By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
One recent Sunday afternoon, while walking in downtown Salt Lake City, I encountered a large group of people marching to the state capitol and protesting the 2022 United States Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
I was admiring the free-speech-democratic-take-to-the-streets activism of the exuberant demonstration when a contingent of the protesters started shouting, loudly, over and over again, “F**K THE CHURCH!”
I was surprised. F**K THE CHURCH? Really?
I get that the protesters disagree strongly with certain church positions, including opposition to abortion rights. What perplexed me is that they’d so easily (and crassly) condemn an institution that also promotes many values for which those same protesters would gladly march.
Which values? Earlier—on the same day of the march—other churchgoers and I prayed for racial justice, peace in the world, an end to poverty, help for immigrants and refugees, fairness for laborers, support for health care workers, relief for those who are sick or suffering, a loving home for every child, a safe place for the elderly, and abolition of the death penalty. My own church also has social justice committees that work to achieve such goals.
The Catholics I know who are troubled by unrestricted abortion do not have either prurient urges to spy on others’ bedroom activities or some misogynistic intent to control women. Instead, they sincerely believe that abortion destroys a child’s life.
To claim that there is a more sinister or nefarious motive at work strikes me as conveying more heat than light, and as an allegation that might benefit from some nuance and perspective.
Sadly, a similar shortage of perspective and nuance often pervades the thinking (and speaking) of many churchgoers. Good Christian folks say some pretty un-Christian things about people on the other side of the abortion debate.
No, the pro-choice advocates I know are not heartless, bloodthirsty baby-haters or deviant, amoral sexual libertines. Many of them are exemplary parents, busy raising their own children.
Pro-choice advocates note, quite reasonably, that we do not live in a Catholic/Christian nation. Instead, we live in a pluralistic society that includes believers and nonbelievers alike. Because of this diversity, some Americans—including some people of faith—answer the abortion question in a very different way than do pro-life advocates.
No one in this debate is the enemy. They all are our friends and neighbors. They are fellow children of God.
Is it really no longer possible in the United States to disagree with a person, or with an institution, on certain issues but still attribute good faith to them and look for common ground on other issues?
Must we demonize everyone who, or everything that, does not think exactly like us?
Must we administer a single-issue litmus test to everyone we meet?
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an old editorial that I wrote (and forgot about) on this same basic topic thirty years ago. The Salt Lake Tribune published it. Famous Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley illustrated it (see photo accompanying this blog.)
Rediscovering what I wrote was an enlightening back-to-the-future moment.
The editorial explained that reproductive issues are about both life interests and liberty interests. I argued that both values are front and center in foundational American documents like the Declaration of Independence.
My editorial also bemoaned how advocates of choice are seen as ‘bra-burning baby killers with no regard for human life” and how pro-life advocates are viewed as “Orwellian big brothers imposing narrow-minded morality on an unsuspecting society.”
What has changed three decades later? Not the Declaration of Independence. Yet, the protesters and the churchgoers seem even more polarized and less nuanced than ever. It is a sad development, bringing little hope for a consensus resolution on a difficult problem.
I don’t drop the F-bomb often. If we all want a reason to curse, however, this type of dialogue devolution is a pretty good one.
*Mike O’Brien (author website here: https://michaelpobrien.com/) is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His book Monastery Mornings (https://www.amazon.com/Monastery-Mornings-Unusual-Boyhood-Saints/dp/1640606491), about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, was published by Paraclete Press in August 2021 and chosen by the League of Utah Writers as the best non-fiction book of 2022.
