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Carol Crossed<\/p><\/div>\n
Why is it so difficult to get people to act for justice? There are seven qualities that acts of justice embody.<\/p>\n
First: Justice is public.<\/strong>\u00a0You are trying to change the culture; people need to see you.\u00a0 It\u2019s not private.<\/p>\n Second:\u00a0 Justice is judgmental<\/strong>.\u00a0 People \u201cadmonish the sinner\u201d and \u201cinstruct the ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n We judge the system that creates the poor, that fosters military might, a lifestyle of individualism that applauds abortion as a legitimate choice.\u00a0When it comes to abortion we jump through hoops to avoid being judgmental.<\/p>\n Third: Justice is risky<\/strong>.\u00a0 It confronts us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Who is my neighbor?\u00a0 Or rather who is not my neighbor?<\/p>\n Every religion has some version of the Golden Rule<\/a>: From the Bible, \u201cDo unto others as you would have them do unto you\u201d (Matthew 7:12). From Buddhism: \u201cHurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.\u201d From Judaism: \u201cWhat is hateful to you, do not to your fellow.\u201d (Rabbi Hillel,\u00a0first century C.E.).<\/p>\n When we proclaim killing is killing, we will fall.\u00a0 We will be pushed.\u00a0 Our good name will be destroyed.\u00a0 A contractor who refused to work at an abortion clinic spoke about how his walking away from the job cost him business. My husband, who did affordable housing, refused to be part of his company\u2019s contract to build housing in Fort Drum.\u00a0 Think of the people who put their lives on the line and are arrested trespassing.\u00a0 During the 1960s, during the lunch counter sit-in and freedom rides, about 3,000 people were jailed. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the number of persons arrested in front of abortion clinics was 71,000.<\/p>\n Fourth: Justice is anonymous.<\/strong><\/p>\n We generally can\u2019t measure its success.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t count clients like social services.\u00a0It\u2019s more impersonal than seeing someone smile in a soup kitchen line.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a high-gratification job.<\/p>\n Fifth: Justice is divisive and confrontational<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Frederick Douglas said we have to welcome \u201cagitation,\u201d Martin Luther King said we have to employ creative tension.<\/p>\n Sixth: Justice is counter-cultural.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Sure, you are going a different way. Pro-life feminists are doing that very thing.\u00a0Abortion violates every tenant of feminism, and now we feminists have changed our principles to accommodate abortion.<\/p>\n The principle of equality<\/em><\/p>\n Abortion is domination over another.\u00a0 It\u2019s the opposite of conflict resolution because it destroys a party to the conflict. Senator Patricia Schroeder, a leading proponent in choice on abortion, fought for the rights of women to be combatants in war.<\/p>\n The principle of nonviolence\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Because of abortion, we have changed our definition of nonviolence to accommodate killing in certain circumstances.\u00a0 Listen to abortion doctor Don Sloan:\u00a0\u201cIs abortion murder? All killing isn’t murder.\u00a0 A cop shoots a teenager who ‘appeared to be going for a gun,’ and we call it justifiable homicide \u2013 a tragedy for all concerned, but not murder.\u201d (Don Sloan,\u00a0Abortion: A Doctor’s Perspective, A Woman’s Dilemma<\/em>, page 84).<\/p>\n Judith Arcana in her psychology book on psychology and reproductive choice: \u201cI think abortion belongs in the same context as assisted suicide, and war\u00a0. . . all situations that require the taking of life with moral, ethical knowledge and acceptance of responsibility.\u201d (\u201cFeminist politics and abortion in the US,\u201d\u00a0<\/a>Psychology and Reproductive Choice<\/em>)<\/p>\n Jason Deparle on feminism and abortion: \u201cIt\u2019s not surprising that the defenders of abortion don\u2019t like pictures of fetuses; General Westmoreland didn\u2019t like the cameras in Vietnam either.\u201d (Washington Monthly<\/em>, April 1989)<\/p>\n And then there’s war. In theory, soldiers shoot only at each other. But in practice, lots and lots of other folks get killed.\u00a0 We drop bombs where there are non-combatants \u2013 women and children and old people \u2013 and when they die we call it not murder but \u201ccollateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n (See more quotations of abortion doctors <\/a>relating abortion to war)<\/p>\n The principle of ecology<\/em><\/p>\n Putting a saline solution in one\u2019s body is not care of creation.\u00a0It\u2019s sexual strip-mining;<\/p>\n The principle of community is replaced with rugged individualism.\u00a0 Women have become the Marlboro man.\u00a0 \u201cIf you don\u2019t want an abortion, don’t have one\u201d mentality gives us \u201cIf you don\u2019t like irradiated food, then don\u2019t eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n There are fathers\u2019 rights groups who wanted to exercise their right to abort and are opposing child support.\u00a0 The \u201cchild-free movement\u201d doesn\u2019t want to pay for public education for children they didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n We have become like 1984<\/em>, the novel by George Orwell, where war is peace, slavery is freedom, and Truth is Choice.<\/p>\n Seventh: Justice is political<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It is by necessity political.<\/p>\n Not partisan political.\u00a0The Consistent Life Network doesn\u2019t endorse candidates.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t shaped by the parties.\u00a0 Rather, we shape candidates.\u00a0 When Pope John Paul was in the U.S. in 1992, someone said he couldn\u2019t figure out of this guy was radical left or radical right.\u00a0 Fr. Brian Hehir of the US delegation said, \u201cHe is neither.\u00a0 He is just radical.\u201d<\/p>\n So justice is political.\u00a0 We have to shape good laws and Supreme Court decisions, because these are teachers. The two years following Roe v. Wade<\/em>, abortions tripled.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 The Court said it was not immoral to kill.<\/p>\n Justice is mercy on steroids.<\/p>\n ===================================================<\/p>\n See\u00a0the list of all our blog posts<\/span><\/a>, put in categories. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n For more of our posts from Carol Crossed, see:<\/p>\n Spice Things Up with the Consistent Life Ethic<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The Parable of the Bridge<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n First Stirrings in Connecting the Life Issues<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Carol Crossed Why is it so difficult to get people to act for justice? There are seven qualities that acts of justice embody. First: Justice is public.\u00a0You are trying to change the culture; people need to see you.\u00a0 It\u2019s not private. Second:\u00a0 Justice is judgmental.\u00a0 People \u201cadmonish the sinner\u201d and \u201cinstruct the ignorant.\u201d We… <\/p>\n