Kristine, Author at Pro-Life Humanists

ProLife Gays and Lesbians

Kristine +Posted by on May 8, 2013 in Dear Theists, GLBT | 4 comments

My dear pro-life friends,

On the eve of Canada’s annual March for Life, the event commemorating May 14th 1969 when abortion first became legal in Canada, the brilliant but often offensive comedian George Carlin comes to mind. Every year I listen to members of parliament and prominent pro-life speakers stand at the podium and declare the pro-life movement’s intent to not only bring abortion to an end, but also to “bring this country back to God” and worse still “to restore the traditional meaning of marriage as one man and one woman”. The mixing of issues grated on me even when I was a theist and now that I’m an atheist it does so even more.

Carlin had this to say about pro-lifers, in his comedy piece on abortion:
“Catholics and other Christians are against abortions, and they’re against homosexuals. Well who has less abortions than homosexuals?! Leave these fucking people alone, for Christ sakes! Here is an entire class of people guaranteed never to have an abortion! And the Catholics and Christians are just tossing them aside! You’d think they’d make natural allies.”

While Carlin’s entire Back in Town track entitled “Abortion“ is brimming with fallacious arguments, on this point I believe he hit the bull’s eye! I personally know pro-life atheists and theists who will no longer come to the pro-life events because they felt entirely demonized by pro-life speakers on account of their homosexuality or bisexuality. Individuals who would happily advocate to save children from prenatal discrimination and death are being told both subtly and overtly that they are really not welcome to participate in the movement just the way they are.

As a pro-life atheist I have faced similar discrimination repeatedly. It so happens I have a will of steel, but I sympathize with those who don’t have the resolve to subject themselves to a brood of evangelists thirsty for souls to change and purify. Attending the March for Life last year with a sign that read “This is what an Atheist Pro-gay, Pro-life Feminist looks like“. I found myself on several occasions being literally swarmed with priests and other Catholics who wanted to debate me and point out “the absurd and impossibly anti-life philosophy of claiming to be both pro-gay and pro-life.” Instead of embracing me as an ally and being happy that someone outside the Catholic church agreed and wanted to fight with them on the matter of fetal rights, I was viewed with skepticism and even a certain amount of disdain.

The fact is, just as there are pro-life atheists and humanists, there are pro-life gays and lesbians, and the Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians does a great job of explaining the many reasons why. If pro-life theists turn gays and lesbians away or refuse to accept them as they are without trying to change them, is it any surprise that most openly gay individuals identify with the far more welcoming pro-choice community? As with atheists, members of the GLBT community can either be your pro-life allies or your enemies. I may be bad at math, but I don’t think that a movement seeking a pro-life majority can really afford to toss its would-be allies overboard.

Tomorrow is another March for Life and my open request to all pro-life Canadians is this: stop mixing the issues. We all belong to this movement. Please do not demand that we all become heterosexual theists abstaining until a condomless marriage before you will embrace us as one of your own. There is more than one way to create a world that does not kill its preborn children.

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Kristine +Posted by on May 1, 2013 in Dear Theists | 1 comment

‘Signs, signs, everywhere signs,” says the classic oldie. Go to any traditional pro-life event and you’ll see them: Virginal Mary and child emblazoned in a holy light, the famed pro-life icon Lady of Guadalupe, and rosary-bedecked signs a-plenty, imploring us all to “pray to end abortion”.

To the secular onlooker, the display of religiosity is plainly silly. Not only does it reaffirm the widely held belief that the pro-life position is merely a religious one to be disregarded by anyone outside of religion, it furthermore asks prayer of those least likely to be inclined to pray against a practice they don’t see as wrong.

But is that so big a deal? Other than looking silly, can any harm come from overtly religious pro-life presentations and public requests for prayer? Here are three reasons why I believe the signs are a detriment:

1. Image matters. The pro-life movement isn’t supposed to be a pep-rally, and it’s about time we start acting like we’re trying to move with our movement. How pro-lifers are perceived matters to how our message will be received. Religious icons and calls to prayer may comfort and reaffirm the faith-based pro-lifer, but they do little to persuade those passing by on the sidewalk that we are anything more than a church that fell out into the street. If our goal is to see more of them join us, we’d do well to not given them further cause to disregard us.

2. Rallies and demonstrations are an opportunity for education. We know we have good arguments on our side. Science, humanist philosophy, and reason combine to absolutely work in our favour. When addressing an increasingly secular world, these are the best and sharpest tools we ought to be pulling out of our kit. The average onlooker to a pro-life event may never have dialogued with an intelligent pro-lifer and our signs may be their only source of education. If our best case appears to be icons of Mary and appeals to prayer, onlookers are all the more likely to throw out the fetus with the holy water.

3. Prayer might be used in place of action. I can vividly recall attempting to recruit pro-life Christians to pro-life activism and outreach events. Too often I would hear “I’ll pray for you guys” in place of a commitment to participate. If you were choking, would you hope the person nearest you would merely pray to dislodge the item in your windpipe? Or would you hope that he would use the best tools and training at his disposition and perform the Heimlich?

The idea that the best thing one can do for the unborn is to pray for them, ignores the myriad of things one can do to help make abortion unthinkable. If it turns out that there is a God, we have to accept that for some reason or another, he has permitted abortion to remain legal and is permitting abortion to continue, despite 40 years of prayers being prayed on behalf of the unborn. Humanism offers a solution that works whether or not there is a God listening to prayers. Humanism says: we made the mess, we should clean the mess. I can only presume that if there is a God he would want us busy doing our best to change minds and laws with the means within our power, not sitting around waiting for him to do all the work.

You’ve prayed to end abortion for more than 40 years. Why not try adding reason, science, logic and philosophical into your arsenal, and see if we can’t finally bring abortion to an end?

Kristine +Posted by on Mar 28, 2013 in Secular Perspectives | 2 comments

It used to be easy to know who one’s friends and allies were. If one was an atheist, they were left-wing liberals and pro-choice. Christians were of course right-wing conservatives, and all opponents of abortion followed the pope and practiced the rhythm method. Gays and lesbians were of course allies of the pro-choice movement and everyone stayed in their own corner of the political arena.

Not any longer.

Yes, atheists can be pro-life. Yes, there are a surprising number of pro-life gays and lesbians. And yes, it’s entirely possible to have premarital sex, support contraception, and yet oppose the killing of prenatal human beings. What ever is this world coming to?

Pro-Life Humanists are a united group of atheists, agnostics, non-religious, anti-theist, and even a small but tolerable smattering of religious folk who opt to keep religion out of social justice issues like abortion (we like them just fine – even if some of us like to think of them as atheists in denial 😉 )

Lines are blurring and it appears many ideologies are slowly coming together on what unites us, to work as allies rather than opponents. We look forward to an increase in productive dialog among those who have too long spoken past one another. As Pro-Life Humanists launches our blog and website, please allow me to introduce some of our friends and allies whom you will be meeting in greater depth in the upcoming weeks and months:

Feminists for Life: A secular, pro-woman, pro-child site, this group seeks to elevate and advance woman so that they are not put into a position in which they feel forced to choose abortion because no better options exist. Their blueprint for pregnancy and maternal options on a university campus is a truly inspiring resource begs to be implemented on every university campus, whether one supports the choice of abortion or not. Among their most powerful spokespersons are women who conceived in rape and women who were conceived through rape.

Consistent Life: I love these people! They oppose all forms of sanctioned violence toward human beings and work to build bridges with those fighting the fights against war, abortion, poverty, racism, capital punishment and euthanasia. While many of their active members and leaders identify as Catholic, their solely secular approach to social issues and their solid opposition to all forms of human violence cause us to give them a thumbs up.

Life Matters Journal: This quarterly publication showcases the best writers and philosophers of the consistent life ethic. We at PLH recommend you subscribe and stretch your pro-life horizons. And we’re not being paid to say so 🙂

Secular Pro-Life: SPL shares the heart and vision of Pro-Life Humanists and since 2009, has been a welcoming home to pro-life atheists and religious pro-lifers with a secular approach to activism. Although we have slightly different vision and we do part ways on the matter of whether or not to have a rape exception (PLH opposes prenatal violence regardless of how one was conceived), our members and leaders work closely with one another and even sit in at each other’s conference tables. Expect to see guest blogs from these awesome folk in the future.

Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians (PLAGAL): The GLBT case against abortion is fascinating and we can’t wait to have these awesome folk guest blog as well. “None of us is truly free until all of us are free, with all our rights intact and guaranteed, including the basic right to live without threat or harassment. And that’s why we’re Pro-Life. Just like homophobia, abortion tries to get rid of real human beings who are considered threatening or undesirable. Just like homophobia, abortion denies one’s place as a member of human society, and even one’s right to be alive in it.”

There are of course many other atheist and secular websites and communities out there who take a stand against abortion, including a myriad of Facebook communities that have cropped up in recent years, but I’ll leave you with these five for now. Welcome to our unconventional family! We’re forever changing the face of atheism and the face of the pro-life movement; hopefully for the betterment of both.