5.Versluys'.us

50 points to the first person who names the goof wiping her nose in the background. And my apologies to said goof for posting this picture.

I probably should have posted at least a quick note on the blog last week when I left for Washington, DC.

I went to DC as part of the Birmingham Letter Project, an event that the Survivors helped sponsor (our kind of event – we don’t have to do the prep work, just show up and provide manpower). Quincy came along as my current sidekick, and Roma stayed with her Nonna and the younger kids until Papa was free on the weekend.

In a nutshell, our week was spent networking (speaking with people about the work the Survivors do, encouraging young people to get actively involved in the fight for life, etc.), participating in events like prayer at the White House, the March for Life, and working with fellow members of the Youth Life Alliance to promote pro-life action. I also spoke to a number of students at the Students for Life conference, where I think I surprised most of them with my reference to “fat and sloppy” pro-lifers. I used in the context of well-meaning pro-life Christians who want to do something to fight against abortion, but really don’t know anything about basic pro-life apologetics or how to be effectively pro-life and don’t take the time to educate themselves. Hopefully it shocked some of them into action.

Probably one of the highlights of my trip was speaking alongside Dr. Alveda King, the niece of MLK, at a prayer vigil in front of the White House. She’s incredibly cool. I escorted her and her posse from their hotel to the event, and I was totally impressed that she booked it all the way around the White House when we got off at the wrong intersection. Her story is awesome, because she connects the Civil Rights fight of her father and uncle with the fight for life today. Dr. King is one of those people you are kind of amazed to meet – not just because she’s related to someone about whom every schoolkid in America learns, but because of all the history that surrounds her and her family. It’s awe-inspiring to think what she has witnessed.

If I have video of Dr. King and I in front of the White House, I’ll post it. On second thought, I may not post what I said – it probably sounds dumb coming after Dr. King!

Here’s Dr. King standing behind me, probably wondering if I’m going to break into song like she did (I refrained):

There was one downer to the trip. Seeing all the thousands of people (300,000 estimated) marching together in the streets of Washington to stand for life, and knowing that the majority of those people will go home and do nothing until the next March in 2010. It’s baffling to me when I see groups of high schoolers bused in for the event who have never done anything else except attend the March for Life every year since kindergarten.

It’s my personal belief that every American with a belief in the sanctity of human life should do something on a regular basis to promote and protect life. I realize not everyone can choose pro-life work as a vocation, as I have, but everyone can and should do something in this crucial fight for social justice. If I ever have any doubts, I simply look to Martin Luther King, Jr. Generally, you will find that most people revere and honor his work, and those of us born after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s would give our left arm just to have walked in a march or stood on the Mall for the “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s amazing how the fight for racial equality is so highly respected now, when back then activists were often social outcasts. Now, racists are the social outcasts (as they should be). All because MLK and his like won the fight for justice. It took time, but they won. And to the victors go the spoils – history reflects kindly upon the Civil Rights movement and we celebrate MLK’s birthday as a national holiday.

It’s really hard to be one of those activists in a fight that is generally unpopular in the secular arena, but almost harder to be an activist among my own people – Christians. I can handle the contempt of the media and strangers on the street, because I know that in the end, history will be the judge and one day we will win. What I can’t handle very well is the apathy and disinterest of Christians who have a responsibility to God. The secular media serves one interest – money. Christians should serve God. And when God says to defend the fatherless and the orphans, to do justice and love mercy, I take that seriously. I know of no other group of the “fatherless” across the world who are so unjustly persecuted as the unborn. I can honestly say that abortion is the biggest civil rights crisis of humankind at this time. Since 40,000,000 abortions happen worldwide every year, I’d be hard pressed to think otherwise.

That is why it is immensely difficult to watch the thousands of people march by (I was in a federal courthouse at the time of the March, looking down from the windows onto the street), knowing that they have a fervor for life today, but will go home and do nothing until the next year. It’s even worse when I consider the people who didn’t show up at the March – good godly people who, when asked, would say they are pro-life but have done nothing to respond to the call for justice.

I often wonder what it would feel like if I had been an adult during the 60s, knew of the crisis at hand and hadn’t done anything to promote racial equality; if I just stuck my head in the sand and let MLK do his thing without even the slightest show of support. I’d probably feel like a jackass right about now.

In the same way, those people who know full well about the terrible assault on life that takes place here in America, but do nothing to stand up against it, will probably feel pretty darn stupid in 25 years. Especially if they’re dead and have to answer to God. I’ll have to admit that I didn’t do enough, but at least I can tell my kids that I did something. And if I’m dead, I’ll thank God in person for giving me the desire and the ability to do something.