12th

12^th & Delaware

Ronald Reagan was a genius, at least in a very limited fashion. On January 26, 1982, 1he was the first President to invite a special guest, Lenny Skutnik, to sit in the gallery of his State of the Union Address. Do not remember Lenny Skutnik? He was a 28-year-old federal employee who risked his life less than two weeks earlier by jumping into the icy Potomac River to rescue a survivor of an Air Florida jet that had just crashed after takeoff from the Washington airport. Why was Mr. Skutnik’s presence asked for? We were in the middle of a deep recession. Reagan intoned, “Don’t let anyone tell you that America’s best days are behind her, that the American spirit has been vanquished.” Then the President paused, looked up to Skutnik sitting next to Nancy Reagan in the gallery and saluted him. He then began to speak again, "We've seen it triumph too often in our lives to stop believing in it now." The place erupted in applause. Who could doubt that America would not succeed with men like Lenny Skutnik in it?

Ronald Reagan instinctually understood that a pep talk about how we were going to bounce back from our economic turmoil would not be nearly as powerful without someone like Skutnik sitting there. Equally, he knew when to keep things abstract. It could be guaranteed that when he spoke of “Cadillac-driving welfare queens” that the typical woman on government assistance was nowhere to be found. There in lies my struggle with politics at times. It is one thing to talk abstractly about a subject. It is another when you know someone who is dealing with that issue. A few years back, I met a couple in their 60s who had played by the rules their whole life and were looking forward to enjoying a relaxing retirement in a few years. One night a phone rang that changed everything. Life put on spiked boots, walked the yellow line, and broke the glass. Their daughter in her early 20s broke her neck in an auto accident. The young woman had just started a new job, and was just a week away from her health insurance kicking in. They mortgaged the house, borrowed as much as they could and are still working in their 70s, all to keep their baby from being left at the mercy of the snake pits of our health care system. It is one thing to talk abstractly about health insurance reform. It is another to discuss it when they are in the room. The same goes for the working poor, homosexual rights, and almost every other political issue. I think the abstractness of the abortion issue is why so many on the right are so passionate about it.

In the New Testament, St. Paul warns the young church against the worship of angels. It is easy to understand how one could be drawn to the worship of these creatures. They are beautiful, pure, not tainted by the world. Who would not want to worship a cherubim or a seraphim over a poor kid born in a dirty, smelly manger? Angels become in your mind whatever you want them to be. I believe when it comes to the abortion issue that many in the modern church are dangerously close to the worship of angels. How can I say this? Fetuses do not have drug problems. Fetuses do not clog the welfare rolls. Fetuses are not in our prisons. Fetuses are not cold and hungry on our streets. They do not make mistakes. They do not fail. They are angels. If one really was pro-life they would be clamoring for programs and opportunities, even if it cost them out of their own pockets; that would give these unwanted masses of tissue a chance.

When it comes to abortion, it is easy to sit on your philosopher’s perch and wax poetically about an issue until you get down in the weeds and interact with the real people the issue effects. In turn, the makers of the wonderful Jesus Camp, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, have made one of the best documentaries on the abortion issue that I have ever seen. In America there are 816 clinics where women can go to get an abortion. Sounds like a lot? There are more than 4,000 anti-abortion centers throughout this nation. The title of this documentary, 12th & Delaware, is a specific street corner in Fort Pierce, Florida. What makes this location so important? In 1991, an abortion provider named A Woman’s World opened there. Eight years later, right across the street, a Christian pro-life center, or as they like to be called, a “crisis pregnancy center”, opened its doors. Let’s get ready to rumble.

Now, anyone who has seen Jesus Camp would think that even if the pro-life individuals featured in this documentary had not seen the film, they might have Googled the women’s names and would want nothing to do with them. Instead, these women are allowed amazing access to both sides and their thoughts in this ground war. In fact, they are the first mainstream filmmakers to be allowed to film inside a crisis pregnancy center. The women who run the place felt they had nothing to hide because their cause is just. I doubt any man could garner the same access that these women had for a year. There are the scenes that we have all seen before – the picketers marching back and forth 24/7, the doctors and nurses forced to hide under coats and blankets with armed security near them for protection, and the young bewildered women who are in the middle of one of the most difficult decisions of their lives, but what makes the movie special is the balanced job Ewing and Grady do with their subject matter, the good intentions on both sides.

These are people who do not believe that there can be a compromise on this issue. The two women who run these opposing forces, Anne and Candace, put human faces on this battle. It is a battle without end and that is the feeling an audience comes away with. Those operating the clinic live in a besieged atmosphere and across the street are those who feel they are on a divine mission from God. There are the nuts and the disconcerting moments, like when some poor girl walks into the pro-life center instead of the clinic and suddenly finds herself surrounded by a jeering crowd shouting heart-breaking things at her. Potential violence is always beneath the surface ready to erupt. (During the filming of this movie Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in the Midwest, was murdered in his Lutheran church by a pro-life zealot.) This is not a Michael Moore-style hit piece, but rather a movie that tries to let the events speak for themselves. As the women note, “Our intention is to let the viewer make their own decisions, and go through their own process. The women who run the clinics on either side of the street are committed soldiers who have their firm positions, and see the issue in black and white. The women who are seeking help become part of this debate unintentionally and only for a brief moment in time. They are the gray area that all good and important stories come from.”

No one’s mind is going to be changed watching this documentary, although it is a very human story. As Ewing and Grady note, it is a tale with “a lot of self-loathing, cruelty, guilt, rage, and terror on this unassuming quiet corner.” In my opinion, there, and only there, can any discussion on the subject begin, with the living, breathing humans being affected by the issue.

Verdict: A Great Documentary