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Pro-Life Training Program Series

Anti-Life Mentality Denies Sacredness Of Life

By Janet Baker

Now we will examine how we are to respond to the anti-life mentality.  Let us always bear in mind that by virtue of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, we are members of the Church Militant.  Some modernist elements, in misguided (or maybe malicious) attempts to make us a “kinder/gentler” church, try to soften or even eliminate the militant aspect of our calling.

However, we are not the “Church Mealy-mouth,” nor the “Church Milquetoast,” nor the “Church Mellow.”  We need to recover our traditional understanding of the reality of the constant, ongoing spiritual conflict in which we are engaged.

Who are our opponents in this spiritual conflict?  Tradition has always identified three hostile forces:  the world, the flesh and the devil.

The “world” comprises those elements external to us that make sin seem attractive and desirable.  The “flesh” is our own concupiscence, which is part and parcel of the effects of Original Sin.  The devil is the most powerful and he orchestrates the other two in his own machinations.

We need to be able to see the devil beyond the anti-lifers who so often oppose us.  In doing so, we must pray for them and do what we can for the salvation of their souls.

What is the crux of the anti-life mentality?  It is a mentality that views human life as something less than sacred and inviolate, because it ignores and even denies the spiritual aspect of the human being.  Therefore, anti-lifers are inclined to rank people according to physical and social characteristics, leading to the belief that some classes are more worthy than others.

The anti-life mentality is nothing new.  Such reasoning was exhibited by the slave owners of two hundred years ago (who differentiated classes by race and skin color) and by the Nazis (who differentiated classes by ethnicity).

Today, the population control movement ranks people by their “standard of living.”  Pro-abortionists rank people by age, physical dependency and “wantedness.”  Pro-euthanasia people rank others by “quality of life” and “degree of burden on family.”

Anti-lifers think thus because they have turned away from God.  They do not believe that Man is the paramount creation of God.  They are self-centered and not God-centered.

Thus, they are willing to commit virtually any act to increase their freedom and self-gratification.  They are willing to kill to satisfy their desires:  in fact, they do so.

Knowing this, we can recognize the anti-life elements within the following types of organizations:

• radical feminists
• animal-rights groups who hold that animals and humans are equal
• radical environmentalists who hold that “man has infected/corrupted the earth”
• gay rights activists
• Communists, socialists and the like who avow atheism
• bogus “peace and justice” groups who ignore and even support abortion

We will examine some of the anti-life strategies next time.