Anti-abortion advocates are often criticized for using gory graphic images of the aborted innocents in their sidewalk ministries. Some of the criticism comes from other pro-life advocates. But the question to ask yourself is this: are these images true? Do they show the Truth? And of course, they do. And so a second question is this: Are such images repellant because they are graphic or are they repellant because each of us in our heart of hearts knows that we are guilty of not doing enough to stop this terrible evil?

These images repel us the way our own sins repel us. And we turn away from these images not because they are gory but because we feel guilty. But isn’t such guilt a good thing, in fact a grace of God? These photographs provoke an emotional reaction in us. But isn’t that emotional reaction a good one, a reaction that tells us that our hearts have not completely turned to stone?

The issue of graphic images of the aborted innocents is analogous to the issue of whether Christ crucified should be the central image of Christianity as in Catholicism or whether Christ resurrected should be the central image. Are not many of our separated brothers horrified by the cross with the poor battered and bleeding body of our Redeemer nailed upon it? But is this discomfort caused by the image or by the knowledge that we ourselves are sinners who brought the crucifixion about? Nothing is harder to bear than to live continually in the presence of a pure and innocent love to which one is daily unfaithful, cruel and treacherous towards.

The little bloodied decapitated faces of the innocent unborn and their dismembered bodies are the image of Christ. And we should no more turn away from their truth than His Truth since both are part of the same Truth. Behold them and be horrified and then pray or protest. Take those images with you into the voting booths this November!

Are we all not in danger of over-intellectualizing the issue of abortion? I know I am. And is not the person carrying the little poster of the bloody body of the aborted child telling it like it is. Isn’t the photo he or she holds exactly showing publicly what is happening 25 feet away in the secret and private death chamber of the abortion “clinic”? We must make public what is private here!

A picture is still worth a thousand words. And if anything will ever melt the hearts of those who support or are indifferent to abortion, it is these photos that will. Because if these photos will not move the last spark of humanity in a person, nothing will. No set of arguments is going to magically bring about the enlightenment of those whose heart is stone. So if you see someone carrying a sign with a graphic image, don’t despise them. And if you decide to carry a sign while praying the rosary in front of an abortion mill, don’t be afraid to carry a sign with a graphic image. Because the graphic image IS the truth. Thanks Father Stephen!