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from September 26, 2004

A Call to Effective Action: When Being Right is Not Enough

By Mary Cunningham Agee
Founder and President of the Nurturing Network

At this pivotal time in our nation’s history, many of us are struggling with the question of how to more effectively promote a culture of life. Even if recent legislative victories and polling data suggest we are doing enough, it’s clear we fall far short of the “civilization of love” and “culture of life” about which Pope John Paul II speaks and writes so eloquently.

Christ taught us to speak with our actions as well as our words. He taught us to show empathy, respect and love for our audience by adapting our message to their unique
needs and circumstances.

In each of His parables, He showed
us how to engage an audience where
they are.  He bore witness to the truth
through His actions one soul at a time. He repeatedly expressed His love through concrete, tangible actions. He refused to keep a safe distance from His subject whether in word or action.

As good communicators with a message that desperately needs to be heard, we have no choice but to engage our audience where they are.  In a culture in which women often have been abused by men through coerced abortion, divorce and desertion, would one generally expect men to be effective in demanding that a woman place the needs of an unborn child ahead of her own?

A new voice is called for, just as different words are needed. We should focus more on presenting moving personal testimonies from real women who have confronted the painful consequences of living in a culture of death. By allowing their anguished voices to be heard, the falsehoods lurking behind the “choice” rhetoric can be exposed. By permitting their tears to be seen and their broken hearts exposed, it will become obvious that women do “deserve better” than abortion.

We cannot afford to overlook the fact that it is the mother who is being asked to accept the economic hardship, social embarrassment and physical sacrifice of her unplanned pregnancy. It is the mother in crisis who must hear compassionate words and credible offers of assistance if she is to persevere on the lonely path of protecting the life of her unborn child.

This awareness is what caused my professional life to take a sudden detour two decades ago to a modest office as founder and managing director of an international charity. While it initially took the personal anguish of a mid-trimester miscarriage for me to grasp the horror of prenatal death, it has taken the daily, life-saving activity of the Nurturing Network to teach me the primary importance of translating my reverence for all human life into concrete, Christ-like action.

It simply is not enough for any Christian to say that we are “for life” unless we are willing to provide the practical means to support it. This heartfelt conviction is lived out every day in the courageous, sacrificial actions of our 40,000 Nurturing Network volunteer members worldwide.

The simple but profound truth is that there is no efficient or effective substitute for the private, personal, time-intensive conversations that translate beyond words into the most life-saving message of all, “You are a beloved child of God. No matter what mistake you may have made or sin you may have committed, you are infinitely valuable and precious in God’s sight”

These are the healing words that will help build a genuine and lasting culture of life. They ring true and find their way home in every wounded human heart.

Mary Cunningham Agee is the Founder and President of the Nurturing Network, a nationwide charitable organization comprised of over 40,000 resource members who have provided for the urgent and practical needs of over 16,000 women with unplanned pregnancies.

For more information on Respect for Life Sunday  visit the United State Confrence of Catholic Bishop's web page at www.usccb.org/prolife/index.htm.