"Abortion -- it is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

Even if you were raped. Even if your pro-choice doctor claims you will die if you give birth to this child (which is bull, by the way -- I worked in labor and delivery for nine months doing clerical stuff and I learned enough to know that delivery is a fabulous cure for pre-eclampsia, and putting the child in the NICU gives him/her a much better chance of survival than abortion ever will). Even if you are 15 years old -- meaning you cannot lawfully drop out of high school yet -- and it is physically impossible to parent a child at this time in your life and still maintain your sanity (helloooo, adoption!).

You might take a guess that this quote may have been said by someone like Michelle Duggar, a woman who loves children very much -- so much, in fact, that she has nineteen of her own -- and easily finds a way to keep her entire family afloat with the help of her husband, Jim Bob. Or maybe it's by Sarah Palin, a die-hard conservative pro-lifer who is swimming in cash so that she may live as she wishes. If not one of those two, it must be somebody who said this a hundred years ago, before abortion was such a fundamental component of women's rights, before it was so necessary as it is today, with all the rapists and pregnant teenagers in this country.

Nope. Mother Teresa.

Wait a second, you've got to be kidding. You mean Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Catholic nun who took the vow of poverty; the woman of God who dedicated her life to serve the "poorest of the poor;" who for more than half of her life wore nothing other than a white, blue-bordered sari and a flimsy pair of sandals? You're talking about Mother Teresa, the missionary in Calcutta who visited families, washed the sores of children, and cared for the sick and dying on the sides of the roads? The one who accepted all awards presented to her not with pride, but "for the glory of God and in the name of the poor"? Yep, that's the one.

I've never met the woman, but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say she knew a thing or two about poverty. She chose to live in the deepest poverty, and took great joy in doing so. In my book, she's the second most selfless person ever to have lived (Jesus being the first), and her deepest desire throughout her years was always, "more of You, less of me." She didn't play around with poverty -- going on short term mission trips here and there yet on them residing in places with far more amenities than the people she was serving had, glad to go home after two weeks because, "it was amazing, but I just can't stand being there that long" -- No. She made her home among the poorest of the poor, pouring out love to those who had none, to those who had no money, no food, no care, no protection. And she was blessed by it.

The average cost of an abortion is $550 dollars. $362.3 million dollars of our tax money in America goes to fund it each year. Yet the mother to the poor called it poverty, and categorized women affording and retrieving an abortion in the same group as her children of the slums.

I think there's definitely something to be said about that, and not just, "Oh, that's a nice quote. Mother Teresa was a really cool lady." The saint certainly had a way with words, and when discussing abortion she had the opportunity to describe the crime with other words such as "evil," "murder," "wrong," or "inhumane." But she chose "poverty." Merriam-Webster's definition of the word includes "scarcity, dearth; debility due to malnutrition; lack of fertility." (Pretty ironic for the last one, huh?) So the question is, what are these women lacking? What is it that the wise nun decided they were malnourished of, infertile of?

Well, maybe -- and this is just a thought -- they have not conceived love. Maybe they are haven't been nourished with a true understanding of the value of life and the value of intimacy, which could be fed to them by -- you guessed it -- love. Maybe, just maybe, they are lacking Jesus. (And by the way, He IS love.)

So right now as I lay in this bed, on my laptop, with the AC and two fans keeping me cool, with my good health and expensive yoga pants, with loads of diet coke downstairs (side distraction: today when I was saying grace before dinner, I literally thanked God for diet coke... my mom laughed at me), as I look back on Mother Teresa of Calcutta's life and words of wisdom, I am humbled by the incredible truth of God's message to us... that it all comes down to love.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." ~1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I declare and protest life outside every Planned Parenthood in the country, but have not love, I am only another annoying conservative. If I educate young women about sex and reproduction, and if I write powerful pro-life articles, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all my money to pro-life organizations and die for the cause, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Note: I originally wrote this for my pro-life blog, but since it is brand new and is not yet completely set up, I also posted it here so it may get more exposure.

I have a dream.

In the early 1950's, America was living in a period of deep racial injustice. Integration and equal rights for blacks was unheard of across the nation. Children were brought up to believe that citizens of color were far lesser beings than whites, and most did not question it. Since life in this part of the world had been this way since the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the severe prejudice was not seen as cruel or unusual to the majority of the population. It was the norm of that day, and no one saw a need to do anything about it.

And then Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came along, and he stirred things up a bit. He, along with Rosa Parks and other colored citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, organized and led the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He also joined with Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth in establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which sought to demolish racial injustice with nonviolence and civil disobedience. As he continually pushed for integration in public schools, repeatedly failed, and was put in jail during anti-segregation protests, he never gave up, refusing to cease his fight for the important cause of civil rights, no matter how hopeless it seemed. Hate crimes against the Negros worsened and increased in frequency, so Dr. King strengthened his political acts and protests that much more.

On August 28, 1963, 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to hear King's famous and forever known "I Have a Dream" speech. The speech sparked both great exultation and disapproving fracas alike towards the man. Five years later, our nation's leader of the civil rights movement was assassinated by James Earl Ray, carrying the hope of freedom among all peoples right along with him to eternal glory.

I love Martin Luther King Jr. very much, and I'm looking forward to meeting him in heaven. He was a man of amazing faith, integrity, perseverance, and courage. I can only imagine what my life would be like today without him, even as a white girl. I would not be permitted to even speak to the girl who is now my best friend, because she is black. My heart would be filled with hatred towards my brothers and sisters of color because I would have been raised to believe that they are worthless. I cannot imagine my mother, a beautiful Christian woman who truly treats each of God's creatures as just that and is strongly against prejudice of any kind, instilling that belief into my mind. But if it were not for my good pal Martin, this would not be my mother's fault or even my grandmother's, but rather the fault of those who began the passing down of that ugly and cruel lie many years ago.

Today I can say without a doubt that Dr. King is happy. Not only is he in the presence of the Lord, but he also has the blessed opportunity to see all of his hard work pay off here on earth. Racism definitely still exists, but when looking back on his renowned speech it is easily agreeable that many of his dreams have been fulfilled or nearly fulfilled. Racial injustice was a battle that many likely thought would never be won, but today I know I live in a country where the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners are able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood, people, for the most part, are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, and little black boys and black girls are able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

We are living in different times now. Racial injustice is not near as big a problem as it was in the 50's and 60's, but another form of injustice has been on the rise for the past 38 years. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, a vicious genocide is sweeping our nation, and it is called abortion. In 2008 alone, 1.21 million homicides of unborn children were committed in America - that's 3,315 a day, 276 an hour (going on a 12-hour shift), 4 a minute (each time my synchro team skates our program once through, 10 American children have their life stolen) - and not one murderer has been charged or convicted. Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion chain aka slaughterhouse, currently receives $362.3 million dollars of our tax money each year. There is abundant evidence both scientifically and biblically that a baby is a human being from the moment of conception. But still this continues, rarely mentioned among the mainstream population, stirring heated controversy as to whether or not this crime can be considered health care.

And I woke up this morning worried about my finals.

I recall Dr. King's legacy and am deeply inspired by his boldness, determination, and martyrdom. I learn in history class about the way blacks were treated at this time and I am appalled to hear that millions of human beings were accepting of this discrimination, and would even fight for it. Then I realize that the same thing is going on right now. And I am twice as appalled when I see videos like this one. I think the battle this world is constantly waging is pretty obvious. "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14)." In Dr. King's time, that truth manifested itself as discrimination masquerading itself as a "separate but equal" policy. Now, abortion is masquerading itself as health care, a woman's right to choose what she does with "her" body (Since when have a mother and her child shared the same body?).

I'll touch on the subject of women's rights: I am a woman, and darn proud of it. I believe that I am called to clothe myself with strength and dignity for the very reason that I am a woman. (My favorite woman alive is Gianna Jessen, a strong and dignified activist for women's rights and life.) As a young Christian woman who has never had sex or an unintended pregnancy but understands in full what it's like to be a woman, what it's like to have to make huge sacrifices to give birth to a child that may be an inconvenience at the time, especially how hard it is to do so when you were raped, this is not your fault and this is your rapist's child, and what it's like to live in the world today, who loves being a woman and thinks women are valuable and precious and deserve equal rights just as everyone else but is not a feminist, who is considered to be quite motherly even as a teenager and believes motherhood is the most glorious thing a woman can do, I believe with all my heart that abortion has nothing to do with women's rights. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

So I want to be the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of the pro-life movement. I want to fight by nonviolence until I die for it, all the while hoping and dreaming of a day when this kind of injustice no longer exists, when the next generation learns about this time in history and is appalled that it ever occured.

As the Reverend said, "Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

I have a dream that one day on the sunny shores of Florida, a mother who battled uncertainty and turmoil when she was pregnant with her rapist's child will be able to sit down with her beautiful son and truly love him, with no regrets of her decision to keep him, making sure he knows that it is not his fault he is the product of a rapist and should not have to suffer the consequences.

I have a dream that one day even the state of California, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, with the highest rate of prenatal murders nationwide, will be transformed into an oasis of life and love.

I have a dream that my future children will one day live in a nation where abortion is unheard of, where people understand the value of intimacy and human life as God created it to be.

I have a dream today!

"I have a dream today that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; 'and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.'"