Anderson Cooper Tacks To Windward, Asks Hard Questions About the Gosnell Case

I’m not sure if you were able to see the telecast from his show last night, so I’ll embed the video here.

Before you view Mr. Coopers’ coverage of the story, which includes documentary filmaker David Altrooge on the panel, consider these thoughts from Elizabeth Scalia,

…I see not a glass half-empty, but one half-full and filling. Perhaps I am only an optimist, and a naive one, but I feel like this is a break in the tide; a moment that can perhaps turn America from its myriad and mostly empty distractions, and get her asking important questions about who we are, what we have been enabling, who we want to be and what serving “the least among us” really means.

Coming, as it does, during a honeymoon phase of a popular new pope who embodies the idea of Godly tenderness and forcefully demonstrates his awareness that poverty, marginalization and “least-ness” comes in many forms, this almost seems like a moment handed to us by God.

As such, we Christians need to respect it; we need to respect the moment and the opportunity, and the fact that this is a possible gift. If this is a small break in the tide, it’s one we have to fill with patience and mercy; it is going to call on Christians to be as Christlike with our stunned and (hopefully) open-to-re-thinking brothers and sisters. We can’t haul off on them, but must teach with love. With firmness and truth, but also with some of that tenderness we’re called to; with an acknowledgement that Justice belongs to God while mercy is ours.

The Anchoress knew about the case a long time ago, you see.

Roll clip,

You can view David Altrooge’s documentary film 3801 Lancaster here.

Prayers for all involved, across the entire spectrum of our society, be they perpetrators or victims, health officials or policy makers, or just average citizens such as ourselves, are needed now and going forward.

The quiet courage, and example, of the Good Samaritan is needed now as well. I know that I fall far short of practicing love of my neighbor as much as I love myself. I must do better at this. Otherwise, I’m like the person Toyohiko Kagawa writes of in his short sword of a poem I’ve shared before,

I read in a book
That a man called
Christ
Went about doing good.
It is very disconcerting to me
That I am so easily satisfied
With just
Going about.

To be yeast, or tasteless salt? That is the question…