Love Life Conference

I listened to two men speak about abortion today.

One was very rational laying out the SLED acronym.  The fetus is fully human.  It only differs from the rest of humanity in "S", size, "L", Level of Development, "E", environment, and "D", dependency. -- If you would not kill just any toddler, you can't just kill any pre-born.

The unborn is your neighbor whom you must defend.

The other man told his own story of abortion.  And of another death, that put him into court for three years.  He told me of this only afterward, when we talked in the hallway.   He sounded like a very good pastor.  I was very glad to meet him.

I am a little weepy after all that.  Our losses have us so much in their grip.  Death lays his icy hand on our lives and crushes our little hearts under his power.  And the guilt, the resignation, the depression, the denial, the unexpected shocks and flashbacks, the hollowness, they all gnaw relentlessly at our courage and hope.

He is a pastor and a pastor's pastor, initiating various programs.  But he is not a Lutheran.  I told him about the age-old practice of confession and absolution, about rejoicing continually in your baptism.  He said that men don't share.  I said, why not?  Because, they just don't.  I said, why not.  I said Christian men confess their sins to one another.  They have father confessors.  They make a practice of it.  We are not superchristians.  The love of God makes me positively giddy.  Satan can have all his crap and keep it.