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.
“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.”
I know EXACTLY what you mean. The fact that they declare to the world what the pro-life movement is or what its goals are shows that they haven’t seen the reality of the situation. I always wanted to bring abortion to an end but I never felt like I could do it because I was a “God hating Christian” and a “marriage hating single virgin”.
I also was VERY happy for the presence of homosexuals and sometimes thanked God for making people gay so that the number of abortions would be reduced.
I like the George Carline quote. The best part was “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.””. It makes perfect sense to me. I had noticed the same thing long before I heard of George Carlin.
A word of warning to Christians: Being too pro-life can lead to atheism. It sure worked for me.
I was actually led down the path to atheism by Christians who weren’t pro-life enough. That is to say they were pro-life in word but not in their actions. On the other hand, when one’s faith takes prominence over pro-life effectiveness, that’s a source of problems on the other side.
These prolife exclusionary Christians really truly believe that if they accept non-Christian (pro-gay, pagan, atheist) people they are stifling the mighty power of God to bring abortion to its knees. They think our presence will weaken it, and allow Satan to win in the end. Some even point to the example of William Wilberforce, who only worked with Christians of his sect to stop slavery in his country. That’s how dedicated they are to silencing our voices, just as much as the pro-legal abortion crowd.
It took more than Willberforce to end slavery. Likewise for ending segregation and other injustices after it. Those who think that way are truly limited in their focus. I sometimes wonder if they actually want to end abortion, or if it’s become such a social club to be involved in this movement that they’d rather keep doing ineffectual things than change their tactics for the better. It’s too bad, but we’re leaving them behind as we keep doing what we know is right!