In many situations I'm hesitant to use the term "pro-life," as for a lot of people it really means nothing more than "anti-abortion." To be pro-life should mean doing all that one can to protect life from the womb to the death bed. It should mean the rejection of killing as a method of solving problems.
Using the word in that sense, I am among the pro-lifers who favored Obama's election and watched with gratitude his fine speech at Grant Park in Chicago after McCain conceded defeat. (Here in Holland watching this live meant being awake a 5 a.m., which I was thanks to a toothache.) My happiness was not naive. I know about Obama's pro-choice position and his plans to greatly increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. I fully expect in the coming years that I will passionately disagree with many things the Obama administration does. On the other hand, I expect a presidency that will do more community building, care more about the poor, strengthen relations with allies, listen more carefully to cautions and criticisms, and not engage in a "shoot first, ask questions later" foreign policy.
Jim Forest lives in Alkmaar, Holland, and is co-secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship. Read more on his On Pilgrimage blog.
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