The power of grass roots movements…

My husband and I had the opportunity to attend the Texas Alliance for Life banquet Tuesday evening, where we heard Lila Rose speak about her first experience with abortion at the tender age of nine and how that shaped her youth-led program, Live Action, in her teens. The enthusiasm she recalled as they all sat around in her living room was invigorating. They had the zeal and fervor that most of us experience when we are newly passionate about a cause that hits close to home.

Several things she mentioned spoke to me in a way that was not particularly “pro-life,” as in the “movement,” but rather emphasized how we should approach others about the Faith.

Years ago, in my online community {if you’ve ever participated in an online community, you will know what I mean} we encountered the same questions month after month, year after year. While I would never discourage someone to ask basic questions about the Faith, the fact that they kept repeating the same questions, despite “sticky FAQs” at the top of the forum, made me think about the “why” behind the questions. I mean, certainly there is something much more meaningful about someone who will personally answer your question about baptism if you are, say, the eleventy billionth person to ask about it. We all crave a connection to someone else that even an FAQ can’t provide.

People constantly asked questions about that which they had sincere curiosity or concern…and it tugged at my heart and my head. I would often joke “we need a grassroots movement to educate Catholics on birth control and the importance of baptism and the truth of divorce and remarriage in the Church, etc.”

There was genuine concern in my kidding. It was an identified need, but the question of “how” always got in the way. I’ve always felt like the majority of Catholics are well-meaning, but truly uneducated in what the Church actually teaches, leading to the epidemic mindset that is more cultural than Truth filled. I know because I was once there. I empathize.

When I first found my way digging around the internet over ten years ago, I have to admit {while dating myself in the process} was nothing like it is today. You kids ::said with wagging finger and britches up to my armpits:: – you kids have it good today! You can easily google or use Bing or what-have-you and find websites that are credible, orthodox, and solidly Catholic. Even with my limited understanding of the Faith, I still knew certain websites that touted women’s ordination or Catholics who advocated abortion through the verbiage “pro-choice” were wrong…even if I didn’t know exactly why. There was so much to filter through that it was very discouraging. This is, in large part, how I ended up on one of the largest parenting websites, and eventually into the Catholic forum where I forged many of my existing friendships. The board at the time was relatively unorthodox, but still there were some who were staunch in their faith. I was one of many eager to learn, stubborn at times, scratching my head through it all. There were many of us who were very wobbly – and because of these women who defended the Faith in a public forum, they gave us the information we needed, the courage to live it out, and a wonderful forum that encouraged and nurtured our need to be fed. It was because of this that the board shifted from an overall tone of dissent to striving for orthodoxy. We were more determined to put our own flawed opinions aside and focus on getting the Truth. We reasoned that there were plenty of online communities that promote dissidence – we would not be that place.

The years marched on and as those online friendships were solidified by time and constant faith-filled communication, God began to pave the way for that grassroots movement that I had long-since forgotten. In fact, it hit me like a ton of bricks last week that while I was busy doing what I love best – evangelizing – God had put several things in place to help me achieve that goal!

I have a particular affection for one of the ladies in my group. I think we all feel this way about her, come to think of it. You see, Erika was one of the many gals we lifted up in prayer through a difficult patch. Her patch was her diagnosis of breast cancer at age 28. She was the fifth generation of women in her family to get the “lady cancer.” Except it wasn’t a clean diagnosis…she was also 20 weeks pregnant. This meant that her faith in God would be put to the test. Not in a bad way, however. This would be a test of endurance to search for doctors who were willing to treat her without advising she abort. As if the diagnosis for breast cancer weren’t emotionally rattling enough, she would have to champion for the life of her unborn child as well.

Two years after her diagnosis, her little girl will be two next month – healthy and happy as can be. You can read more about Erika’s story as it relates to breast cancer awareness as well as her personal story.

My point in sharing this is in a new website endeavor of mine. Erika is one of over 40 contributors with Catholic Sistas. As we brainstormed our Respect Life articles and threw around topics and ideas, it became clear to me that we needed to create awareness on different levels. It’s one thing to tell people about Church teaching. But we also agreed as a team of women that we needed a symbol to highlight what we believe as Catholics. We scoured the internet for something that had an overtly Catholic pro-life feel to it. We could find none. We tossed around ideas of what a new symbol would look like. Erika took it and ran with it in what can only be described as a providential design. I immediately took it to a family friend who is a graphic designer. He took her vision and turned it into a graphic that is both Catholic and pro-life {I realize this sounds somewhat redundant to some…or most who are well-catechized}.

I am proud that the design came from someone who has not only survived breast cancer, but who made it through chemo treatments while being pregnant and delivered a healthy baby girl. While she still faces a lot of medical hurdles, she remains positive through it all.

We launched the new symbol last week on Catholic Sistas and the response was far reaching. You may have seen friends with this picture on Facebook or linking up to it on blogs such as Sara Reinhard’s Snoring Scholar.

It’s hard to believe all those years ago I had a vision that is now being fulfilled under my very nose. God is quite the funny fella. Proof that He doesn’t answer prayers in our time, but rather His. And His time is infinitely better than I could possibly imagine. We are truly in a golden age of taking social media and going grassroots in many different ways. Each blog or mission on the internet will reach different groups of people and that is GREAT! That’s what we want! We need the diversity in how the Good News is transmitted because it is a reflection that we are, truly, different parts of One Body.

As long as the goal is to bring others to Christ and we are all properly centered and grounded in that mission, God will use us to do His work.

I have no doubt about that anymore. None, whatsoever.