Recap: March for Life

It has taken me a month, but I am finally

 getting around to recapping the March for Life. 

I can almost sum up the whole of it 

 in one word

...impotent.

Let me put this in perspective. I was blessed to have the opportunity to go to Malawi in August. While I was there, I was overwhelmed and moved to tears by the sense of community that I felt. There was a bond of unity, unmatched in my experience, that I felt with people whom I had known for only two short weeks. My arrival felt as though I was being embraced by family I hadn't yet communed with. My departure felt as though my heart was being ripped from my chest as I left people whom I realized had become a part of me. 

One would think that an event where tens of thousands of Christians rally around a common cause would evoke those same feelings.

Not.

So.

Granted, some of my dissatisfaction probably arose from the poor flow of the event and the anti-climactic lead up to the March itself. 

Those things being noted, I felt no real sense of community or unity at the event. Instead of ~250,000 people rallying around a common cause, it felt like ~250,000 people showing up at the same place to push their own take on a semi-shared agenda. (I must say that I was encouraged by the fact that I saw no individuals holding destroyed fetus signs. Although, there was a ghastly display of a series of eight or so giant 10'x5' posters that had been brought in by a non-profit that will go unnamed.)

The students that I took with me left largely unaffected by the event itself as well. It in no way drew them into the cause, pushed them to think about the issues at hand with a critical eye, or challenged them to internalize the event as a whole. Disappointing? I think so.

The best thing that happened was that I was able to have a discussion with the guys about the most faithful response to the abortion issue and moral issues overall. 

So will I do this again? Probably not. Not because I'm not Pro-Life. I am. But because I think that for the most part, I disagree with the premise of the event. It seems to me that we are making our government and it's law an idol. We put our faith in changing the law, so much so that we forget about the people we are trying to affect. Let's rethink our strategy. Let's reorient ourselves around the relational nature of the lives we live. Let's believe that God is able to change the world through His people and not the government that we, in error, have placed our faith in.

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Long time no see...wackos parading around with horrific signs

So, I am feeling quite scrambled up this evening. I am about to hit the sack because I am getting on a bus at 6am tomorrow to go to DC. Why would you make the trip to our nation's capitol AFTER the festivities of the inauguration have taken place. Well...the reason is a complicated one, and the more I think about it, the more uneasy I become. I decided to take a trip, on the invitation of a local church, to the annual March for Life and see the spectacle of tens of thousands of people marching the mall to visit with our Senators and make our voices heard concerning the issue of abortion and life before conception.
When I was first approached about this, my initial reaction was "absolutely not." However, the more I thought about it in the context of where I am serving right now, I thought, "it's not really my job to impress my views upon these students, and it is their right to express themselves how they desire." So...I opened the opportunity up to the Sr. High. To my surprise, everyone in attendance that night at youth group wanted to go (even though on the eve of the event only about a third of those are actually going). Who knew?

I figured that this would be a great opportunity for me to open up a dialogue with them about the "right" way to express our views. I'm sure that we will see our fair share of well (and ill) intentioned people with giant posters of destroyed fetuses with captions like "Abortion is Homicide" and things of that nature. I stand in FIRM opposition to this kind of display, especially by Christians who claim that God's love for us and our love for each other stands at the center of the gospel. I find that incredibly offensive, a horrible witness, and outrageously counterproductive. Not to mention that it feeds right into the world's belief that Christians are self-righteous, bigotous Bible beaters who are detached from reality. (although I had to laugh at one of my student's idea for a sign "Don't make it, if you can't take it")

The more I think about it though, the more I am questioning my decision. I am starting to think that my very presence is a "signing off," so to speak, on the event as a whole. I am beginning to believe that the problem is more than the few who carry tasteless signs, it is the event as a whole. Buying into the belief that the government is going to, or is able to, fix our moral problems. Even if everyone radical Pro-Lifer got their wish and Roe V. Wade was overturned and abortion was illegalized in the US, that wouldn't fix the problem. The problem is always deeper than it presents itself. The problem isn't that people are having abortions, that is just the symptom.

I believe that the change we wish to see will come when we love more than we hate (especially when we are so good at calling our hate love). It's going to take those folks who can't stand abortion adopting some babies and taking care of girls who are scared and feel like they have no where to turn. This isn't as easy as walking down the mall, blending into a crowd of 200,000, but it is definitely the more faithful response. What does this type of response look like for a teen...I guess we'll see what they think tomorrow.

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