I’m a bridge. I may do it
well, or I may do it poorly – but I’m a bridge. I’m a bridge between the left
and the right of a church that should be united. That is, I am a social justice
advocate and I am a pro-lifer, and so I am a bridge between the two. I try,
consciously and deliberately, to be a visible and useful bridge, albeit flawed.
This is not history, nor
biography, nor an argument. It’s an apologia: I try to explain myself.
This is not an explanation
offered to fellow Democrats about why I’m a pro-lifer; I’ve done that
elsewhere. (See, for example, Emmanuel, Solidarity: God’s Act, Our Response.)
This is addressed to fellow pro-lifers, explaining why I’m a Democrat.
A large number of my old
friends think I’m a traitor. I’ve had two friends get so mad when they
denounced my treachery that they foamed at the mouth, with several teaspoons of
fluffy white spit leaking out the corners of their mouths, oozing down and
dripping off their chins. It was an interesting experience – a little
uncomfortable but still fascinating. I had heard of this thing before and seen
it in comedies; but there it was, right in front of me. It’s good that they were
shouting, or I would have been completely distracted by the visual
presentation, and lost track of what they were saying.
What bubbled out was that
I’m a traitor to the pro-life movement. Hm. I’ve been speaking up for the unborn
since 1972, getting on towards half a century. If I’m a traitor, that’s
actually a pretty impressive bit of traiting. But I plead innocent.
The evidence against me
is generally pretty clear: I’m a Democrat. There are other details: I’m
pro-union, and I support civil rights, and I like to find common ground, and I
prize civility. But the key charge against me is simple: I’m a Democrat. And
that’s a fact.
I wonder if we can talk
about this. I’m not sure we can: I was impressed by the foam! But I’d like to
try.
I think of myself as a
pro-lifer. In fact, I think of myself as a pro-life leader. Even more, I think
I see a way forward when most of the pro-life leaders I know – many of them
friends over the past decades – are stuck, mired, lost – setting their sights
lower and lower each year.
The pro-life movement
should grow, not shrink. When pro-lifers denounce Democrats and liberals and
lefties and such, that’s a lot of people to lose, and it doesn’t help save
babies. This angry division does have some effects: (1) it strengthens Planned
Parenthood, and (2) it helps the Republican Party. But how can anyone ever
think that division and rejection are good for the pro-life movement?
Let me try to shift the
conversation a bit. Let me give you 50 short insights into my thinking, 50
anecdotes or observations. Each of them should stand on its own, complete and
independent. Added together, I think they offer a clear and convincing
argument, but let’s go through them one small bite at a time.