Did you read about the man who escaped from jail 89 days into a 90 day sentence? Or about the thief who walked into a store, took the cash, and then let the clerk borrow his cell phone to make a call – to the police?
Bishop Ronald Gainer at the 2015 Celebrate Life Banquet in Harrisburg
“Hello?!”
“(It’s) a word we say to someone who just doesn’t seem to get it,” the Most Rev. Ronald Gainer told a crowd of 600 pro-lifers gathered in Harrisburg for our 2014 Celebrate Life Banquet.Gainer, the new bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, compared the pro-life movement to the term “hello?!” because we are “calling out to a culture that has drifted from the truth.”He challenged pro-lifers to think about three issues in our modern culture that keep people from understanding the tragedies of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research.
First, our inability to use right reasoning.
Our culture quickly and easily falls for marketing messages, Gainer said. Pro-abortion advocates appeal to people with deceptive marketing that evokes desire and emotion.
Gainer called on pro-lifers to help our culture see past the pro-abortion side’s deceptive marketing appeals by using logic and reasoning to defend innocent human beings.
He used the example of fetal homicide laws, which are in place in most states to protect preborn babies from being victims of violence. Every law has an exception carved out for abortion, though.
“Hello?!” Gainer echoed.
Second, our inability to remember.
Gainer also called on pro-lifers to remind our culture of the history that we too often forget. It’s important that we look to the past so that we can learn from history and heed its warning signs.
He asked pro-lifers to consider the culture in Germany several years before the Holocaust. The ethical framework allowing human rights abuses started in the country’s medical and academic institutions years before the Holocaust took place, he said.
Third, our inability to understand freedom.
Many believe that freedom simply exists to do whatever we want, but choice for its own sake is not freedom, Gainer said.
“Authentic freedom lies in the ability to recognize what is true and the courage to do what is right,” he said.
Gainer ended by encouraging pro-lifers to march on with joy and boldness as we continue our work to educate our culture about the value of every single human life.
To watch or read Gainer’s full speech, click here.