Trump's motivation

John Ryan is among the great heroes of the pro-life movement, and has been like a brother to me for decades. We disagree about many things, but no one ever should think that our disagreements reveal disrespect.

I said I was ashamed for the pro-life movement when Trump spoke and pro-lifers cheered. John applauds Trump’s words, and thinks that if there’s room in the movement for a left-winger like me, I should be willing to make room for a right-winger like Trump. Words to that effect.

Let me try to explain something. It’ll take a bit. I want to get several ideas across, if I can.

As background to what I’m after: when I taught Shakespeare to high school kids, I used a technique borrowed from the Folger Shakespeare Library: to figure out what a word like “blood” means in a play, it’s worthwhile looking at every use of the word. Treat it as a word that you don’t understand at all, like “scloop,” and try to determine its meaning by context. Reach deliberately for the connotations of the word.

So, similarly, we might learn what some people mean by the word “abortion” by looking at what they say about other forms of violence, like war. With another group of people, it might help to listen to what they say about hospitality and immigration. We might learn by listening to what they say about other issues involving women, like rape.

There’s an oddity. Some people, when they speak about abortion, deny fiercely that it’s an issue of sexuality. But when you listen, they talk about abortion and homosexuality and divorce. If they have nothing to say about other forms of violence or bigotry, I think it’s fair to disbelieve their claim that they don’t see abortion as a sexual issue. They say “abortion, abortion,” then get red in the face and talk about sex.

I do not assume that I know what people mean when they use the word “abortion.” I want to listen for a while. Do they want to stop something violent like war? Do they want to welcome unscheduled arrivals, like immigrants? Do they want to protect people from violence, like rape?

Do they have a patient approach to living things? When they see something small, do they promptly and vividly imagine its growth to maturity? Do they intuit the unity of a life, from embryo to fetus to baby to child to adult to elder?

Do they want to protect Western Civilization from vast social changes? Is abortion an example of decadence, next to plastic cars, plastic money, plastic breasts, falling SAT scores, high school diplomas without reading Great Books, cell phone habits, private jets and gold faucets and $800 meals?

Do they want to punish sassy girls who act like sluts?

Do they just want to harness the energy or collect the money of some determined and selfless workers?

 I think I’ve seen these options, and others, while working with pro-lifers for 45 years. People can get eloquent about abortion and still leave you wondering what they mean, what they want. You have to listen. And when you speak about abortion yourself, you have to pay attention to the context you use.

Take war, for example. It seems to me that war and abortion are similar. War is a form of global curettage, using a weapon to scrape vulnerable life off the very thin layer at the surface of the globe. And it seems to me that abortion is like war, especially because they both damage people at both ends of a weapon. Takashi Nagai, a Catholic leader (and prophet) who helped to rebuild the Catholic community in Nagasaki after the second American bomb wiped out a third of the Catholics in the nation, reflected on this. Obviously, he saw what war did to the victims. But he also saw what war did to the perpetrators; he was with the Japanese army during the invasion of Manchuria. Violence does grave damage to the person in front of a gun, but perhaps far more damage to the person behind the gun. And abortion is like that. The mother – who enters an abortion clinic trying to escape from responsibilities she doesn’t want or cannot handle – leaves as the mother of a dead child with no easy way to grieve. Dearest Lord of mercy, draw near.

Trump does not connect war and abortion. He’s ignorant and careless about nukes. He has made threats, referring to our nuclear arsenal, or bigger button – threats that are not in any compatible with the “just war” theory. He made these threats quite recently, just weeks ago. So his opposition to abortion is not related to his views on nuclear war: he’s not squeamish about massive violence. That’s not what troubles him about abortion.

How about immigration? Consider Scripture: the Law of Moses starts with reflections on the Exodus, when God saved his people from slavery in Egypt. After that experience, we should (1) be grateful to God for his love and (2) avoid imitating the Egyptians. So hospitality to strangers is, arguably, more fundamental than the Ten Commandments. Consider schedules: strangers – including immigrants and babies – come into our lives on their schedules, not ours. Consider “widows and orphans”: the prophets throughout Scripture ask us to protect widows and orphans, and pro-lifers hear that as a call to protect pregnant women and unborn children. Widows are mentioned in Scripture 49 times; of those 49, 21 refer to the pair, widows and orphans; of those 21, 18 refer to a trio, also mentioning strangers. Hospitality is hospitality is hospitality.

I don’t think that Trump’s opposition to abortion is linked to his commitment to hospitality. On the same day as the March for Life this year, the Federal government drifted toward closing down – over the issue of hospitality to immigrants.

Consider another context, violence to women. The early feminist movement, in the 19th century, was pro-life. Margaret Sanger’s life work is often described as making contraception available; that’s not a stupid description of her work, but I don’t think it’s accurate either. I think her work was to make the feminist movement subservient to the eugenics movement. She drove a wedge between the protection of mothers and the protection of babies. She set their rights apart; in fact, made them seem to be in collision. This was a change of unimaginable proportions. It seems obvious to me that re-building a society that protects the unborn must also mean strengthening women’s rights, asserting and defending women’s dignity and equality.

But I don’t think that we can understand Trump as a true champion of women’s rights, laboring diligently to restore a sense of the incalculable dignity of motherhood. He supported a pedophile for Senate a few weeks ago. And in recent weeks, the mainstream feminist has asserted itself as a far more credible voice against rape than the pro-life movement allied to Playboy Trump. Pro-life leaders have NOT defended women who felt supported, at long last, when they reported rape. How could pro-life leaders support rape victims – without calling for Trump to step down?

John, I don’t think it’s possible to understand Trump’s views on abortion in terms of war, hospitality, or women’s issue. And I don’t think he’s defending Christendom; he doesn’t think that way. And I don’t think he wants to punish women who act like sluts. I think his motivation is clear: he wants to harness the energy of a movement. He wants our votes, our support. Period.

To the extent that we support him, we lose any chance of explaining ourselves. We cease to be credible. We cease to be intelligible.

So it seems to me.

John, I don’t mean to challenge you, just to explain. Feel free to respond, but don’t feel obliged.

With great respect.

Hospitality in the Desert

Hospitality in the Desert

The stories and insights in this chapter are taken from The Wisdom of the Desert, by Thomas Merton (New York, NY: New Directions, 1960).

In the third and fourth centuries AD, there was a new movement in Christian life that laid the foundations for a millennium of monastic life.  The “Desert Fathers” and mothers abandoned the wreck of the Roman Empire and fled into the wilderness to pray – some alone, some in small communities. There were hermits and monks scattered along a 250 mile stretch in the Egyptian desert, from the Mediterranean south toward Lycopolis on the road to Sudan. They were in the mountainous region in the northern end of the Aegean Sea, around Skete on Mount Athos. They showed up in the deserts in Palestine, Arabia, and Persia. For over a century, these fugitives from decadence, pioneers of Christian life, tended the fire of the Gospel.

The paradox: solitude and hospitality

In their lives, solitude was fundamental, indispensable, mandatory. Abbot Anthony said, “Just as fish go back to the sea, we must return to our cells” (Merton, XI). And Abbot Moses in Skete, asked for a word of wisdom, suggested a source better than himself: “Go sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything” (Merton, XIII). And yet, this much-sought solitude was only a tool, a means to an end. The true goal was a deep relationship with God – which cannot be separated from love of your neighbor. These men and women struggled with incredible determination to find solitude; but at the same time, they were profoundly committed to hospitality.

Thomas Merton tells of a man visited a hermit, and stayed for a period of time. When he left, he apologized for intruding: Forgive me, Father, for I have interrupted your observance of your Rule. The hermit replied, my Rule is to receive you with hospitality, and to let you depart in peace. (Merton, LXXV)

To know God, the hermits sought solitude. In solitude, God taught them to love. And the love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor. Their solitude prepared them for hospitality.

The joy of hospitality

The hospitality of the hermits is usually described as joyful. It’s not seen as a burden accepted obediently; it’s a plain joy. For example, there’s the story of an elder who fasted most days. But when he met his brothers, he invited them with joy to dine with him. With joy: that’s a part of the story. We today, who are accustomed to luxury, might be quick to explain that joy: the old man had a good excuse to eat, and he was hungry! But the story asserts otherwise. The elder explained his joy, giving two reasons. Out of charity, he set aside the rewards of fasting, and fulfilled two commandments: he set aside his own will, and he refreshed his hungry brethren. Joy! (Merton CXLI)

There’s a similar story about Abbot John the Dwarf at Skete. A group of priests came to visit. During their dining, a very old priest, one of the visitors, got up to serve, offering a cup of water to each person there. No one would permit this esteemed old man to be a servant to them, except John the Dwarf. Afterwards, they all questioned John, asking how he could dare to accept the service of such a revered old man. He said that when he got up to pour water for his friends, he was happy when they accepted. He took the drink because he thought it would please the old man, and protect him from feeling sad because no one took what he offered (Merton, CXVIII). In other words, hospitality is a fountain of joy for the giver as well as the receiver.

Visitor jokes

The stories about the Desert Fathers includes a collection of visitor jokes. We tell (or listen patiently to) knock-knock jokes, a recognizable sub-genre of literature. They had visitor jokes. For example, there’s the story of a hermit who was visited by several men from a nearby community. The visitors were monks, from a new-fangled thing, a monastery; there was a little competition between the hermits who lived alone and the monks who lived on groups. To be properly hospitable, the hermit brought out all the food he had stored away, and they ate it all. That night, he heard his visitors whispering amongst themselves, saying that this hermit ate far better than they ever ate at the monastery. So in the morning, when they were preparing to leave to visit another hermit, he asked them to bring a message: be careful not to water the vegetables. The second hermit understood the message, and he had the visitors sit down and weave baskets for hours without a break. Then he fed them a little bread with salt. Then they started reading the Psalms, and prayed right through the night until it as almost dawn. Then they got a short rest. When they got up, they were ready to leave; but he insisted they accept his hospitality for several days. Charity demanded that he serve them. That night, under the cover of dark, the monks fled (Merton, VIII).

Abbot Simon worked hard to avoid visitors who came to him for enlightenment. Hearing that a provincial judge with a retinue was coming, he scrambled up a tree and pretended to be a workman picking dates. They asked where to find the man of wisdom. “Not here!” he assured them. Another time, friends warned him that another judge was on the way, to get a blessing. This time, his disguise was food. He sat in the entrance of his cave, eating bread and cheese. So when this judge with his retinue arrived, they saw a glutton, not a disciplined hermit. They insulted him, and departed. Which left him in peace. (Merton, CIV)

Hospitality to the weak

Some brothers approached Abbot Anthony, asking what they had to do to be saved from damnation. At first, he tried to deflect the question: you have Scripture, and you can find the answer to this question by yourself! But they pressed, asking for a word of wisdom direct from his mouth. So he suggested they try to follow the teaching from the Sermon on the Mount: if someone hits your left cheek, offer him your right cheek. They said they couldn’t do that. Okay, if you can’t offer your other cheek, at least accept the first blow patiently. They said they couldn’t do that either. Okay, then don’t hit back. A third time, they demurred, saying that the challenge was beyond their strength. At that, Anthony turned to his servant and asked him to cook some food for these men, because they were weak. And he said to the men that if they couldn’t listen to the words of Jesus, how could he help? He could only pray for them. (Merton, CXXXVII)

When Anthony began to prepare food for them, was he just being sarcastic? Was he dismissing their efforts to live an ascetic life in the desert? If they couldn’t do what the Lord asked, why were they undertaking a life of fasting? That’s plausible. But it’s also plausible that what he did was simple: he saw their weakness, and so he fed them. Hospitality is not a curse or an insult!

Hospitality: the test of holiness

Two brothers got a reputation for humility. The desert fathers were not pleased when people developed reputations and received praise for their lives; at best, it’s a nuisance and a temptation, and it may be a fraud. So one holy man went to test them. He visited them, and they received him with joy. They prayed the psalms together, and then the father went outside to their little garden, and destroyed it, smashing every plant with a stick. The brothers watched without saying a word, nor even showing dismay on their faces. When the destruction was over, the three went back inside and prayed Vespers together. Then the brothers found one remaining cabbage, and invited their guest to dinner. The elder fell to his face in front of them, and thanked God. He was convinced that the Spirit of God rested there. What was the proof? Hospitality. (Merton, CX)

The Old Testament and hospitality

There is a story that there was a brother who wanted to know how to do good, and went to a friend of Abbot Anthony, Father Abbot Nisteros. “What good work should I do?” he asked. Abbot Nisteros said he should understand the models in Scripture, then pay attention to what his soul desired when he was praying, and do that. The elder held up three possible models: Abraham and Elijah and David. These men pleased God in different ways, by hospitality and solitary prayer and humility. (Merton, III)

Thus the story. What can we take from it? Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to do one and not the other two; the brother should focus and work hard on one, without neglecting the others. All three are necessary; they correspond to the teaching of the Lord that the Church recalls in Lent, when we seek to renew and deepen our spiritual life, so we pray (like Elijah’s solitary prayer) and fast (to learn humility, like David) and give alms (imitating the hospitality of Abraham).

The priority: almsgiving over fasting

The hermits and monks in the desert were committed to prayer and ascetic practices. However, love mattered more. A brother put this question to an elder. There are two brothers, one who prays all day, fasts six days a week, and does penance. The other cares for the sick. Which work pleases God most? The elder did not say, listen to your heart and choose. He said that the one who fasts could also hang himself up by the nose, and he would still not come up to the level of the one who took care of the sick. (Merton, XCVI)

On another occasion, a young monk avoided work in the kitchen, because he was busy praying. He said he had chosen the better part, like Mary. So they didn’t feed him. When he got hungry, they urged him to be spiritual, and avoid food that perishes. He thought that over a bit, then apologized. Martha’s work of hospitality is necessary for Mary’s work of listening at the feet of Jesus. (Merton, XXXIII)

I Can Never Be ...

As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars.

As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic.

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.

This is the way our world is made.

“The Measure of a Man” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev King, to America

It seems that I can hear a voice saying to America:

“You started out right. You wrote in your Declaration of Independence that ‘all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’

But, America, you strayed away from that sublime principle. You left the house of your great heritage and strayed away into a far country of segregation and discrimination. You have trampled over sixteen million of your brothers. You have deprived them of the basic goods of life. You have taken from them their self-respect and their sense of dignity. You have treated them as if they were things rather than persons. Because of this a famine has broken out in your land.

In the midst of all your spiritual wealth, you are spiritually and morally poverty-stricken, unable to speak to the conscience of this world. America, in this famine situation, if you will come to yourself and rise up and decide to come back home, I will take you in, for you are made for something high and something noble and something good.”

“The Measure of a Man,” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Trump and abortion

I had an unpleasant encounter yesterday. A group of pro-lifers were engaged in a debate about how pro-lifers should respond to Trump’s racism. It was a fiery and interesting debate. But there was a guy who participated, denouncing Trump – as I do – and his allies – which I consider a key battleground. After quite a bit of back and forth, it came out that this guy was not asking pro-lifers to pull away from Trump; he was asking pro-lifers to forget about abortion. He was strengthening the ties between pro-lifers and Trump, insisting that they are natural allies. I was appalled. Some pro-lifers stick to Trump because they believe that – like it or not – Trump is the key to stopping abortion in the USA, and to achieve that goal they will put up with just about anything. So telling pro-lifers to dump-Trump-and-forget-abortion strengthens Trump. I thought the guy was among the most effective pro-Trump voice I’d encountered.

Let me clarify why I am a pro-lifer opposing Trump. This is a sketch, but 1400+ words.

First: NSSM 200.

I don’t think Roe v. Wade was the most violent document ever penned. I think NSSM 200 launched far more abortions that RvW. National Security Study Memorandum 200 was a definition of threats to American security, written by officials in the Nixon and Ford administrations. “Security” here doesn’t mean money in the bank; it’s diplomatic language for the things about which this nation is prepared to go to war. The document said that our deadly enemies were:

n  Commies in Europe, to be fended off by the military;

n  Commies around the Pacific Rim, also to be fended off by the military;

n  Commie propaganda in Latin America, to be resisted by the CIA; and

n  African women having babies, to be stopped by the Agency for International Development.

Under these two Republican presidents – and everyone since until NSSM 200 was scrapped in – hm, hm, was it scrapped? – our enemies were Commies and black babies. To stop them, we had nukes and abortion. I over-simplify, but you see the point.

The take-away: NSSM 200 led to far more abortion than RvW. Pro-lifers who focus on RvW are dilettantes, overlooking most of the abortions launched by the USA. We started abortion globally, and we have to stop it globally. Abortion inside America – the whole RvW thing – is about 2% of the abortion problem.

Second, Sherri Finkbine.

The propaganda push for abortion in the USA did not begin with RvW. The propaganda push began with Sherri Finkbine. She had a TV show in the 1950s, called “Romper Room,” a popular kids show sort of like “Mister Rogers” or “Sesame Street.” She took thalidomide, a sedative that was used then to treat morning sickness. But then news broke that thalidomide was “teratogenic”: it caused serious birth defects, including severely shortened limbs. Parents were afraid their kids would be born with flippers, not arms. So Sherri Finkbine, the Mrs. Mister Rogers of the decade, went to Sweden to get an abortion. And wasn’t it awful that she had to go across the Atlantic to avoid having a disfigured baby.

Two quick lessons. The push for abortion in the USA began with eugenics. And abortion cannot be considered a national problem; it was international before RvW.

Third, population control.

Population control isn’t a sideshow; it’s most of the abortion battle. And a detail of population control is now and always has been immigration restrictions. When Hitler was trying to wipe out the Jews, some fled to the United States. But our immigration policy sent some back to Hitler’s camps; you can get a list of some of the people who saw Miami, weren’t allowed in, and went back to Europe to get killed. When the Chinese launched a one-child-only depopulation policy, some women fled to the USA. We debated whether to let them in: a prolife policy and pro-immigration policy overlapped, and most pro-lifers saw it clearly. The same thing is going on now. Women are fleeing from depopulation policies – and other violence. Will we protect women and children? To me, that’s a no-brainer. I simply do not recognize this new “pro-life” movement that turns away pregnant women at the border. What happened to you?

Fourth, Lopez Trujillo and the Mexican Yellow Pages.

I had a squabble one year with the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family. He hosted a pro-life conference in Rome, and during the conference, I invited participants to meet to pray outside an abortion clinic at a hospital close by. He was appalled, and wanted my boss to ship me out of Rome promptly. In the ensuing discussion, one of the details that emerged was that he wanted good laws on the books, but didn’t care much what actually happened. In Mexico, for example, the law about abortion at that time was pretty good (from a pro-lifer’s perspective), and he wanted that. But abortions were advertised in Las Paginas Amarillas. The law was unenforced; it meant nothing. I thought reality mattered more than the damn law. He wasn’t interested in that; he wanted good laws.

Many Irish pro-lifers are as blind as Cardinal Lopez Trujillo. They are focused on preventing abortion in Ireland. That’s a good interim goal, but banning abortion in Ireland might not save a single child and family, not one. You can get from Ireland to England and back for the price of a carton of cigarettes. It’s a nuisance, and an added expense: killing Irish citizens in England takes several extra hours and adds maybe 20% to the price tag. Stopping abortion in Ireland, completely, has almost no connection with protecting Irish babies; it’s a tiny first step, no more.

The lesson: there’s a difference between (a) protective laws on the books and (b) actually protecting mothers and babies. They aren’t completely unrelated, but they are not the same thing. If you fail to change the thinking and habits of a pro-choice society, changing the law is almost meaningless. (Also impossible, but that’s a different issue.)

Fifth, the father’s failures.

One of the many appalling crises facing Americans today is that white males have lost their sense of purpose and identity. Schools across the nation stare at the stats, baffled. Every demographic group in the nation is improving from one year to the next on test scores – some groups with large gaps still to overcome, but there’s steady improvement. Every group is improving, except one. While males, starting at the top, have been declining slowly but steadily for years. Their scores are not declining relative to other scores: that is, the decline is not really just another way to say that everyone else is improving. No. While male scores are declining this year relative to white male scores last year, year after year. Why? Your guess is probably about as good as anyone’s.

I think that a piece of the problem is that a huge portion of the men in the nation – a quarter, more or less – are parents of a dead child. So are the women, but there’s been a lot of thought given to that. For men, I think that the test scores at school point to an unexplained problem, and men’s total failure at their first duty in life may be a partial explanation. What did you do when your first child was scheduled to die? Nothing. You bottled it up, got depressed. Maybe you did your best to cherish and support your partner in her crisis. But your child?

There’s no quick fix to that problem. But one detail that is clear, that men can address now: you can work to ensure that women don’t have abortions because they feel trapped and abused. That’s not the whole issue, but it’s a real part, and it’s fixable. So when someone attacks a woman, and makes her feel stupid or helpless, step in. You can’t protect a child unless the child’s mother feels empowered. When some male monster says it’s okay to grab pussy, fix his thinking; you may be saving a child’s life. That kind of thinking and language isn’t just a little gross, a little naughty, a little juvenile; it’s deadly. I don’t know what “fight” means to you; but when somebody talks about grabbing pussy, a child’s life is in danger. Fight. Fight for children, and for women, and for dignity, and for the future, and for everything on earth that has value.

Enough. Each point here deserves a book, but my overall point is clear and simple: pro-lifers should oppose Trump. Opposing Trump is not the same thing as abandoning the pro-life movement. I’m a pro-lifer, AND SO I oppose Trump with everything in me.