"We desire to see our children alive. I think it's a fair one." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was met with a standing ovation from the European Parliament after a powerful speech that caused the EU translator on the English language feed to choke up with emotion. (from CNN, 1 March 2022)
President Zelensky has gained my admiration and support for leading his nation in its self-defense against the aggression of its neighbor, Russia. His selflessness and his apparent fearlessness have galvanized Ukrainians and others around the world. His actions have been accompanied by and consistent with his expert and effective rhetoric. I make that observation without irony or detraction – ‘rhetoric’ can and should be a good thing.
One recurring thread in his addresses has caught my attention as evoking more than one meaning. He frequently invokes the children of Ukrainians as their inspiration and their reason for fighting, to great effect, as in the instance quoted above.
Then, in an address to his nation on April 22, he pointed to that day, [Orthodox] Good Friday, as one of the most sorrowful days of the year for Christians. The day when death seems to have won. Though not a Christian himself, he went on to say of Ukrainians as a nation . . . We hope for a resurrection. We believe in the victory of life over death. And we pray that death loses.
(…) Russia brought death to Ukraine. After eight years of brutal war in Donbas, Russia wanted to destroy our state completely. Literally deprive Ukrainians of the right to life. But no matter how fierce the battles are, there is no chance for death to defeat life. Everyone knows that. Every Christian knows that. This is a basic element of our culture.
Perhaps this does not exist in modern Russian culture anymore. Because in order to do everything they did to Ukrainians in our cities . . . you have to kill a human inside you. Because a human of any faith simply cannot do that. (From WSJ.com)
That is a powerful and eloquent description of what is at stake in Ukraine, and an equally powerful and eloquent summary of how social acceptance and encouragement of abortion leads to savagery and aggression.
Though I hardly count it an authority, Wikipedia had a tidy summary of what I expected: In 1920, the Russian Soviet Republic under Lenin became the first country in the world in the modern era to allow abortion in all circumstances, but over the course of the 20th century, the legality of abortion changed more than once, with a ban on unconditional abortions being enacted again from 1936 to 1955. In terms of the total number, in 2009 [there were recorded] 1.2 million abortions in Russia.
For seventy years, the Soviet Union, into which Ukraine was subsumed, destroyed many of its own young people. This was of a piece with its disregard for human life at every stage. Thirty years ago, Ukraine escaped that tyranny, but in its striving for western-style freedom and prosperity, it has embraced the secularist agenda that also includes abortion on demand.
What is an abortion, but to kill a human inside you? The path from that so-called “private” act to the savagery the Russians have shown in Ukraine is easily traced and accurately described by President Zelensky. He recognizes, and asserts, that a human of any faith simply cannot do that. He now calls on his fellow countrymen, and the world, to heroic action and sacrifice, because, "We desire to see our children alive.”
Will his nation turn away from the path to savagery? Will ours?
