MJS Follow Up

Patrick McIlheran from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has comments on his blog this week about the positive response he has received from his Sunday column on 40 Days for Life.

Heavens: I write with some sympathy about why people would stand outside an abortion place even in the middle of the night -- and I get overwhelmed with email.

A number of people who lauded me said it must have taken courage, the daily press not being particularly sympathetic to their cause. Well, no: My boss wants me to write stuff he disagrees with. It's in the job description. So I don't need any credit for that.

Especially since -- and this is by actual count -- the email was running 4-73 in favor of the column. I mention this only because I have never gotten 73 emails on anything I've written before, much less 73 emails -- the great majority from women, by the way -- liking it. People don't often bother to write unless they're ticked off.

Or insanely grateful. That's the other theme running through these emails: All sorts of people, many of them taking part in other 40 Days vigils around the country, saying thanks for not kicking them in the teeth. "So often," writes one woman, "people standing for life are portrayed as religious fanatics, extremists, woman-haters, violent, and screaming maniacs. ... Most people who give up their time to stand outside of an abortion clinic are peaceful, prayerful, concerned, heartbroken people." Others said they felt grateful just to hear their views presented, as one said, "without caveats."

Which is how you get, I guess, when you find yourself showing up in pop culture only as a standard bad-guy caricature. I've seen "Law and Order" maybe twice. Both times, it turns out, the bad guy was some spiral-eyed nut-case pro-lifer trying to blow up women. Or maybe it was any of a dozen other shows on which the label "pro-life" is presumed to be a cruel hypocrisy. Pro-lifers' relationship with the news and entertainment media seems to have degenerated to something like an abused spouse -- they flinch at the approach of a camera or a reporter.

So it was cheap grace on my part. All I had to do was listen to them, hear what they were saying, and I got emails like the one from a Mr. M'Mwirichia in Michigan, who wrote, "It's been a blessing praying in the cold, sometimes wet conditions and muscling through a fatigued work day is a small sacrifice compared to what is going on in that building. Thank you for your piece and may the work of your hands continue to be blessed."

It's a pretty cool job when you get to do things that lead people to bless you. I'm humbled.

Hey, as pro-lifers, I think it is okay to laugh at ourselves from time to time. Yes, it is tough being pro-life sometimes, as the media portrays us as being either anti-woman bigots, mentally disturbed persons, hypocrites, or any other number of false labels. But it is reassuring there are people like McIleran out there, may God Bless him, even if he thinks his column was not that important.