Although Sojourner's is a member of Consistent Life they rarely mention abortion. Jim Wallis is the head of Sojourner's and usually is in lock-step with whatever the Democrat Party says.
Not this time. From his Hearts and Minds weekly email. Excerpts below from the full posting which is linked here, and if you hit the link you can leave a comment on the Sojourner's blog posting.
How We Talk About Life — and Death Planned Parenthood Videos Reveal Our Collective Brokenness
It’s not often words escape us. But in the aftermath of the now viral recording(s) raising concerns over whether Planned Parenthood seeks profit from aborted fetal tissue — and the crassness with which its representative discusses how to accomplish it without “crushing” the tissue/organs — that’s where we were left: with no words. We confess to being at a complete loss of what to say in the face of humanity’s brokenness.
Beyond the ethical questions of how an organization receives payment for tissue sales or the debates around the potential benefits of the patients’ donations of fetal tissue, the videos are an in-your-face reminder of our culture’s blatant disrespect for life. That disregard is not unique in our society, of course. Journalism: “If it bleeds, it leads.” Medicine: “There’s nothing more to be done. She’s a vegetable.” Justice system: “He’s gonna fry.” War: “Light ‘em up.” Uncomfortable questions about life and death and ethics are best papered over with emotionless cliché, obviously.
As a society and as individuals, when we fail to recognize the imago dei in others, we trend further away from our uniquely human capacity to empathize and closer to isolated, analytical, and almost robotic assessments of value. In 2008, Sojourners magazine senior associate editor Rose Marie Berger wrote about the Fresh Kills Landfill, which served as a mass grave for hundreds of unidentified victims of 9/11, and the ethics around how we treat our dead. She wrote (emphasis ours):
“Sept.11 has been excessively sentimentalized on one hand, which prevents genuine grieving and authentic resurrection. On the other hand, there is the obscenity of the Fresh Kills landfill where the bodies are kept hidden— because to look at them truthfully may raise questions about America’s existential innocence.”
Those questions linger. How do you show respect for the vessel that once held human life when you don’t — or can’t — recognize it as such?
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