"Back to school - The role of information Information is crucial to the pro-life movement. It allows a pro-life activist to answer objections to the pro-life philosophy, rebut pro-abortion slogans, outline and understand the pro-life mission, and know the pronciples of the Church's teaching on all life issues. Sources of pro-life information include pro-life periodicals (like HLI's excellent newsletters LifeLines and Jonah), weekly internet news services, pro-life books and pamphlets, pro-life conferences and events, and interacting with other pro-lifers. It is also important to gather information on the activities and motivations of anti-life groups on both a local and international level. This allows pro-lifers to counter anti-life initiatives, and expose their weaknesses and hidden agendas. `I have studied the enemy all my life. I read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders. I have even read his philosophersand listened to his music... I know exactly how he will react under any given set of circumstances. And he hasn't the slightest idea of when I'm going to whip the hell out of him.` - General George S. Patton Learn your ABC's - A is for apple, P is for Pro-life To be successful pro-life activists we first of all need to have information on what it means to be pro-life - 'know thyself' as the scriptures say. Everything else will follow. So who is pro-life? Every human being is created in the spiritual image and likeness of God, which means we are all of inestimable worth. It also means we are all equal in the eyes of God. Therefore a true pro-lifer believes in and works for the life of every person, from conception to natural death - no exceptions, no compromise! But human life does not exist in a vacuum. Human beings are naturally social creatures so we are inherently dependant on families, institutions and society in general. Pro-lifers therefore, must work to defend and rebuild social structures, like the family, if we are to defend human life at all stages. What's more, we have to realistically observe and evaluate the society in which we live in order to understand how best to defend life. We have to see not only the temporal context, but more importantly, the eternal context which affects us. The temporal and eternal contexts There must be something beyond this world. If there were not, human life and human action would be meaningless. The fact that we yearn for abstract goods - like justice, mercy, and love - and the fact that we can reason and choose, shows that we are spiritual as well as physical creatures. As we saw earlier, this is the fundamental reason why human life is precious and why it must be defended - because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Seeing our lives, our activities and our society with the 'eyes of the soul' (God's eyes) is the only way to make any sense of what is happening and is the key to endurance in the pro-life movement. It also teaches us to work for both temporal and eternal goals - that is, to educate as well as to evangelise. Education is the successful transfer of information. Values may be implied but are not explicitly stated, eg 'This is how an unborn baby develops.' Evangelisation is the successful transfer of a complete philosophy (set of values) and usually requires a radical change in lifestyle."