Hold Up 'Burning Torch' of God's Love, Mercy, and Justice

Those words, from the prophet Isaiah to the persecuted Jewish people of Old Testament times, also call us to not be silent in the face of the challenges of our age; but rather, to hold up the "burning torch" of God's love, mercy, and justice, as we work for his vindication of all who today suffer persecution, injustice, violence, or deprivation.

It seemed particularly appropriate to hear this passage at Sunday Mass in Catholic churches on Jan. 19 of this year, the day before we honored the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a prophet and martyr for our time who also would not be silent in the face of injustice. Instead, he bore courageous witness against racial segregation and persecution, using nonviolent civil disobedience, and time in jail, to hold high the "burning torch" of freedom for "all God's children."

In his historic "I Have a Dream" oration from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, Rev. King, noting the real but painstaking pace of progress toward racial equality in those days, observed: "There are those asking the devotees of civil rights: 'When will you be satisfied?'

"No, we are not satisfied," he thundered, echoing Isaiah's call for vindication of the oppressed, "and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Later that week, on the eve of the annual March for Life in our nation's capital, President Donald Trump pardoned 23 courageous anti-abortion activists who, in the venerable tradition of Martin Luther King Jr., had engaged in prayerful, nonviolent civil disobedience to protest and try to stop acts of injustice — in these instances, abortions.

For these peaceful actions, they were arrested — many in pre-dawn home raids by heavily armed FBI agents, terrorizing their families in the process. They were prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department and convicted of violating the Clinton-era Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act — and also of conspiracy under a 19th century anti-Ku Klux Klan law.

Many of them were serving lengthy prison sentences when President Trump freed them, noting that they never should have been prosecuted and calling it an "honor" to pardon them.

Many readers of this space may know that among those prosecuted and imprisoned were my brother, John Hinshaw, and eight others who engaged in a prayerful sit-in at the Washington, D.C., abortion clinic.

Those individuals gathered what they felt was evidence of late- or full-term aborted babies. They were purportedly retrieved from the trash of the abortion provider in question.

Additionally found was a highly disturbing video of a doctor of the abortion facility, allegedly bragging about allowing babies born alive after failed abortions to die without treatment.

The day after the pardons, thousands of Americans gathered in our nation's capital for the annual March for Life, continuing the quest for justice and protection for unborn children and commemorating the millions of lives already lost to America's modern-day reenactment of Herod's slaughter of innocents.

Like Dr. King and the civil rights movement 60 years ago, the anti-abortion movement, following the overturning of Roe 2 1/2 years ago, is also being asked, "When will you be satisfied?"

And members of the movement must answer as Dr. King did: "No, we are not satisfied." For they know that simply overturning Roe did not save one unborn child's life and that the abortion mentality — with its emphasis on destroying the victims, rather than the causes, of human suffering — threatens not only the pre-born but all vulnerable human beings.

And so they cannot be satisfied until every unborn child; every newborn baby; every disabled, sick, elderly, or terminally ill person — indeed, every human being, no matter how weak, vulnerable, burdensome, or inconvenient — is valued, in the words of St. John Paul II, as "a unique and unrepeatable gift of God" and is protected by the laws of our states and nation.

Only then will the sanctity of human life be fully vindicated in America, and the anti-abortion movement's thirst for justice satisfied.

As they work toward that time, they might take inspiration from yet another courageous historical figure who would not be silent in the face of injustice: William Lloyd Garrison, the great 19th century abolitionist.

They might apply his uncompromising words in the cause of freedom from slavery to theirs today in the cause of life: We are in earnest. We will not equivocate. We will not excuse. We will not retreat a single inch. AND WE WILL BE HEARD.

For three decades, Rick Hinshaw has given voice to faith values in the public square, as a columnist, then editor of The Long Island Catholic; communications director for the Catholic League and the New York State Catholic Conference; co-host of "The Catholic Forum," on cable. He is now editor of his own blog, "Reading the Signs." Visit Rick’s home page at rickhinshaw.com. Read Rick Hinshaw's Reports — More Here.