Culture Of Life . . . “What Are You Afraid of?”
By BRIAN CLOWES
(Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For the complete Culture of Life series on homosexuality [with footnotes], e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.)
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“Everything you desire lies on the other side of fear.”
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You would never know it from this series of articles, but I am an incurable optimist. But even I must admit that the situation looks grim lately, what with the nationwide legalization of ersatz homosexual “marriage,” enactment of a “right to die” act in California, and increasing pressure on faithful Christians to conform to the elite’s concept of the glorious socialist future that inevitably awaits us all.
Occasionally, I wonder if I should leave full-time pro-life work and take up something less stressful —perhaps explosive ordnance disposal or air traffic controlling.
But then I remember that this is exactly what Satan wants me to do.
To give up the fight.
To throw down my weapons.
To walk off the field of battle.
Not a chance, Lucifer!
Still, we have our work cut out for us. The financial inequalities and the power imbalance between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death are staggering. In this country alone, pro-abortion groups made $12.8 billion last year, outspending pro-life groups 123 to one. Homophile groups piled up more than $500 million, 10 times more than their pro-family opposition. Population control groups have spent more than $100 billion since 1990 suppressing fertility and devastating indigenous cultures in developing nations, all the time raving about how much they value “diversity.”
The Culture of Death seems to have an endless ocean of money, while we pro-life/pro-family people have to struggle for every dime. Perhaps this is inevitable, since anti-life groups have very popular products to sell, including contraception, abortion, sex education, and “freedom of choice.”
All we have to “sell” is the truth.
Some say, “This is so unfair!”
But they don’t understand — life is supposed to be unfair to Christians. As our Lord told us, “You will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:9-13).
Get that last part?
It won’t go well for those pro-life or pro-family activists who say, “I’m tired. I’ve done enough. I’ve done my share. Time to retire and take it easy.”
On that fearful day of our particular judgment, when we are standing there alone before God, He will be able to recognize us only by our spiritual scars and by the size of the rough, splintery crosses we are bearing. If our souls are smooth and unblemished, if our crosses are small enough to fit comfortably in our palms, how will He know that we are one of His own? He did not lay down the cross and shirk from suffering, even unto death — and neither can we.
This awful, bloody struggle is what we were created for! As Pope Leo XIII wrote, “Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: ‘Have confidence; I have overcome the world’.”
We would not have been born into this difficult age if God had not put His trust in us to do the job.
Put to the test: Have you ever voluntarily endured a difficult ordeal — trying out for a college or high school sports team, giving birth to a child, or going through some tough armed forces training course?
You probably gritted your teeth when these trials were happening, but forever after you will be able to say: “I did that! I made it to the end! I endured and triumphed!”
Everyone I know has had various difficult trials, and for the most part they are glad that they survived them. But the duration of our trials as pro-life or pro-family activists, regardless of how severe, are as nothing compared to eternity. St. Paul told the Corinthians: “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
How long is eternity? Let me pass on to you a description a priest gave to me a long time ago.
Imagine that our sun, which is nearly one million miles in diameter, is instead a colossal solid stainless steel ball bearing. A tiny starling flutters up to it and brushes its wing against the huge steel ball and then flies away. He returns every thousand years to brush his wing against it.
By the time that little bird has eroded that million-mile wide steel ball bearing to nothing, eternity will have just begun. And we have the fullness of this eternity to contemplate and either rejoice in — or regret — every thought, every action (or lack of action), and every second we spent here on this Earth.
You will always have them: We can look at others who are working in other ministries for inspiration. Our Lord said: “The poor you will always have with you.” There are more poor people now than there have ever been in the history of the world. Those who care for the poor are not giving up, even after more than two millennia of service. Are we going to give up the fight for the family after only a couple of decades?
Ours is a ministry of encouragement. Our divine prey is souls. Even some of the more perceptive atheists recognize this fact. As Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller fame so reasonably asks:
“If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and that people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward — and atheists who think that people shouldn’t proselytize ‘just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself’ — how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?”
Be not afraid! What did Jesus talk about the most? It wasn’t sin, it wasn’t hypocrisy; it was encouraging His followers to be unafraid. But despite His exhortations, we are sometimes anxious and worried. Courage is not the lack of fear; it is the overcoming of our fears. All of the great pro-life and pro-family activists I have met have all been afraid many times, but unflinchingly faced their fears and carried on. Some of them fought on past their hundredth birthday, some despite being completely blind, and some up to the very day before they died.
They endured.
The situation appears dreary indeed if we have a habit of looking at the world from a purely worldly perspective, as many pro-lifers tend to do. The Culture of Death has on its side the United Nations, all of the “developed” world governments, the courts, the print and electronic media, the entertainment industry, the big corporations, the foundations and unions, over a thousand well-funded anti-life non-governmental organizations, a thousand anti-life groups, the legal and medical professions, the professional associations, all but a handful of the billionaires, the liberal churches (including all of the mainline Protestant denominations), and the “New Age” movement.
In other words, every one of the focused sources of influence in society have been corrupted by the Culture of Death.
Against this staggering lineup is — well, us. This is a greater mismatch than David against Goliath; it is like a blind David against a battalion of Goliaths in tanks!
But, as St. Paul describes, “He [Jesus] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in [your] weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak [in myself], then I am strong [in Him]” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
We win in the end — Read the book! However, when we look at the “lineup” from the eternal perspective, we realize that we cannot lose. The Culture of Death has Satan and his demons. We have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the company of saints, all of the angelic host, and the people of God.
When we look at things this way, we almost have to feel sorry for the Culture of Death. Its defeat is absolutely inevitable. Even if you do not believe in God, the outcome of the battle between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death is preordained by demographics. Those who have the children inherit the world! This is what my wife calls the DINKs (Double Income, No Kids) vs. the SILKs (Single Income, Lots of Kids).
We are all sinners. We don’t want homosexuals and abortionists to burn in Hell; we want them to repent and join us in Heaven. It is not only our mission to reach out to others, our very souls depend upon it (Ezek. 3:18-19). This is a concept we should keep in mind at all times.
I have met hundreds of pro-lifers in dozens of nations, and it seems to me that those whose faith in God is strong fear nothing else, but those who are uncertain of their faith have many fears and worries.
So — what are you afraid of?
If you are concerned with the tidal wave of evil and death that threatens to overcome the world, and if you want to actually do something about it, then the next several “Culture of Life 101” columns will be of great interest to you.
However, if you consciously plan to just quietly go about your business and keep your head down, then save yourself some time and skip over the next few articles, because they show how to organize and take effective action on behalf of the Culture of Life.
