![\"Mary](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-Mary-150x150.jpg\")
Mary Liepold<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019d been saying for decades that I straddled the fence on the abortion issue. I\u2019m a middle-ground Catholic\u2015definitely not \u201crecovering,\u201d but also not Rome\u2019s most docile daughter. You\u2019d never catch me at a rally for or against. Though I\u2019m a true-blue liberal and I make plenty of donations, I\u2019ve steered clear of Emily\u2019s List and other organizations that take \u201cpro-choice\u201d stands because that single issue just didn\u2019t sit right. It was all fairly abstract for me, though, until one March a few years ago.<\/p>\n
All at once abortion became personal, as an option affecting two people I\u2019m very close to. I told them both I\u2019d support them no matter what decision they made, and blessedly, both issues were soon peacefully resolved. But the itch at the back of my brain was still there. I signed up for emails from Consistent Life<\/a>, a forum for some rare individuals who are passionately pro-life across the life course, opposing both war and abortion. Once in a while I even read one. I know a handful of smart people who occupy that ground. I was still lurking, though\u2015still on the fence.<\/p>\n Then I happened to see the lovely 2011 Canadian film Monsieur Lazhar<\/em>. M. Lazhar is an Algerian refugee hired by an elementary school principal to replace a teacher who committed suicide\u2015in her classroom during recess. We focus on two of the children, a boy whose childish fib may have fuelled the teacher\u2019s despair and a girl, formerly his friend, who blames the boy. Both children saw the teacher hanging. The principal provides counseling sessions for the whole class, but these children, at least, are still haunted. Lazhar knows that what they need to hear is what none of the adults are willing to tell them: that their former teacher did something wrong.<\/p>\n The children had loved their gentle, troubled teacher. Out of love for her, the counselor and the others refuse to label her despairing act. It doesn\u2019t seem to occur to anyone that they can call it wrong without dishonoring her. So the boy is left to bear the burden until the little girl, and then Lazhar, insists on clarity. He loses his job but she regains her friend.<\/p>\n And watching the movie, my mind was suddenly clear. A dictum flashed back from my catechism days: \u201cHate the sin and love the sinner.\u201d<\/p>\n Thank you, Lord! I can hate the war and love the warriors, with Paul Chappell and my friend Debbie and many other peace-loving friends and parents and partners and children of soldiers. I can embrace the individual who chooses (or considers) suicide or abortion and leave judgment to a merciful God, while still being clear that a precious and unique life is involved.<\/p>\n Now, having reached this conclusion, I would no more\u00a0harass women who seek abortions than I would bomb Boeing or spit at a returned soldier. With war and abortion both, my interest is all in education and prevention. Spare me the angels-on-pins arguments about weeks of gestation. I still agree with blessed, angry Florynce Kennedy, may she rest in peace, that if men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament. That\u2019s consistent with the history of patriarchy in the church and the world.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to be a strange, crabby pro-lifer. I will not promise not to scream the next time someone calls fetuses \u201cinnocent life,\u201d as though passing through the birth canal destroys innocence and children murdered by our drone attacks are guilty. Come to think of it, I may do a lot of screaming when I meet my new fold, but I\u2019ll make them at least as crazy as they make me. It\u2019s high time we start talking to each other.<\/p>\n Will I be joining the March for Life next year, alongside all those Catholic school kids giddy with the excitement of a day out of class? It seems unlikely, but I won\u2019t rule it out. If I march, I\u2019ll be with Consistent Life, behind a banner that says Life Belongs to God <\/strong>or Life & Dignity for All\u2015No Exceptions<\/strong>. I\u2019ll expect to see the same people on another day vigiling for peace or the environment and against fracking, mourning the victims of the last drone attack, reaching out to the parents of children with severe disabilities and<\/em> the parents of the next well-armed, mentally ill person who carries out a domestic terror attack. No blame, and no exceptions. I\u2019ll bring my very best listening skills, and we\u2019ll all learn something new.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a pro-lifer for peace and a peacenik for life, and I\u2019m in good company. Get used to it! I don\u2019t have all the answers. And I don\u2019t know where this road will lead. But the ground finally feels firm under my feet.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bio sketch: <\/em><\/strong>Mary Liepold is a Secular Franciscan, a wife, mother, & grandmother, a writer and editor, an avid reader, and an activist. She lives in Silver Spring, MD.<\/em><\/p>\n Mary says about this blog entry: \u201cIt has an interesting history. A few years ago I paid several hundred dollars for a one-day workshop with an organization dedicated to increasing the roughly 15% share of the public conversation that women\u2019s voices occupy. Their promise was to assign each participant a mentor who would help place a piece on Huffington Post or something of the sort. So I got one, worked up a version of this, and sent it to her. Dead silence, no matter how many times I followed up. I had violated feminist orthodoxy,\u00a0and she wouldn\u2019t touch it.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n ==================================================<\/p>\n For more blog posts on personal journeys, see:<\/em><\/p>\n Supporting the Dignity of Every Life<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(Bill Samuel)<\/span><\/p>\n Nukes and the Pro-Life Christian<\/span><\/a>: A Conservative Takes a Second Look at the Morality of Nuclear Weapons (Karen Swallow Prior)<\/span><\/p>\n Coming to Peace and Living a Consistent Life After Military Service<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Sharon Long: My Personal Pro-life Journey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n On Being a Consistent Chimera <\/span><\/a>(Rob Arner)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Mary Liston Liepold, OSF, Ph.D. I\u2019d been saying for decades that I straddled the fence on the abortion issue. I\u2019m a middle-ground Catholic\u2015definitely not \u201crecovering,\u201d but also not Rome\u2019s most docile daughter. You\u2019d never catch me at a rally for or against. Though I\u2019m a true-blue liberal and I make plenty of donations, I\u2019ve… <\/p>\n![\"heading\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/heading-300x242.jpg\")
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