From a thoughtful friend:

I applaud the initiative [to draw government's attention to the value of life-before-birth and the abortion issue...

Re abortion: I'd say as well that though money is one thing (and definitely necessary) I'd like to see people signing up not just to give money but to care in practical ways for these women (and men) and their babies. Ideologies are dangerous when they're separated from real world experience.

It's been an interesting few weeks for the pro-life lobby. While wars rage on in Iraq and Afghanistan (and about 30 other places), killing innocents in our name, and the Bali bombers have been executed in the name of 'justice', it seems like all of the churches' attention has been on the abortion decision. If life begins at conception, why are we not more outraged at state-sanctioned murder? I'd like to see a more consistent pro-life public stance from the church, which would go some way towards good public theology - and more than public theology, public theological praxis (not that I'd want to separate the two, but it's one thing to articulate ideas and another entirely to live them).

November 2008