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Email: "Life Versus Death; Beggars Versus Giants - Part 1"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com Special Report Commentary By Steve JalsevacNote: There has been much discussion lately among pro-life leaders about the chronic lack of resources the movement has had to endure during its existence while fighting the great battle against the Culture of Death. This article is one I believe has been needed for some time, and now more than ever. 40 years of this battle is a long time. It will be won, but certain things must finally happen to bring that about. This article addresses some of those needed developments.October 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Mother Teresa, awarded the Nobel peace prize in1979, said, "The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion." I was present when she said it in Toronto at a peace rally. Pope John Paul II called abortion "legal extermination." He compared abortion to the Nazi Holocaust and stressed that the abortion "rights" movement could "drive democratic regimes to transform themselves into totalitarian regimes." That decline in fundamental freedoms has been occurring now in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Pope Benedict XVI told the Pontifical Academy for  Life in 2007 "to guarantee the right to life for all and in an equal manner for all is the duty upon which the future of humanity depends."  He has also stressed that "today's gravest injustice" is the destruction of new life. Abortion has spawned a long and still growing list of related assaults on life that are taking us down a truly frightening path, leading to even more massive killing of the most vulnerable and innocent.  And yet, mysteriously, despite all of this, there are still relatively few people who are taking seriously enough the great dangers of the international death culture spawned by abortion and its parent movement - the perversion of human sexuality. The Beggarly Pro-Life MovementCoincident with all of this is the mystery of the relative beggarly existence that most pro-life organizations around the world have been forced to endure while they have attempted to fight the massively supported and financed anti-life Goliath. Pro-life leaders, through their intense commitment to the cause for many years, have developed an expert knowledge of the many issues involved in this struggle and the actions needed to restore a culture of life. And yet, their effectiveness has been crippled by poor or inconsistent support or even active opposition from influential persons or organizations that should have been their natural allies.The "politically incorrect" and "controversial" work of pro-life organizations has been repellent to much of the secular and even religious establishment. It is not seen as attractive work. It is about opposing killing and about promoting traditional sexual ethics, which receives much hostility from the popular culture. Pro-life causes discomfort.The result is that pro-life groups have been forced to depend overwhelmingly upon volunteers and minimally compensated paid staff. These groups, including LifeSiteNews, which assists them, are fighting the greatest war in history. And yet, they are usually handicapped by a severe lack of resources and a pattern of enthusiastic, bright young workers who come and then go because they cannot be given sufficient income to marry and raise a family. They also move on because of the long, stressful hours and seeming lack of success of what should normally be successful actions undertaken with the same effort and skill in almost all other contexts.Most people believe that pro-life organizations are heavily supported by Church organizations. Idealistic new workers to the movement usually soon experience a shocking and deflating realization about this. With the notable exceptions of some individual clergy and certain special events, church institutions and leaders are inconsistently supportive of the pro-life cause. Many do not in practice give it a high priority. Communications with pro-life leaders is poor. Indifference is common. Some Church leaders even actively oppose crucial actions undertaken by the movement's organizations. This is especially the case with regard to political and legislative decisions and efforts. That is often the most disheartening aspect of pro-life work. The Culture WarThe Culture War is now at a dire crossroads. Peter Kreeft, in his book and frequently given talk, How to Win the Culture War, notes that "To win any war" one of "the three most necessary things we must know" is "that we are at war." This has been a huge problem for the always struggling pro-life movement since its beginning: most principled, moral people still do not realize that this great war is going on, has been for about 40 years, and that they cannot avoid being affected by it. As Kreeft says, "If you are surprised to be told that our entire civilization is in crisis, I welcome you back from your nice vacation on the moon." The renowned Catholic philosopher and prolific author continues, "Many minds do seem moonstruck, puttering happily around the Titanic, blandly arranging the deck chairs." That, to some degree explains what most pro-life leaders and we at LifeSiteNews have been up against since we began our various missions to try to stop the advance of what Pope John Paul II labelled The Culture of Death or as Chuck Colson has warned is a looming "new dark age."Kreeft explains that there is a deeper, more ominous dimension to the Culture War. He says, "eternal souls will die - billions of Ramones and Vladimirs and Tiffanys and Bridgets will go to hell.  That's what's at stake in this war." It is really, he says, a war against "powers and principalities" - on a very great scale - perhaps the greatest in all of human history. One Organizations' Past and Current StrugglesCanada's national pro-life organization, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), is an example of one of the larger and more effective organizations that has been heroically waging this seemingly impossible battle on many fronts. During it's over 30 years of existence, CLC has been doing truly extraordinary things against a vastly greater funded opposition on both the local, national and international levels. Among its numerous projects, CLC was the original parent organization and the main financial backer of LifeSiteNews.com, but is no longer able to provide that support. Right now CLC and many other pro-life groups are struggling financially like they never have before. At the same time, the organizations promoting the death culture  have been receiving hundreds of millions, if not billions, from governments at all levels, giant private foundations and numerous other sources. In addition they receive massive ongoing other support for their agendas from the world's mainstream media, government and education institutions, the United Nations and other international agencies and textbook, magazine and other publishers. It is not even remotely a fair fight.The leaders and workers at CLC (and for that matter the workers of most pro-life groups in the world) see up close every day the enormity of what the death movement is doing to individuals and to all of society. They are the professionals, the experts on these issues. And yet everyday they have to beg and plead for financial and other support that never even begins to approach the levels needed. What would have happened if during the Second World War the Allied generals and troops had to constantly, personally beg for money and other resources to wage each desperate battle against the enemies of freedom, but were met with indifference from those whose help they needed the most? That is the situation of the pro-life movement. Pro-life soldiers in the field at the battle front are often fighting with pea shooters, while at the same time having to constantly expend much time and energy pleading for even a minimum of moral support and financial support for real weapons to wage the culture war - which they know they can and will one day win.Ordinary People The Real Heroes Campaign Life Coalition, LifeSiteNews and the large majority of pro-life organizations in North America and elsewhere have been supported almost entirely by generous ordinary people - the real heroes of the movement. They have sacrificed year after year, giving up precious time and limited personal financial resources while not expecting anything in return, not even a tax receipt. They understand what this is all about. Many of them are dismayed over the lack of support and even opposition from the more powerful and wealthy in both civil and religious society.Without these ordinary folks, there surely would not be any pro-life movement. The battle would have been over long ago. There would be no one putting the finger in the dyke these past many years limiting the great flood of physical death, death of consciences and the complete collapse of our traditional civilization that the anti-human, anti-God movement is leading us all towards. Wealthy and Powerful Still do Not Comprehend Importance of Pro-Life WorkCLC leaders are very concerned that even the very limited financial support they have relied upon has been plummeting because of the current financial crisis. The little people, the traditional supporters of CLC, are hurting. The ongoing mystery is that wealthy individuals and organizations still do not comprehend the enormous importance of CLC's work and have never, in 30 years, given any substantial donations to this life and civilization-saving organization compared to what they often give to other worthy causes.Jim Hughes, president of CLC and vice president of International Right to Life, reports that in all the years of CLC's existence the largest donation the organization has received was $150,000. That amount was received three times from an anonymous person who thankfully did not demand a tax receipt (In Canada, charitable tax rulings have been notoriously biased against groups that might upset the abortion status quo). That level of donation was an extreme rarity. Hughes says he has tried ceaselessly and mostly unsuccessfully to find wealthy benefactors to support the work of CLC and its incredibly dedicated workers.  http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/life-versus-death-beggars-versus-giants-part-1/

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