Additionally, in some countries, up to its efforts into three areas defined as Care Among the U.S.-based organizations one third of adolescent girls report that of Souls, Justice and Mercy, and Care of that Imago Dei has invested in are Shared their first sexual experience was forced Creation. Hope International, founded and lead by (World Health Organization). At least one “To date, we have engaged mostly in former Congresswoman Linda Smith, and out of every three women in the world has anti-trafficking efforts in Cambodia the Polaris Project, co-founded by Katherbeen raped, beaten, coine Chon, Brown ’02. erced into sex, or other“Some of the most interwise violently abused in esting, capable social acher lifetime (UN Developtivists that I have met this ment Fund for Women). past year are women— An estimated one in five women who are working women will be a victim of in their area of giftedness, rape or attempted rape in empowered by a unique her lifetime (UN Millensense of personal call to nium Project). work toward the betterIt is this oppressed and ment of humanity,” said abused segment of women Jones. “As the co-founder that Jones works to of IDF, I have enjoyed emancipate through her —Emily Neilson Jones, Dartmouth ’91 partnering with inspired work with Imago Dei. The change-agents, mostly Boston-based, grant-making institution where we have partnered with three other women, working in their local contexts to invests in organizations that work on the foundations to strategically invest in orcreate a better world for all humans to ground level to promote human dignity, ganizations that are working together to thrive and fulfill their God-given potential freedom, and equality. IDF concentrates combat sex trafficking,” said Jones. as image bearers of God.” ■
“Women have come a long way, but still suffer a scale of physical, sexual, and psychological violence worldwide that is mind-numbing—a pandemic humanitarian crisis that crosses every social and economic class, every religion, race, and ethnicity.”
By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
SPEAKING UP, VOWING SILENCE Pro-Life Events Take Various Expressions at Princeton, Yale
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Respect for life means valuing all humans, regardless of race, ALL IVY ethnicity, condition, age, and stage of development. Robert George emphasized those points when the noted Princeton University professor served as one of the key speakers for the Respect Life Sunday service sponsored by Princeton Pro-Life (www.princeton.edu/~prolife/). The service was a highlight of the organization’s annual awareness week in October. “We have not always lived up to it in our institutions and political practices, but we have never failed to regret it when we did not live up to it,” said George, Harvard Law ’81. George provided some historical perspective on the beliefs he said are at the core of abortion practices and beliefs. George told students the concept of “lives unworthy of life,” though notably embraced with cruel enthusiasm by the Nazis, was not invented by their party
leaders. Rather, such concepts derived from sophisticated, urbane, “progressive” thinkers, many of whom were prominent intellectual leaders in Germany during the Weimar period of democracy, well before the Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party arose to power. The Nazis’ eugenics ideology justified their barbaric efforts to “improve” the gene pool and practice racial hygiene, George said. Today, the premises of eugenics appear “wrapped in the language of compassion, autonomy, and choice. It’s the same basic idea, dressed in different clothing,” George said. Such philosophies stand in “diametrical opposition to the principles of the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every member of the human family,” George said. Rather, belief in the worth of each individual is incompatible with the desire to “withdraw the protection of the law from
At the Annual Respect Life Sunday Service, noted theologian Russell Moore said Christians are called to care for widows, orphans, and the unborn. Winter 2012 | 29