Since we are all still dealing with our post-election emotions, particularly with regards to legalized abortion, I thought this link might be of interest. Jennifer's thoughts are really moving as she compares the evil of abortion with the holocaust. She begins with this very eerie photo of the staff at Auschwitz relaxing and having a great time during an on-site retreat, and then states:If were a 31-year-old woman with three little kids in a busy house in Germany 1941, would I have fully understood the evil that surrounded me? As a woman living in 2008 I can see the horror that was going on there, but at the time there were some awfully sleek lies being told about the situation; it would have been really, really convenient to let myself be persuaded by the lies and just make the nasty little problem go away by telling myself that it wasn't really a problem at all...
...Sometimes I think about this, and wonder what advice I would pass along to my own descendants to make sure this never happens again; to help future generations guard against being blinded should they find themselves in the midst of a culture where something terrible is taking place.
But the question is: How would you know?
What litmus test could you offer that would apply to all places and all times as a way for a person to look around themselves with completely clear eyes, piercing through even the thickest fog of self-delusion and widespread cultural acceptance, and see that they are surrounded by grave evil? Is there any simple way for a person to immediately undergo an earth-rocking paradigm shift in which they look up and realize that the world around them is not what they thought it was?
...One thing that stands out in all these examples is that the victims of the widespread evil were categorized as something less than human.
Every decade or so, take a look around the society in which you live, and ask yourself if there is any group of human beings who are seen as something less than human. A big tipoff is if dehumanizing words -- terms other than "man," "woman," "child," "baby," or "person" -- are used to describe any category of people.
And if you ever see that going on, you might be in the midst of something gravely evil.
Yeah, words like fetus, embryo, and choice.
If you read her entire post, I don't think Jennifer's point is to say that the evil of abortion is exactly the same as the holocaust. Rather, she rightly points out that throughout history, otherwise very good people are sometimes blinded to very grave evil. Both the holocaust and abortion occur only when we see a certain group of human beings as something less than human.
Regardless of our other political views, we can, and we must work together to end the grave moral evil of abortion. Let us pray for President-elect Obama, for all our leaders, and for every woman that is faced with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Let us pray that we may all see the humanity of every person, born or unborn, and that we will all respond with love.
Mother of Mercy, pray for us.
