My Visit to the Prolife Candidate Forum
As part of my campaign for State Representative in Illinois, I spoke yesterday at a candidate forum sponsored by the Lake County (IL) Right to Life organization. Over 20 candidates spoke there, including six Republican Candidates for governor.
I noticed something that bothered me: Almost every candidate began by talking about his religious upbringing.
This one was the son of a pastor, that one was one of nine children of a Catholic family, one was a conservative Jew, another an Indian Hindu, but almost every one, if not in fact every one, started discussing the life issue from a religious perspective.
And, what makes me crazy, some of them use that religious foundation as an excuse to avoid facing the abortion issue in law.
The argument goes something like this:
- The Catholic Church teaches me that abortion is an intrinsic evil.
- This is part of my faith.
- I cannot use the force of law to impose my faith on others.
- Ergo, I cannot support restricting abortion in law.
This is why, as you can see in the video linked below, I eschewed all discussion of religion to assert the importance of protecting human life in terms that should be equally accessible to anyone.
And they say I’m a religious fanatic.
You were absolutely fantastic, Paul Mitchell!
I know that your time to speak was limited, but you said what needed to be said and did so flawlessly. I could be wrong, but the woman sitting in the end chair on stage appeared just a tad uncomfortable when your tone became stronger speaking against abortion (for all the right reasons, too). Note, too, that the camera moves in on you completely as you begin to badmouth FOCA.
I think a fair statement would be that you owned that audience for your entire brief stay in front of that microphone.
The very best of luck to you. With prayers.
Try substituting other words for “abortion” and see what idiocy ensues. But, somehow, I don’t think the cowards who don’t have the guts to stand against the evil of abortion would fail to take a stand against rape, robbery, assault, etc. Anybody can stand up against evil when he has general support. Even Pontius Pilate was for justice until it meant taking a stand alone.