The events of the past couple of weeks offer a rare look at the tactics of those who would seek to radically remake our world. There are clear lessons that must be drawn from this moving forward about the source of true authority and how to react to these challenges.
On the one hand, you had the Susan G. Komen Foundation take a fiscally responsible, scientifically supported stand in deciding to no longer fund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is an organization that almost exclusively provides abortion and contraception. Both abortion and contraception have been linked conclusively to breast cancer (this may be news to you because this is not research the NIH is eager to put forward).
The reaction of Planned Parenthood was swift and unyielding. For a grant that amounted to less than 1% of their overall funding, they pulled out all of the stops. They had donors, politicians, feminists, tearing the Komen board apart publically and privately. Despite the fact that Komen received a large amount of support from pro-lifers who could now finally donate to and support the group, after 3 days they relented and decided to continue sending funds to Planned Parenthood.
Now contrast this with debate over the HHS requirements that all employers (minus actual churches) be required to provide health care plans covering abortion and contraception. There the opposition came from the Catholic Church.
You know that stodgy old church, run by a bunch of unmarried men who cannot possibly have a valid viewpoint on these women’s issues. The church that is out of touch with its membership, many of whom use birth control (at least so I read in several articles this week). The church that ceded its authority in the sex abuse scandals of the past several decades, you know, that Catholic Church. So clearly, if such a reputable foundation as Komen caved, the Catholic Church would be no match for the forces of the left, right?
Well, a funny thing happened along the way. It is far from a done deal, but at least as of this morning, the Obama Administration is making noise about finding some kind of compromise. So in what appeared to be a meeting of the irresistible force (Obamacare) and the immovable object (the Church), the force proved not to be irresistible – and therein lies the lesson.
When the resistance is anchored in the truth that is the full revelation of God’s word and a full understanding of Jesus Christ it need not yield. When you stand for something, and have a clear position anchored in that truth, as the Catholic Church has stood on life issues for millennium, you command authority, credibility. You also learn that the forces that seek to radically remake this world count on the other side blinking, giving in as Komen did.
Oh, they tried to find a way to divide the opposition in this case, to divide Catholics and the church itself. My wife received a polling call (presumably from the Obama campaign) this week. They asked her religion, her rating of the President, her rating of the HHS rules, and then curiously also about her thoughts on collective bargaining. I believe they wanted to see if they could use the anti-labor sentiment from the right as a wedge issue to separate some Catholics (traditional supporters of workers’ rights) from the HHS opposition. I can only conclude it did not work based on this morning’s announcement.
But you see the tactics at work. Put forward your agenda as secretly as possible (these rules were only clarified now over a year since Obamacare was signed into law). When things come to light, stand your ground, demonize your opposition, try and intimidate them into backing down. If they will not back down, then seek to find an issue to divide the rank and file, limit the damage. Only as a last resort do you consider compromise.
But I think as we will learn a compromise is just a way to buy time to regroup, rearm, and come again. Roe v. Wade was not the final battle in the assault on life, it was merely the first. As predicted in Humanae Vitae, it was not the last birth control measure launched, but merely the first. How many new birth control pills have come out in the last few decades – including the morning after pill? We have seen Federal funding for abortion, taxpayer funding for abortion not only in this country, but abroad. We have now seen a pro-abortion lobby become so powerful that they can boss around a charity with science and reason on their side. Who thought, in 1973, when they may have cheered the Roe v. Wade decision they were signing up for all of this?
But there is hope, there always is with Christ. The last two weeks have given us the playbook. It is to stand with Jesus, stand confident in our beliefs, and anchor ourselves to the rock that the Catholic Church is built on. We can resist the forces of the culture of death, of big government, of a secular deism that worships a government comprised of men, rather than Kingdom of God. Compromise is not the answer, but it is what they are counting on.
No comments:
Post a Comment