Click here to read Julia Smucker’s recent article in Life Matters Journal surveying the development of “consistent life ethics” in recent Catholic teaching. Smucker is an enthusiastic Bridgefolk participant and an MA student in Theology at Saint John’s School of Theology in Collegeville, MN. She describes herself as proud that fellow students have dubbed her The Anti-Dichotomy Queen.
Tag: Consistent ethic of life
“Pro-life, Pro-peace” seminar at Mennonite Church USA convention
Bridgefolk Board member Darrin Snyder Belousek helped lead a “Pro-life, Pro-peace” seminar earlier this month at the 2009 convention of Mennonite Church USA, together with Ann Graber Hershberger of Eastern Mennonite University. The seminar sought to identify “faithful responses to abortion presented in the framework of a consistent life ethic.” Continue reading ““Pro-life, Pro-peace” seminar at Mennonite Church USA convention”
The challenge of being a “pro-life” progressive
Living in the Twin Cities as I do, I cross back and forth over the Mississippi River that divides Minneapolis and St. Paul fairly often. Crossing one bridge, I can usually look across the water and see parallel bridges.
So it is that many of us in Bridgefolk who are “sacramentally-minded Mennonites” or “peace-minded Catholics” and are finding ways to bridge our traditions will easily recognize the challenge of living on another kind of bridge. This is the bridge between “pro-life” commitments often associated with conservative politics and “social justice” commitments often associated with progressive politics. It is a challenge that Catholics in the United States are especially feeling this electoral year. (Apologies to Bridgefolk in Canada and Europe!) But if Mennonite debates around a churchwide resolution on abortion a year ago are any indication, it is a challenge at least some Mennonites may be feeling too.
We haven’t talked much yet in Bridgefolk about the challenges and possibilities in what Catholics call the “seamless garment” of moral and social issues that Christians need to hold together in order to maintain a “consistent ethic of life.” If we are going to continue an honest and fruitful dialogue between Mennonites and Catholics we should expect to take this up too. A recent cover story in Sojourners magazine seems to be a good place to start.
“No Place to Stand” is by Heidi Schlumpf, managing editor of U.S. Catholic magazine. As the editors of Sojourners say in introducing the article, “When you’re Christian, progressive, and ‘pro-life,’ voting your conscience is often easier said than done.” To find the article, click here.
Gerald Schlabach
No Place to Stand
When you’re Christian, progressive, and “pro-life,” voting your conscience is often easier said than done.
by Heidi Schlumpf
What does it mean to be “pro-life”? For some, the term is understood very narrowly as the opposition to abortion, particularly through legal sanction. Others are committed to reducing the number of abortions, truly making them rare, but favor policies that don’t criminalize abortion—and prosecute women and/or their doctors—to do so. And as U.S. Catholic’s Heidi Schlumpf explains in this article, many people, on both sides of the legality question, see a genuinely pro-life stance as one that embraces respect for the human person at every stage—a position that’s hard to find in today’s polarized politics, and one that cries out for broad (and civil) dialogue across our various divides. —The Editors
It’s an election year, and once again Jennifer Roth is wondering if she might as well flip a coin. The 31-year-old systems administrator is one of those “swing voters” who could go either way—a demographic highly coveted by both Democrats and Republicans as the key to winning in 2004. But neither the Dems nor the GOP does much to inspire or excite Roth.
The problem? Roth is a self-described liberal on nearly all issues except one: Abortion. It’s a view that she—and countless other “pro-life progressives”—finds entirely consistent. “In my view liberalism is all about looking out for the little guy, the people who don’t have power, money, or protection,” she says.
But where does that leave her when it comes to the political process? Continue reading “No Place to Stand”
Three Things for Conservatives to Ponder
by Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Last week’s column suggested three areas for liberal self-scrutiny. It’s time for the flip-side. What three areas might conservatives ponder? Continue reading “Three Things for Conservatives to Ponder”