This week at our office we received our 13th missive from Glitter Bombs for Choice, a loose association of abortion advocates that has made something of a name for itself in the past few months.
The idea is simple: send a letter along with a bunch of glitter, and when it’s opened, the glitter falls out. Back in February, the ones we received told us we had “earned” our glitter bombs because of our “fetus fetishism.”
The one we received this past week contained a copy of the GBFC Manifesto. This statement, in particular, caught my attention:
We believe those working to restrict rights of autonomy do so with the sole motivation of controlling the women for whom these restrictions are intended.
To be sure, this is a charge that’s been around for years, and the Glitter Bombers for Choice are hardly alone in giving voice to it.
I can’t help but wonder, though, especially in light of the fact that women make up half (if not more) of the pro-life movement: Do the Glitter Bombers, et al., actually believe that our “sole motivation” is to control women?
Taking them at their word, I can only conclude that they really do, and it’s not hard to see why. After all, it’s a whole lot easier, psychologically speaking, to oppose a caricature of the pro-life movement than it is to oppose the pro-life movement.
You can, for whatever reason, willfully convince yourself that our agenda is to control women—it is, of course, your choice to believe that. But does that belief accord with reality?
If you believe that, you’ll spare yourself the difficulty of grappling with the fact that our real motivation is to save the lives of defenseless unborn children who are genetically distinct, whole human beings—just like those of us who are already born.
We at the Pro-Life Action League have often made the point that we don’t really care what people think about us. Over the past 35 years, we’ve been called every name in the book, and we’ve been subjected to threats, vandalism, and violence.
But it’s not about us. If, in the meantime, we can help more people see that abortion takes the life of an innocent human being, we will gladly endure all these things.
Praying for Deliverance from…the Desire of Being Loved?
One of the prayers included in the Pro-Life Action League’s Life Witness Prayer Book is the Litany of Humility. The first part of the prayer consists of several intercessions, each of which is followed by the plea, “Deliver me, Jesus”:
From the desire of being esteemed,
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,
How many of us can honestly say to the Lord that we really and truly want Him to take away our desire to be honored, praised, preferred to others, esteemed—and even our desire to be loved? And how many of us can honestly tell God that we want Him to take away our fear of being ridiculed and despised?
These aren’t your run-of-the-mill petitions, yet we must pray them sincerely. At the end of the day, our opponents will believe what they want to believe about us, and we can’t concern ourselves with that.
We chose to include the Litany of Humility in the Life Witness Prayer Book not only because it’s a beautiful and powerful prayer in itself, but also to remind ourselves that when we pray outside of an abortion clinic, or have a conversation with someone who is “pro-choice,” or take part in any pro-life activity, it’s not about us. Rather, it’s about God, and about submitting ourselves to His holy will.
It’s for this reason that our pro-life efforts will bear fruit only to the extent that they ultimately depend not on us, but on Him.
