#296: Pro-Woman/Pro-Life, Elections, War Film

Yale Votes: Pro-Woman is Pro-Life This is reported from our member group Feminists for Life: “In a historic first, an Ivy League debate society proposed the motion that 'Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.' FFL President Serrin M. Foster was invited to make the case in support of the motion. After a long and spirited debate passionately argued by seven political parties -- which was live tweeted -- a vote was taken. It was another first.

And women and children won!! Yes, it is resolved. Pro-woman IS pro-life!”

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Ideas on Elections In the U.S., the first votes were cast in the state of Iowa last Monday and will be cast in the state of New Hampshire next Tuesday. The large field of contenders will start to narrow down when those performing poorly in each major party leave the race.

CL founding member Mary Meehan has written an excellent blog post explaining the problems with all the major candidates from the consistent-life view: “Same Old Same Old! Prez Candidates Need Better Ideas.” She suggests some good resources for them to consider. It’s unlikely that they will, but our readers might find them useful.

Meanwhile, we need good ideas too. How can we use this election process to spread the consistent-life word? At a time when polarizing talk is at its height and our skill at bridge-building is least appreciated, what kind of actions might help us make progress in educating the public? Send all brainstorms – half-baked is fine, we’ll bake them – to weekly@consistent-life.org.

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Oscar-Nominated Short – War Hurts Unborn Children

One of the Oscar nominations for short live-action films is called Day One, referring to the first day a translator spends in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army. Gender complexities encounter brutal realities, and an unborn (about-to-be-born) child is clearly one of the imperiled people.

Excellent articles on war directly threatening unborn children are “Abortion and War” by Emmanuel Charles McCarthy of the Center for Christian Nonviolence and “In Harm’s Way” by Mary Meehan.

(Note: for those following the news on such things, the list of Oscar nominations ignores the fine jobs done by many Black actors and actresses who are getting prizes elsewhere. This has aroused much controversy. Given that even small seeds of racism can grow to big problems, we sympathize with the complaints.)

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Latest CL Blog: Should Abortions be Illegal? CL president Bill Samuel considers a double standard in how people deal with different kinds of violence, and makes a plea that we not think in either/or terms when trying to figure out the best strategies, in “Should Abortion be Illegal?”

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Quotation of the Week James R. Kelly “Finding Renewal: Why the pro-life movement should return to its roots” America Magazine, February 16, 2009. The Consistent Life network is mostly invisible to popular opinion, because the principle of nonviolence itself is neither recognized nor appreciated in American popular culture. Instances of particular protest against particular wars will receive attention in the media, but not the fundamental principle of pacifism—namely, the commitment to nonviolence. Indeed, no term and no principle is more alien to the nation state, especially in its foreign affairs, than nonviolence. Groups committed to nonviolence must mute and marginalize their radical principles in order to gain entry to the world of public opinion and commentary. Even in the churches, the early and strong biblical traditions showing that Christ taught nonviolence and his followers accepted it have been mostly marginalized.