own fears and the discouraging counsel of others. Pray that she recalls that she is carrying one of His creations–and that He loves both her and her unborn child more than she could possibly know.