A Voice That Will Not Be Silenced

"We know that these challenges can be overcome, because history moves in the direction of justice. The evils of slavery were accepted and unchanged for centuries. Yet, eventually, the human heart would not abide them. There is a voice of conscience and hope in every man and woman that will not be silenced--what Martin Luther King called a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. ... This untamed fire of justice continues to burn in the affairs of man, and it lights the way before us."

Conclusion of remarks delivered July 8 by President Bush on Goree Island, Senegal

On my best day as a writer I would be hard pressed to come close to conveying how great was the 31st annual NRL Convention. What made the three-day gathering so extraordinary is difficult to pinpoint. In some real sense, you "had to be there." But let me try.

One way of describing what took place was that there was a kind of poetry at work. I don't mean by that only the eloquent language that filled 64 workshops, four general sessions, a prayer breakfast, and a closing banquet. The 1,000+ attendees, it seems to me, were stirred by something that transcended mere eloquence.

Robert Frost once wrote, "A complete poem is where the emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words."

A fusion of emotions, ideas, language--the complete package--was evident in abundance in St. Louis July 3-5.

NRLC President Wanda Franz, Ph.D., caught the spirit of the moment, giving wings to a convention that never touched ground. In her opening remarks, she spoke of our misbegotten Supreme Court.

Ah yes, the Supreme Court. It is altogether fitting, after 30 years of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, that we meet in St. Louis to advance the right to life. It is here in St. Louis at the historic Old Courthouse where another case started which the Supreme Court decided wrongly with most devastating consequences. I am of course talking of the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford of 1857. I have not the slightest doubt that in due time Roe v. Wade will be listed with Dred Scott v. Sanford among the most horrendous judicial failures. These failures represent not just the usual spots and blemishes any human institution collects on its garments over the course of history; these stains come from the tears of the oppressed and the blood of the innocent. They represent injustices that must be set right.

And it is not stretching the point to suggest that future historians will very much wish to listen to the convention tapes. (You can order these tapes for yourself. See pages 30-31.) They illustrate not only the confidence that exudes from the pro-life movement at this time in history, but also (and perhaps more importantly) the paths by which so many people have come to join the greatest movement for justice of our time.

In the opening general session, author, film critic, and radio talk show host Michael Medved spoke of many things that he said he had never talked about in public before. Suffice it to say these involved his own faith journey and his family. There was not a dry eye in the house.

He told the convention that he doesn't like the term "culture war," for that suggests "destroying" the other side. "I want to persuade everyone," Medved said. He is a bridge builder, as should we all.

He suggested that the same reasons that brought him to a fully pro-life position will move the American public in the direction of what Medved called the emerging "pro-life consensus": results, religion, and relationships.

Americans are seeing for themselves that none of the phony baloney promises made by abortion proponents back in the late 60s and early 70s to improve the lot of children and families panned out. In fact, the results have been that every social problem that was to be "cured" by overturning protective abortion laws has been exacerbated by abortion on demand, he said.

And for all their differences, all the major religions consider abortion to be a bad thing, Medved said. By way of illustration, he offered a very powerful explanation of just how profoundly pro-life is the Jewish faith that guides and shapes and molds his life. To suggest otherwise, Medved said, is "a terrible, terrible, terrible distortion of the essence of Jewish tradition."

Medved used his own life to illustrate something whose importance can not be exaggerated: one-on-one relationships are at the core of our Movement and the primary reason why the center of gravity in the abortion debate has so clearly shifted.

In that vein what particularly struck me about the superb remarks of Bishop Joseph Naumann was his gentle reminder to reflect upon whom it was who recruited us into the Movement. In tracing the arc of his own pro-abortion involvement, he told us about the anger he felt at the gross misrepresentation of the Catholic position on abortion that poured out of the mouth of Rep. Geraldine Ferraro when she was chosen to be Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate in 1984.

However, the "spark" that brought him in, Bishop Naumann said, was not Ferraro's distortions, but the witness of various pro-life leaders, the pro-life faithfulness of parishioners, and the example of Mother Teresa. But even so, when called upon to assume a pro-life leadership role within the Catholic Church, he said he still felt ill-prepared. There must be better, more qualified people, he thought, but he plunged in anyway. What an example for all of us!

And the end of his talk, Bishop Naumann asked that we pray for those who introduced us to the Movement and that God will identify for us someone who needs to be asked (and perhaps more than one time) to help.

Let me close with this thought. You will never find a more passionate, fiery pro-life orator than Ben Stein, whose remarks at the closing Banquet were vintage Ben Stein. But he was hardly alone.

That same passion permeated the convention. There was an energy, an enthusiasm, an intensity, and a renewed sense of unswerving commitment that was simply impossible to miss. Nowhere was that more in evidence than in the "YO" convention--the parallel convention that brought together high school and college-age students.

(Even as I was writing these remarks, one of NRLC's field coordinators brought by two young women who were co-presidents of the pro-life group at Bryn Mawr, a notorious pro-abortion stronghold by reputation. That willingness to stand up for life in the seemingly most inhospitable is the reason why thriving pro-life groups are springing up all over the country.)

These young people are unscarred by memories of a time when campus pro-abortion orthodoxy was largely successful in silencing pro-life voices. What they see is the crumbling of the pro-abortion monopoly on campus discourse. To quote a President, they confidently say, "Bring 'em on."

This edition of National Right to Life News is running over with reasons to feel confident about the future at the same time we remember. But we know that we must work harder than ever to make sure our momentum does not flag. Nothing would be more foolish or more tragic than to bask in the glow of all the positive developments of the past few years at the expense of doing what needs to be done, every day of every week of every month.

Frankly, I am utterly confident that not a single pro-lifer will ever fall asleep at his or her post. Why would they when they are defending the foundational principle that undergirds every humane political and religious system: the conviction that every human life is infinitely precious just because it is.

In the quote that begins these remarks, President Bush talked about slavery. But his memorable words are every bit as true in the debate over abortion.

History does move in the direction of justice. And that is because "There is a voice of conscience and hope in every man and woman that will not be silenced--what Martin Luther King called a certain kind of fire that no water could put out.... This untamed fire of justice continues to burn in the affairs of man, and it lights the way before us."

dave andrusko can be reached at daveandrusko@hotmail.com