Our Mission: Spread the pro-life message, Promote dialogue about the life issues that is understanding and truth-advancing, and Support the pro-life generation, encouraging service to build a culture of life; Being pro-life is a sign of strength. This mission statement guides all our activities at Brebeuf’s Right to Life Club from regular meetings and service opportunities to speaking events and inter-club dialogues. Here we will explain its meaning and how it informs who we are as a club. 1) Spread the pro-life message. The first half of our mission statement is about truth; it is our mission as a club to spread the truth about life issues like abortion, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide whether that is with scientific facts about the preborn or the arguments behind the actual positions of the pro-life movement on the nuanced issues that face our world today. Because only twenty percent of Americans believe that abortion should be completely illegal, it is easy for the true pro-life position on this topic and others like it to be misunderstood and misrepresented in wider culture. Even ardent pro-lifers can overlook some of the strongest arguments supporting their position. I remember watching coverage of the March For Life in 2019 and wondering why we really believe that life begins “at conception— no exception!” Obviously we can’t expect every pro-life person to become a walking encyclopedia of arguments overnight, but we can do more to spread the facts and explain the pro-life arguments surrounding these important life issues. Before one advocates for something, they must understand it. The Right to Life Club promotes this mainly through regular meetings, many of which are focused around either information or different types of arguments. We have held meetings focused on everything from developmental biology and important Supreme Court cases to apologetics arguments from basic through advanced. Because the stakes are so high when in comes to policies surrounding life issues, the Right to Life Club works to ensure that all our members are knowledgeable and informed about the many facets of these complicated topics. The club has also hosted informative speakers. For instance, we invited Mrs. Debbie Miller, founder of the organization Healing Hidden Hurts (a powerful local ministry for post-abortive healing); she spoke about her own journey of healing from abortion and her experience of helping others to do the same. We also invited Professor Richard W. Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, who spoke on the relationship between abortion and American law. 2) Promote dialogue about the life issues that is understanding and truth-advancing. Continuing the theme of truth, this line emphasizes the relationship between truth and wider society; dialogue can be a means to both find the truth and guide others to it, but it has to be conducted correctly. Clearly today's culture is very polarized regarding the life issues, especially abortion. Because of their great impact, and therefore the understandable emotional reactions associated with them, it is easy for conversations to become one-sided and unproductive. We must engage in real dialogue, the purpose of which is to come to the truth. There are two extremes of dialogue that can distract from this purpose: Militant and Inactive. Militant dialogue is not focused on talking to or with someone but instead at them. The goal of this pseudo-dialogue is to get out all of one's arguments to win the logical debate, and the result is that those spoken to can feel that their opinion and why they hold it— and real conversation— is not a priority. As the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote, “One can win an argument but lose a soul.” This is not productive. Real dialogue must be a genuine conversation between those who disagree, and that is impeded by a belligerent sense of needing to simply spew out one’s best arguments. The antidote to militant dialogue is dialogue that is understanding; the better we understand the reasons why people disagree with us, the better we understand our own position, and our goal is not to score logical points but to spread understanding about the life issues. Dialogue must be understanding. Another impediment to productive dialogue, however, is inactive dialogue. It listens to the other person— but stops there. The goal of this pseudo-dialogue is to have not a conversation but a listening session (which has its place-- but it isn't dialogue); the result is that only one person, not both, will potentially gain a greater understanding of the issue. Of course, listening and understanding are essential to dialogue, but true dialogue allows both sides of the argument to be heard and then compared so that those conversing discover which is stronger and what the truth really is. The antidote to inactive dialogue is dialogue that is truth-advancing; since dialogue’s purpose is to come to the truth, it is only authentic when both sides are talking to each other and striving to understand each other’s positions. Only through this active comparison can we more deeply understand these issues and come to the truth. Promotion of productive dialogue is actually one reason our club is called the Right to Life Club and not the Pro-Life Club. We do not want it to become an echo chamber where one side’s arguments are not fairly covered, and we invite all students, regardless of opinion on the issues, to come and discuss the right to life (To clarify, our leadership is pro-life, and our service projects will help organizations like the Women’s Care Center rather than Planned Parenthood, but at regular meetings, we encourage those who aren’t pro-life to attend and engage in productive dialogue). We regularly hold meetings designated as Practice-Dialogues where students can advocate for both sides and practice dialogue that is both understanding and truth-advancing. Beyond that, we also engage in larger events; for instance, this past year we held a joint-meeting with our school’s Young Democrats and Young Republicans clubs where we discussed the morality and legality of abortion. 3) Support the pro-life generation, encouraging service to build a culture of life. The second half of our mission statement focuses on support, and this line emphasizes the relationship between support and wider society, including other pro-lifers and mothers who need pregnancy and parenting assistance. Support is one of the most integral aspects of the pro-life movement. First, many who are pro-life feel alone in their convictions, including those in today’s high school environments; as a club, we work to ensure that those who are pro-life know that they are supported by a strong community and that their beliefs are supported by reality. More importantly, we work to ensure that those in hard situations, like women who feel compelled towards abortion, know that they are supported. Unfortunately, many women who resort to abortion do so because they feel that they do not have the support or resources that they need; according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, seventy-three percent of women who obtained abortions stated their reason as they “can’t afford a baby now,” while around half stated they “don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems.” Seventy-four percent cited the life-changing nature of having baby, implying that they did not feel ready for the change. As pro-life author and speaker Trent Horn points out, these are situations where women absolutely need social and economic support! Instead of pushing mothers to resort to abortion, we should be focused on getting them and their families the support they need. To do this, we must build a culture of life. A culture of life is one where the right to life is supported and promoted. It is a culture where women don't feel as if they need abortion to succeed, and families don't feel that they need euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, or IVF to make things right. It is a culture where violation of the right to life is not viewed as the only resort— because it isn't. It is a culture where support is not only available but promoted as the solution for those in difficult situations— because this is what mothers and families deserve. We have engaged in multiple service projects as a club to build this culture of life. For instance, we have written encouraging cards to be given to both women at the local Women’s Care Center and residents at St. Augustine’s Nursing Home and prayed in front of the local Planned Parenthood. We have also participated in Students for Life's Standing With You campaign, door-knocking around Indianapolis to spread awareness of local pregnancy and parenting resources that are often overlooked. We are planning to do much more in the coming years! 4) Being pro-life is a sign of strength. Continuing the theme of support, this line stresses the importance of strength in the pro-life movement as we work to build a culture of life. At the end of our mission statement, we focus on encouragement because we know that it takes strength to choose and support life in a society that often does not. It takes strength to stand for life in the classroom, and it takes even more strength to stand for life in the difficult situations that many women find themselves in today. Our club shows pro-life students that the pro-life generation is a strong, supportive, and passionate community that promotes the truth and helps those who need it the most— those who are voiceless and those who feel that they have no one else to turn to. We empower others by being a resource to find and defend the truth while supporting those who need help as we encourage each other to protect and stand for life through policy and in culture. So, are you interested in hearing the pro-life message? Do you want to engage in understanding, truth-advancing dialogue? Are you ready to support and serve others, building a culture of life? Then join Brebeuf’s Right to Life Club; being pro-life is a sign of strength! Maria ThomasMaria has worked as co-president of Brebeuf’s Right to Life Club since her freshman year. There, she gives talks and leads discussions about abortion and other prominent life issues, emphasizing the importance of reasoning and authentic dialogue as a means to finding the truth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |