#volume5issue5

Apr 19, 2017
7 min

Why Focus on Abortion?

I’m not alone among pro-life advocates in that people sometimes ask me, “Why only abortion? Why do you advocate on this issue only?” When pro-choicers ask me that question, it often takes the form of “Why don’t you talk about the problems of women?” My first reply might be that I do not in fact ignore other issues. I have done a lot of pondering about the miserable treatment of women throughout most of history, in most of the world, and I have even ventured to write about a p

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Apr 19, 2017
4 min

The Killing Game, Part Two

Continued from part one, which can be found in Life Matters Journal Volume 5, Issue 4. A few days after her meeting with The Seven, she was called to C.O. Twintu's office. "495, we need to go over the marching orders for next week; the trainees need to be ready to go. Let's walk to my office.” As they walked, she continued. “The Leaders are pleased by your support. The first order of business is getting everyone to the Mountain Crater Base. The baby soldiers are to be left ou

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Apr 19, 2017
6 min

A Coach's Perspective on Performance and Abortion

As a Collegiate Women's Soccer Coach, I enjoy recognizing principles within sport that can be applied to everyday life. I refer to these principles as transferable concepts. One such transferable concept is the correlation between performance and abortion. Maximum performance is a key component for any collegiate soccer team. Each training session is filled with the fundamentals of the game: mastering the first-touch, trapping, passing, dribbling, shielding, shooting… techniq

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Apr 19, 2017
4 min

Electoral Backlash

In late November 2012, the Consistent Life Network’s newsletter, Peace & Life Connections, pointed out a counter-intuitive set of facts. First, the administrations of publicly prochoice Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama saw declines in abortion rates and providers, under very different economic circumstances. Second, the Obama administration continued and even expanded many features of the hawkish foreign policy that was much more widely protested under George W. Bush.

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Apr 19, 2017
4 min

Culture of Convenience vs. Culture of Life

It’s sometimes amazing the intolerable things people are willing to tolerate for a little convenience, even when the fix is simple, cheap, and barely perceptible. Beginning as early as the 1920s, but picking up after World War II, a quiet and unheralded revolution took place in the United States. This revolution totally altered social patterns and behaviors, turned life upside down, and utterly changed the American landscape. It was the automobile revolution and it was a reso

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Apr 19, 2017
1 min

We Are Stardust / Stars Up Close

way out on that distant horizon, city lights curve into stars and midnight’s sky drips down into city they say you and I are made from the stuff of stars, our lights dimmed beneath blankets of exhaust— fears, judgments, preferences, and the like it’s easier to let beauty be a thing that only exists from afar but we are beautiful up close so close I want to know your galaxy and find your suns these pavements, dust, blood, hate, love streets need all the light you can give let’

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Apr 19, 2017
1 min

Protest

A chilly Saturday morning in Cleveland, standing outside a clinic next to my pastor saying the rosary in the bitter cold penetrating my gloves. Others rattle their rosary beads murmuring the various prayers, the smell and taste of the exhaust from downtown traffic cuts through my half-asleep stupor. People drive by, somewhat apathetically; some walk up to me and get into my face, saying that I am less of a woman for doing this, telling me I’m being stupid and restricting wome

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

What is the Consistent Life Ethic?

BY NICHOLAS NEAL We often hear partisan pundits criticize their opponents for the opponents' inconsistencies about killing people. We hear that pro-life advocates do not respect the sanctity of life in war zones. We hear that peace advocates are not so peaceful when it comes to unborn children. What is the answer to this inconsistency? The simple answer is being consistent. This ideological position is known as the consistent life ethic. The foundation for this ethic is

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Rebels Storming Tripoli

BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to k

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Sep 13, 2011
4 min

A Terse Nonpartisan Assessment of Our Political Prospects

BY JULIA SMUCKER It's that time of year again -- or has been, since sometime last year. The mud is flying left and right as a motley crew of politicians competes for our nation's volatile confidence. And who are they trying to appeal to? For a myriad of confounding reasons, our national political discourse has become so polemicized that most prominent candidates, as well as many commentators, seem able to do little more than preach to particular choirs within their own par

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Abolition of Capital Punishment in Illinois

BY NICHOLAS NEAL The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois began when Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2000, after seeing an alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated. Eleven years later, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill officially abolishing capital punishment in Illinois. It was then up to Pat Quinn to sign it. Now, although Governor Quinn is a Democrat, he had previously spoken in favor of capital

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

Family Planning Freedom is Pro-Life

BY MARY KRANE DERR The right to access the full range of voluntary family planning methods is often neglected or actively undermined in the name of prolife, especially but not exclusively in the United States. Yet there are nine good reasons -- at least -- why fostering this right is essential to respect in practical deed for all human lives, already born and unborn. 1. Family planning freedom prevents millions of human deaths every year. Voluntary access to modern methods o

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Sep 13, 2011
8 min

Just War, Just Peace, Or What?

BY BILL SAMUEL What should our attitude -- as individuals, social movements and nations -- be toward war? When, if ever, is war justifiable either as to our own participation or as a decision of a nation or social movement? How do we get to a meaningful peace? These questions have been discussed and debated for millennia, and may be even more vital in this day of advanced weaponry. They have been discussed by people from many different religious traditions, and from none.

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Sep 13, 2011
13 min

Justice in the Face of Unknowing

BY AIMEE BEDOY & STEVEN OETJEN A quandary of major proportions faces our nation in this day and age. It could be a matter of life and death for countless persons -- we cannot truly be sure. This paper seeks to examine abortion through the lens of Constitutional law, science, and justice, and lastly to apply these faculties to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act recently passed in Nebraska. In brief, our recommendation is always to stand for justice and ultimately

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Sep 13, 2011
1 min

Sonnet -- At 40 Weeks

BY LILIANNA SERBICKI Swollen, a dream on its way to fruition; Nothing romantic. Lense (soft-focus) gone. Real fruit bruises; a real fruit stays the motion We make ourselves. Our unkempt pieces drawn Into alignment; some beings are too real To smudge with soft words. Some beings delight In waking up the small pith in the chest With beating limbs. It is a sudden sleight Of soul, not hand; the itch will soon persuade Myself to love my stippled skin far more Than when it held jus

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Sep 13, 2011
1 min

Mother to Child

BY OLIVIA MELDRUM While I am mistress of my mind, You will sleep safely every hour. No morning will you wake to find My warmth turned cold, or sweetness sour. A fragile burden do I bear (O precious visitor; flesh brand-new) - I forget my face and clothes and hair In pain and consciousness of you. My little one, your mama hurts. She shakes at every strange man's gaze. You've joined the Dance - this you deserve; But our dance, dear, limps through a maze. I am not mistress of my

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Sep 13, 2011
5 min

Ten Years Later

BY AIMEE BEDOY I am writing this ten years to the day that those towers fell. And ten years later, I want us to discuss what we have learned from September 11, 2001, and where we as a nation must continue to grow. I am speaking as someone who grew up in this culture, immersed in it wholly from the time I was 12 years old. Perhaps I am not the wisest, or the most sage member of society to speak on these points, but this is what I have learned from my childhood to the present

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