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Learning how to wait as a people of nonviolence in a world of war, you’ll know what Advent is. Advent is patience. It’s how God has made us a people of promise in a world of impatience, and Christ has made that possible — for us to live patiently in a world of impatience.

Stanley Hauerwas

Pro-“Life”

I’ve been thinking about the irony of the pro-life movement. 

The more extreme example being those who are so pro-life that they will kill for it. See the irony?

While others many not kill for their cause, they may still act or behave in violent or “verbally-violent” ways. 

In the more traditional sense, being “pro-life” means that you are against the idea of women having abortions. Most often, it is because of an argument for the respect and dignity of human life. The overarching statement being: infants not yet born are still human and therefore should not be aborted (others use “killed” to drive home the point). 

However, here is where I am confused. 

If you are pro-life, doesn’t that mean you are pro-life across the board?

Or do we draw a distinction here?

Are you pro-life?

Or are you just pro-life for infants in the womb?

Are you pro-life for foreigners in countries that our military invades?

Are you pro-life for people who have been convicted of a crime and are charged with the death penalty? 

If being pro-life for children means trying to end abortion clinics, does being pro-life for all people also mean trying to end the sale of weapons?

Or is that different? 

Or are you just semi-pro-life?

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God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation. He calls us to be agents not only of his saving grace but also of his common grace. Our job is not only to build up the Church but also to build a society to the glory of God. As agents of God’s common grace, we are called to help sustain and renew creation, to uphold the created institutions of family and society, to pursue science and scholarship, to create works of art and beauty, and to heal those suffering from the results of the Fall.

Charles Colson & Nancy Pearson , How Now Shall We Live?
 
Quote from Thomas à Kempis on my office wall: “Keep yourself a stranger and a pilgrim upon this earth, to whom the affairs of this world are of no concern. Keep your heart free and lifted up to God, for here you have no abiding city.” High-res

Quote from Thomas à Kempis on my office wall: “Keep yourself a stranger and a pilgrim upon this earth, to whom the affairs of this world are of no concern. Keep your heart free and lifted up to God, for here you have no abiding city.”