The great apologist G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “All men matter. You matter. I matter. It’s the hardest thing in theology to believe.” This quote was part of a short observation someone wrote recently. Alas, I have the quote and the observation of which it was a part but not who wrote it! (Senior moment anyone?)
So without being able to give credit where credit is due, let me note the writer took Chesterton’s observation and concluded, “And that God—the God who is big enough to speak all of that [just the part of the universe we know about] into existence and hold it in the palm of his hand—says you matter to him. He says I matter to him.”
I wonder could there be anything that more fundamentally separates pro- and anti-life forces than the bedrock pro-life conviction that every—every– life matters? That lives are not disposable based on some sort of sliding scale, whether that be “wantedness” or “quality of life” or any other arbitrary and capricious line of demarcation?
To be fair, we shouldn’t expect anything else from our benighted opposition. The pro-abortion mind experiences a kind of brain freeze when you say this. Their first instinct is to reach for their curettages and surgical scissors, to suction and slice helpless human beings.
They have no single default position but many. They include that there are so many people in the world (a canard that is far less impressive now that many nations are approaching negative population growth); people, including youngsters, die from accidents (as if deliberating taking a life and a life inadvertently taken are two sides of the same coin); this is merely/only/just a “religious” tenet (as if anything any position that originates from, or draws additional strength from a religious impulse, is automatically suspect), etc., etc., etc.
In response let me conclude with something I once wrote for National Right to Life News:
Our unyielding belief that “every single life matters” means that pro-lifers are immune to the eugenics temptation which rears its ugly head in many guises and which is always on the prowl for more victims.
Why do you matter, I matter, we all matter? Just … because … we … are.
Chelsea Garcia is a political writer with a special interest in international relations and social issues. Events surrounding the war in Ukraine and the war in Israel are a major focus for political journalists. But as a former local reporter, she is also interested in national politics.
Chelsea Garcia studied media, communication and political science in Texas, USA, and learned the journalistic trade during an internship at a daily newspaper. In addition to her political writing, she is pursuing a master's degree in multimedia and writing at Texas.
