Pro Life Summer Reading List

 

It is that time of the year where we all go to the beach, the mountains, take a flight to another city, picnic in the middle of nowhere, and going where the roads will lead us.

I have put together a top 10 (plus a few honorable mentions) pro life summer reading list that can help keep promoting and learning from many pro-life heroes of the past while also polishing up on pro-life dialogue and also learning how to defend life form the moment conception until natural death.

1) Persuasive Pro-Life Trent Horn

Published in 2014 and using first hand experience during campus visits, CatholicAnswers.com's own Trent Horn shares first hand some of the dos and don'ts in engaging and challenging pro-choicers' viewpoints.

2) Unplanned Abby Johnson

Once a rising star for Planned Parenthood, Abby Johnson saw firsthand a defenseless life being killed by an ultrasound guided abortion in 2009. She recalled the times she saw volunteers for 40 Days for Life pray in front of her work at Bryan, TX. It would soon lead her to be a pro life advocate and a Catholic convert.

3) Single Candles Brendan Lyons

West Chester, PA native Brendan Lyons writes  a series of narratives form a chain of events that link several characters, all of whom demonstrate compassion and bravery in their commitment to the sanctity of life. In one piece, a senator defies his own political party; in another, a neonatal surgeon is asked to compromise her principles. Although the stories are fictional, the passion that informs the characters’ conviction is very real.

4) Rising with Roses Monique Ruberu

Dr. Monique Ruberu thought she was pro-life until she realized that she was prescribing birth control. Because of the help of many pro-lifers in Philadelphia, she reverted back to her Catholic faith and now promotes Natural Family Planning.

5) A Voice for Victoria: A memoir of healing from post-abortion trauma- Geraldine F Jacobs

A Voice for Victoria shares the author's journey toward understanding how childhood messages and current events played a part in her abortion decision and path to healing from post-abortion trauma through God’s forgiveness.

6) The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Neil Gorsuch

Neil Gorsuch thoroughly assesses the strengths and weaknesses of leading contemporary ethical arguments for assisted suicide and euthanasia. He would argue against the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicie while using Netherlands and Oregon as prime examples. 

7) Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo

This anti-war novel, written in 1938, shares how a WWI solider who wakes up from his hospital bed with no limbs and half destroyed face. After his wishes of showing the country of the horrors of wars, he reflects on the realities and myths of war.

8) All Quiet on the Western Front-  Erich Maria Remarque

A German veteran of WW1 recounts the physical and mental stress while fighting in the war. It also shares  how detach from civilian life they were following the war's end. 

9) Racketeer For Life Joe Scheidler

A former monk recalls his early involvement in the pro-life movement. He has debated media personalities, politicians, abortion workers, and even fought the culture of death at the Supreme Court.

10) Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer- Ann McElhinney

Ann McElhinney details everything that happen inside of Kermit Gosnell's house of horrors in the Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Even advocates on both sides were horrified at the heinous committed by the most notorious serial killer of the abortion industry.

Honorable mention:

Love Unleashes Life Stephanie Gray

Stephanie offers a fresh approach to abortion dialogue. This time reaching the heart and minds of abortion minded people.

You Carried Me: A Daughter's Memoir Melissa Ohden

Melissa Ohden shares first hand how she survived a saline abortion attempt. Learning at the age of fourteen, she went on a journey to search for her biological parents. She would soon have a change of heart.

Bernard Nathanson

Aborting America- shares how he changed his views on abortion.

The Hand of God- Dr. Nathanson hared how he found God and began promoting life after performing 61,000 abortions, including his own son.

40 Days for Life- David Bereit

Started as a small group outside of the Planned Parenthood in Bryan, TX, this life-changing endeavor recalls how it has converted workers, changed hearts, and shut the doors of abortion facilities with prayer, love, and fasting.

Humanae Vitae- Pope Paul VI

Written in 1968 and celebrating 50 years, the encyclical Humanae Vitae is an eye-opening read written by Pope Paul VI as he foretells the repercussions of a society that accepts sexual promiscuity, abortion on-demand, and artificial birth control.

Hard list to put together, for sure. However, there are many pro life books to read such as any written by Scott Klusendorf, Ron Paul, Fr. Frank Pavone, Janet Morena, Janet Smithand so many more. 

Politics and the Pulpit: The Vague and Shaky Johnson Amendment

By Father Frank Pavone, National Director
Priests for Life

In 1954, when Congress was amending the tax code, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas rose one day to add an amendment, in the form of a restriction to Section 501(c)(3). The amendment provided that an entity would be considered tax exempt under this section only if it were one "which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”

Why did Johnson do this? He had won election to his Senate seat six years earlier by a margin of only 87 votes, and that the validity of the election itself was suspicious. He was now up for re-election, and was expected to win against his opponent, Dudley Dougherty. But two secular, nonprofit organizations, Facts Forum and Committee for Constitutional Government got behind Dougherty in the race, and supported him on an increasingly popular anti-Communism platform. Johnson made inquiries with the IRS Commissioner to determine whether these organizations were breaking any law by their political involvement, but was told they were not. It was in this context that he introduced the amendment, which would take away their ability to take sides in the election.

When Johnson offered the amendment, there were no discussions, hearings, debates, considerations of its Constitutional basis, nor even any discussion about whether it applied to Churches. In fact, as Erik W. Stanley points out (1), Johnson's chief aide in 1954, George Reedy, maintained that "Johnson would never have sought restrictions on religious organizations." The amendment was taken into committee and was adopted as the House and Senate versions of the tax reform were being reconciled.

And that seems to be the long and short of it -- an amendment, as Stanley says, that "appears to be nothing more than an attempt by a powerful senator to silence political opponents that he feared were hurting his chances for re-election."

It should be noted that in 1987, the words "in opposition to" were added to this amendment, so that it now reads "any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office." Believe it or not, that addition also was motivated by the self-interest of other politicians seeking to silence nonprofit organizations.

Such is the history of the Johnson Amendment, which is still law today, and quoted often by dioceses in their official memos to parishes. Yet the history of the interpretation, application, and enforcement of this law has been so vague, confused, and inconsistent, that even the Congressional Research Service has concluded, “The line between what is prohibited and what is permitted can be difficult to discern.”(2)

We will examine how absurdly vague it is as we continue this series.

(1) Stanley, Erik W., LBJ, The IRS, and Churches: The Unconstitutionality of the Johnson Amendment in Light of Recent Supreme Court Precedent, Regent University Law Review, Volume 24, 2011-2012, Number 2.
(2) (Erika Lunder & l. Paige Whitaker, Cong. Research Serv., rl 34447, Churches and Campaign Activity: Analysis Under Tax and Campaign Finance Laws 2 (2008)).