The Canadian Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) has undertaken the monumental task of re-opening the abortion debate in Canada, and pro-abortionists are riled. CCBR has taken a drastic approach to the issue, showing graphic displays of aborted fetuses and massacred children and adults side by side to illustrate the similarities. The images used and claims made have certainly captured attention, and the abortion question seems to be headed back into Canada’s public square because of CCBR’s Genocide Awareness Project.
The project makes use of their graphic displays to compare abortion to the (almost) universally acknowledged butchery of our world, such as the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, and suggest that abortion is culturally accepted infanticide. The project, and its use of displays, is admittedly controversial, and CCBR makes no apologies for their controversial approach to the issue. Their website simply lists a series of changed-heart testimonials as their reason for tackling the abortion issue this way.
Essentially, the question revolves around the humanness of a fetus. If a fetus is not essentially human, then there is no issue; if a fetus is essentially human, than society must confront the disturbing comparisons and seek to remedy the wrong we’ve perpetrated for several years now. The question is as valid as it is inherently controversial.
Yet, while the question is controversial, and CCBR highlights the controversial aspect in their awareness projects, the manner in which they engage the debate is almost startling in its civility and intellectualism. The advice they provide on their website concerning dialogue and debate includes points such as “Make more statements that end in question marks than end in periods” and “Find common ground”. While the displays are stark and disturbing, the purpose, it seems, is to engage rational discussion and debate that is free from rhetoric and antagonism.
On university campuses across the nation, pro-abortion groups are loudly decrying CCBR’s message with inflammatory rhetoric and mob rage. Unfortunately, none seem willing to engage the debate from a reasoned perspective. A pro-abortion position is purported to be so easily defensible as to be plainly obvious, so it’s really strange that a few pro-life students with graphic signs and a dissenting viewpoint could intimidate campus pro-abortionists. Are they threatened by the message? Because if they’re not, why else would they slink away from an invitation to rational debate, and take refuge in chants, personal insults, and anarchist overthrow?
You might think that’s grossly overstating the pro-abortionist reaction to CCBR’s message. I invite you to watch the first five minutes of Jose Ruba’s attempted CCBR presentation at St. Mary’s University in Halifax.
Notice that he was disrupted before he had even finished his preliminary remarks and gotten into his presentation. Notice also how he was heckled down every time he tried to speak. And notice how his invitation for them to ask their questions at the conclusion of his presentation was totally ignored in favour of mindless rhetoric. This was only the first five of more than thirty minutes of this exchange.
What’s more disturbing? Mr. Ruba and his group were asked to leave the campus. Those who were seeking respectful, open dialogue, were removed from the institute of higher learning in favour of a group of lawless hooligans that had not one rational thing to say.
This is not an isolated incident. About two weeks ago, the University of Calgary charged a campus-approved pro-life group with trespassing when they erected their display on campus. This followed a protracted dispute between the university and the student group on account of the display, which the university deemed offensive to some students. Just today, the U of C Student Union joined with a handful of university clubs across the country to revoke the pro-life group's campus status, making them ineligible to use meeting rooms, university equipment, and available funding to support their cause.
Apparently, open thought is no longer accepted in our institutes of higher learning. This speaks ill of the future of education, progress, and civility. If people are not free to express their views, especially on campuses designed for the advancement of ideas, then knowledge will suffer, and it would not be hard to conceive another dark age. The dark ages were marked by the suppression of free thought and the suzerainty of closed-minded elites over ill-informed masses. Then, as now, it was a religion. Then, it was Catholicism; now it’s humanism. But the end is the same.
The irony in which pro-lifers may rejoice is that CCBR’s message is being advanced far more rapidly because of the controversy and persecution it has aroused than it ever would have through peaceful presentations in isolated lecture rooms. The media attention and universal fascination has generated far more publicity than a small non-profit organization could ever have hoped with the help of a few students scattered across Canada’s campuses.
Pro-abortionists, on the other hand, could learn a lesson from history if they cared to open their minds. Persecution is not a retardant; it is a stimulant. Rome tried to quell the rise of Christianity until, after three centuries of intense persecution, there were said to be more Christians than pagans in the realm. The Catholics tried to subdue national and doctrinal rebellions. After centuries of oppression, they were instead subdued into their more rightful place.
The larger issue is the rampage of the heathen against righteousness. Psalms 37:12 states, “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.” A more apt description would be difficult to find. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Righteousness will prevail, and the more it is resisted, the brighter and purer it becomes. Hence, another irony: the enemies of the righteous might unwittingly be their best friends, for the ploughing of the wicked serves only to purify the righteous, that they may be evermore fruitful, and their testimony might evermore prevail.
Tertullian said it this way: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. Righteousness cannot be beaten. God still rules. He has mercifully granted us a space for reconciliation, but He still reigns over all, and in due season he will break the yoke of heathen vanity. But for those interested in Him, he grants grace enough to overcome any obstacle. So lovers of darkness seek to destroy the light of righteousness by more persecution, but more persecution only means more grace, and more grace produces more light, which only further enrages the lovers of darkness.
So why do the heathen rage?
The project makes use of their graphic displays to compare abortion to the (almost) universally acknowledged butchery of our world, such as the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, and suggest that abortion is culturally accepted infanticide. The project, and its use of displays, is admittedly controversial, and CCBR makes no apologies for their controversial approach to the issue. Their website simply lists a series of changed-heart testimonials as their reason for tackling the abortion issue this way.
Essentially, the question revolves around the humanness of a fetus. If a fetus is not essentially human, then there is no issue; if a fetus is essentially human, than society must confront the disturbing comparisons and seek to remedy the wrong we’ve perpetrated for several years now. The question is as valid as it is inherently controversial.
Yet, while the question is controversial, and CCBR highlights the controversial aspect in their awareness projects, the manner in which they engage the debate is almost startling in its civility and intellectualism. The advice they provide on their website concerning dialogue and debate includes points such as “Make more statements that end in question marks than end in periods” and “Find common ground”. While the displays are stark and disturbing, the purpose, it seems, is to engage rational discussion and debate that is free from rhetoric and antagonism.
On university campuses across the nation, pro-abortion groups are loudly decrying CCBR’s message with inflammatory rhetoric and mob rage. Unfortunately, none seem willing to engage the debate from a reasoned perspective. A pro-abortion position is purported to be so easily defensible as to be plainly obvious, so it’s really strange that a few pro-life students with graphic signs and a dissenting viewpoint could intimidate campus pro-abortionists. Are they threatened by the message? Because if they’re not, why else would they slink away from an invitation to rational debate, and take refuge in chants, personal insults, and anarchist overthrow?
You might think that’s grossly overstating the pro-abortionist reaction to CCBR’s message. I invite you to watch the first five minutes of Jose Ruba’s attempted CCBR presentation at St. Mary’s University in Halifax.
Notice that he was disrupted before he had even finished his preliminary remarks and gotten into his presentation. Notice also how he was heckled down every time he tried to speak. And notice how his invitation for them to ask their questions at the conclusion of his presentation was totally ignored in favour of mindless rhetoric. This was only the first five of more than thirty minutes of this exchange.
What’s more disturbing? Mr. Ruba and his group were asked to leave the campus. Those who were seeking respectful, open dialogue, were removed from the institute of higher learning in favour of a group of lawless hooligans that had not one rational thing to say.
This is not an isolated incident. About two weeks ago, the University of Calgary charged a campus-approved pro-life group with trespassing when they erected their display on campus. This followed a protracted dispute between the university and the student group on account of the display, which the university deemed offensive to some students. Just today, the U of C Student Union joined with a handful of university clubs across the country to revoke the pro-life group's campus status, making them ineligible to use meeting rooms, university equipment, and available funding to support their cause.
Apparently, open thought is no longer accepted in our institutes of higher learning. This speaks ill of the future of education, progress, and civility. If people are not free to express their views, especially on campuses designed for the advancement of ideas, then knowledge will suffer, and it would not be hard to conceive another dark age. The dark ages were marked by the suppression of free thought and the suzerainty of closed-minded elites over ill-informed masses. Then, as now, it was a religion. Then, it was Catholicism; now it’s humanism. But the end is the same.
The irony in which pro-lifers may rejoice is that CCBR’s message is being advanced far more rapidly because of the controversy and persecution it has aroused than it ever would have through peaceful presentations in isolated lecture rooms. The media attention and universal fascination has generated far more publicity than a small non-profit organization could ever have hoped with the help of a few students scattered across Canada’s campuses.
Pro-abortionists, on the other hand, could learn a lesson from history if they cared to open their minds. Persecution is not a retardant; it is a stimulant. Rome tried to quell the rise of Christianity until, after three centuries of intense persecution, there were said to be more Christians than pagans in the realm. The Catholics tried to subdue national and doctrinal rebellions. After centuries of oppression, they were instead subdued into their more rightful place.
The larger issue is the rampage of the heathen against righteousness. Psalms 37:12 states, “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.” A more apt description would be difficult to find. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Righteousness will prevail, and the more it is resisted, the brighter and purer it becomes. Hence, another irony: the enemies of the righteous might unwittingly be their best friends, for the ploughing of the wicked serves only to purify the righteous, that they may be evermore fruitful, and their testimony might evermore prevail.
Tertullian said it this way: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. Righteousness cannot be beaten. God still rules. He has mercifully granted us a space for reconciliation, but He still reigns over all, and in due season he will break the yoke of heathen vanity. But for those interested in Him, he grants grace enough to overcome any obstacle. So lovers of darkness seek to destroy the light of righteousness by more persecution, but more persecution only means more grace, and more grace produces more light, which only further enrages the lovers of darkness.
So why do the heathen rage?
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