Acknowledge the Experience

I'll just come right out and say it: I grew up in a pretty liberal household.

It's not something I'm particularly proud of, but my parents were not religious in the least. Kids would try to get me to go to church and I would refuse, saying that they couldn't prove God existed.

About three months after I graduated college, thinking I was educated now and knew everything there was to know, I visited my uncle's farm it rural Oklahoma. It was there that I received my informal education. My real education.

Uncle Charlie knew something was wrong with Little Rose Nakita. She was his prize mare, but something was very wrong with her. She was making a terrible noise and could barely stand. He ran over to her, and when he crawled between her legs and looked up, he immediately knew what was wrong.

Uncle Charlie was well aware of my political views. He was an ardent conservative and believed (as I do now) that ALL life begins at conception. I argued that life truly begins at birth. Boy, was I wrong.

Uncle Charlie called me over and said, "Check this out, ya liberal pansy."

He reached into Little Rose Nakita's vagina with both hands and pulled a dead fetus out. It had been killed when Rose Nakita's umbilical cord wrapped too tightly around one of the fetus' legs, causing his blood flow to shut off.

Uncle Charlie slowly, deliberately unwrapped the cord from the leg and began to cry. Fighting back his tears, he slowly reached out his arms, handed me the fetus and said, "I bet them commie professors never showed you nothin' like this."

It was then, as I held the beautiful, lifeless fetus in my arms, that I knew. Abortion -- be it human, horse, goat or anything -- IS wrong. There is no moral justification for it. I could fight God no more. In His own divine way, He had shown me how precious life is, and how it isn't to be taken for granted.

I began to cry. Uncle Charlie wrapped me up in his arms while I continued to hold Little Barney and we wept together for 15 minutes.

I had been carrying my diploma for my electrical engineering degree around with me. I guess I was a show off. I walked back into Uncle Charlie's house, got the diploma out of my duffle bag and returned to the living room. I dropped the diploma into the fireplace, which was burning, and decided to dedicate my life to abolishing abortion and spreading God's word.

I turned down the job offer I had planned to accept. Now the only connections I will be fixing are between the heart and the Lord.

-- HW