Yes to Consistent Life

An Open Letter to the Board of Directors of Consistent Life

Dear Members of the Board,

We have learned by sad experience of the limited effectiveness of the word "No."

The Consistent Life Ethic is grounded in the word "Yes". What could say "Yes!" more strongly than the word "Life"? I ask the Board to undertake a study of subtle ways in which we can use our amazing creativity and vigilance to replace "No" with "Yes" in the Consistent Life effort and thus unite it with the amazing Consistent Life vision.

"We are committed to the protection [negative] of life [positive!], which is threatened [negative] in today's world by war [negative], abortion [negative], poverty [negative], racism [negative], capital punishment [negative], and euthanasia [negative]. We believe that these issues [negative] are linked under a 'consistent ethic of life' [positive!]. We challenge [negative] those working on all or some of these issues [negative] to maintain [positive!] a spirit of peace [positive!], reconciliation [positive!], and respect [positive!] in protecting [negative] the unprotected."

Consider, for example, the increased power of simply moving "No" toward "Yes" in our mission statement:

"We are committed to reverence for life, which includes the life of our enemies, the life of our unborn, the life of our poor, the life of all tribes and families, the life of our prisoners, and the life of our sick and dying. We believe that these expressions of life are linked under a 'consistent ethic of life'. We invite those working toward all or some of these ideals to maintain a spirit of peace, reconciliation, and respect that leads the way in building a culture of life."