When you were a teenager, did you talk a big game about all the problems in the world, and how you were sure you had the answers?
I know I did.
And those answers always went something like this: Equality! Justice! Fairness! Love! Generosity!
For most teenagers – myself included long ago – who passionately believe in these very good things, big talk is where it ends.
If you ask those fired-up teenagers to give some actual names of real people for whom they are doing something to make those good things a reality in those people’s lives, you’ll get blank stares.
And no, marching in big crowds with clever messages written on your poster board doesn’t count as doing something for someone specifically.
While you are out there marching and making a show of yourself, there are many folks who believe as you do, but they are putting their beliefs into action, working hard to make those good things – equality, justice, fairness, love, generosity – a reality for specific people they can name.
Marching for Something, or Someone?
Now before you get mad at me, I am not opposed to large gatherings “marching” for a cause.
I have participated in the national March for Life in D.C. several times, and also join in our local pro-life march here in Austin every year.
My point is that many people who march, including in the March for Life, are not willing to make personal sacrifices of their own time, talent, or treasure to make the abstract concepts they march on behalf of (Right to Life!) manifest in specific people’s lives – individuals who they can actually name.
Marching for the cause of the Right to Life for preborn human beings is wonderful, but if you aren’t willing to make a personal sacrifice of your time, talent, or treasure to help empower a specific woman in your community to choose life instead of choosing abortion, what have you measurably achieved for the cause?
Of all the hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers who join the March for Life in D.C. every year, how many can name even one specific woman they helped, individually or as part of a group, change her mind about abortion and choose life?
Going a step further, how many of the approximately 125 million American adults who claim to be pro-life could name one specific woman they helped change her mind about abortion and choose life?
What Does the Data Say?
The answer is not many.
How do I know that?
Simple math.
There are approximately 125 million American adults who claim to be pro-life.
And there are about 750,000 abortions annually.
How many abortions would there be annually if every adult who claimed to be pro-life could point to a significant sacrifice they personally made of their own time, talent, or treasure such that their sacrifice empowered one specific woman, whose name they could give, to change her mind about abortion and chose life for her baby?
I’ll let you do the math on that one.
Regards,
Brett