Last week we talked about "The Task Before Us," that is, the need to get much more serious about our faith, to refocus our efforts on our true end - Jesus Christ. He is our only true hope. The more fully we live the virtue of hope the more it becomes performative in our lives, the more He becomes performative in our lives, transforming our outlook and letting us rise above setbacks and see beyond often ugly reality we see around us.
This is a permanent effort -- we never fully "get there" in this life, although we may receive moments of clarity and consolation. With hope we are more able to grasp the reality of our situation without it weighing us down.
Toward that end -- understanding our situation -- let's consider the more fundamental aspects of the culture of death. We know the most fundamental issue is sin, that which separates us from God, but there is a manifestation of sin that the Catholic Church has often stood alone in condemning, even as the rest of our culture seems to have "moved on." Well, the culture has moved on, right into a violent fracturing of its relationships, its faith and its institutions, including the most fundamental institution, the family.
The issue is contraception. What is interesting is that even a couple years ago, to mention this truth would be to invite eye rolling from even some passionate pro-lifers. But more and more, our Protestant brothers and sisters, and even some wayward Catholics, are realizing the wreckage that has followed in the wake of the sexual revolution --- a revolution that would not have happened without contraception. I think three things have led to this growing realization.
Let's look at the most recent one first. The Obama campaign made contraception its signature issue, even inventing a "war on women" designed to further fracture the nation against itself in hopes that it would scare enough women (and men who want to have sex with women without being tied down) into the voting booth to vote against those who were going to "limit access" to contraception. It was a ruse, but it worked. And the Obama campaign released video after sickening video, column after column of obscene calls for women to defend their "girl parts." They spent tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars on the false issue, showing again the banality of the contraceptive mentality, this time on steroids. Because the administration can't openly boast of their championing of abortion, they boast of its cousin, contraception.
And they won.
Another reason I think many people are waking up to the evil nature of contraception is the fact that it doesn't prevent abortion on a wide scale, rather, it increases it. In our own nation, contraception was legalized nationally in the mid-60's, then came calls for legal abortion, then came Roe v. Wade, then came millions of abortions. Did contraception prevent abortion in America?
Internationally, it is the same thing. The Gates Foundation and the British Government, along with dozens of partners have launched a $4.6 billion campaign to promote contraception in the developing world. Their top two promoters are the top two abortion providers in the world -- Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, both of whom have announced plans to grow their abortion services in Africa.
Who still thinks that widespread contraception "prevents" abortion? Indeed, abortion and contraception are never far apart.
Finally, people are waking up to the fact that contraception, now described as the most essential component of women's health, is actually killing and harming women on a scale that is impossible to measure, even as its acceptance by a society leads to more abortion. Its links to deep vein blood clots have made several producers of hormonal contraception the subjects of huge class action lawsuits; it is now classified as a Group-1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization, governments are now starting to wonder who they can sue to pay for the reversal of hormonal contraception's deleterious effects on the environment, and so on.
This, brothers and sisters, is the culture of death laid bare. It is a culture of ignorance, of stupidity, of a lie. Poison as healthcare, environmental degradation as "sustainability," bondage to sin as liberation, government overreach as freedom from oppression and sex "education" designed to separate children from their parents and create future customers for the abortion and contraception industry.
This realization is what inspired HLI Founder Father Paul Marx to start HLI in its nascent form in 1972, and while he was most renown for inspiring people to fight abortion, he always talked about its link to contraception and the need to address both.
Deny the centrality of contraception all you want, but it just played a starring role in the most expensive political campaign in history. People are starting to get it, even at what may seem like the lowest point of the nation's history. But take a step back and look at history beyond our borders -- it has been worse. For the moment, we can still live our faith in public and only face derision and jeers, but not prison. We need to do this without fear, indeed with great hope and joy. Faithful Christians are uniting as the government's attack on faith grows more overt. WE KNOW WHO WINS!
Next week we will talk more about how Father Marx saw this struggle, and how he recommended we go about confronting the culture of death.
It is a great time to be Christians! Pray and work, my friends.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International
