Why do The Little Sisters of the Poor Exist

Who are The Little Sisters of the Poor? What is their mission? And why is the Obama administration and federal judicial system hell bent on shutting them down?

The Little Sisters of the Poor was founded to cultivate a culture of life. The sisters pour their hearts out to women who find themselves in what could otherwise seem to be impossible situations -- alone, pregnant, often beset by the many stresses of life, with the world telling them to end the life of their child. The sisters love these mothers and give them the support they need to embrace their lives and the budding lives of their children. The sisters also care for those who have been hurt by a culture of death.

Christians leaders often talk about people on the peripheries in a throwaway society. We cast aside people who seem to be without value. If the poor are even on our radar at all, it may be as a statistic or unfortunate collateral damage in a news story. Caught up in headlines about Obamacare politics, to stop for a moment and consider who the sisters are, what they do and why they do it could be a great consolation and boost for our society at a time when people are despairing and doubling down on chaos or anger. We need to know that such people as the Little Sisters of the Poor exist. They help us see joy.

None of The Little Sisters of the Poor are what the world might traditionally think of when it thinks of mothers. And yet, they are exactly the mothers we need -- at a moment when so much seems impossible. At a moment where the future is unclear. When one looks into the eyes, they see love again. They see hope again. In the smile of someone who didn't have to care for you, to even give a moment's thought to you. To look into the eyes and see someone love your child -- this is the start of a reawakening. Yet our federal government pursues and persecutes them for nothing more than The Little Sisters of the Poor standing ground for reasons of faith and love. Has not our political leadership lost its bearings? Let me see, one group saves lives, the other authorizes, through legislation infanticide. Which is morally conscionable, the group that saves lives or the entity that snuffs them out?  Which group or entity stands on higher ground?