Budziszewski Audio: Bearing Witness

Jay Budziszewski's three talks from the Humanitas Project's conference last month are available as audio downloads here. His stories of what women who have had abortions really think and know to be true are quite revealing, and at one point (in his third talk, I believe) he suggests that it might be effective to address publicly "those who have had abortions" with an encouragement to turn their tears and pain into something with meaning for others by working to help others avoid what they went through. Few women truly celebrate abortion; one group of women, he relates, wouldn't say at the outset that abortion was wrong, but after they got talking, nearly all confided they would never want to have another abortion, and there was clearly pain underneath, coming to the surface. That it is the taking of a human life is, to use words from Jay's book title, something that they can't not know. Someday, perhaps, God willing, it will become acceptable to openly speak about the pain and wrongness of abortion. But the talks are more than about abortion--it's one example of moral issues and views we encounter often.

Comments

[Diane]

I too was privileged to hear Dr. Budziszewski's talks. I particularly appreciated his wise and ever-eloquent counsel regarding how to deal with "the dark night of the culture." His points were as follows:
-- Do something.
-- Don't exaggerate your cross.
-- Don't belittle your cross.
-- Remember God's reassurances.
-- Your job is to do right; God's job is to make things right.
-- God has not promised us America. God has promised us Himself.
-- Don't carry your cross alone.

I recommend these lectures to anyone who wonders how to survive and engage the darkness.