Through the Eye, Back Into the Storm

2016 was the year of a great storm. The darkness loomed up and, like a great vortex, pulled me into the middle of it and then down and from there I swirled around and around as if I was tied onto a merry go round closed in with frosted glass. Eventually, the rotations slowed and the glass brightened to near transparency. The depression lifted in the fall in the weeks before the election. As my mood brightened from the darkness of the depression abyss, I began to experience a growing sense of doom as Election Day approached. I feared the outcome would lead to a hastened descent into a world where it was ok to declare war on my faith, the unborn, our first and second amendment rights, human life and so and on.

As election night unfolded, we are all stunned to see a completely unexpected outcome come to pass. The next day, there were still some losses, from my perspective, but there was a huge outrage from those who were shattered by the unpredicted results. At the time, I, however, I had a feeling the worst had passed. The storm was behind us and we could get on with the business of re-balancing the scales. With each passing day, however, paralysis continued to reach out and bog down any real chance of action. Other than some good Supreme Court appointments, very little positive has happened but, instead, we have never really been able to move out from under the effects of the lingering storm.

Three years later, it becomes clear to me that 2016 was not just a tornado that blew through and left us in blue skies with work to do to heal the wounds but it was the front wall of a hurricane and we have been bobbing along in the eye of the storm, buffeted by chaotic waves and gusting, swirling winds.

2020 is still 6 months away and yet the storm wall is looming up with darkness deeper than ever seen before. The winds that howl come from the edges while the greater number of us the middle are have been drowned out so completely it is as if we have a lost our voices.

Even with the the perspective of 7 decades of life, I wonder if have been naïve. My past experience is that both sides realized that the end of the day when the sun is setting and the wind is dying down, the job of governance remained possible and necessary. A compromise was found to pass budgets, to create laws and to allow society to stumble on to another day and another after that. The usual outcome was that no one was happy, no one way was crazy angry but an outcome was hammered out. There are some issues for which there is no compromise. Abortion is one example.  Assisted suicide is another.

What makes me fear the arrival of category 10 cataclysm?  Listen to the dialogue. My naivety encourages me to hope we can talk about the dividing issues. Gun control. Take prohibition of semi-automatics rifles off the table, we can talk about steps we can take to make us feel safer. Let’s talk about violence. Period. Not gun violence or any other single expression of violence but violence itself. Our current health care situation is unacceptable but we can find solutions that don’t require trampling the rights of one element of society to accomplish coverage for another.

The one issue that cannot be resolved is abortion. The split between pro-choice and pro-life proponents are not something we can simply put to rest. For one side, it is all about the right of a woman to keep or end a pregnancy. There is no consideration of the rights of the unborn human. In fact, it is fashionable to deny the life is even human at all so there is no harm in ending it. For the other, human life begins at conception and ends with natural death. The goal for many in the pro-life movement is to eliminate all abortion without consideration of circumstances.

Life, however, has to be lived in the muddy middle. I belong to the camp that believes all life is sacred and that anyone who has sex should be prepared for the possibility of life coming out of an act of procreation. That is not to say I don’t understand the has to balance the rights of both the woman and the baby. I have heard the horror stories about underage pregnancies, rape, incest, problem pregnancies or health complications. I have compassion for those who are caught in those tragic conundrums. I would be willing to talk about those issues if the other side would be willing to talk about the vast majority of abortions that occur because of perceived need or, horrifyingly, for reasons related to sex selection or Down Syndrome.

What has happened is a full-scale attack on the Roe v Wade prohibition of termination after viability. The idea of abortions being safe, legal and rare has been obliterated by demands for abortion at any time for any reason. There is, I fear, no solution, no resolution possible nor will there ever be, ever. In other words, we will forever be locked in an increasingly hostile confrontation which may well split the society permanently. Churches, families, states, counties will all be pitted one against the other. It is not inconceivable to me that it could end our way of life.

If all of these concerns come to pass, how will I respond?

There is one thing that is absolutely clear. If we can’t limit abortion, we have to eliminate it. Period. Human life is sacred from conception to natural death. No human has the right to take the life another human being, born or unborn. I am willing to discuss any of the ramifications of that position. Not just any ramification but all of them.

From a broader perspective, however, it is not safe for me to engage in the debate. I move quickly from anger to rage and once there, no civil discourse can ensue. If I can’t engage, I have to disengage. As a Catholic Christian, I am bound by duty and vow to commit to the furtherance of Catholic Social justice. I understand the call to action. The questions are how shall I respond. I believe I called not to rush into battle but to withdraw into silence to pray for God’s will to bear fruit.

My greatest fear is the polarization that is certain to come. Just as happened in the Civil War, families will be divided, one against the other. Relationships will be frayed, tattered, torn or even shredded beyond mending. I pray that will not happen. I know that as deeply as I hold my convictions on abortion, I hope to keep my focus on the issue, not the issue holder. We are not at war in literal with guns as we were during the Civil War and I pray war will not come.