Changes

With me, it began after a mass Charismatic meeting at Giant Stadium in New York in 1978. The main human participant was Fr. Francis McNutt, a healing gifted priest. As we were exiting a woman thrust in my hand a tract which proved to be, when I glanced at it, a pro-life tract. I don't believe that I did more than glance at it before I threw it away. But I kept remembering that woman, seemingly missing out on the importance of the event that had taken place, and standing outside doing her quaint mission. And something else clicked - I could do nothing about the [[holocaust]], the mass murder of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, but somehow, there was another one going on right now - in the wombs of women, and this one was somehow, a continuation of that one. And I found, that my thoughts more and more drifted to and focused on - what to do about abortion.  In those days, aside from being a clergyman, I was a social worker in the field of child abuse and neglect with the Connecticut Department of Children and Youth Services and I worked out of the main office in Hartford, working with children and families, far to numerous to "doing justice". My specialty was intervention in abuse cases. One day, I received a letter from an abortion clinic which was about to open its doors about 5 minutes from main office.  I was being invited to send my girls, my case load girls who were pregnant, to receive an abortion at this clinic, with assurance, and here was the inducement, at a greatly discounted price. Suddenly, there was no longer any doubt. Abortion was not about altruism or even about women's rights. It was about money. I was enraged.  

With me, it began after a mass Charismatic meeting at Giant Stadium in New York in 1978. The main human participant was Fr. Francis McNutt, a healing gifted priest. As we were exiting a woman thrust in my hand a tract which proved to be, when I glanced at it, a pro-life tract. I don't believe that I did more than glance at it before I threw it away. But I kept remembering that woman, seemingly missing out on the importance of the event that had taken place, and standing outside doing her quaint mission. And something else clicked - I could do nothing about the [[holocaust]], the mass murder of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, but somehow, there was another one going on right now - in the wombs of women, and this one was somehow, a continuation of that one. And I found, that my thoughts more and more drifted to and focused on - what to do about abortion.  In those days, aside from being a clergyman, I was a social worker in the field of child abuse and neglect with the Connecticut Department of Children and Youth Services and I worked out of the main office in Hartford, working with children and families, far to numerous to "doing justice". My specialty was intervention in abuse cases. One day, I received a letter from an abortion clinic which was about to open its doors about 5 minutes from main office.  I was being invited to send my girls, my case load girls who were pregnant, to receive an abortion at this clinic, with assurance, and here was the inducement, at a greatly discounted price. Suddenly, there was no longer any doubt. Abortion was not about altruism or even about women's rights. It was about money. I was enraged.  

And so began the beginnings of my public service for my girls, and their babies to be and that were now alive in their wombs, and, so my sentiments ran, for the babies of America, and for the fending off another holocaust. Maybe, in the wisdom of God, it sometimes takes for some people big thoughts to bring about even little actions.  Once or twice a week, I would leave for lunch, or sometimes after work, and retrieve from my car a large photo on a stick, a  photo of three babies that had been dumped in a garbage can at a Canadian teaching hospital, and I would don my black clergy suit with white collar, and begin my march of demonstration and protest at the vehicle entrance of the [[Abortion]] Clinic, back and forth , back and forth, in the heat, the cold, and just right temperature of the day.  One day, when I knew that I would not have time to strip of my civvies and don my clericals, I just wore my clergy suit to work. I remember my supervisor saying to me, in the hearing of the others, "I thought I hired a social worker, not a priest!"

And so began the beginnings of my public service for my girls, and their babies to be and that were now alive in their wombs, and, so my sentiments ran, for the babies of America, and for the fending off another holocaust. Maybe, in the wisdom of God, it sometimes takes for some people big thoughts to bring about even little actions.  Once or twice a week, I would leave for lunch, or sometimes after work, and retrieve from my car a large photo on a stick, a  photo of three babies that had been dumped in a garbage can at a Canadian teaching hospital, and I would don my black clergy suit with white collar, and begin my march of demonstration and protest at the vehicle entrance of the [[Abortion]] Clinic, back and forth, back and forth, in the heat, the cold, and just right temperature of the day.  One day, when I knew that I would not have time to strip of my civvies and don my clericals, I just wore my clergy suit to work. I remember my supervisor saying to me, in the hearing of the others, "I thought I hired a social worker, not a priest!"

   

   

Good things did happen.  A couple or more women did not go through abortion because I was there, but the really memorable things were the "side" phenomena. One was an experience of the evil behind it all, evil that even the abortionist was himself subject to. One day, as the abortionist doctor was entering into the building from the parking lot itself which was on his property, to which I had no access, without my thinking to do it, without my permission, a call came out from me involuntarily, and from the top of my lungs were flung the words, " Doctor, are you still killing babies?", He turned around, as if caught by surprise, and then from out of his mouth to me, and I perceived it equally without his intent or permission, "...and I will keep on doing it long after you are in the grave!"  I understood that this evil had so taken him over, and that he was voicing what was an intent far deeper and potent that that of his own. He was a tool. That night on T.V., the news featured an interview with the new abortionist doctor in town, and I heard him say that a priest had harassed him this morning. I suppose so.  

Good things did happen.  A couple or more women did not go through abortion because I was there, but the really memorable things were the "side" phenomena. One was an experience of the evil behind it all, evil that even the abortionist was himself subject to. One day, as the abortionist doctor was entering into the building from the parking lot itself which was on his property, to which I had no access, without my thinking to do it, without my permission, a call came out from me involuntarily, and from the top of my lungs were flung the words, " Doctor, are you still killing babies?", He turned around, as if caught by surprise, and then from out of his mouth to me, and I perceived it equally without his intent or permission, "...and I will keep on doing it long after you are in the grave!"  I understood that this evil had so taken him over, and that he was voicing what was an intent far deeper and potent that that of his own. He was a tool. That night on T.V., the news featured an interview with the new abortionist doctor in town, and I heard him say that a priest had harassed him this morning. I suppose so.  

Below the surface and behind the intents and reasons, we ought to see the most ancient and irrational of all motivations - spite. Spite of the defeated one who has nothing else left than that and hatred for any thing and anyone bearing the image of the Son of God - "...because he knows that his time is short."

Below the surface and behind the intents and reasons, we ought to see the most ancient and irrational of all motivations - spite. Spite of the defeated one who has nothing else left than that and hatred for any thing and anyone bearing the image of the Son of God - "...because he knows that his time is short."

==See Also==

==See also==

*[[Abortion]]

*[[Abortion]]

==External Links==

==External links==

*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/jesus-through-fabric-of-our-lives.html Jesus through the Fabric of our lives]

*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/jesus-through-fabric-of-our-lives.html Jesus through the Fabric of our lives]

[[Category:Essays]]

[[Category:Essays]]