“Your silence is killing us,” Jim Hughes National President of Campaign Life Coalition, and one of Canada’s most well-known pro-life leaders, said to a group of pastors in May.
Hughes spoke at the Rose Dinner after the National March for Life in Ottawa. He encouraged religious leaders to educate their parishioners about the value of life. He explained that if they did not, they would not think about the life-ending reality of abortion. If they remained uneducated, they would be, in effect, handing surgical tools to abortionists with their votes.
In an interview with LifeSite News, he explained, “(Religious leaders) have to educate the people in the pews so that they can take on their responsibility as laypeople, in order to make a difference (in terms of) running for public office, voting for candidates that are truly pro-life and not pro-abortion ones.”
When asked what the most disturbing development has been for the pro-life movement, Hughes said that it was the unwillingness of the older generation to mentor the younger advocates in adequately denouncing abortion.
He discussed influencing the next generation, wanting to instill the value of life in them, adding, “It’s very difficult to do that because sometimes the young people think that everything started when they were born. And of course, we all know that we’re only providing building blocks (upon) a strong foundation that was laid for us by those who came before us. And if we can get that across to the younger generation too, so that they see that they are just adding more blocks to that structure, that will be a wonderful job if we’re able to accomplish it.”
He added, “My hopes for the future would be that more and more young people would be educated on the issue, that more churches would begin speaking about these issues. And they are not doing that now. And (once this happens) then the parents and the grandparents can educate their children and grandchildren about all of it. But if they don’t hear this in church while they’re there, it’s going to be a harder battle.”
Hughes concluded by giving a call-to-action for religious leaders. “The first thing I would say to them is, ‘Your silence is killing us.’ (Religious leaders) have to educate the people in the pews so that they can take on their responsibility as laypeople in order to make a difference (in terms of) running for public office, voting for candidates that are truly pro-life and not pro-abortion ones. You might as well be handing the vacurettes and the scalpels and whatnot to the abortionists if you’re voting for politicians who won’t stand up for life.”
The March for Life in Ottawa, Canada ended on Parliament Hill and saw over 4,000 people participate in the event.