Dear readers,
I’m sorry to say this is my final letter to you.
A previous letter hinted at my mysterious disappearance from LifeSiteNews’ roster a few weeks ago. So tonight I’m picking up the metaphorical pen one last time before I enter the Carmelite monastery in Buffalo, New York, to begin my postulancy there on October 14. The feeling is difficult to describe, but bittersweet is a large part.
No one could have ever asked for better coworkers, who work tirelessly but somehow, cheerfully and with humor, in their zeal to shed light on the darkest corners of our world. Very few are so privileged as to fight evil as a form of gainful employment – I was. I am leaving one deeply spiritual work, for another.
Yet the mission here is truly unique. After only four years, it still seems there is so much more to be done, and there is a slight pang at knowing I’ll never be able to do it – at least, not as an LSN employee.
When I began as a very nervous novice journalist in August 2008, it was only weeks away from Obama’s victory. As I set to work keeping up on the election, I began reading up on this strange character with the silky intonation, and soon came to the conclusion that he was not just bad – a mortal enemy of unborn children (somehow a ho-hum feature of political candidates now) – but a real force of destruction against America and its spiritual roots.
Panicking, I dove headfirst into the birther world, clamoring before family and friends that even though McCain was a tepid pro-lifer at best, if we elected Obama, America would never be the same again. Whether or not I was right about his birthplace, I was right about the outcome. We have ended Obama’s first term with Christian retailers fighting a $1.3 million dollar-per-day fine in the United States of America, just for being Christian.
I came in with Obama, and, God willing, I’m going out with him too.
As I sensed in 2008, to make that happen, we need the guts to expose the hidden agendas behind Obama and his administration as much as possible. At LSN, that’s exactly what we do, and it’s why we’ve recently been growing by leaps and bounds: more and more, people are sensing that our work is now more critical than ever before.
Our M.O. is still as simple as ever: Shine the light where the other side least wants it shone, give a voice to those they want to keep from drawing their first breath. It’s dirty work, but somebody has to do it.
It’s a mission that pro-life actress Vanessa Ore summed up eloquently in an encounter with an abortion-minded friend: “I love you, no matter what you do, but … I have to be the voice of this child right now for you.”
There is a desperate need for that voice.
There are many businesses in our world that exploit others. The business of killing has the advantage that the victims always keep quiet. That’s why the holocaust happened, why the unborn in America suffer another 9/11 every single day, and why Planned Parenthood’s business is booming: the dead don’t speak. Planned Parenthood client Tonya Reaves will also never speak in her own defense.
Money, on the other hand, speaks eloquently. The billion-dollar-a-year Planned Parenthood tells a tale that is clean, bright pink, and airtight. Blood money is always abundant: working to stop the killing is not nearly so lucrative.
In fact, there is no money in it. Which is perfectly fine with us.
We hope for only just enough to keep us going, to keep the mission alive.
And for that we depend almost completely on the generosity of those who don’t want the light to flicker out, who don’t want us to keep quiet.
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There is so much I want to say before I go. I can’t seem to put out of my mind that something big is coming.
I’ve noticed something strange about 2012; it’s hard to put my finger on. But somehow I feel all of us fighting for the light are taking a new stance, our battle posts, this year. We sense that a storm is coming.
Yet at the same time, I see something very encouraging in 2012: the workings of grace growing bolder, a sign, it seems, of more prayer going up to God. I want to share one such powerful coup that happened earlier this year.
This is the sort of thing I’m really going to miss.
As regular LSN readers know, the abortion mill in Rockford, Illinois was a front page staple for always pushing the boundaries of, well, crazy. Owner Wayne Webster and company seemed intent on making clear their total hatred for Christianity and anyone who would try to save unborn children: a nun in a coffin, a crucified rubber chicken, and signage mocking Jesus Christ for saving only a few of the thousands of children slated for execution were only a few of the items plastered in its dark windows.
This went on for years. But then, according to a local pro-life leader, after LSN began its reports, the mill went into a steady decline until finally health officials closed down the sordid business early this year. “If it hadn’t been for LifeSiteNews,” the leader told me, “the Rockford mill would still be here.”
When the evil is this great, silence and darkness are its two most powerful weapons. We are here to break them.
Thank you and God bless you,
Kathleen Gilbert
Recently retired U.S. Bureau Chief
LifeSiteNews.com
Editor’s Note: Due to a Disqus problem, the first six comments under this story are from another story. As well, the comments made before this occurred are now under another story here (First seven comments only)