Homily Two for the Eighth Sunday of Luke (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on December 9, 1951)

The parable of Christ about the merciful Samaritan, which you have now heard, is infinitely deep and important for us, and therefore I want you to remember it well.

You heard it in the Slavic reading, now listen to it in Russian translation. (The Gospel of Luke chapter 10, 25-37 is read.)

Why do I consider this parable of Christ one of the most important and profound of His parables? Because in this parable the Lord gave us a genuine revelation, a revelation about who we should consider as our neighbors.

Saint Ketevan as a Model for our Lives

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Ketevan came from Georgia and lived in the 17th century. Her parents were pious and raised her with the admonitions of the Gospel. In fact, they had given her the Bible for reading. Purity, modesty, prudence and almsgiving adorned her youthful life. When she reached the age of marriage, she married the king of Kakheti, whose name was David. From her marriage she acquired a son, Teimuraz. Her husband David left this vain world early, and his reign was short-lived, having reigned only six months.

As queen Ketevan brought peace among the rulers and restored order between the Church and State, which had been turbulent. She built Holy Temples, Hospitals and took care with much love the widows and the orphans, and in general the poor and the weak. When her son grew up, she handed him the throne and she herself retired to the quiet, which she loved from her youth, and lived in asceticism and prayer. For the salvation of her nation she was driven out of the borders of her country, together with her relatives, and for her faith she endured horrible torments. She was taken to prison where she remained for ten years. She was martyred together with her spiritual father, the priest George, from whom she often received the Holy Mysteries, as did her followers. Her relics became a source of many miracles.

Saint Moses the Ethiopian, the Black Saint With the Pure White Heart

"The sting of sin, has completely blackened my heart, 

therefore with the tears of repentance, 

make it completely white Father, 

through your intercessions." 

 

(Matins Canon to St. Moses the Ethiopian, Ode 1)

The beloved abba of the Gerontikon, Venerable Moses the Ethiopian, is a unique example of deep repentance who is a counterpart to Venerable Mary of Egypt. Today he could be seen as a hero-figure for many, who admire men that are physically strong and are the "bad boys" of society, while at the same time intimidating people with robberies and threats. He was a gang leader that eventually emerged to be one of our greatest Saints. How did this happen? He came into contact with some sanctified ascetics living in the Egyptian desert, which changed his heart and opened his eyes. God gave him a unique opportunity to orient himself where the true light of His presence is. Moses repented!

Homily for the Epistle Reading on the Feast of Saint Paraskevi (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

(Homily for Galatians 3:23-4:5)

On the occasion of the feast of Saint Paraskevi, the Church has established to be read today as an apostolic reading a passage from the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Christians of Galatia, which is known as the epistle to the Galatians.

Studying today's apostolic reading, one assumes that it was chosen by the Church because it includes the phrase: “Those who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:27-28).

Black People and the Kingdom of Heaven

The following comes from the book An Ascetic Bishop: Stories, Sermons & Prayers of St. Nephon ("Blacks With White Souls," pp. 48-50), which is a translation of a manuscript discovered in the library of the Monastery of Dionysiou on Mount Athos that dates back to the year 1334. It was most likely originally written in the 9th or 10th century, though it is set in the 4th century, and reflects Orthodox Christian sentiments of the medieval Roman Empire, through the mouth of Saint Nephon, on the equality before God of the entire human race, for which grace does not discriminate based on skin color.

Another time again, when we were together in his cell, I found the opportunity to answer a question of mine in respect to the black race. The question as to whether the color of their bodies had any effect on their souls preoccupied me. Could God have an aversion to them? Because, according to what I believed, there weren't any people from their race who had fought the good fight and had been saved. I had never heard of any black person who had pleased God.

Commemoration of the Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Saint Philip

Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Feast Day - August 27)

Verses

A Eunuch man questions the parable,

He is whitened, and the Ethiopian is born.

The Synaxarion of Constantinople designates that on August 27th we commemorate the Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Saint Philip the Apostle, as recorded in Acts 8:26-40. This commemoration is probably due to the fact that on August 28th we celebrate the feast of the Venerable Moses the Ethiopian (330–405).

Saint Zotikos the Feeder of Orphans as a Model for our Lives

St. Zoticus the Feeder of Orphans (Feast Day - December 31)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Zotikos came from a noble family and lived in the fourth century. He was raised in Rome, in an environment of great piety, and he received a wonderful education. From a young age he was distinguished for his great love towards his fellow man, whom he wanted to serve with the same feeling as if he was serving Christ Himself, whose commandments he tried to apply in their entirety. Constantine the Great honored him for his many gifts, and invited him to Constantinople-New Rome, along with other pious men, where he became a privileged co-worker of his.

Saint Zotikos showed great love for the poor, and especially orphans and abandoned children, whom he took care of like an affectionate father. But he also showed great love and affection for lepers, who, as is well known, were exiled and lived away from society isolated and despised. The Saint approached them without fear, helped them economically, and above all took care of them personally, strengthening and comforting them. The lepers loved him and considered him to be more than their guardian angel. Yet after the repose of Constantine the Great, his son Constantius did not honor the work of Saint Zotikos as he should have, and sadly he mistreated him, with the result that this holy man faced hardships and tribulations, which caused him to leave this vain world prematurely. After the repose of the Saint, however, Constantius sincerely repented, and to honor him he built a Leper Hospital, in which lepers found affection and love. Indeed he endowed this Foundation with many properties, estates and incomes so as not to deprive even a little these distressed people.

The example of Constantius was imitated later by other emperors, such as Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (913-959), John Tzimiskes (969-976), and Romanos III (1028-1034), who cared for the existence and proper functioning of the Leper Hospital which, thanks to the initial efforts of Saint Zotikos, served numerous lepers and made their lives as humane as possible.

His life and disposition give us the opportunity to highlight the following:

Leprosy is an infectious disease and was until the middle of the last century incurable. Unfortunately, for many centuries this created a racist mentality among people, which created also too many problems for the families of patients and for society at large. The aversion to patients with the disease of leprosy resulted in the isolation of lepers, with all that it entails. That is, it separated married couples and even parents from their children, and children from their parents forever, since they usually never saw one another. It was, that is, a singular death, since lepers in their isolation were in fact the living dead. When they left their homes they said goodbye to their loved ones knowing that there was no chance for their return. That is, there was no way for them to come out of quarantine unless some sort of miracle was done, or if in the meantime a drug was developed that would cure leprosy. Faint hope always existed, since hope dies always at the end, however reality was harsh, since daily life was intolerable and inhumane. This is why they accepted manifestations of love from healthy people, whenever it occurred, as if it was manna from heaven.

Saint Zotikos, steeped in selfless love, which is not simply sentimental, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit who resided in his pure heart, exceeded the mindset of many who abhorred lepers and were living far off from them, and he did not just approach them and socialize with them, but nourished them personally, as did Basil the Great. This fact, moreover, reveals that there are people that do not fear death, because they have exceeded it in the limits of their own personal lives, and also because "perfect love casts out fear". This is why they abolished by their way of life every kind of racism that divides people and sterilizes love. It even shows that faith in the Triune God, who "is love", creates true people, who are truly a blessing for humanity.

Nowadays, of course, leprosy is cured, but the racist mentality has not disappeared and continues to exist in another form. That is, people may not be separated today between the healthy and those with the disease of leprosy, but they are differentiated between the healthy and those with HIV or AIDS, between "locals" and "outsiders", between "ours" and "theirs", between rich and poor, etc. This mindset is unlikely to disappear as long as people are not reborn spiritually by the Grace of God and their own personal struggle, and it remains among us with all it entails, as long as a person is hermetically sealed to themselves and does not care for others. However, wherever one encounters people, true people that is, who are imbued with the spirit of sacrifice and selfless service for others, it affirms that there is abolished every form of discrimination and racist attitudes, for our fellow man is to be regarded as an image of Christ and as a true brother.

A true person is one who by the Grace of God and their own personal struggle transforms selfishness into selfless love. According to Saint Maximus the Confessor, selfishness is unreasonable love towards the body and it is this which impedes a person from encountering God in a loving manner, as well as other people. The existentialist philosophers would say: "I think, therefore I am." The Saints, however, who are true people, say: "I love, therefore I am."

The greatness of the Church is manifested moreover in that it "manufactures" true people, who by their life and disposition abolish any notion of racial discrimination and are a source of blessing for society, and for the whole inhabited world.

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "Άγιος Ζωτικός Ο ορφανοτρόφος", November 2010. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Black People in Byzantine Society

By Apostolos Karpozilos

In Byzantine sources we do not find specific references to black people as a separate group that lived on the margins of Byzantine society due to their distinct color, their characteristics, their language or their culture. The sources, insofar as we know, do not seem to indicate the existence of a black people who were on the margins of society in urban centers or elsewhere, even during the period when the empire included areas of South Arabia and North Africa, with their mixed populations of nations and races.

Also the relatively little evidence we have at our disposal indicates that black people were not in particular considered a minority in the Byzantine mind. The names of the various peoples who inhabited the shores of the Red Sea and within Africa, both in early Christian and Byzantine sources, were characterized by confusion and ambiguity. The name commonly used for these people were Indians, whether they were Axumites, Ethiopians or Omirites.

Besides, the historical references to these peoples are limited to the beginning of the seventh century, where the empire still retained its sovereignty in Egypt by controlling Egyptian trade with other nations of the African continent.

With the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs the relationship between the empire and these peoples was cut off for good. It should, however, be noted that the attitude of the Byzantines towards the blacks, as reflected in the relatively few and scattered testimonies of sources, do not reflect any racial bias. Prejudices of this kind did not exist in antiquity, not even in the Greco-Roman period, when the empire was indeed multinational. At least there was no racial strife in the form and to the extent we know of them today, even though xenophobia, nationalism and dislike or contempt for uncivilized peoples were not unknown concepts in the world of antiquity. However, blacks did not face persecution nor were they excluded from the social mainstream as inferior due to their color.

Therefore the Byzantines inherited a culture for foreign peoples that had already formed during the Greco-Roman period, a mentality of excellence in both education and culture, and not racial especially in their relations with blacks and Negro-Africans in general. This attitude and mindset was influenced even more by the teaching of the Gospel, the message of which was directed generally to all without any discrimination.

The scant evidence we have for blacks can be divided into three categories of sources: the theological, historical and literary. But of which blacks are they talking about here - a particular race or people or of the dark colored in general? Byzantine writers bundle all the black or dark people under the name of Ethiopians, in the same way they group together the Indians, without making any distinction as to their place of origin, their characteristics or their language.

The word Ethiopian in Byzantium was used not only to indicate the inhabitants of Ethiopia, Nubia or Sudan, but also to indicate a black or dark person. The word derives from aitho (αίθω = burned) and ops (οψ = face), so that an Ethiopian (Αιθίοψ) is one who has a burned face from the sun. As Philostorgius writes of the inhabitants of Axum: "These are all of a very dark color, from the effects of the vertical rays of the sun."

The Church very early took a positive and specific attitude towards blacks, due to various biblical passages of the Old and New Testaments, which mention both Ethiopians and blacks. The interpretations of these passages by the Fathers of the Church formed an "African theology" as it was characteristically named by Professor Ernest Benz, who was the first to contribute to the extensive biblical scholia of Origen. In the passage of the Song of Solomon 1:5, the Ethiopian daughter, for example, addresses the daughters of Israel, and having the feeling of inferiority because of her color, she says apologetically: "I am dark, yet beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon." According to Origen, the Ethiopian daughter here symbolizes the Church of the nations, while the daughters of Jerusalem symbolize the Jewish synagogue and the supremacy of the origin of the race of Abraham. This passage and several others (such as the Ethiopian woman taken by Moses in Number 12:1-2), is interpreted in the context of the teaching about the Gospel to the nations (cf. Acts. 21:25).

The contrast between the colors black and white, as expressed in the Song of Songs ("I am dark, yet beautiful." ... "Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has gazed on me."), is interpreted symbolically by Origen and the Fathers of the Church. During one period even the Church of Alexandria and generally Africa included within it various peoples, tribes and nations, including no doubt many blacks.

Any misinterpretation that might arise from biblical passages where blacks may be portrayed in a negative or humiliating way, such as Jeremiah 13:23 ("Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil."), were surmounted very early thanks to the timely intervention of Origen.

The few historical testimonies we have for blacks during the early Byzantine period are mainly limited to the field of diplomacy. The sources mention two or three times when Blemmyes and Ethiopian ambassadors requested a hearing from Constantine I (324-337) and Constantius II (337-361). However, these fragmentary accounts which we draw concerning the Negro-Africans can be numbered on our fingers, and their importance is rather limited, as the authors do not go into substantial detail.

We would add, however, that any references of Eusebius of Ceasarea to the presence of foreign ambassadors at the court of Constantine the Great, which mentions the Blemmyes race, the Indian and the Ethiopian, are not rhetorical places, but refer to a specific event. The relations of the empire with the various African peoples during this period, were mainly limited to the field of trade and the conclusion of several treaties, as with the Omirites of whom speaks the ecclesiastical historian Philostorgius. Also with the spread of Christianity there was promoted the political and economic interests of the empire in the sensitive area of ​​Southwest Arabia. As known, the emperor Constantine II attempted to influence ecclesiastical matters in the nation of Axum by sending a personal letter to the rulers Aizana and Sazana requesting the removal of Bishop Frumentius.

But the commercial activity was often compounded by the missionary work conducted by traders as well as the monks and ascetics of Egypt. "Indeed many Ethiopians were seen among the monastics living in asceticism, and many acquired the virtues and thus fulfilled the words of Scripture: 'Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God'" (Psalm 68:31). According to Jerome, who wrote in the early fifth century, Ethiopian pilgrims daily visited Jerusalem. Diplomatic relations with the nation of Axum continued under Anastasios I and remained until the time of Justinian.

The kings of Axum even sent precious gifts to Anastasios - for an unknown occasion - of an elephant and two giraffes among other exotic animals. Moreover, under Justinian, on the occasion of the accession of the Samaritans to the side of the Persians, a pact of friendship was sought with King Elisboa of Axum. John Malalas describes in great detail and in an impressive way the diplomatic mission and the arrival in the courtyard of Elisboa. Therefore, diplomatic contacts with the Ethiopians and Omirites during this period "give the appearance of a continuous, feverish activity" and were essentially inspired by political-economic incentives.

From hagiographic sources of the same period it is evident, not only in Egypt but also in the Arabian peninsula, that the monks of the desert had maintained contacts and communication with black people.

The Byzantine ecclesiastical calendar included, as is known, the memory of Saint Moses the Ethiopian (August 28), the life of which is indicative of the contacts ascetics of the Thebaid had, within the limits of Hermopolis in Egypt, with black populations, but also black robbers and bandits, just as it was in the background of the life of Saint Moses the Ethiopian. The same goes for contacts between monks and Arabs, whom sources do not always distinguish from the blacks. In hagiographic sources, especially those coming from the region of Sinai, there is however a distinction between Arabs and Blemmyes as two distinct and separate nations. It is also interesting to note that in the iconography of the Arab saints there is no distinction as to color, but they are illustrated just like the Byzantine saints.

In hagiographic texts of this period, we have the first mention of the term "black" to describe a race with negro features, the Blemmyes. However, in Greek papyri of Egypt from the 6th and 7th centuries, the term "black" refers to Sudanese slaves.

The presence of black soldiers and black slaves in Byzantium is another issue that needs in particular to be studied. Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions in his work On Administering the Empire to his son Romanos that the leader of the Arabs, Abimelech, sent ambassadors to Justinian Rinotmitos seeking peace under the terms that the emperor would withdraw the battalian of Mardaites from Lebanon while he would offer each Roman emperor a thousand coins, together with a noble horse and an Ethiopian slave.

Mention of Ethiopian soldiers, or better of pirates, occurs in the narrative of John Kaminiates On the Capture of Thessaloniki by Leo of Tripoli in 904. Here it refers, in one sense, to Sudanese mercenaries who participated in the raids of Leo, the soldiers of which included Arab and African pirates.

While references to specific sources of historical data and events related to the presence of blacks in Byzantine society are minimal to nonexistent, the literary sources are numerous - although almost always these kinds of testimonials focus on one or two themes or literary sites . In the literature on the Ethiopians, there dominates mostly various quotations and variations of Ethiopian proverbs: "the Ethiopian remains Ethiopian", "an Ethiopian cannot be whitened", or even "the one born an Ethiopian is whitened" in a response to a Sticheron in commemoration of the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by St. Philip. Most interesting are the references found in hagiographic texts, in which the demons usually appear as black, appearing in the form of Ethiopians, as in the Life of Symeon the Fool: "When the spirit fled, it passed through the phouska-shop in the form of an Ethiopian and broke everything... An accursed black man came and smashed everything."

As a rule, the demons that appear black as Ethiopians test the faith and fortitude of believers. A typical example is the Life of Andrew the Fool. In order to win crowns in Paradise, Andrew, while in a deep sleep, saw that he must wrestle with a black demon in a packed theater of many Ethiopians. Having faith in the words of the angel, that the Ethiopians are insolent and cowardly, the saint eventually emerged the victor in this spiritual struggle, having defeated all those blacks.

But in the Life of Symeon the Fool the appearance of Ethiopians in sleep represents death: "And when he (a great man of the city) was burdened (by illness) almost to death, he saw himself in his sleep playing dice with an Ethiopian, who was death." In dream texts, the same black color was seen as a harbinger of evil. In early hagiographical texts, the demon of fornication and pride appear in the form of an Ethiopian, while in other ones demons appear hairy, with the face of a dog, and as Ethiopians black as coal.

The descriptions of demons in hagiographical texts makes one wonder if they somehow reflect not only the fears and superstitions that prevailed among the working classes, but even racial prejudices concerning at least black people. From certain indications of the sources, they could support the view that racial discrimination was made, even though from the side of the Church it was declared that to neither Scythians nor Ethiopians was the kingdom of heaven closed, for everyone is welcome into the bosom of Christ. Incidents in the Life of Moses the Ethiopian, however, are indicative of a culture that was shaped by whites against blacks. To test the patience and humility of Moses, the monks of the Skete where he was a monk expelled him from their circle with derogatory characterizations and contempt: "The Patriarch, wanting to test him if he had true humility, secretly told the clergy to expel him out of the sacristy. So, when he appeared there after the Divine Liturgy, they expelled him calling him a black man. Moses immediately left without any objection. One of them, who followed him secretly to see if he was bothered, heard him speaking to himself: 'It is good what they have done to you, O black colored one. Since you are not a human, what are you doing with people?'"

Another report also highlights in a forceful way a sense of prejudice towards blacks in the story of the drunken beggar Zamaras, who lived, it seems, on the sidelines of Seleucia of Isauria: "An Ethiopian man, covered with darkness and gloom." The appearance of Zamaras in a dream of the author of this passage is indicative of the prejudice of the time. Some prejudice regarding blacks even teetered on the edges, as can be seen in a passage from a letter of Theodore the Studite, who says: "If a woman at the time of conception imagines an Ethiopian, she will give birth to an Ethiopian."

However, the fear inspired by Ethiopian demons or ghosts were not exclusively derived from their black color, but from several other features which made them fearsome in appearance, such as their stern gaze and face, the scruffy hair of their head, their large physique combined with nudity gave the appearance of warlike blacks, etc. Characteristic is a passage in the Life of Euthymios, of a small Ethiopian with fire emitting from his eyes, a dark complexion, and of considerable height. But even in other types of texts, Ethiopians are not only feared for their color, but in combination of their whole appearance, as in Kaminiates.

Ethiopians are rather rare in the pages of Byzantine chroniclers, and in most cases they don't appear in reality but proverbially, and always in relation to their color: "As for them, like Ethiopians they remained unchanged." Gradually the "Ethiopian" became synonymous with the dark or black person, and in references to "Ethiopians" and blacks in general, such as the Saracens and others, where they receive sneering importance, such as in the vernacular texts, like the Poulologos (Bird Book).

However, the satirical mood of the author of the vernacular text reflects not only the prejudices of the time against the "blacks" and the "Saracens", but also reveals the aesthetic preferences of the Byzantines. The black and generally the dark colors are not considered a thing of beauty, as opposed to the white and golden colors, which we see in portraits of emperors as outlined by historians and chroniclers. Also people who were publicly ridiculed had their faces smudged - a sign of dishonor - because in this way they brought on laughter. In one case a mob ridiculed Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, as the historian Niketas Choniates records, proclaiming the emperor a black man.

...

To summarize, in the form of a conclusion, we can say that Blacks did not significantly occupy the Byzantine mind because they did not acquire or play a special role in Byzantine society. Their numbers in the cities of Egypt and North Africa are unknown to us. Although their presence was not particularly felt in the traditionally Greek-speaking areas, they should have been in those areas during the period until the seventh century. However, these sources and the extent that I was able to consult, there is no special mention made about them.

The reason the Byzantines did not deal with the blacks or the marginalized, such as several other minorities, lies in the multinational and ecumenical character of the empire, whose ultimate aim was the conversion of the nations and their inclusion in the Christian ecumene, as this was the only true image of the heavenly kingdom on earth.

Source: ΟΙ ΠΕΡΙΘΩΡΙΑΚΟΙ ΣΤΟ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟ (The Fringe in Byzantium), ΊΔΡΥΜΑ ΓΟΥΛΑΝΔΡΗ ΑΘΗΝΑ 1993. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

St. Basil of Ostrog and U.S. Senator Bill Barr

Saint Basil of Ostrog (Feast Day - April 29)

Among the Serbian and Montenegrin people there are an innumerable amount of stories of miracles performed through the holy relics of Saint Basil of Ostrog. One of the most interesting stories is that of the United States Senator William (Bill) Barr.

Ginsburg admits Margaret Sanger was a Eugenicist and Racist

Margaret Sanger

Ginsburg's Remark Stirs an Old Debate: 

Abortion, Eugenics and the Meaning of Margaret Sanger

June 22, 2009

Carl M. Cannon, Senior Washington Correspondent

Politics Daily

There is a disquieting reason Ruth Bader Ginsburg's defenders have been denying, however implausibly, the clear meaning of the Supreme Court justice's recent remarks about the history of abortion law, and that reason is this: Historically, eugenics has always been a significant component of the intellectual underpinnings – and political impetus – of the movement to legalize abortion.

This legacy is glossed over by the rhetoric of today's "pro-choice" tacticians, who couch their arguments almost exclusively as a question of a woman's inalienable right to control her body and to make her own reproductive decisions. This reasoning carried the day, at least with the U.S. Supreme Court, which rendered it a constitutional right. But, from the early days of the national discourse on this topic, the idea of feminist empowerment was coupled with the less noble rationale of eugenics, that disturbing dogma that seeks to improve the human race through selective mating – and by controlling who has the opportunity to be born.

Ginsburg rekindled this ancient memory, and not inadvertently, in an interview with journalist and lawyer Emily Bazelon that was published in The New York Times Sunday magazine on July 7. Bazelon's colleague, Hanna Rosin, touted the interview the day before, writing on her blog, "Our own Emily has a fantastic and revealing Q & A with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg." That word "revealing" proved to be quite an understatement.

In case you missed it, the relevant quote came while the two women were discussing the history of jurisprudence that came after Roe v. Wade. Despite some concern that poor women would be pressured into having abortions, the case law worked out the other way. In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that states were under no obligation to fund abortions, and in a 5-4 1980 decision, Harris v. McRae, the high court upheld a congressional ban against using Medicaid funds for abortion.

"Yes, the ruling about that surprised me," Ginsburg told Bazelon. "Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn't really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong."

Melinda Henneberger, my Politics Daily colleague, wrote about this interview on Friday, skeptically relaying Bazelon's claim that Justice Ginsburg didn't really mean the words "populations that we don't want to have too many of" -- or, rather, that the pronoun "we" meant other people, not Ginsburg herself. As you can see from her post, Bazelon's explanation struck Melinda as willfully obtuse. But this is hardly the first time prominent pro-choicers have had to engage in semantic gymnastics to obscure a longtime underlying rationale for their position that is neither politically nor morally correct.

In the early part of the 20th century, pioneers in the birth control movement routinely cited poverty, disease, physical disability, mental acuity, and even racial heritage as reasons to support their cause. In her 1922 book, "The Pivot of Civilization," Margaret Sanger, the founder of the American Birth Control League, an organization that would become Planned Parenthood, opens Chapter 4 with this salvo: "There is but one practical and feasible program in handling the great problem of the feeble-minded. That is, as the best authorities are agreed, to prevent the birth of those who would transmit imbecility to their descendants."

Chapter 4 of that manifesto is actually titled "The Fertility of the Feeble-Minded," and in it, Sanger goes on with some passion about the cascading societal problems caused by those with "feeble" minds, by which she seems to mean those with lower-than-average IQs, persons otherwise identified as "morons" "imbeciles" and "mental defectives."

"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." - Margaret Sanger

 

It appears on close reading that she isn't necessarily talking only about those with mental disabilities, but also about uneducated members of what sociologists today call the underclass. And who will identify such persons, and coerce them, presumably, to submit to forced sterilization? Well, Sanger quotes approvingly from a doctor of that era named Walter E. Fernald, who wrote:

"We now have state commissions for controlling the gipsy-moth and the boll weevil, the foot-and-mouth disease, and for protecting the shell-fish and wild game, but we have no commission which even attempts to modify or control the vast moral and economic forces represented by the feeble-minded persons at large in the community."

Race is inevitably entwined in such remarks, for Sanger goes on to regale her readers about a case study of a "feeble-minded girl, twenty years of age" who was the product of a teen mother and who lived in a "thickly populated Negro district" before being apprehended for solicitation of prostitution. The author dismisses as naïve "some of our doctors" who believe that "there is a place for the good feeble-minded," by which she seems to be saying those who are merely a little below average in intelligence – the kind of person whom she fears "may be encouraged by church and state to increase and multiply until he dominates and gives the prevailing 'color' – culturally speaking – to an entire community."

Now, Sanger herself was certainly not racist in her personal dealings with African-Americans, and she didn't countenance those who were. She counted as allies in her cause of making contraception available to Southern blacks many of the leading black intellectuals of her time. Yet many of the white elites who funded her cause were indeed racist, as well as proponents of a harsh version of eugenics when it came to the disabled, and she deftly played on these sentiments while building support for her cause.

In 1939, Sanger collaborated with two other women on a report called "Birth Control and the Negro," which asserted that "negroes present the great problem of the South." The paper sketched out the broad details of a birth control program aimed at a mostly illiterate population that "still breed carelessly and disastrously." To this day, Planned Parenthood officials will point out that this line was borrowed from a 1932 Birth Control Review article by black radical W.E.B. DuBois. But Sanger's apologists are harder-pressed to justify the wording of a letter she wrote in December of that year to Proctor & Gamble heir Clarence Gamble, proposing that money be allocated to train "an up and doing modern minister, colored, and an up and doing modern colored medical man" to tour the South preaching the need for birth control. "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

This passage is a favorite of modern Christian conservatives seeking to discredit Planned Parenthood, but in a previous time, it was employed to great effect by black activists. Radical professor Angela Davis quoted the provocative wording in her 1983 book, saying the Negro Project "confirmed the ideological victory of the racism associated with eugenic ideas." A decade earlier, a certain "up and doing" black preacher drew on the same material in rejecting legalized abortion as little more than "black genocide." His name was Jesse Louis Jackson.

Jackson's mother was undoubtedly the kind of woman Margaret Sanger had in mind when she proposed raising the quality of life for Southern blacks by aggressively pushing birth control in that part of the country. Sanger was hardly alone. In the 1970s, Jackson would often refer to the circumstances of his own birth: "I was born out of wedlock," he once wrote, "and against the advice that my mother received from her doctor, and therefore abortion is a personal issue for me."

In 1977, Jackson penned an essay for the National Right to Life News in which he called abortion The Question – the italics were his – of the 20th century. He meant ending abortion. "Human beings cannot give or create life by themselves, it is really a gift from God," Jackson wrote. "Therefore, one does not have the right to take away (through abortion) that which he does not have the ability to give."

In those days, Jackson sent an "Open Letter to Congress" in which he asserted flatly "as a matter of conscience I must oppose the use of federal funds for a policy of killing infants." He was a featured speaker at the 1977 March for Life, where he posed this searing question: "What happens . . . to the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?"

It's a question those in the right-to-life movement are still asking, even if Jesse Jackson is not, as the exigencies of political ambition robbed the right-to-lifers of one of their most passionate and inspiring voices. By the mid-1980s, when Jackson was indulging himself with visions of a black politician from Chicago entering the White House – himself, not Barack Obama – he switched sides in this great debate. He said all the right things, this newly indoctrinated national Democrat, but it didn't sound quite as persuasive.

The new Jesse Jackson said that abortion is acceptable because "it is not right to impose private, religious and moral positions on public policy." The old Jesse Jackson maintained: "If one accepts the position that life is private, and therefore you have the right to do with it as you please, one must also accept the conclusion of that logic. That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private."

This intellectual migration is apparently one that Democrats with dreams of national office must make. It's a journey taken by Dick Gephardt, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton as well. Occasionally, it happens the other way, too. George H.W. Bush was for abortion rights before he was against them. He seems to have changed position in a matter of hours, when Ronald Reagan offered him the vice presidency. (Previously, Bush and his wife had been contributors to Planned Parenthood; his father had served on its board.)

If politicians feel constrained from talking about this issue honestly, federal judges with their lifetime appointments need not. Thus, Ruth Ginsburg let her guard down apparently, resulting in her "Michael Kinsley moment" – committing a gaffe by speaking the truth. If her defenders want to brush away that truth, well, that's part of the famous Kinsley formulation, too. Yet, the underlying themes Ginsburg invoked are still present, and one doesn't have to go back to Margaret Sanger or 1939 to find them:

In 1991, the state of Maryland passed an abortion law billed as a safety net in case the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Seven months after President George H.W. Bush signed the American With Disabilities Act, this Maryland statute prohibited the state from interfering -- at any stage -- with a woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy if "the fetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality." This is a pretty good working definition of eugenics. So, too, was the ugly talk directed in the last presidential campaign against the mother of a baby boy with Down syndrome, as are the statistics showing that blacks have hugely disproportionate numbers of abortions in this country year after year.

In other words, Ruth Ginsburg's fears that poor people cannot avail themselves of the rights conveyed by Roe appear to be unfounded. Could it be that Margaret Sanger's vision – the part we don't really want to think about – has come to pass?

For further reading:

http://margaretsanger.blogspot.com/2007/09/if-margaret-sanger-and-adolph-hitler.html