By Maggie DeWitte
Many of you know that for the last few years we select an individual each year to receive the IFL Life Advocate Award. This award expresses gratitude to those who lead and impact education and advocacy regarding the dignity of human life at all stages—from fertilization to natural death.
The recipient of this award is someone who makes a significant difference either immediately or over the long term in changing society in support of the full spectrum of life and in creating a culture of life.
It is my privilege to introduce a woman that has changed the lives of so many in the state of Iowa. Her roots are in Iowa as a fifth-generation Iowan from a working-class family in St. Charles. She started her career path as a waitress, and then a checker at Hy-Vee, onto the County Treasurer, State Senator, Lieutenant- Governor and now the Governor of our great state, and future Governor after the November elections.
But even more important than her role as Governor, I would venture to guess, that she sees her most treasured roles as a wife of 36 years, a mother to three beautiful daughters, and grandmother to nine grandbabies!
As the first female Governor in the state of Iowa, its only fitting that as a woman, she advocates fiercely for women and families. What is so refreshing is that you never have to guess where she stands on the issue of life. She is unapologetically pro-life and proud of it! And, we are proud of her for taking that stand for life.
Tonight, we honor a true pro-life champion for the state of Iowa. Although Governor Reynolds could not be with us tonight, she prepared a special video message for us all.
[This was Maggie DeWitte’s introduction of Governor Reynolds at Iowans for LIFE’S 8th annual fundraising banquet on October 24th at Prairie Meadows.]
Today is All Saints Day in the Catholic Church. Iowans for LIFE embraces St. Gianna Beretta Molla as our patron saint. A patron saint is a heavenly advocate, and Iowans for LIFE asks St. Gianna to pray for the health of pre-born babies and their mothers.
St. Gianna is a contemporary saint who understands the health of pre-born mothers and babies. She was born in 1922 in Italy. She became a doctor specializing in surgery and pediatrics at the University of Milan, with a special affinity for mothers, babies, the elderly, and the poor.
The pursuit of God
Her life was defined by a pursuit of God, medicine, and family.
Poor health prevented her from pursuing missionary work abroad, but when God closes a door, he always opens a window. God led her to her future husband, Pietro Molla, with whom she found fulfillment. Gianna wrote:
“Love is the most beautiful sentiment that the Lord has put into the soul of men and women.”
Complications
God quickly blessed the couple with three children in three years. But complications arose when Gianna became pregnant with their fourth child in 1961. She was diagnosed with a fibroma in her uterus. Doctors pretty much told her that an abortion was the only way to save her life.
Gianna said no. She directed doctors to remove the tumor without harming the child she carried. She was firm that her baby’s life came first.
Doctors successfully removed the tumor without harming the child. Gianna Emanuela Molla was delivered on April 21, 1962 by Caesarean section. But true to the doctors’ predictions, the mother didn’t survive, succumbing to septic peritonitis one week later.
Fast forward 42 years
Elizabeth Comparini with her daughter, Gianna Maria, named after her heavenly intercessor
Another mother-to-be found herself in dire straits. Elizabeth Comparini was sixteen weeks pregnant when she experienced a tear in her placenta. All amniotic fluid drained from her womb.
Doctors said the situation was hopeless, that the baby would die.
Ms. Comparini prayed to Gianna Molla to intercede on her behalf. Her prayers were answered, as she gave birth to a healthy child.
Pope John Paul II (IFL’s other Patron Saint!) canonized Gianna Molla a saint on May 16, 2004.
Saints are a big deal!
All Saints Day is a big deal, because saints are a big deal. Catholic philosopher, Dr. Peter Kreeft, captures the unique characteristics of saints in a beautiful essay. An excerpt:
“A saint’s heart is broken by every little sorrow and sin. A saint’s heart is also so strong that not even death can break it. It is indestructible because it’s so breakable.”
Saint Gianna exemplified the heart of a saint with her tender, but ferocious love for society’s most vulnerable: the unborn. She gave her life so her child could live.
Her prayer was that of a saint:
“0 Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to happen to me, make me only know Your Will”.
That’s a scary prayer, isn’t it? Dr. Kreeft paraphrases the prayer this way:
Dr. Peter Kreeft
“A saint takes his hands off the steering wheel of his life and lets God steer. That’s scary, for God is invisible. A saint also has hands that move the world. He has feet that move through the world with a sure step.”
On this All Saints Day, we can call on beautiful saints like St. Gianna Beretta Molla, who live in the presence of Almighty God, to pray for us.
St. Gianna lives among the “cloud of witnesses” to whom St. Paul referred in his letter to the Hebrews (12:1):
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
We’re not alone.
We are surrounded by a cloud of saints eager to pray on our behalf if we only ask, and their prayers are powerful.
So on this All Saints Day, November 1st, 2018, Iowans for LIFE asks St. Gianna Beretta Molla to pray for us:
St. Gianna, pray for the health and safety of unborn babies and their mothers.
St. Gianna, pray for the men, the fathers of the unborn, that the Holy Spirit cultivate a spirit of responsibility and pride of fatherhood in their hearts.
St. Gianna, pray for the legislators responsible for writing our laws, that they always keep in mind that laws, to be just, must protect each member of society from fertilization to natural death.
St. Gianna, pray that our politicians and national commentators understand that peace begins in the womb.
St. Gianna, pray that Christ’s Church be an instrument of peace in ending the scourge of human abortion that has so corrupted the United States of America.
St. Gianna, pray for us.
Pray for us.
Pray. For. Us.
Precipitous drop in the Black fertility rate
The Black Lives Matter movement is animated by perceived racial injustice, an important issue. To pro-life groups like Iowans for LIFE, the issue is grounded in the injustice directed toward unborn Black babies, who have been disproportionately harmed by the aftermath of the Roe v Wade decision, evidenced by a precipitous drop in the Black fertility rate.
Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, believed in Eugenics to forcibly reduce “dysgenic” populations through segregation and sterilization.
Dysgenic refers to groups of people that have a detrimental effect on future generations.
Eugenics and Roe v Wade
Although the Roe v Wade decision was couched in terms of women’s rights, the late Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, let the cat out of the bag in a revealing interview in 2009 that eugenics was involved:
“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”
Planned Parenthood quickly went to work building abortion clinics in Black neighborhoods with devastating effect.
Black babies represent a third of all abortions
Although Black America represents but 12% to 13% of the U.S. population, they represent about a third of all human abortion since Roe.
Some 20 million Black babies have been aborted since Roe.
If not for Roe, the Black population would be 48% larger today than it is. The only people who would cheer such data are racists.
Writing in a piece for the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), Walter E. Hoye said that
“Abortion is the biggest single negative force on Black American growth.”
He cited 2015 government data on Black women between the ages of 15 and forty-four:
Births: 621,679
Abortions: 423,000
Pregnancies: 1,044,679
Resulting in:
Abortions as a % of all pregnancies: 40.5%
Abortion rate per 1,000 women: 46.3
As a consequence, the fertility rate for Black women is only 1.8, which is less than than replacement rate (2.1). The rate was 2.3 in 1975. Although a number of factors affect the fertility rate, abortion is a prime variable in the precipitous decline in the Black fertility rate.
Thanks to Roe, Planned Parenthood, and their political handlers, the eugenicists’ dreams to which Justice Ginsberg referred are being realized.
Shortly after the Roe decision in 1973, Jet Magazine, which targets an African-American readership, ran a cover story with the headline,
“Legal Abortion: Is it Genocide or Blessing in Disguise?”
Before Big Abortion bought him off, Jesse Jackson answered the question:
“Abortion is genocide. Anything growing is living. If you got the thrill to set the baby in motion and you don’t have the will to protect it, you’re dishonest.”
So let’s be honest: Twenty million Black abortion deaths later, the evidence is clear: abortion IS genocide.
[Have you registered for our upcoming webinar, THE HOLY FAMILY? Do it now. It’s free.]
Now showing at these theaters:
The trial of the century was largely ignored by the mainstream media. Now you can relive the story Big Abortion tried to keep quiet by catching the shocking movie opening tonight, “GOSNELL, THE TRIAL OF AMERICA’S BIGGEST SERIAL KILLER.”
The Gosnell Movie
Kermit Gosnell ran an abortion clinic which he called the ‘Women’s Medical Society.’ In fact, it was a filthy abortion factory catering to low-income minority women, and we mean filthy morally and in terms of sanitation.
“Doctor” Gosnell specialized in late term abortions. According to employees, babies survived late term abortion procedures hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. Dr. Gosnell developed a special pair of scissors he would use to “snip” the spinal cord of the baby to “complete” the abortion.
Politically-correct government inspectors gave him a pass
If only these babies had died in the womb as planned, Dr. Gosnell, would have been just fine. The city of Philadelphia didn’t inspect the clinic for years because Gosnell catered to minority women. In other words, they essentially gave him a pass for political-correctness reasons. Or maybe they just thought minority women and babies don’t count as much as white ones.
When a woman died from a botched abortion, they finally had to go in and check things out, and what they discovered was horrific. Fetal body parts were everywhere. The place smelled. It was a cesspool of filth.
Instead of a cynically named “Women’s Medical Society,” pro-life groups accurately characterized the place as a “House of Horrors.”
Untold deaths
As the investigation unfolded, the magnitude of his crime became known and charges were filed for manslaughter in the death of the woman mentioned above, and for 3 babies killed after birth. Even though there were hundreds, maybe thousands of additional deaths, three were sufficient to bring charges.
When he was arrested, cops found Gosnell had a stash of $240,000 in cash at his house. He earned something like $1.8 million per year aborting black babies, while paying his staff minimum wage. There’s big money in aborting black babies apparently.
Here’s where things get really interesting. When his trial began, the courthouse reserved plenty of seating for the press, only they didn’t show, except for a few conservative news outlets. The liberal mainstream media had no interest in covering the story which exposed the lie that abortion is all about “women’s reproductive health.”
The abortion industry is all about death, greed, and exploitation of black women and babies, a politically-incorrect topic for a media that has the back of Big Abortion.
The Gosnell movie tells this story.
It’s a hard story to tell, because Hollywood tried to block the producers of the film, so they had to crowd-fund the project.
They started with Kickstarter, who blocked them, so they had to use Indiegogo to raise the funds to produce this film.
Even now, the MSM is trying to stifle the story. Outlets like CNN, Facebook, and NPR aren’t covering the story. NPR won’t allow sponsored ads for the Gosnell movie because it uses the word “abortionist” and NPR claims that they run a “value neutral” platform.
Support this entertainment aberration: an unvarnished exposé of the reality of human abortion.
[Iowans for LIFE supports pro-life entertainment. We’ve developed our own theatrical piece, A CLASH OF CREEDS, premiering October 24th. Be there!]
“By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, you men of the West!”
Aragorn’s speech to his frightened men before battle in a scene from LORD OF THE RINGS, Return of the King
You are part of a movement the likes of which America hasn’t seen since the slaves were freed. We call it the “Social Justice Creed,” the New Wave Movement of the 21st Century. A relentless pursuit of human liberty defines this movement.
Think about it: the Emancipation Proclamation that at last extended God-given rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness to slaves was the defining moment of human liberty in the 19th century.
In the 20th century, the defining human liberty moment was the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1919 which gave women the right to vote.
And in the 21st century, a furious battle is being waged to extend human liberty to our pre-born brothers and sisters. The New Wave is pro life. Its members are young. They are energized and optimistic in marked contrast to the pro abortion Old Wavers who are old, tired, and embittered.
GK Chesterton explains America
GK Chesterton
A great Englishman by the name of GK Chesterton observed that the United States of American is different than any other nation on earth because it was founded on a creed. Said Chesterton:
“That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.
This Declaration is perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.
It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just.”
The Social Justice Creed seeks to correct the injustice of Roe v Wade and subsequent Supreme Court rulings that stripped away the fundamental right to life promised in the Declaration.
A confluence of scientific and theological thinking animates the New Wave Movement, which appeals to the young and the young at heart.
Iowans for LIFE invites you to attend a dynamic symposium on this subject on October 24th, the day of our ‘Clash of Creeds’ banquet. The symposium runs from 2 to 4:30PM at the Meadows Ballroom in Altoona, Iowa. Admission is free.
You’ll hear three cutting-edge speakers probe the social justice implications of abortion-on-demand from different perspectives.
Social Justice for the Unborn
Sue Thayer,
Former Planned Parenthood Director
Former Planned Director, Sue Thayer, will talk about Social Justice for the Unborn. She had a birds-eye view of the inhumane injustices heaped upon the unborn in a single Planned Parenthood clinic. What goes on in this single clinic is a denial of the Declaration of Independence. Now multiply that by some 700 human abortion clinics spread around the country. “Dear God, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The number of these clinics keep dropping because of the work being done by the likes of our speakers and groups like Iowans for LIFE, Iowa Right to Life, and Restored By Grace Ministries. But even ONE such clinic is an affront to the Declaration of Independence and the social justice creed it spawned in this great nation.
Social Justice for the Pro-Life Generation
David Cordaro
David Cordaro is with Students for Life. He has a unique take on abortion, because he was born after 1973, when Roe v Wade struck down every pro-life law in the nation.
His generation is tainted by the realization that they live only because someone wanted them; that had they been ‘inconvenient’ at the time of their conception, their life could have been cut short with legal impunity to their parents and their abortion “doctor.”
David is a leading member of the New Wave movement that refuses to be identified as the Roe v Wade generation. He is a member of the Pro Life Generation, and his talk will rouse you to join the New Wave and fight for social justice for the Pro-Life Generation.
Social Justice for Post-Abortive Women
Laura Limmex
Human abortion not only victimizes the innocent person in the womb, it victimizes the mother. Despite wealthy Hollywood celebrities who tell women to “shout their abortion,” women know what they’ve done. A phony platitude can’t gloss over the reality … and finality of abortion.
Laura Limmex, executive director for Restored By Grace Ministries, will talk about the tremendous social injustice heaped upon women deluded into thinking that abortion is okay, and what to do about it. If you have been personally wounded by abortion, please come and realize there is hope for healing.
Abortion is a heavy subject. Our nation has been gravely wounded by it. Is there hope for the future? Heck yes … the New Wave can’t be stopped! Join the movement! Attend the Social Justice Creed on Wednesday, October 24th beginning at 2PM.
Yes, Big Abortion and their medial allies outnumber us. But goodness and hope define the New Wave movement. Our Creator powers it. Nothing can stop it.
Watch the video clip above from Lord of the Rings. Aragorn is speaking to us.
[Register for The Social Justice Creed today here. The event is free, but seating is limited.]
One state represents 17% of all abortions in the US: California (Guttmacher Institute). Some 157,350 took place in 2014 alone in the Golden State.
In 2014, California had 1671 abortion clinics compared to Iowa’s 13 (a number which has dropped in recent years here in Iowa).
Anything goes for California girls
When it comes to abortion, just about anything goes for California girls. Unlike Iowa, parents don’t need notification before their daughter aborts their grandchild; there’s no limit on public funding of human abortion, unlike Iowa which has severe restrictions; and no ultrasound is required.
Fetal pain and heartbeat restrictions? Forget it. California is truly the Golden State for Big Abortion which profits lavishly from the lack of humane regulation on human abortion. California girls have unfettered license to frolic in the Golden State without a lick of responsibility.
The Golden State forces pro-life clinics to promote abortion
California is so liberal when it comes to abortion that the legislature required pro-life women’s health clinics to advertise where women could find abortions.
Seriously. Fortunately, the Supreme Court shot that ridiculous abuse of free speech down.
Free abortion pills for coeds
Iowans for LIFE points this all out in light of a shocking veto of their latest grotesque anti-life legislation: SB320. This bill requires that health centers on college campuses provide the abortion pill to coeds for free. Watch the video above for a quick overview.
The bill’s champion in the legislature is Connie Leyva, D-Chino, who explained that…
“a woman should always have the right to decide when she incorporates a family into her life.”
Actually, she already can, except in the case of rape, by choosing to preserve sexual intercourse until she’s ready for a family.
What Ms. Leyva really means is that a California girl should have the right to pursue sexual license without consequence to herself, but with grave consequence to her child, should her contraception fail, as it statistically will over time.
It’s all Trump’s fault
She blames President Trump for the need for such an extreme piece of legislation:
“As the Trump Administration continues to unravel many of the critical health care protections and services for women, legislation such as this is urgently needed to make sure that Californians are able to access the full range of reproductive care regardless of where they may live.”
Governor Brown vetoes the bill
Amazingly, Governor Jerry Brown, certainly no conservative, disagreed with the legislature and vetoed the bill.
Governor Brown said the bill wasn’t needed:
“The average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance. Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary.”
Ms. Leyva, though, isn’t deterred. She vows to reintroduce the bill next session knowing that the next governor, most likely Gavin Newsom, is more likely to sign the bill than Governor Brown.
California is a trendsetter
California is a trendsetter on every front, including militant, anti-life abortion laws and regulations.
Big Abortion has growing sway with the Leftist politicians who increasingly dominate the Democratic Party. California Democrats provide a cautionary tale for Iowa, which has passed some of the most pro-life legislation in the country.
The Iowa Supreme Court states that Iowa girls have a fundamental right to human abortion. This puts every sensible pro-life regulation passed by our legislature at risk.
Will Iowa follow California’s lead?
If our legislature turns over and if former Planned Parenthood board member, Fred Hubbell, is elected Governor next month, who knows what extreme anti-life legislation will be passed and signed into law by a pro-abortion governor?
The prospect of putting one of their own in the Governor’s office thrills Big Abortion. Erin Davison-Rippey, state executive director of Planned Parenthood Voters of Iowa PAC, said:
“We are pleased to announce our endorsement of Fred Hubbell, who has stood with Iowa women and supported Planned Parenthood in Iowa for more than 30 years. From chairing Planned Parenthood’s board in the 1980s, to helping open a health center in Dubuque, Fred has been a champion for access to reproductive and sexual health. As the next Governor of Iowa, Fred will work to restore funding for family planning services, fix the Medicaid crisis, and put an end to the unconstitutional attacks on Iowans’ right to access safe, legal abortion.”
Iowa gubernatorial candidates clash on abortion
In other words, they want Fred Hubbell to follow the California model, complete with state-funded abortions and the ending of humane legislation and regulations on human abortion.
Will state-funded abortion pills come to Iowa college campuses sometime in our future? Not with a pro-life Governor like Kim Reynolds.
California girls have suffered enough from the stifling de-humanization wrought by cynical anti-life legislation that lines the pockets of Big Abortion. Let’s not turn Iowa into California.
[How do we counter the culture of death? One way is to encourage people to think, which is exactly what our upcoming banquet, “A Clash of Creeds” does! Register today.]
The cynicism of the abortion lobby knows no bounds. The billboard above ran in Oklahoma City. The smiling women convey a message that suggests God loves abortion. The message is part of a growing movement which presents abortion as a moral good, complete with theological underpinnings which shout out: ‘thank God for abortion!’
Thank God for abortion?
Over at www.ThankGodForAbortion.com, they present human abortion as a gift from God. Even more, they sell T-Shirts touting their misguided theology.
A few weeks ago, we wrote about the Texas billboard that proclaimed:
“Abortion is self-care. Black women take care of their families by taking care of themselves.”
The old notion touted by former president, Bill Clinton, that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare has been replaced with the tragic ethos that abortion should be celebrated, that women should actually “thank God for abortion.”
Abortion violates the Fifth Commandment
Iowans for LIFE embraces all of the reproductive teachings of the Catholic Church. The Church opposes human abortion as a violation of the Fifth Commandment: “you shall not kill.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains what this means generally:
2258 “Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.”
The Catechism then looks at abortion specifically:
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.72
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.
How could it be otherwise?
Sacred scripture repeatedly tells us that God knew us before we were born, in the Book of Job (10:8-12); in the Book of Jeremiah (1:5); and in the Book of Psalms (22:10-11).
Scripture says that even more, we were made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27).
And Who is God? Love. God IS love, according to 1 John 4:7-21.
We were made in the image of Love.
The decision to abort the baby in the womb is certainly not an act of love, since it is killing the love deposited in the soul of the unborn person who was made in Her creator’s image.
So to the billboard above that says, “God loves those who have an abortion”: of course he does, but he doesn’t love the sinful actions that separate us from Him.
God forgives a contrite heart. What this awful billboard does is to suggest that abortion doesn’t require forgiveness, because there is nothing wrong with it. That’s why post-abortive women suffer such acute pain.
They know.
All the bromides and dishonest billboards in the world can’t soothe the grave wound inflicted on moms and dads who choose abortion.
Post-abortive women CAN experience authentic healing
One of the most beautiful sacraments in the Catholic Church is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There, women and men wounded by abortion can begin the journey of healing.
Many require further counseling, such as the wonderful support offered by Restored by Grace Ministries. Executive Director, Laura Limmex, works with women wounded by human abortion and understands what is necessary for healing and restoration:
Laura Limmex
“I have worked with women who had no spiritual or religious beliefs at the time of their abortion. However, whether it was a few months later or years later, they came to deeply regret and struggle with the pain of the decision to have an abortion.
As women, we were created to nurture and protect our young. Abortion is contrary to that deeply embedded nurturing attribute.
One of the biggest pieces of healing and restoration happens when a woman who has had an abortion can fully repent of her sin and acknowledge her need for forgiveness from God. Receiving forgiveness enables a woman to also receive of the fullness of God’s love.”
Don’t wait: Be restored
Don’t celebrate the sin of abortion.
Turn your life around and be restored by God’s unimaginable willingness to forgive a contrite heart.
Remember, God IS Love. He can do anything with your life if you let Him.
[Iowans for LIFE agrees with the Church that abortion is the #1 social justice issue. Be sure to attend our October 24th symposium: “The Social Justice Creed.”]
La Virgen en contemplación
No woman has been hated more than the most beautiful woman in the world.
Who is this woman of extraordinary beauty?
Her name is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Christ. Artists, like Carlo Maratti, have painted her more than any other woman in history. Isn’t his “La Virgen en contemplación” (above) lovely?
Modern man judges beauty by dress size and surgically altered appearance.
Christian faithful embrace Marian art like this…
God judges beauty by the soul. Mary had a soul more beautiful than any man or woman ever born, except for One, Her Son.
Preserved from original sin
According to Catholic dogma, Mary was preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception. How could the Son of God have been born to any other person?
She is not tainted by Original Sin like the rest of us.
“So Beautiful”
When Iowans for LIFE posts a Mary and Jesus painting or icon on social media, we know we’re going to reach a lot of people and generate a lot of engagement.
Take the painting on the left. It generated comments like these:
“So beautiful.”
“One of my favorites.”
“Amen.”
The most interesting comment, though, came from a supporter of human abortion whose comment was simply: “whatever,” accompanied by a frowning face.
Whatever? In other words, he was saying “no big deal.”
And yet to Catholics, Mary is all about love and mercy. She is the most powerful intercessor of our prayers. To be clear, Catholics do not pray to Mary, we ask her to pray with us and for us, because she IS a big deal.
So how could such a beautiful soul be so hated?
Scripture gives us a clue in the Book of Genesis:
“I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in wait at her heels” (Gen 3:15).
In other words, Satan had corrupted Eve; God made it clear that another woman, Mary, would one day come along and bring the One who would crush the head of the Serpent, the ultimate Hater.
Mary would become the new Eve. How Satan hates and fears this Blessed Mother of us all.
To this day, She is still hated by some.
Mary gets caught up in the culture wars
A recent dust up in the culture wars highlights the controversy over Mary. The National Museum of Women in the Arts launched an exhibition titled “Picturing Mary” a few years ago.
An art critic for the liberal Washington Post, Philip Kennicott, was livid. It seems that the art of the Blessed Mother on display was too flattering, too consistently beautiful for the taste of the effete. Mr. Kennicott was furious that the exhibit didn’t include “perhaps the most famous image of Mary painted in the last quarter century” (his words).
And what image might that be?
…while effete art critics prefer Marian depictions like this.
That would be Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary,” painted with elephant dung and female genitalia on display, as you can see at the right.
In other words, an image that the faithful would consider a desecration of our beautiful Blessed Mother, is revered by the snooty cultural elite of the left. Satan surely agrees with the Mr. Kennicotts of the world.
Ultimately, the most beautiful woman in the world is hated because she said YES to life, and the secular humanists, moral relativists, neo-pagans, and leftist politicians can never forgive her for such an offense.
NAME of EVENT: The Life Chain
DATE: October 7th
TIME: 2 to 3:30PM
PLACE: The corner of University Avenue and Merle Hay Road, right in front of St. Theresa Catholic Church
Join the Life Chain on October 7th
Will you make a simple, profound public declaration of your support for life? Join the Life Chain on October 7th.
Unlike the hysterical antics of the abortion mob, our gathering is peaceful and prayerful. If you’ve never participated, it’s a wonderful experience. You and fellow pro-lifers will meet in the parking lot of St. Theresa Catholic Church at University and Merle Hay Road.
You’ll enter the parking lot off of University, and the lot is on the west side of the church.
Be sure to pick up a sign
You’ll pick up a pro-life sign and take your place on the Life Chain on either Merle Hay or University, your choice. Bring your kids. Bring your friends. And encourage your neighbors to come with you.
You can pray for the unborn, and we encourage you to spend some time in meaningful prayer. The cars whizzing by notice, and let me tell you, the vast majority appreciate your public support of the unborn.
Even more, your presence will embolden them to be more demonstrative of their pro-life beliefs the next time they’re confronted in public by adversarial friends.
The power of prayer is real
Iowans for Life believes, make that KNOWS, the power of prayer. We don’t always know how God in His wisdom responds, but respond He does.
The Life Chain is fun. You’re surrounded by the best people in the world: pro-lifers. It’s hard not to make new friends when you meet someone who is publicly standing in the gap for the most vulnerable amongst us: the unborn.
On occasion, you’ll see someone drive by with a single finger thrust out the window. We assume they’re telling us that we’re number one! Whatever their intentions, it is thrilling to hear horns honking in support from drivers with smiling faces who are giving us a thumb’s up. There’s no mistaking their intentions!
In this election year, you matter. Please prayerfully consider joining this year’s Life’s Chain. Let’s send a signal that the Life issue matters, because no issue is bigger.
[Ticket sales for our October 24th fundraising banquet, “A Clash of Creeds,” are insane! We’re down to the last half-dozen tables before the fire marshals tell us to halt! Don’t wait. Order tickets online immediately. Thank-you!]