We have to be honest about where we are concerning abortion and the fight to save unborn life. Overturning Roe in the United States was a great step forward for life, but not the step many people believed it was. Roe’s overturn did not outlaw abortion, but merely restored abortion to the political process. There the new fight begins. Well, at least in those states in which activist state courts have not found a Roe-like “right” to abortion hiding in their state constitutions. That was the real issue in Kanas, which recently held a vote on an amendment to get around a court ruling that the Kansas state constitution provides a “right” to abortion. The amendment failed, leaving the court ruling in place:
“Had the amendment passed, it would have offered the GOP-controlled state legislature a path to restricting or banning abortion, continuing a pattern seen in other conservative areas of the country. Kansas law currently allows most abortions to take place up to 22 weeks in a pregnancy.
There is much work to do in Kansas and in many other states to overcome pro-abortion state courts. There is much work to be done in many states to get laws banning, or at least significantly restricting, abortion through legislatures. After decades of pro-abortion propaganda, many voters in even the reddest states won’t necessarily be of much help in protecting life. At the U.S. federal level, there will an ongoing battle of executive orders and Democratic legislation to “protect” the right to unfettered baby killing. In many blue states, and our neighbor Canada, the majority of voters are in favor of expansive abortion “rights”, so legislative success in banning abortion will not be soon in coming.
Congratulations on the overturn of Roe. Congratulations on the many U.S. states that have either banned or severely curtailed baby killing. Congratulations on the closed abortion mills and the doctors leaving the bloody trade to pursue “other opportunities”. All that is wonderful, but the fight ahead of us is at least as hard as the fight we just won. As we embark on that new campaign, here are some suggestions for those who care about souls, our culture, and the lives of the unborn.
Get Your Own Soul Right with God
Archpriest Geoffrey Korz, in a recent article on resisting political tyrants, wrote the following: “If you are not confessing your sins every couple weeks before God, and receiving Holy Communion properly prepared to do so, why on earth would you imagine you would be able to make a change in our country?”
If we want to change the world, we have to start with ourselves first. As Fr Geoffrey recommends – pray daily, confess regularly, repent, forgive and receive forgiveness. We could add to these reading the scriptures, studying the lives of the saints, and spending time with fellow Orthodox Christians. These are all essential spiritual tools for our development that even faithful Orthodox Christians too often neglect.
In an article full of wise advice, one thing that Fr Geoffrey said stands out above all others:
Firstly, within each of our homes, we must begin to drive away the influence of the evil one.
Asking forgiveness, offering forgiveness, watching the words we use and the music and videos we play sets the spiritual tone for our home. We invite in the grace of God, or we chase it away. We invite in demonic influences, or we chase them away.
If we are to bring light to a dark and fallen world, we must first stop attracting darkness into our hearts, homes, and families. Above all, in the modern era, that means avoiding Porn and perverse TV programming.
Did you ever wonder why abortion is so important to the powers of this world? There are multiple reasons, of course. It is a form of human sacrifice that is pleasing to the demons. Abortion has been supported by eugenicists who wished to rid the world of “sub humans”. Abortion is a form of population control, making it an important tool for those who fear overpopulation. Feminists believe abortion is essential to female empowerment. If “burdened” by babies, women won’t necessarily go out and work for soulless corporations. They might stay home in “comfortable concentration camps” instead and raise healthy offspring. Not surprisingly, that is exactly why soulless corporations support abortion to the point they are willing to pay for them. Feminism is good for corporate bottom lines. Sadly for both the feminists and the corporations, the younger generation of women seems to be figuring out how badly they were played.
Gen Z might make it through. pic.twitter.com/FxgvFH4Uvu
— Michael (@sovrynmindset) August 10, 2022
All those reasons are important, but there is one that matters more than any other. Without abortion, the Sexual Revolution would have been impossible. Abortion was essential as a backup to contraception failure. Without baby killing, the Sexual Revolution would have ended almost as soon as it began. Sexual libertines would have been quickly forced to settle down to the business of raising the children their irresponsibility had brought into the world.
But along came Roe, and the party was just getting started!
The Sexual Revolution was a deliberate strategy employed by Cultural Marxists to destroy the family, Western Culture, and weaken the Christian Faith to foster conditions for a Communist Revolution. “If it feels good, do it! If you get pregnant, abort it! Live for today!” Porn was an integral part of mainstreaming the Sexual Revolution. Porn dehumanizes. Porn creates an image that “recreational sex” is normal, while monogamy is abnormal. Childless hedonism is normal, having children is an abnormality to be avoided. Porn stunts emotional development, and deranges relationship expectations. Porn wrecks children exposed to it. Porn exploits women and children in its production. Porn alters the brains of frequent users. Porn makes men weak, impotent, and full of shame. They cower when they should lead.
Porn, as Blessed Seraphim Rose said, is the Devil’s Iconography.
Porn conditions the souls of people to find perversions pleasurable and acceptable. The pernicious influence of porn is necessary to prop up support for abortion. In turn, abortion makes “hook up” culture possible. The two go hand-in-hand. While you may not be “hooking up”, if you are consuming porn then you are still attracting demonic influence into your life, home, and family. You are losing your soul and driving away the Holy Spirit. Anything you try to do for the cause of life, or for the Kingdom of God in general, will be compromised and less effective.
Whether it is porn, racy TV, casual sex, or whatever else that has a hold on you – fix yourself first before trying to fix anything else.
Support Orthodox Missions
Orthodoxy in the United States is small compared to Roman Catholicism and Evangelicalism. Yet, despite its relatively low numbers, the Orthodox Church draws a lot of negative attention. Why? It’s not because of anything we have done so far. It is because of what the Orthodox Church is capable of – nothing less than transforming the United States and ending the demonic rot in our culture.
Large scale growth of the Orthodox Church in the United States would stop Cultural Marxism in its tracks. A large Orthodox presence would lead to changes in every aspect of our society, from economics to morals, that would upset just about every elite group running the place. The prospect fills them with absolute dread, which is why they are so willing to fund progressive “Orthodox” academics and clergy to attack the Church from within.
In many places, it is an electoral impossibility to legally protect the unborn. Heck, often it is even an electoral impossibility to protect children from being mutilated in the name of “gender affirming care”. We can rally in those places and vote for pro-life candidates all we want, but not much will come of such efforts. Before we can change laws in deep “blue” areas, we must first change hearts. The best way to change anyone’s heart is to bring that person to the Orthodox Faith.
If you want to save babies, repair families, and heal souls, then support Orthodox Missions in the United States through prayer, witnessing, and donations. People need faith in Christ, and only the Orthodox Church can give them that faith in all its fullness. Up till now, the Orthodox Church has not lived up to the Great Commission on these shores. As one priest recently said, “It’s our fault that Americans don’t know about the Orthodox Church, not theirs.”
We are the generation that will change that for the Glory of God. Get yourself in a good place with God, then do whatever you can to help spread the Orthodox Faith.
Support and Join Pro-life Organizations
Pro-life organizations were instrumental in the decades-long fight to overturn Roe, and in the passage of state-level laws against abortion that are saving thousands of babies. Going forward, they will continue to be vital in educating the public about the horrors of abortion, restricting / outlawing abortion legislatively, and providing services to mothers who need help. Orthodox Christians serious about protecting babies should join and support Orthodox Christians for Life. There are local organizations to get involved in as well, such as St. John the Forerunner Orthodox Pro-life Society in New York. Non-Orthodox pro-life organizations have also been effective over the years, and are likewise a good way to join the fight.
If you are in Canada, we recommend subscribing to The Interim pro-life magazine. The Summer issue is available for download below and is packed with important information.
Click below to download the Summer issue.
Now that Roe is gone, abortion will be a contentious issue for decades to come. No pro-life law will ever be permanently safe. Neither will any pro-abortion law. Each legislative election will matter. Each candidate will matter, especially for offices you might not expect like local zoning boards, city councils, and school boards. Keep in touch with like-minded Christians, stay informed, and stay active.
Support Pro-life and Pro-family Policies
Pro-abortionists often accuse pro-lifers of only caring about children in the womb. That is false, of course, but it is true that we have allowed the economic and social structure of our country to become profoundly anti-child. Family formation and well-being are hampered by lack of well-paying jobs, inflation, lack of affordable housing, bad school systems, high medical care costs, and a burdensome tax code.
In our national priorities, babies and children seem to rank dead last, a situation that must change before our population implodes. Perhaps instead of $87 billion for the latest war, we could focus our money and efforts in helping our young people start and maintain healthy families? Family-friendly policies are particularly attractive goals in places like NY and Canada, where anti-abortion laws are unlikely to pass any time soon. If you can’t restrict the supply of abortion “services”, then perhaps you can help women in need and thus reduce the “demand” for killing and/or avoiding babies.
A contributor to Orthodox Reflections explored the possibilities of pro-baby policies in this article. By the way, whenever we are accused on social media by pro-abortion types of not caring about babies after they are born, we post a link to that article and let them know we are willing to cooperate on pro-baby / pro-woman policies. It almost always ends the discussion. Pro-lifers are sincere in our desire to help families, while most pro-abortionists are merely parroting talking points.
Stop Freezing and Trafficking Babies
As more couples struggle with fertility issues, medical treatments have arisen that turn babies into commodities. IVF procedures have resulted in more than 1,000,000 embryos in frozen storage right now in just the United States. What is to be the fate of these children? Surrogacy has also become common place, a practice which the Orthodox Church condemns in such documents as “The Basis of the Social Concept”:
“Surrogate motherhood,” that is, the bearing of a fertilized ovule by a woman who after the delivery returns the child to the “customers”, is unnatural and morally inadmissible even in those cases where it is realized on a non-commercial basis. This method involves the violation of the profound emotional and spiritual intimacy that is established between mother and child already during the pregnancy. “Surrogate motherhood” traumatizes both the bearing woman, whose mother’s feelings are trampled upon, and the child who may subsequently experience an identity crisis.
During IVF procedures, more than one embryo is usually injected and often more than one implants. This frequently leads to “selective reduction” in which “unwanted” babies are aborted. IVF procedures in general, and surrogacy in particular, need to be banned the same as abortion. You cannot treat children as designer possessions and claim you support “life”.
Now is the time to protect women and babies. We have the spiritual tools at our disposal. We have the opportunity. It is time for us to rise to the occasion.
Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America
Unfortunately I see Roe vs. Wade but as a means to deepen the political divide in the United States and fuel polarization ahead of the mid-term elections and beyond in the United States. Of course it must be welcomed by many conservative thinking people with true values and morals. However, we need to be mindful that the people in power do throw some bones at conservatives while they march on with their agendas. This is no different with regard to abortions. Don’t expect abortions to suddenly drop now, the depopulation of the planet marches on even if a few states ban or severely restrict abortions for the time being.
To give you another unrelated example. Vucic in Serbia may have called off the LGBTQ march because of severe opposition to it from a large segment of the Serbian population but he immediately appointed the Lesbian Prime Minister for another term. This is their modus operandi, they always gauge opposition to their moves, take one step back and then two forward at an opportune moment. The same applies with the topic of abortion in America.
I agree with the author of this article that we need to support pro-life organizations but as with any organization be sure to know and understand who is behind each and what their values truly are. We live in an age o great deception where even those people that outwardly claim to be good use but a facade of make-believe at times. Please pray and use discernment when donating your hard earned money.
Let us remember, they may have deep pockets and near complete control over education but we are many that hold values and morals and we can have an impact at the grassroot level to oppose their agendas. Let us not give up!
These are all true sentiments. We do live a world of deception, and we can very easily fall victim to despair as a result. Which is why the focus must be on Christ. Step 1 that was recommended is see to your own soul. If you focus on Christ, then you will not give into the despair of this world. The Evil One wins if you are downcast, defeated. We can’t be. So we see to ourselves, and we focus on Christ and His Kingdom. If you never get past Step 1, stay there. Step 2, stay there. But if you can get right with God, and you have begun working for His Kingdom, then you can go further. Too many of us are skipping straight to politics, and that is crushing our souls.
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