Completely Pro-Life, or Why I Sometimes Think I'm Partly Mennonite

As I take a moment and meditate on the millions of unborn children who were "evacuated" from their mother's womb, I am filled with heart-breaking sadness. How many of those children would have been a Mozart, an Einstein, a Jonas Salk, a Rembrandt, or a Mother Theresa? When I consider the deaths of the millions killed by war, whether soldiers or civilians, I wonder which one of those who died might have discovered the cure for cancer? When I hear that 40,000 children die daily of malnutrition in developing countries, I ask which one of them would grow up to be a Gandhi or an Aung San Suu Kyi? We have slaughtered ourselves into impoverishment - a poverty not of things, but of possibility.

Here's a confession: I never know who to vote for, so I usually don't vote. I consider myself "completely pro-life" (to borrow a Ron Sider title, from an important book), which means I consider abortion a heinous evil, the destruction of a human life. It also means that I object to the death penalty, euthanasia, nuclear fuel and weaponry, war as a policy option, and the neglect of the poor, which results in starvation (and death by drowning in New Orleans). It means that I believe that God is a God of life, who commands us to keep good stewardship over the earth and its creatures - even creatures without economic value. Being pro-life means more than being anti-death, it means adopting a position that advocates for quality of life for all people, and a meticulous, vigilant care over creation.

I deliberately avoided saying that I am consistently pro-life, because I am not. I fail miserably to live up to my rhetoric. I remain a dedicated consumer who purchases things he doesn't need, and I often fail to speak prophetically for those without power or voice. I daily contribute to the mountains of trash we collect. I recycle, but sometimes not as thoroughly as I should, and I don't consistently practice peace-making. I allow ego, anger, and selfishness to guide my behavior all too many times.

This is why I so thoroughly respect the "peace churches," especially the Mennonites. I don't plan on becoming one (I like my IPod and Xbox waaaay too much), but I do love their prophetic resolutions. The Mennonite social witness offers an alternative vision between liberalism and conservatism, and between Democrat and Republican. Check out the Third Way Cafe for more on this. Mennonites show a lot of courage by their completely pro-life positions, a courage that comes from taking seriously Jesus' call to radical discipleship. When I read Mennonite literature, I begin to see just how much I have accommodated myself to the world. I see just how much material things mean to me, and how complicit I am in participating in systems of oppression and neglect. I don't look or act all that differently from my unchurched neighbor - do you?

{Here's a link to Mennonite Resolutions}