By Judie Brown
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the “virtue of religion.” Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor.
Keeping this in mind, we are astounded by the recent actions of Jackson County Missouri circuit court judge Jerri Zhang, who recently struck down “several abortion-specific statutes” because they violate the recently approved Amendment 3. This state constitutional amendment protects a right to “reproductive freedom,” which permits abortion by any means, including medication abortion.
What is stunning about this judge’s decision is not the undergirding premise that abortion is protected by law but the ongoing hutzpah of those like her who refuse to acknowledge basic scientific evidence concerning the biological development of the human being. We appear to be living in an era awash with the white noise of abortion proponents—a situation that robs many of their ability to think rationally.
Justice cannot exist in an amoral atmosphere. This is so because in such a state, commonly known as a secular humanist haven, there is no God, there are only individuals who believe that they are gods who are responsible for their own behaviors without constraint or moral guidance. In other words, chaos.
Some of us saw this coming as early as the 1960s when Supreme Court justices got involved in the availability of contraception for married couples. Known as the Griswold v. Connecticut case, this decision paved the way for abortion on demand. The contradictions that one can perceive between the “Supreme” Court and our Supreme God are obvious, at least to some of us. Other human beings, those who have a penchant for sins against God, not only demand them but seek judicial approval of them.
Professor Charles Rice, one of the earliest pro-life legal scholars that I had the good fortune to know, once wrote, “And when we look at the culture, that you people are going in to, it’s a culture in which the intentional infliction of death upon the innocent is widely regarded as an optional problem-solving technique. Columbine set a precedent. If you don’t like your schoolmates, fellow employees or IRS agents, you blow them away. Abortion is the classic example of the execution of the innocent as a problem-solving technique.”
Rice’s closing words in the article referenced above mean more at this moment in history than ever before:
Nineveh repented, prayed and was spared. Sodom and Gomorrah did not and were destroyed. Those options could be ours.
If we were looking at this whole thing in merely human terms, we would have to say our cause is hopeless. But we don’t do that. We don’t rely on our own strength. And we don’t know everything.
St. Maximilian Kolbe said – and listen don’t be discouraged when bad things happen. As Maximilian Kolbe said “God permits everything in view of a greater blessing.”
So we are in a great time. It’s a great time to be coming out of this great college. We are in the winning side, we know that. We trust God.
God is not dead. He isn’t even tired.
In God’s time, and through His justice, all the evils we face today will be clarified, dealt with, and resolved. Rice knew this, and so must we. Judging without justice will not be the last word!