By Gretchen Keiser

The position of people working in the pro-life movement -- outside the centers of power and called to stand committed despite the cost -- has its many parallels in the Old Testament Book of Esther, according to Jean Staker Garton.

Dr. Garton, a prominent national figure in the pro-life movement and president of Lutherans for Life, was the keynote speaker for the second year in a row at the archdiocese's Family Night in Support of Life Jan. 31. Some 500 people heard Dr. Garton and other speakers at the Cathedral Hyland Center, which was dotted by school children's posters depicting pro-life themes. Six winters of poster and essay contests were also announced.

Her speech exhorted those assembled to look at the story of Esther and to renew the commitment which enabled Esther to walk into the king's chambers on behalf of her people, even though she risked death by her action.

At the center of the story are Esther, who as the queen, can act to save the Jewish people, and Mordecai, who stands outside but calls upon her to intercede for the Jews whom Haman, powerful in the kingdom, set out to massacre.

Today's fasting and prayer for the unborn is patterned after Esther's three-day fast in which she sought the strength to risk her own life by appearing before the king when he had not summoned her, Dr. Garton said.

There are also parallels in that "the king's behavior is dependent on those around him, the voices around him which are the loudest and the strongest," she said. In much the same way, our government today reflects the loudest and strongest voices and adapts itself to whatever is acceptable. "Government will sing to our level of tolerance and we have learned to tolerate a lot," she said.

While "an individual changed by Christ demands a changed society," we are seeing instead people who have withdrawn from "the marketplace" -- the center of public life. "The Gospel -- which is life-building, life-sustaining, life-defending -- is not being felt in the land," she said.

Dr. Garton also turned the message Mordecai wrote to Esther to the people who work for the pro-life cause. When Esther trembled at the thought of risking her own life, Mordecai answered that she could not save herself because of the killing of Jews, once begun, would reach her eventually, even in the shelter of the king's house. And, she said, "perhaps you have come into the kingdom for just such a time as this."

Similarly, Dr. Garton said, "The destruction of innocent life eventually will land on your doorstep. Once violence is legalized, it becomes addictive."

And, she said, "perhaps you have come into the kingdom for just such a time as this," when there is a need for people to stand up in public, echoing Esther's commitment, and be willing to perish in order to denounce evil and save life.

"Where are the women and men in the tradition of Esther," she asked, "who, seeing evil, assume a responsibility for confronting it … in the marketplace, in public?"

Family Night In Support of Life, sponsored by the archdiocesan Pro-Life Office, is the keynote event marking each January the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 abortion ruling.

The office also sponsors a poster contest, open to children in grades one through six, and an essay contest for those in grades seven through twelve.

The essay winners this year were Angela Sullivan of Immaculate Heart of Mary in first place; Russell Stumpf of St. Joseph's in Marietta in second; and Angela Schilling of St. Mary's in Rome in third place. Poster awards went to Christy Sullivan of IHM in first place; Seandrika Willingham of Sts. Peter and Paul in second place and Ann Whelan, also of Sts. Peter and Paul, in third place.