March for Life Ottawa
A few weeks ago I accompanied my friend Alexis and three of my sisters northeast: a ten hour drive to Canada's capital city, Ottawa, for the annual March for Life and rally on Parliament Hill. Alexis had the opportunity to speak at the rally, which was our main reason for making the trip. We were able to stay with some very good friends, seven of whom accompanied us on the March.
Alexis works with a group called Silent No More (more on them, and on a more controversial group, in a minute), so we were all able to carry Silent No More signs. To our surprise, the folks who were organizing the event pulled us up on the makeshift stage, to hold our signs high so the entire crowd of six thousand people could see. I felt extraordinarily blessed to be up there. It certainly was a far cry from standing outside the hospital every Friday morning with five or six other people! God was allowing us, a bunch of part-time protesters from Canada's deep south, to be a very visible part of the event. I tend to be a dry-eyed person, but somehow, standing up there with all those brave people made the importance of what we were doing hit home all the harder, and when I wasn't fighting the wind to keep my sign aloft, I was swallowing the lump in my throat and blinking back tears.
Many of the protesters held signs with the slogan for 2006: "Abortion is Killing Canada's Future." In a very practical way, this is true. By choosing death over life we are unnaturally shrinking our population and limiting our future. But it also true in a very personal way, for thousands upon thousands of people.
Silent No More is made up of post-abortive people and those who support them. They carry signs that, with understated eloquence, reveal the pain behind the lies: "I Regret My Abortion" and "I Regret Lost Fatherhood" are the most common. These courageous women and men testify to the hurt, the self-hatred, the depression, the physical side effects, and the spiritual devastation caused by abortion. It's interesting to note that every person who speaks with Silent No More testifies to the forgiveness they've found in God. "No one who doesn't know they're forgiven has the guts to get up there and say that," a local Silent No More representative told me. And she's right.
These people bring the "Killing Canada's Future" slogan into the real world of our personal lives. Thousands of families, whether they realize it or not, have lost their futures. They have lost their children and grandchildren. They have lost their moral freedom and strength of conscience. They have lost a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a family, a mother, a father, a living being made in the image of God. And though God and will restore those who turn to Him, the damage done to individuals and to society is almost immeasurable.
In her speech, Alexis reminded listeners that this is a spiritual battle. Indeed, it's hard to look at the faces of those who have suffered so much over this issue and not hear Jesus' words ringing in your ears: "The thief cometh to steal, to kill, and to destroy." As it is a spiritual battle, we must fight it with spiritual weapons: one of those weapons is truth.
There was another group in Ottawa that weekend who caught my interest. They did not march with us. Instead, they lined up on both sides of the street in front of Henry Morgentaler's clinic. The march took us through their corridor, and they faced us with the silent power of a truth so horrible it's hard to look it in the face. The organization is known as "Show the Truth," and they produce and carry large, graphic signs. They show children. Some living: beautiful faces. Some dead: destroyed by this thing we call "abortion."
Show the Truth is often opposed, even within pro-life circles, for their use of graphic images. Yet I know that their signs were the most powerful thing I saw on the Hill. The incontestable message of Silent No More, "I Regret My Abortion," and the unforgettable images of Show the Truth, are waging a spiritual warfare on abortion. If you've read this far, I ask you to join us in entreating the Father for power to defeat abortion: at the point of destruction in so many hospitals and clinics, and before that, at the root of deception, fear, and selfishness in the hearts of our people.
I know that God can restore our lives, and our futures, for Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
Alexis works with a group called Silent No More (more on them, and on a more controversial group, in a minute), so we were all able to carry Silent No More signs. To our surprise, the folks who were organizing the event pulled us up on the makeshift stage, to hold our signs high so the entire crowd of six thousand people could see. I felt extraordinarily blessed to be up there. It certainly was a far cry from standing outside the hospital every Friday morning with five or six other people! God was allowing us, a bunch of part-time protesters from Canada's deep south, to be a very visible part of the event. I tend to be a dry-eyed person, but somehow, standing up there with all those brave people made the importance of what we were doing hit home all the harder, and when I wasn't fighting the wind to keep my sign aloft, I was swallowing the lump in my throat and blinking back tears.
Many of the protesters held signs with the slogan for 2006: "Abortion is Killing Canada's Future." In a very practical way, this is true. By choosing death over life we are unnaturally shrinking our population and limiting our future. But it also true in a very personal way, for thousands upon thousands of people.
Silent No More is made up of post-abortive people and those who support them. They carry signs that, with understated eloquence, reveal the pain behind the lies: "I Regret My Abortion" and "I Regret Lost Fatherhood" are the most common. These courageous women and men testify to the hurt, the self-hatred, the depression, the physical side effects, and the spiritual devastation caused by abortion. It's interesting to note that every person who speaks with Silent No More testifies to the forgiveness they've found in God. "No one who doesn't know they're forgiven has the guts to get up there and say that," a local Silent No More representative told me. And she's right.
These people bring the "Killing Canada's Future" slogan into the real world of our personal lives. Thousands of families, whether they realize it or not, have lost their futures. They have lost their children and grandchildren. They have lost their moral freedom and strength of conscience. They have lost a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a family, a mother, a father, a living being made in the image of God. And though God and will restore those who turn to Him, the damage done to individuals and to society is almost immeasurable.
In her speech, Alexis reminded listeners that this is a spiritual battle. Indeed, it's hard to look at the faces of those who have suffered so much over this issue and not hear Jesus' words ringing in your ears: "The thief cometh to steal, to kill, and to destroy." As it is a spiritual battle, we must fight it with spiritual weapons: one of those weapons is truth.
There was another group in Ottawa that weekend who caught my interest. They did not march with us. Instead, they lined up on both sides of the street in front of Henry Morgentaler's clinic. The march took us through their corridor, and they faced us with the silent power of a truth so horrible it's hard to look it in the face. The organization is known as "Show the Truth," and they produce and carry large, graphic signs. They show children. Some living: beautiful faces. Some dead: destroyed by this thing we call "abortion."
Show the Truth is often opposed, even within pro-life circles, for their use of graphic images. Yet I know that their signs were the most powerful thing I saw on the Hill. The incontestable message of Silent No More, "I Regret My Abortion," and the unforgettable images of Show the Truth, are waging a spiritual warfare on abortion. If you've read this far, I ask you to join us in entreating the Father for power to defeat abortion: at the point of destruction in so many hospitals and clinics, and before that, at the root of deception, fear, and selfishness in the hearts of our people.
I know that God can restore our lives, and our futures, for Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
posted by Rachel Starr Thomson at 12:15 a.m.
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