|
Read our past articles here!
From
Our Members
Read articles from members
of the NCC family
News
Releases
Releases to the National Press
|
07/17/07
By: Deacon Keith A. Fournier
© Third Millennium, LLC
On the Lord’s Day, Sunday, July 15, 2007, one of the most gifted political
personalities in recent American history, Senator Barrack Obama, stood before
a congregation of concerned Christians on Chicago’s South Side at the Vernon
Church of God. Members of this inner city Church are certainly quite familiar
with the malady that the Presidential contender addressed. Included in their midst
were mothers and fathers who have mourned the loss of their beloved children,
brothers and sisters who have lost their closest friends and grandparents whose
hearts ache for what might have been.
I can picture many sitting on the edge of their seat, eager to hear a message
with meaning from this man who has captured more enthusiasm among the young, than
any candidate I have witnessed since Robert F Kennedy. The presidential candidate
spoke of what he called a "…sickening the soul of this nation",
an “epidemic of violence” noting with great grief that three dozen children
had been killed just this year. The Senator, with his deep resonant voice, made
for political discourse "…From South Central L.A. to Newark, New Jersey,
there's an epidemic of violence that's sickening the soul of this nation…The
violence is unacceptable and it's got to stop."
He sought to rally the faithful into a crusade to end the violence by passionately
proclaiming "…We need to express our collective anger through collective
action." He called for a ban on assault weapons and revisions to regulations
which allow unscrupulous firearms dealers to fuel the flames by selling weapons
to those who should not be able to purchase them. He called more public funds
for after school programs offering alternatives to kids who have entered into
the culture of violence that has been unleashed on our urban streets. He challenged
parents to take more responsibility, along with the community, for the “at
risk” children in their homes and to join together to reach out to the whole
community.
This popular Presidential candidate then noted:"…We have an entire
generation of young men in our society who have become products of violence, and
we are going to have to break the cycle… There are too many young men out
there who have gone down the wrong path." Later as he concluded this well
received message he offered the following insight "…There's a reason
they go out and shoot each other, because they don't love themselves. And the
reason they don't love themselves is because we are not loving them enough."
I must admit, Senator Obama is an inspiring speaker. I think he is sincere.
As a political observer and activist I see more political talent per pound in
him than anyone I have seen on the American political landscape for many years.
He rouses crowds and touches the hearts of the young in ways that remind me of
my own youth and entry into what has become a life long commitment to the struggle
for authentic social justice. The problem is that he suffers from the same night
blindness which has afflicted so many politicians in both major political parties
in America. He fails to see the real roots of this “epidemic of violence”.
He hears only selective cries from certain poor and disregards the cries of those
whom a wonderful, holy woman once called “the poorest of the poor”,
children in the first home of the whole human race, their mothers womb. The cries
of the children in the womb do not concern the Senator. He simply turns a deaf
ear to them. Yet, they have suffered from the very epidemic of violence he bemoans.
This serious failure has blinded him to seeing the full picture.
In 1994, at a National Prayer Breakfast, in the presence of then President
Clinton, this Mother Theresa, (now Blessed Theresa of Calcutta) addressed the
root cause of this epidemic of violence. Speaking at a large podium where her
small stature could barely be seen, she spoke these words:
"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because
it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder
by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child,
how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman
not to have an abortion?
As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love
means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us.
So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is,
to give until it hurts... her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of
her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child
to solve her problems.
And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility
at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put
other women into the same trouble. So, abortion just leads to more abortion. Any
country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any
violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and
peace is abortion".
I conclude with this message to the Presidential candidate. “Senator Obama,
like so many other Americans, I share your concern over this epidemic of violence.
How I wish I could actually support you in your crusade. Your youth, your manner,
even some of your positions, are quite appealing to me. However, your selective
concern for the poor precludes my supporting you. There is a horrid violence being
perpetrated on our youngest children in the one place that was once the safest
of sanctuaries, the womb. They are being killed by “surgical strikes”,
chemical weapons and the cruelest forms of “acceptable” torture. All
the while, these actions are not only protected by the positive law but are affirmed
as a “right” by you. You and I both know this is wrong.
It is clearer to me that the “epidemic of violence” you have rightly
addressed begins in the womb! The most vulnerable are its first victims. There,
in the first home of the whole human race, the first sanctuary of the womb, children
are brutally killed by those more powerful than they are with weapons that are
crafted from what were former implements of healing. These victims cannot even
be heard in their resistance, their cries are muffled by the living walls of their
home. Is it any wonder that the people who never even got to know them have grown
callous? This is a culture that calls this first act violence a constitutional
right?
Senator, stop and think about what you are saying. Pray to the Author of Life
and the God who hears the cry of all of the poor. Include in your concern this
group of the “poorest of the poor” and I might even reconsider my current
decision to not support your campaign.
Until then, I will pray …and strongly oppose your efforts to lead this
Nation.”
|
 |
