“We need good young people who are willing to step out in good faith and to take these risks to expose these issues. We are entering into a time where the Church is under a lot of persecution, and we will need young people to step out and have the courage to do what is right even in the face of great adversity.
“I really encourage young people to think of the pro-life movement as a job option, even something to dedicate your life to, until abortion becomes unthinkable in our society.”
I would encourage ANYONE-- not just young people-- to dedicate themselves to the pro-life movement.
Ruth Lobo has made a difference.
I know I have made a difference, sitting on my butt in front of my computer, surfing the web and publishing my findings on my blog.
You may not see the difference, but I do.
I think there are a few key things to keep in mind:
1) Play to your strengths. Do what you're good at and what you like doing. I like blogging. For some people, it's prayer. For some it's education. For some it's grassroots activism on the street, for some people it's volunteering at a CPC, for another it's writing high-minded articles in journals.
2) It's a question of persistence. I've written close to 5000 posts on this blog. Only a small fraction have been of use to anyone. Today's contribution may not be of any use; neither might tomorrow's. But it adds up in the end.
3) Prudence: Remember-- we're in this fight to win. If you're here to stoke your sense or morality, and you're only concerned about being a witness and not concerned about the ultimate end-- which is to build a culture of life-- you're doing it wrong. Once upon a time in the 90's, that's all you heard from some pro-lifers-- they just wanted to "do their duty"-- which they thought was just to pray and put things out there and not actually win the fight. They didn't think they could win the fight.
The nature of abortion is such that we will win the fight. It's just a matter of when.
In order to win sooner rather than later, we have to have the eye of the tiger, that hunger for the victory, that sense of failure not being an option. We have to want it more badly than the other side, collectively speaking.
And in order to make productive use of that hunger, we have to exercise the virtue of prudence. Prudence requires us to do those things that would win the pro-life cause. So you have to figure out what would win and do that. Look at who's successful and imitate them. Even better: be creative yourself. Outsmart your opponents.
4) Network. YOU WILL NEVER WIN THIS FIGHT ON YOUR OWN. Find some like-minded people whom you can call upon to help you. If you can't find them in your church, find them online. You need to be surrounded by people who can encourage you and even join you when necessary. Help others with their projects and they will be more likely to help you out.
You can make a difference. Small differences add up to big differences. I think that the pro-life movement in Canada can make advances if we just had more people involved in it. The critical mass necessary to change our social and political landscape does not consist of millions of people. I think the critical number is in the thousands. You can't tell me that millions of people across Canada made the Human Rights Tribunals possible, or SSM. We can do the same thing, too, but only if we collectively put the effort into it.
