Dear Pro-Life Advocates: Stop Shooting Your Allies!

In a rapidly polarizing world,  factions are developing among old political coalitions. Old political coalitions are rapidly collapsing, and splinter groups are rapidly forming to attack existing political coalitions. Rival factions are attacking each other with reckless abandon.

Depressingly, so-called Christians are among those who have chosen to engage in vicious attacks on one another. Shamefully, this is even true in the pro-life movement.

Pro-life men and women should always observe one basic rule: Stop shooting their allies!

Pro-life activists have a horrible record of friendly fire. They are divided against each other, calling each other names and questioning their colleagues' commitment to the cause. Their organizations often do not work with each other. At times, pro-life leaders actively seek to defeat pro-life initiatives, such as personhood amendments.

And this friendly fire is a major reason why the movement has failed to make significant progress. If pro-lifers spend their time attacking one another's work, then how can they defend the lives of those they claim to champion?

This is unconscionably scandalous. Pro-lifers should be united in the cause of saving the unborn. NOTHING should stand in the way of that goal – least of all the stubbornness of its leaders.  

But far too often, pro-life champions believe their way is the best way – and attack others who believe differently. Thus, measures such as ultrasound regulation are derided as cowardly "incrementalism" that helps institutionalize abortion, while bills such as the personhood amendment are derided as wishful thinking and fantasy. Accordingly, pro-life advocates seek to thwart work they consider foolish.

And in doing so, they waste their energy fighting their own allies, rather than focus on fighting the forces of evil and saving lives, harming their cause. If the pro-life movement continues to remain fractured, it will continue to be resoundingly defeated.

Christ said that “If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25) So it is with the pro-life movement. If the pro-life movement ever wishes to achieve its goals, it must first stop shooting its own allies.

A Call for Unity

The Church thrives under conditions of persecution, war, and oppression. Attack Her, mock Her, publicly humiliate Her, kill Her members – and She will rise stronger than before. Christ promised that “the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church” – and His words have been proven true, through two millennia.

But although the Church has survived and even thrived under persecution, she faces a greater threat – internal division.

Disunity among Christians is nothing new. The Church has faced division since Her very inception. St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 3:4) chastises those following different preachers in the Church. Schism ripped apart the Eastern and Western Churches. The Great Western Schism produced three different men who claimed to be Popes at one time.

These divisions continue today. Dissent from clear Church teaching is common among many self-described Catholic scholars and professors. Divisions between devotees of the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Mass in the Roman rite gives rise to threatened schism. Popular preachers and priests (such as Fr. Corapi) refuse to accept Church discipline. These are only a few of the disunities that plague the modern Church.

Disunity also severs common believers with each other. Common quarrels, petty arguments, complaints, backbiting in parishes – these are all ever-present among self-professed Christians.

The end result of this disunity is chaos. Who would join a Church where the members are divided against one another?

A clear mark of the true Church is that it is one. The Church is united in faith and belief. And Her members act with one accord, using their many talents to bring others to God.  

Christ designed the Church with this end in mind. Jesus’ prayer for the apostles echoes through 2000 years: "I pray also for those who will believe in me... ...that they all may be one."

God grant that we, the members of the Church may be one.