Pro-Life and World Hunger

[hasikelee]

It appears I have struck a nerve with some folks here. Why so sensitive?

My point is this: So many here are absolutely outraged by abortion. I rarely see that kind of emotion when issues of poverty and hunger are discussed. It seems that feeding the hungry and caring for the poor were issues that were important to Jesus. They should be a top priority for us too.

It sounds as if you were expecting some emotion from me?

I am interested in your answer to the questions. Such a view as you have presented usually comes from a mentor or peer group and shows a both a lack of personal development and independent research. How did you come to feel this way and where did you get your perceptions?

 

[1ke]

I prefer to sponsor a child and help with that child’s ongoing needs. I have been doing this for a number of years. I also contribute to causes that work to address world hunger. That is what God has called me to do.

Perhaps you are called to do something else.

What an interesting double standard you live by.

 

[hasikelee]

Actually, I prefer to sponsor a child and help with that child’s ongoing needs. I have been doing this for a number of years. I also contribute to causes that work to address world hunger. That is what God has called me to do.

Perhaps you are called to do something else.

But, the children at the crisis center where I volunteer were suffering from hunger before we took them in.

Sometimes the worst injustices are right in your backyard. The women and children at battered-women’s shelters, pregnancy crisis centers or homeless shelters need someone to help them, too.

 

[dmelosi]

It appears I have struck a nerve with some folks here. Why so sensitive?

My point is this: So many here are absolutely outraged by abortion. I rarely see that kind of emotion when issues of poverty and hunger are discussed. It seems that feeding the hungry and caring for the poor were issues that were important to Jesus. They should be a top priority for us too.

I sure am outraged, you did strike a nerve with me. I am outraged at the many people such as yourself whose efforts end up making abortion more and more acceptable.

I am always senstive about those that claim to be pro life, yet seem to care little about the most innocent.

 

[BrendanD]

It appears I have struck a nerve with some folks here. Why so sensitive?

It probably has something to do with being told by a stranger that they are apathetic towards the deaths of starving children and don’t care about world hunger. Especially when these people very likely do volunteer with the poor and homeless in their communities and contribute to food pantries in their parishes (as if helping women facing crisis pregnancies isn’t enough.)

Furthermore, your accusation that opponents of abortion don’t care about people dying in poverty could be applied equally in the other direction: “People that fight poverty and hunger ignore millions of babies being killed by abortion. How can they worry about poverty, when other people aren’t even being given the chance to be born?”.

I, however, and I assume most pro-lifers, would not make that statement because contributing to solving world hunger and opposing abortion are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Priscilla_Ann]

It sounds as if you were expecting some emotion from me?

I am interested in your answer to the questions. Such a view as you have presented usually comes from a mentor or peer group and shows a both a lack of personal development and independent research. How did you come to feel this way and where did you get your perceptions?

Where did I get my perceptions? I observe, I read, I study and I think!

No, I don’t rely on a “mentor or peer group”! Do you?

 

[KathleenElsie]

It appears I have struck a nerve with some folks here. Why so sensitive?

My point is this: So many here are absolutely outraged by abortion. I rarely see that kind of emotion when issues of poverty and hunger are discussed. It seems that feeding the hungry and caring for the poor were issues that were important to Jesus. They should be a top priority for us too.

Lets see how we sit on our b***s. For the needy and hungry.

1. Food bank in our church every month
2. Second harvest at local farms.
3. Free health clinics.
4. Child care for the working poor.
5. Food drives by the youth and scouts at church.
6. Vouchers from Catholic Charities for those in need.
7. Elder care for the impoverished.
8. Job, drug and alcohol counseling.
9. Lobbying for medical, educational choices and affordable housing.

The list goes on and on.

Now personally:

Gift cards given for groceries to someone in need.
Clothing to keep people warm.
Food baskets on the porch when people are not home.
Helping the elderly to remain in their homes by helping with their monthly bills.
Driving people to the Dr’s office and then the pharmacy. Finding cheap or free meds for those that need it.
Going to the nursing home and visiting those that have no one else to visit.
Helping to repair the homes of the poor so they have a roof over their heads.

But then we are just one family.

 

[dmelosi]

Lets see how we sit on our b***s. For the needy and hungry.

1. Food bank in our church every month
2. Second harvest at local farms.
3. Free health clinics.
4. Child care for the working poor.
5. Food drives by the youth and scouts at church.
6. Vouchers from Catholic Charities for those in need.
7. Elder care for the impoverished.
8. Job, drug and alcohol counseling.
9. Lobbying for medical, educational choices and affordable housing.

The list goes on and on.

Now personally:

Gift cards given for groceries to someone in need.
Clothing to keep people warm.
Food baskets on the porch when people are not home.
Helping the elderly to remain in their homes by helping with their monthly bills.
Driving people to the Dr’s office and then the pharmacy. Finding cheap or free meds for those that need it.
Going to the nursing home and visiting those that have no one else to visit.
Helping to repair the homes of the poor so they have a roof over their heads.

But then we are just one family.

Kathleen, what you do is great…I don’t mean to take anything at all away from you, but many of us care and help the poor and hungry with our resources and time. I really applaud you, but I know that you don’t do this for the recognition.

But the original poster just doesnt get it. So many like her are so tied to their political party that they will do anything to dumb down the fact that abortion is killing, in order to make themselves feel less guilty for promoting the party of death.

 

[KathleenElsie]

Kathleen, what you do is great…I don’t mean to take anything at all away from you, but many of us care and help the poor and hungry with our resources and time. I really applaud you, but I know that you don’t do this for the recognition.

But the original poster just doesn’t get it. So many like her are so tied to their political party that they will do anything to dumb down the fact that abortion is killing, in order to make themselves feel less guilty for promoting the party of death.

That fact that the OP even had the nerve to say we (pro-life advocates) don’t do anything made me angry enough to make this post.

Everything we do we do in secret if we can. If not in secret just as a quiet servant of God.

 

[seekerz]

I find it interesting and, excuse me - somewhat amusing - that the OP sees a dichotomy between pro-lifers and those working against world hunger.

By that argument, I should be a rare breed (actually, not so) because my opposition to abortion is as passionate as my support for government-run, tax-payer funded social programs. To complicate matters even more, I am equally opposed to the misuse of government assistance a phenomenon I am increasingly able to observe up close and personal. (In my view, each unmerited benefit claimed literally translates to taking bread out of a hungry child’s mouth or stealing money from a tax-payer’s wallet.)

So I chuckle on reading your post, because to you (as to many others) I’d probably represent a conundrum, having steadfastly refused (all of my adult life and most of my childhood) to being categorized/stereotyped.

 

[ALLGIRLS]

Well, I’d say the pro-green environmentalists like Al Gore are MORE directly taking food away from helpless kids who depend on it.

Those who favor bio-fuels are actively diverting corn into their gas tank and lowering food production at the same time it is increasing food prices.

---

Is there a silver bullet? No.

However, making blanket statements such as yours regarding pro-life people (and, of course, my statement about environmentalists which I was purposely using as irony… lest people miss that point) is rhetoric, not fact.

Certainly some people who oppose abortion also oppose higher taxes and broader government sponsored social programs. It does not follow that they oppose helping the helpless. Many social conservatives do not believe it is the *government’s * place to do this, they believe it is the individual’s through religious and other independent charitable organizations that come together to support people in need at the local level.

Regardless of philosophy on HOW helping the poor is carried out, those who live out the Gospel values support ALL the corporal works of mercy, not just some of them.

Not to mention the fact that even though there are individual Catholics who are pro-life but oppose government social programs (preferring to help the needy through private charity instead), the Catholic Bishops in America (normally seen along w/ the Pope as representing the “official” Church) generally oppose, loudly, any cuts in government social programs, at the same time loudly fighting abortion.

Sorry, but this theory just doesn’t float.

In Christ,

Ellen

 

[ALLGIRLS]

Go ahead and search these forums for “abortion”. Then do another search for “poverty” or “hunger”. How many threads do you find on poverty or hunger? How many do you find on abortion? The results of such a search speak for themselves.

I am not arguing about the morality of abortion. I am simply saying that poverty and hunger are just as important. I suppose it’s easier to be against abortion…it doesn’t cost you any $$ to speak against abortion. Addressing the problems of poverty and hunger might actually require that we all make a real sacrifice…the rich might even have to give up their tax cut (gasp!).

That’s because there’s virtually no one, on these forums or IRL, who SUPPORTS hunger, so there’s really no reason to debate it. If someone started a thread entitled “Why does the Catholic Church care if people have enough to eat? What goes on in someone’s kitchen isn’t any of the Pope’s business!”, you can bet it would be 100 pages long. But that doesn’t happen. But you do see thread after thread of folks insisting that no one has any right to “force their religion” on others by speaking out against abortion or working to make it illegal.

And once again: Do you have access to our tax returns? How do you know we don’t do anything to fight hunger? You don’t know us. Someone protesting at an abortion clinic or working at a crisis pregnancy center on Saturday is likely delivering food or writing checks to the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry on Sunday, and may even be volunteering at a soup kitchen some other day of the week. It’s not an either/or thing (nothing in Catholicism is, especially the pro-life apostolate).

In Christ,

Ellen

 

[hasikelee]

Where did I get my perceptions? I observe, I read, I study and I think!

No, I don’t rely on a “mentor or peer group”! Do you?

Okay, so what articles do you read? Which major media sources do you rely upon? Who do you observe, and in what country?

 

[silk6110]

My view point might be seen as over-simplistic but in my opinion the issue of world hunger can not be solved by ‘murder’. The problem is not too many people but rather too little sources.

The argument about its not fair to bring children into the world without food just shifts the attention from the responsibility everyone living the developed world has. We need to help those living in absolute poverty (e.g. attempt to ensure companies do not take advantage)

Thats my simple viewpoint- its not the easiest solution but in my opinion the moral one

 

[BlueRubies]

Well, I’d say the pro-green environmentalists like Al Gore are MORE directly taking food away from helpless kids who depend on it.

Those who favor bio-fuels are actively diverting corn into their gas tank and lowering food production at the same time it is increasing food prices.

---

Is there a silver bullet? No.

However, making blanket statements such as yours regarding pro-life people (and, of course, my statement about environmentalists which I was purposely using as irony… lest people miss that point) is rhetoric, not fact.

Certainly some people who oppose abortion also oppose higher taxes and broader government sponsored social programs. It does not follow that they oppose helping the helpless. Many social conservatives do not believe it is the *government’s * place to do this, they believe it is the individual’s through religious and other independent charitable organizations that come together to support people in need at the local level.

Regardless of philosophy on HOW helping the poor is carried out, those who live out the Gospel values support ALL the corporal works of mercy, not just some of them.

1ke, maybe I am just not seeing the logic, but how does using corn for fuel decrease food production? It increases it - and I do know a “little” (not being sarcastic) something about what I am mentioning as my family are farmers.

No one would say when the time comes that they were upset money was spent on saving the planet from humans that are destroying it. We will be happy in the end for the pro-green issue. I see that you are using this for irony, but I just had to say something too

 

[1ke]

1ke, maybe I am just not seeing the logic, but how does using corn for fuel decrease food production? It increases it - and I do know a “little” (not being sarcastic) something about what I am mentioning as my family are farmers.

No, it does not increase food production.

Many acres of land are being diverted *from *grain/crops *to *corn for ethanol. This has created skyrocketing feed costs for animal producers and has created a shortage of grain crops on the world market-- wheat, soybean, corn, etc. The enticement of higher prices for corn diverted to ethanol production has cut the number of acres being utilized for human consumption crops as well as animal feed.

And, yes, we are a family of farmers so we too know “something” about this situation.

No one would say when the time comes that they were upset money was spent on saving the planet from humans that are destroying it. We will be happy in the end for the pro-green issue. I see that you are using this for irony, but I just had to say something too

The irony was only about *making *blanket statements, not about the pro-green/ethanol people. They do deserve a lot of blame, just not all of it.

 

[vern_humphrey]

First of all, we have the standard, unfounded accusation that those who are pro-life “don’t care” about the born children, the hungry, and so on. This is followed by another false accusation that it doesn’t cost any money to be pro-life.

I invite the people making those accusations to join your local Right-to-Life committee and see how much work we do for young mothers and their children, both before and after they are born.

I challenge those who attack pro-life Catholics to help us fund Catholic schools, to give those poor children an alternative to the failed Public School system.

Then let us address the issue of world hunger. There are many Christian charities working on world hunger – and putting a lot of money and effort into it.

But the real cause of world hunger is government – corrupt and often brutal dictatorships that all too often use hunger and tribal warfare as weapons. To solve world hunger, we must overthrow those dictatorships, replace those corrupt govenments.

Anybody got any ideas about how we do that?

 

[KathleenElsie]

First of all, we have the standard, unfounded accusation that those who are pro-life “don’t care” about the born children, the hungry, and so on. This is followed by another false accusation that it doesn’t cost any money to be pro-life.

I invite the people making those accusations to join your local Right-to-Life committee and see how much work we do for young mothers and their children, both before and after they are born.

I challenge those who attack pro-life Catholics to help us fund Catholic schools, to give those poor children an alternative to the failed Public School system.

Then let us address the issue of world hunger. There are many Christian charities working on world hunger – and putting a lot of money and effort into it.

But the real cause of world hunger is government – corrupt and often brutal dictatorships that all too often use hunger and tribal warfare as weapons. To solve world hunger, we must overthrow those dictatorships, replace those corrupt govenments.

Anybody got any ideas about how we do that?

Well said.

 

[Dameedna]

First of all, we have the standard, unfounded accusation that those who are pro-life “don’t care” about the born children, the hungry, and so on. This is followed by another false accusation that it doesn’t cost any money to be pro-life.

Bringing more human life into this world, than we can take care of is not being pro-life. It is bring people into this world simply because our biology allows for it.

Wether you like it or not, it is seen for many pro-choice people AS a choice between the future for humanity, and a fetus that does not even know it exists. Pro-life and Pro-choice care about human life as much as each other.

They just have a different mechanism to achieve a similar goal.

I invite the people making those accusations to join your local Right-to-Life committee and see how much work we do for young mothers and their children, both before and after they are born.

The problem is, there are more people that need help, than those that can help. I commend those that do help, but it doesn’t mean they are viewing life holistically.

“lLife” is more than the sum of it’s parts, and human life is just a part of the big picture, not the “end” or “Point” of life itself. By bringing too many humans into the world, humans that consume to survive, we aren’t respecting LIFE, we are only respecting human life.

And by ignoring the life(plants and other animals) that we destroy through too many humans, ultimately affects humans. It’s very big picture, but at the end of the day, if you respect human life, you won’t try to create it just because you can, but only because you want to, and because you have the capacity to care for it. Since we do not have the capacity, stop doing it.

I would suggest that humans need to grow up a bit, and realize that we can’t have everything we want, including 6 kids each.

I challenge those who attack pro-life Catholics to help us fund Catholic schools, to give those poor children an alternative to the failed Public School system.

Perhaps the public school system failed, because people thought that buying an education would help solve the problem.

The more parents that choose to “pay” for an education, the less those parents are involved in a schooling system that is desperately needed by all.

This has nothing to do with catholicism. It’s laziness. Parents want to “pay” for discipline, rather than being involved in the great responsiblity toward education that we have toward the greater community.

Private schooling is not an answer to shodding public schooling, its an act of disrespect toward education for all. I will never support it.

Then let us address the issue of world hunger. There are many Christian charities working on world hunger – and putting a lot of money and effort into it.

Then why are more and more people starving? Regardless of how much work “christians” are putting into the system, they refuse to recognize that the system is breaking down DUE to human population in certain regions.

Not because of a lack of effort.

But the real cause of world hunger is government – corrupt and often brutal dictatorships that all too often use hunger and tribal warfare as weapons. To solve world hunger, we must overthrow those dictatorships, replace those corrupt govenments.

Anybody got any ideas about how we do that?

We can’t over throw them.

We need to live and support sustainable living locally, instead of focussing on the global system we utilize. IE, if we NEED something from a dictator, we will STILL buy it today. Most of the people in this forum will buy products that are made in countries that violate human rights.

Stop feeding them the $$ and they will have to do something about it, to survive. Looking in our own back door(IE for me Australia) is a good start. But then again, it’s so much “cheaper” to buy indonesian palm oil, than it is to buy something organic and sustainable.

What I’M sick of, is people claming they are trying when they won’t give up the very things causing the problem. The amount of humans they bring into this world, and what they consume.

Easier to blame everyone else…such GREED and CORRUPTION in the world…golly gosh.

 

[Bennie_P]

Go ahead and search these forums for “abortion”. Then do another search for “poverty” or “hunger”. How many threads do you find on poverty or hunger? How many do you find on abortion? The results of such a search speak for themselves.

I am not arguing about the morality of abortion. I am simply saying that poverty and hunger are just as important. I suppose it’s easier to be against abortion…it doesn’t cost you any $$ to speak against abortion. Addressing the problems of poverty and hunger might actually require that we all make a real sacrifice…the rich might even have to give up their tax cut (gasp!).

Did you ever think, the things that debated the most is were people are diametric oppossite in belief. It is kinda hard to debate the starving poor when most support in doing things to prevent it, :doh2:
How many people do you know that supports killing babies by denying them food?

Now if you want to complain about world hunger, ask the question why are we raisng food to burn in cars, when we have this problem of world hunger?

Of course there are those that belive we have such a problem with world hunger because people in the third world have too many babies. Do you promote the idea of decreasing the third world population in order to decrease the hunger and starvation within the third world? For many in the pro-abortion movement that is one of their reasons for promoting the killing of the unborn, that is to control the population and prevent starvation. An unacceptable solution by pro-lifers. So the question is, is starvation the problem? or is the peole of the third world? or maybe the elistist thinking of the pro-abortion promoters?