I understand that CatholicVote.org is trying to get it’s pro-life ad broadcast during the Super Bowl.
I think they are looking for donations.
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ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
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The video is compelling…but, it unnecessarily furthers the anti-father agenda of prevailing anti-abortion efforts.
It apparently speaks about an actual past happening–Obama’s desertion by his father–but the video couches that message in present-tense language, and gives me a clear message that most aborted children are probably abandoned by their fathers, while the mothers attempt, sucessfully or unsucessfully, to struggle through life as single, heroic mothers.
As much as that may be a real situation for some, fathers of aborted children are given no voice, no choice, about cherishing their own child. Men are outside the decision in every meaningful way; which is wrong.
So, I won’t donate to this particular ad drive, as it promotes a false and injurious perception of all fathers, (including our Father in Heaven?). How can one be anti-father and pro-God?
I also believe that Catholics Come Home is running an ad during the super bowl.
http://www.catholicscomehome.org/
This is a difficult call. When there are only a few efforts going, and some have inadvertently passed a wrong message along with the right one, what is a good Catholic to do?
very tough call this one
still, I went and watched it again, I think the over-all point comes across well. So in spite of the weaknesses I think for me it is worth supporting.
The value of the human person is not in their circumstances but their choices and to have choices and a future one must first have LIFE.
It is rather too bad that the president is not pro-life.
The current economic situation must have caused a HUGE drop in the cost per second for super bowl ads for them to even consider it. For reasons stated in another post I think the video sends mixed messages. I would financially support it except for the fact that the “survivor” is the chief executive of death. Had they picked someone of greater moral character I would support it.
The point isn’t, “Look! Obama is a great man and he wasn’t aborted!” It’s that Obama is someone that can hardly be in more opposition to the Catholic Church, yet we still are glad he’s alive. Being pro-life isn’t just about saving innocent lives of babies, it’s about cherishing all human life, even those people who are under the influence of evil. It’s a good message and it will connect well with those who are Obama fanboys.
Actually, I think it\’s a unique way of using the culture\’s own messiah against them…
The way that I understand it, the circumstances don\’t matter…the opportunity to overcome the circumstances can only happen if that person\’s given life.
I don’t have much but I donated !
The best spent money you will ever spend.
It will take $2.5 million to get it on the national broadcast. Less obviously in spot markets in local “B quality” breaks. And that’s assuming NBC gives them a deal.
I wish it just said “this child….will become….the President of the United States”, and didn’t say “1st African American”, but overall, a great ad.
Go Stillers!!1!
The problem I have with the message – and I don’t at all doubt the good intentions of the makers – is that it seems to be based on the premise that abortion is wrong because hey, we may be aborting a future successful human being. I’ve heard that argument before that we may be denying the world a future Mozart, or Newton, via abortion.
That’s not why abortion is wrong. All life is sacred, whether they have the potential for greatness in the convetional sense or not. The child living in the slums of Calcutta has a life as worthy of our protection as that of Mother Theresa. The murder of an unborn child is as wrong as the murder of the President of the USA or the murder of a gang criminal in inner city DC. They’re all equally wrong.
Both Ed and Justin have compelling points. While it is good to have anit-abortion ads in front of the American public, this one does have a troubling slant. It is true that in the U.S. men have NO LEGAL RIGHT to have children. This is a tragedy in and of itself. And while it is also true that potential fame, intelligence – even genius-, great life of service, etc. of all unborn children are quite good arguments against abortion, these argumetns fall short of the essential point that ALL life is valuable: the lives of the poor, rich, comfortable, oppressed, unsuccessful, successful, saintly, sinful – even gravely sinful – are sacred. I think that, unfortunately, these two points might be lost on much of the audience: first, that men and women together are the cogenitors of life along with the Divine Sanction and second, that every single life thus produced is a holy thing. Perhaps I am asking for too much sophistication here, but it seems to me that making the advertisement so specific lends itself to too much misinterpretation. On the other hand, the irony of the ad is — from my literary critic’s point of view — nicely subtle. So perhaps the enigmas raised by the ad will touch a conscience or two…
The genius of this ad is that it turns the tables on the “enlightened” people, who voted for Obama and, the large majority of whom, also support legalized abortion.
If you want to reach people today you have to be willing to be a little uncoventional. The average pro-choice person is simply not going to respond to the same pro-life arguments and cliches that he/she has heard again and again. There has to be something clever enough to stop them in their tracks and say, whoa, I’ve never thought about that.
This ad does that, and does it with wonderful success.
How can one be anti-father and pro-God?
Because one knows the difference between God our merciful, ever-loving Father and the fallen, sinful nature of men who are fathers on earth.
I agree with you that abortion laws give no rights to a father who wants his child when the woman wants an abortion. They are left with no recourse whatsoever to save their child’s life and it has deep, lasting consequences for him. However, one of the biggest problems with abortion is that something in the area of 60-70% of women are forced or coerced into having an abortion, usually by the baby’s father (be he a boyfriend or husband).
Abortion gives some men, who are self-centered and selfish, an easy “out” from fatherhood. And it leaves lots of women forever damaged and their children dead. That needs to be addressed because it is a horrible abuse of women and should be addressed in the public sphere by the supposed champions of women (feminists, pro-aborts, Democrats) who always warn against the dangers of being trapped by the “abusive” institution of marriage or getting involved with men (the whole “Women need men like fish need bicycles” claptrap), but look the other way when women who DON’T WANT abortions are forced to have them by men who won’t commit (because marriage is terrible, and all that).
Denis – “perhaps the enigmas raised by the ad will touch a conscience or two…”
I appreciate your point, yet can’t get around my own. The “spot” unnecessarily challenges/refutes Catholic teaching on family. It is a common “strategy” in anti-abortion drives, one without any merit from a Catholic, i.e. Christ-mandated, perspective.
The imbedded slant, which others have noticed, is also completely unnecessary; alternatives that uphold Catholic teaching on the family aren’t hard to imagine, and wouldn’t be any more costly to produce.
If the spot airs, if a conscience or two (or thousands) is stirred, very, very good. But the offered compromise implies that a better option wasn’t “realistic,” and that is plainly false. Whatever the agenda that selected the script for this ad, the glaring slant points to an authorship not centered in Love. In a long run, I believe that such misdirections hurt the anti-abortion effort; how can Christ bring His best, if we won’t stand in His Truth?
According to Lifesite (http://www.lifenews.com/nat4801.html), NBC has refused to run the ad
Michael J: American Papist is reporting the same thing.
The refusal could be a good thing. It could propel enough buzz about the add that they get the same viewership without spending a dime.
I see what people are saying about the possibility of the “father isn’t needed” message – but if they were showing a complete nuclear family, it wouldn’t get the point across that, “hard case” or not, positive situation or not, each child deserves a chance. We aren’t doomed just because of negative starting circumstances, but that is what people always drag out to “prove” that fetus X shouldn’t see the light of day. The ad doesn’t deny the need for a father (actually it is saying that, yes, that is a real hardship), only the idea that a less-than-ideal situation is a good reason for someone to die. And they chose a subject for the ad that will resonate with the intended audience. We’ve all heard the examples about aborting the “hard cases” of Jesus and Beethoven and such, but most of the BET audience (which is where this ad was running during the inauguration) won’t care too much about “old dead white guy” examples like Beethoven… it’s now that matters and this ad is very ‘now.’
I didn’t get from the video that we are should to oppose abortion simply
because of potential celebrity or fame. I got that we should oppose
abortion because every baby no matter the circumstances in which is born
has great potential period.
I am always shocked at how splinter the pro-life movement is and hostile
against other pro-life efforts. I see prolifers constantly attacking other
pro-life each other for not being perfect in the message or efforts. The
success of the pro-abortion movement has been their willingness to get their
message out in any form in other to imbed themselves in the fabric of our
country. They support each other even though some groups are supposedly
more “moderate” on the abortion issue. A house divide can not stand.
Maybe you don’t agree with 100% how the message is “spun” for the TV viewers.
Remember most people watching TV are not going to thinking as deeply about
thisas you folkd have. However it is a step in changing hearts and minds.
It is already gotten the topic of pro-life on the table in several venues
that rare speak about it.