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CULTURE OF LIFE

South Africa is a young democracy. Some at the helm of this new democracy have not wasted time in banning God as the authority of human life. They tolerate religious belief as long as it is restricted to the private sphere of individual persons. They openly deny, negate the fact that God is the source of all freedom. The Termination of Pregnancy Act, effectively frees a person from taking a personal moral responsibility. Thus a person is no longer subject to the voice of conscience, to the voice of God present in his/her heart. The autonomy of the individual, the internal authority of reason and government legislation become the hallmarks of this novel democratic dispensation. Morality is reduced to personal preferences.

Moral values in our new democracy are elusive, fragile, tentative. Quite frankly, they are considered to be of no great consequence in spite of the much vaunted debate on moral regeneration. Our democratic dispensation is characterized by moral relativism. There are no absolutes. No non-negotiables. For Christians, moral regeneration begins with the recognition that God is the author of life and that we have a personal and collective moral responsibility to answer to Him for our individual and collective moral behaviour.

Admittedly there is tension between consciences of individuals and the conscience of those who are responsible for the church and her mission. There is tension between the church and the political authority over the law that permits the killing of life in the womb.

We live in a society that is far too lazy to search for the truth; far too lazy to enlighten our consciences. The search for the truth is what moral regeneration is all about.

Today we gather around God’s altar for the cause of life. We will march to the Constitutional Hill because the church is duty bound to raise her voice the defence of life. We are duty bound to appeal to every person and to those in authority that they uphold the value of life and acknowledge its inviolability, especially life in the womb.

The South African law-maker denies that God is the author of life. They deny that life begins at conception. They offer abortion on demand. Our society maim and kill young people with drugs that are easily available; children are abused, women are raped with degrading frequency. Violent crime is committed with impunity in our neighbourhoods. Any yet the Gospel of Life calls us to “respect, revere, protect, love and serve life, every human life”.

The book of Exodus reminds us “You shall not kill” (20:13) because life is of unsurpassable, incomparable value. Pope John Paul in his Gospel of Life reminds us that abortion is a “deplorable” crime.
Doctors and nurses, your skills are a gift from God. They are to serve life and not to destroy life.

The hands of the South African law-makers are dripping with blood, the blood of innocent children. Till when will this blindness continue to desecrate the sanctity of human life? Young people, love and respect your bodies. Uphold virtues of self-restraint and patience. Fix your mind on what you want to achieve with your life.

MARIE STOPES, MARIE STOPES! You probably claim that you help women to get rid of their unwanted babies. Clearly the gift of life means very little to you. To you, life in the womb is not human.

• What do you do with the foetus once it has been removed from the womb?
• Are there any burial rituals?
• Are the tiny corpses thrown into some gas-chamber?
• Do you have any sense of guilt?

As a community, we are our little brother and little sister’s keeper (Gen.4-10).
Silence means complicity.
The blood of innocent children scream to high heaven and demands that God should render justice (Gen. 37.26).

If you love your neighbour, then defend and protect life, and life from its inception