A question was posed in the last week on a facebook page that left me pondering all week. I would love to say what page it was but I follow at least ten pro-life activist pages and news sites that I no longer can find the original posting. The question asked what the pro-life movement needed to do this year to be more effective. Here is my answer....
For one, stop typing furiously away on facebook in discussions and less time trying to be 'right.' I have fallen into this trap repeatedly. I get sucked in. I admit it. Part of me loves and even delights in snapping back at a pro-choice advocate on a facebook feed. Then afterwards, I realize I did nothing to 'change their mind' because the reality is no debate can be 'won' online. I repeat. You can't win an argument on-line. I have had two trusted friends tell me this in the last twelve months. I ignored both of them. I enjoy keeping up to date on what is going on in the movement, what is countering the movement, and I do believe in staying informed and knowing what is being said on the airways. And I am not saying never to engage. But I have stopped engaging completely with arguments online. There is zero point. I won't win. They won't win. We both leave having done nothing to help anyone. IN fact, it's draining people. It's just draining. I will share photos, I will post occasionally (sometimes too often to some people) but arguing on facebook with someone who doesn't agree, some person who lives in a place far away and I will never meet, and I feed into them, only to feel deflated and disgusted afterwards. All it does is put me in a prime position to judge someone and just get really freakin' mad at them. What in the world does that DO to help me emotionally, mentally, spiritually? It does nothing. Zilch. Nada.
So what should you do with all that energy instead? Spend time committed to serving in your local crisis pregnancy center and better yet, if your area doesn't have one, start one. As a pro-life advocate, I am no longer concerned with debating the issue with someone. I think the pro-life movement will be FAR more effective when we stop arguing with pro-choicers, stop splitting hairs amongst pro-lifers, and instead focus our energy into the humans, the women, the babies, the fathers, and focusing on serving them, being there for them in their crisis and loving them and being the solution for them.
We will have a far greater impact being the an answer for them, for the woman IN the crisis, than we will be on facebook, trying to prove a point to other pro-lifers, or to pro-choicers, or engaging in a debate online. It just doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't amount to anything but frustration, dissension, and hurts the pro-life movement....all the while we do this, there are women everywhere today who will discover they are pregnant and scared and not certain what their options are. I serve at my local crisis center. I give financially to the center. The money all stays local. It's volunteer-driven. Get active in being the solution for women, not the ambassador driven to argue with others about philosophies, judgements, etc. While all well-meaning, I have personally found myself realizing I have spent untold amounts of time online and have done nothing real to save a baby or soul.
Can you imagine if there were a crisis pregnancy center every 20 miles? Okay, that's perhaps a wacky dream. But imagine being SO available and SO connected that women go to US first for help. And then we love her. We give her options. We provide for her materially. We teach her skills. We are there for her baby. We find her medical care. We find her food. We find her clothes. And we love her. Love. Love. Love. Did I say that enough? Nope. Love.
The final thing I think we can do better is getting off our biblical soap box. I am pro-life for reasons having nothing to do with my faith. I am pro-life based on science. Fact. Statistics. I am pro-life because I care about a woman's body and her health. I care about her womb. I care about her risk for breast cancer. I want her to fully know the risks she is taking by having an abortion. I care about her health. We spend enormous time educating now about the harmful effects of GMOs and aspartame and every gluten containing food under the sun and need I even begin to rant about the harm that is announced surrounding immunizations? Or sunlight? Or the effects of your cell phone being too close to your breasts and its link to breast cancer? It is Crazy people. These are all scientific health concerns. Pro lifers need to get vocal and focus on our concern for HER HEALTH and HER BODY. We can get SO focused on the baby. And believe me, I want to rescue every baby. But I think we will be more effective when we increase our focus on the woman. And our deep concern for her. While the Bible backs up my beliefs too, to the one who does not follow Jesus, it falls on deaf ears. We need to be smart. We need to let science and reason back up our position.
I might write more....this might just be a start...
