It’s a sad fact that six of every 10 self-identified Catholic adults in the United States told Pew Research pollsters earlier this year that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
More disturbing still was Pew’s finding that one-third of U.S. Catholics who attend weekly mass also hold this pro-abortion position. There’s every reason to believe that equal numbers of Canadian Catholics adhere to this heresy.
These facts make it clear that the shadow cast by relativism and its evil twin, the culture of death, has grown very dark, indeed.
But a new booklet, about the Christian Church’s two-millennia-long history of pro-life teachings, makes the implicit argument that knowledge of history, clarity of thinking, and firm moral purpose have the ability to rekindle the light of truth in our gloomy world.
Wrong on both counts, responds Norton, and he then spends 50 pages telling us why.
Norton, a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, has produced a meticulously researched tract whose footnote and bibliography wordcount comes close to surpassing that of the actual booklet.
But don’t let this scare you off. Being Human is eminently readable while also being authoritative.
Christian pro-life readers, whether Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, will find in its pages countless factual arrows—from the First-Century writings of Clement of Alexandria to the 20th-Century exhortations of St. Teresa of Calcutta—to add to their apologetics quivers.
Indeed, as Archbishop J. Michael Miller wrote in his endorsement of the booklet, it is “a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the issue of abortion from a sound theological and pastoral perspective.”
As co-founder of both the Christian Advocacy Society of Greater Vancouver and Pregnancy Care Canada, Norton already has a long and exemplary record of pro-life advocacy. Being Human will surely add to this legacy.
—Being Human: Abortion and the Church is available in paperback from Amazon Books, $14.95
