While pro-life outreach has become a commonplace feature of campus
life at many Catholic and secular colleges, many students who oppose
same-sex “marriage” think twice about speaking out.
“There is diversity of opinion on that among kids coming to our
conferences,” agreed Kristan Hawkins, 26, president of Students for
Life, which has experienced a rapid increase in membership. Since the
group opened its doors in 2005, the number of affiliated schools and
colleges and graduate programs has jumped from 181 to 670.
“A lot of students will have qualms about ‘gay marriage.’ But
where the rubber hits the road they will be quiet on that issue. Some
student leaders disagree with us on this. They are pro-life, but they
are pro-‘gay marriage,’” said Hawkins.
She said her generation’s exposure to the destructive consequences of abortion has fueled a steady reassessment of life issues.
“They are personal witnesses to abortion. They have grown up with
this. We talk about abortion as a human-rights issue. With ‘gay
marriage,’ you are not stopping murder. But with legal abortion, every
day children are dying; women are scarred forever.”
Personal Experience
However, personal experience has largely taken young Americans in
a different direction on marriage. “They have grown up with friends who
are gay; family members are gay. It’s difficult for them to say, ‘I
don’t think you have the right to be married,’” she noted.
Hawkins observed that it would be a mistake to underestimate the
power of political correctness and a narrow, secular mindset on many
U.S. campuses, including some Catholic colleges.
“It’s enough for students to say they are Christian. There is no
way they will [publicly] oppose ‘gay marriage.’ It is a problem. We
don’t take a stance. It will take time to deal with this issue,” she
concluded.
At Grand Valley State University in Michigan, junior Raymond
“R.J.” McVeigh, president of the campus Students for Life group, echoed
this judgment.
His group of 30 members concentrates on helping peers struggling
with crisis pregnancies, providing a range of support, from meals to
babysitting.
“Our group solely focuses on life issues, and we are classified
as a service and advocacy group, as opposed to a religious group. We
stay away from other themes,” he said, adding that their advocacy
focuses on abortion as a human-rights issue, not a religious issue.
“The challenge our members face is the dilemma of moral
relevancy: How can they relate and talk about something that is
intrinsically good or evil? In an increasingly secular society, many
students who are Catholic and Christians are careful about coming out
with their beliefs. They try to find different ways to talk about
abortion as a human-rights issue, not as a religious issue,” he said.
Catherine Palmer, a pro-life leader at the College of William and
Mary, applauded Students for Life’s “Pregnant on Campus Initiative.”
She described the program as “first, to love the pregnant and parenting
women on our campuses, serving them, holistically, as best we can.
Resources ought to be in place for them to both care for their child and
finish college, should they so choose.”
Meanwhile, her organization “takes no official stance on same-sex
‘marriage.’ My position on the matter is that same-sex ‘marriage’ is a
significant sociocultural concern. Surely, homosexual persons are owed
profound love and respect, bearing equally massive dignity as any other
person. Yet marriage, in its perennial sense, between one man and one
woman, contributes intuitively to the common good, and particularly to
the needs of children.”
Staying Focused
For now, most campus pro-life leaders will stay focused on the
fight against abortion. But their hand could be forced as the advance of
“marriage equality” flattens conscience provisions that could
ultimately affect pro-life Americans in the workplace. Down the road,
pro-life and traditional-marriage activists could find themselves having
a common cause.
Indeed, Emily Bissonnette, a former president of the pro-life
group at Franciscan University who now works as a theology of the body
education coordinator at Ruah Woods in Cincinnati, suggested that
Catholic students should take time to grapple with the moral and
theological connection between two hot-button issues.
“Pope John Paul II … said that the root of the culture of death
is ‘an eclipse of the sense of God and of man.’ Through that lens, we
can see the link between same-sex ‘marriage’ and abortion and,
consequently, the link between defending life and defending marital love
between one man and one woman,” said Bissonnette.
“If we look at abortion primarily as a matter of rights, then it
can be difficult to see how marriage should be promoted within pro-life
clubs on campus. But when seen as a matter of the dignity of the human
person through ‘adequate anthropology,’ then the two issues can be seen
as standing or falling together,” she added.
No comments:
Post a Comment