NOTE: As I am not able to find many Pro-Life articles at the
moment, it will be Pro-Life Article of the Month, not Fortnight. Once I can get
more, I will change it back to twice a month.
NOTICE: The following
article is written by the author itself and not by me, I am not trying to
violate their copyright. I will give some information on them. I chose this as
article on Pro-Life of the month, as it is the 58th birthday of Mel
Gibson.
PAGE
TITLE:
http://www.lifenews.com/
ARTICLE
TITLE:
Five Male Celebrities Who Are Pro-Life on Abortion
DATE: Wednesday December
21, 2011
AUTHOR: Kristen Walker
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Kristen Walker is Vice President
of New Wave
Feminists.This post originally appeared at the Live Action blog and is reprinted
with permission.
Recently
I wrote about five
male celebrities I boycott for their pro-abortion views. Today, I’ll tell
you about five famous men whose careers I can feel good about supporting,
because they believe in and profess the sanctity of life.
Keep
in mind I may disagree with them on other issues. But because I
believe abortion is the ultimate moral litmus test, if they recognize the
evil of abortion, I know their moral compass is pointed in the right
direction.
 |
|
Mel Gibson
|
5.
Mel Gibson
Let’s
kick things off with controversy! I want to be clear: there are things about
Mel Gibson I do not like. He has made racist comments, and pleaded “no contest”
to a domestic abuse charge. But he has also been dragged through the mud
in the press, and not always fairly. The validity of the famous taped
conversation with his girlfriend has been questioned by forensic experts,
and his wife of 26 years claims she never experienced abuse. He has said his
“no contest” plea was a way of ending the legal matter before it did more harm
to his family, and he has maintained that he never harmed his girlfriend.
Still, Gibson
himself admits he is a flawed man, and that’s one of the reasons why I
support him. Because despite being a troubled, broken human being with a
failed marriage, a failing career, and an ongoing legal battle with the
girlfriend who bore his child, Gibson has never wavered on the issue of life.
In
a Barbara Walters interview in 1990, at the height of his fame, Gibson
said:
One can’t decide for oneself who comes into this world
and who doesn’t. That decision doesn’t belong to us.
Later,
he vocally spoke out against life destroying embryonic stem cell research. He
said this on a television commercial:
…[I]n 23 years embryonic stem cell research has not
produced a single human cure. All it has yielded is tumors, rejection, and
mutations. See bad science doesn’t attract venture capital. So why should the
taxpayers be bled dry? This is Mel Gibson and I’m voting NO on Prop 71.
Creating life simply to destroy it is wrong.
In
2010, cast and crew members of the film The
Hangover II objected to Gibson’s involvement in the film, so the
producers rescinded his offer. The same cast and crew did not object — at least
not loudly enough to make a difference — to the involvement of Mike Tyson in
the film’s prequel. Mel Gibson has used strong, offensive words and pleaded “no
contest” to threatening his girlfriend. Mike Tyson was convicted of and served
time in prison for rape. It’s obvious the problem wasn’t that Gibson did something
wrong, but the political and religious flavor of his opinions and offenses.
Apparently, according to the Hollywood elite, it is more morally offensive to
call someone non-politically-correct names than to rape a woman.
I
support Mel Gibson not because I agree with everything he’s ever done, but
because on the most important issue there is — whether or not it should be
legal to kill innocent human beings, namely unborn babies — he has it
figured out. That lets me know there is a good heart inside him. Maybe flawed,
but good. And it lets me know that there is hope for him. So I choose to
support him and his career. Because of the voice he has provided for the
voiceless, I think he deserves it.
 |
|
Jack Nicholson
|
4.
Jack Nicholson
Here’s
another guy with whom I probably don’t agree on every issue. A living legend in
the cinema, Nicholson’s politics are full of contradictions. He called Sean
Penn “the greatest living American,” but he refused to criticize President
Bush, saying, “I support every president.” He calls himself a “lifelong Irish
Democrat” and once spoke fondly of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Nicholson’s
opinions on abortion were formed by personal experience. He was a grown man
when he discovered the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother,
and the woman he knew as his mother was his grandmother. His mother became
pregnant as a teenager and was encouraged to have an abortion, even back in 1937, but
she chose life for her son. The revelation that his sister was his
mom was understandably difficult for Nicholson, and had a profound
affect on him. For one, it made him pro-life:
I’m very contra my constituency in terms of abortion
because I’m positively against it. I don’t have the right to any other view. My
only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life.
This
short statement is full of humility, wisdom, and courage. Note that he says, “I
don’t have the right to any other view.” He has understood, thanks to the
knowledge that his own life almost never happened, that life
is a gift for which we should all feel gratitude. His willingness to
vocally oppose abortion in the face of Hollywood and his own political party is
inspiring and should be encouraged.
 |
|
Ben Stein
|
3.
Ben Stein
You
may not recognize the name right away, but you’d know the voice. The familiar
drone of “Bueller…. Bueller…” introduced him to Generation X, but before that
he was a speechwriter for Nixon and Ford, Columbia honors graduate, and
valedictorian of Yale Law School. Later he went on to have his own show on
Comedy Central, “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” and to teach law, appear in films, and
speak and write on various issues, including the sanctity of life. Here he is
in 2009:
Every baby that is conceived has the right to be;
that is a basic. And I will tell you something that I never felt before in my
heart until this year: I feel strongly that the tide is turning in our favor…
one of the best, most important ways to give your life meaning and to live a
decent life is to value life when it’s old, when it’s infirm, when it’s a
different skin color, when it’s a different race, when it’s a different sex,
when it’s a different religion, whether it’s born or unborn – and if you value
life when it’s unborn, you set a standard for valuing life and for giving
dignity to life that will stick with you and the society forever.
In
2008, Stein was involved in a controversial documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,
that accused members of the U.S. scientific and academic elite of blind
allegiance to Darwinism and unscientific rejection of theories of Intelligent
Design which have been put forward by respected scientists such as those at the
Discovery Institute.
The
documentary sought to show how a materialistic view of the world — in the
philosophical sense — leads to treating human beings as
expendable. Denying the innate worth of human life led to Nazi
eugenics and concentration camps. According to Stein, only in recognizing the
God-given worth of every human being, born and pre-born, can we guarantee each
other liberty and be truly free.
Ben
Stein is a remarkable and gifted man and an unapologetic warrior for life. I’m
proud to support him however I can.
 |
|
James Caviezel
|
Caviezel
became the favorite actor of just about every Christian in the world in 2006
when he played Jesus of Nazareth in Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ.
Like Gibson a Traditionalist Catholic, Caviezel told Catholic Digest he was
challenged by a pro-choice colleague to act with the courage of his pro-life
convictions and adopt a child with special needs. So in 2009, Caviezel and
his wife adopted their second child, a five-year-old Chinese girl with a brain
tumor. Caviezel said it didn’t change the colleague’s mind, but it did
strengthen his own convictions that every life is precious.
I was listening to Johnny Mathis the other day and I
said, “What an amazing voice.” I have yet to hear another person sound like
Johnny Mathis… Look, I am for helping women. I just don’t see abortion as
helping women. And I don’t love my career that much to say, “I’m going to
remain silent on this.” I’m defending every single baby who has never been
born. And every voice that would have been unique like Johnny Mathis’. How do
we know that we didn’t kill the very child who could have created a particular
type of medicine that saves other lives?
According
to LifeSite News, he has “compared the injustice of abortion to the
mistreatment of women in some Arab countries.” One of his recent films, The Stoning of Soraya M.,
is based on the true story of an Iranian woman stoned to death for adultery.
For
living his convictions, in his art and his life, I proudly see every movie
featuring James Caviezel, even if I don’t particularly want to see the movie.
 |
|
Eduardo Verastegui
|
You
may not have heard of him yet, but give him a break; he’s had to go it alone.
This Mexican actor refused to accept roles that conflicted with his strong
Christian, pro-life beliefs. He was told he would never work, so he decided to
create his own work. Along with Alejandro Monteverde and others, he founded the
production company Metanoia,
and their first film, Bella,
took the world by storm in 2006.
Winning
the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007, Bella was a beautiful film
with a pro-life message of subtlety and spirit that surprised the world with
its success. With a budget of only $3 million, it made about $40 million
worldwide and put Metanoia on the map.
In
January of this year, Verastegui pledged to build the largest pro-life women’s
clinic in the U.S. His organization, Mantle of Guadalupe, raises funds for a
pro-life pregnancy resource center of the same name in east Los Angeles, just
miles from ten abortion clinics. A devout Catholic, he also promised, “I will
not use my talents except to elevate my Christian, pro-life and Hispanic
values.”
This
year, Verastegui launched a website, IAmViable.com, which celebrates the lives and unique
abilities of people born disabled. His production company Metanoia is currently
working on several important projects with uplifting messages that affirm the
dignity of all human life.
It
may be safe to say that even in the few short years of his career, no actor has
done more to promote the cause of the unborn than Eduardo Verastegui and his
Metanoia Films. I will make it a point to support their work.
We
shouldn’t let the trends or prejudices of celebrity affect our lives. None of
us should make any decisions based on what the Kardashians do. But every time
we turn on the TV or go see a movie we choose to support the actors
and artists who created it. What we spend money on makes a powerful statement.
I make sure to further, in any way I can, the careers of these men,
because I want them to keep working and keep speaking out for life.
Who
do you choose to support, and why?
LifeNews.com Note: Kristen Walker is Vice President of New Wave Feminists.This
post originally appeared at the Live
Action blog and is reprinted with permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment