Planned Parenthood Federation of America honored Rev. W. Stewart MacColl with the 2006 Davis Distinguished Service Award at its Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, held during the Planned Parenthood Annual Conference in Washington, DC, in March 2006. The award is given annually to honor a member of the clergy or a lay religious leader who, as a volunteer, occupies a leadership position at a Planned Parenthood affiliate and has made significant contributions to the affiliate and to advancing the Planned Parenthood mission and program. The Davis Award was established to recognize members of the religious community whose support of Planned Parenthood reflects the teachings of their respective faith, as exemplified by Rev. Tom Davis and his late wife, Rev. Betsy Morgan Davis.

Rev. MacColl is a retired Presbyterian minister. He included Planned Parenthood as part of his ministry at each of the congregations he served in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Texas. Rev. MacColl lives in Texas with his with his wife, Rev. Jane T. MacColl.

Acceptance Remarks

Thank you for this honor. It should have been given jointly to the Rev. Jane T. MacColl, for she has been instrumental in my understanding of the issues and all of the work. It is also shared by at least two congregations.

In the 60s and early 70s I participated in the Clergy Consultation for Problem Pregnancies while I was serving a church in Wilton, CT. The clergy group helped women obtain illegal abortions. I was breaking a state law by even offering the counseling assistance, but I had become convinced that it was appropriate. Reinhold Niebuhr, a seminary professor of mine, said that the real ethical divide is between people who want to be pure and those who seek to be responsible. I have long since given up arguing with folks who want to discuss when life begins. That esoteric attempt at ethical purity seems irrelevant when you have listened to women struggling to be responsible for their own lives, and often for the lives of their families, making difficult, painful, courageous decisions. Niebuhr was right, the real ethical divide is between people who want to be pure and those who seek to be responsible.

I finally decided that I should tell the Wilton congregation what I was doing, because I was breaking the state law in an office on church property. So at a Sunday evening meeting I shared some of the stories of the women who had come. I expected there would be folks who would object to their minister aiding in abortion and breaking the law. To my surprise, instead almost the entire group turned to the state representative, a member of the church, saying, why you can't change the laws of this state so our minister doesn't have to break them to help these desperate women. What incredible folks!

The second church that shares this award is in Houston. Northwoods Presbyterian with others churches supports an ecumenical service center. In the early '90s a Roman Catholic counselor there said to a Protestant worker, "If you folks really want to do something for women you'll start a family planning center." So it began. A group of Protestant churches approached the local Planned Parenthood, which urged the churches to put up some initial funding. The churches agreed. The protests started. The other churches found it impossible to continue. The official board of Northwoods never wavered. Its commitment of $25,000 was firm. So the picketers came. And 900 people drove steadfastly through the picket lines to the worship services Sunday after Sunday. I think the nicest phone call I got during that time was from a woman saying, "Stewart, as we drove out of church yesterday through the picket lines, I said my to husband, 'I'm not sure I even approve of what my church is doing, but I'm proud to belong to a church that will deal with controversial issues and won't back down under pressure.'" The invitation for me to serve on the local Planned Parenthood board followed the courageous stand of the congregation.

During the picketing, between two services one Sunday, Jane and I went and served the protesters refreshments. At the next service I explained that we were showing respect for those folks, because they were expressing their understanding of their faith. A parishioner called me the next day to comment, "That's all very well for you say, but you don't drive to church with a four-year-old in the back seat of your car and have to try to explain to him when a woman holds up a picture of a dead baby and screams through the window, 'Your church believes in killing babies.'" Of course the caller was right. We took precautions to see that the pickets were not permitted close to the driveways.

Yet the image of the woman frightening that little child stays with me. She would, I suspect, count herself a lover of life, a lover of the unborn, a lover of God. And yet she spoke in harshness, hatred, and frightened a little boy. Niebuhr again — he once said: "Sometimes the worst evil is done by good people who do not know that they are not good."

But, of course, the trouble is I can find myself reflected in that woman. Because I can get trapped in self-righteousness and paint those who oppose me in dark colors they do not deserve. Perhaps, at times, that is true of you, as well. It seems to me that the appeals I get from our side are occasionally filled with much arrogance, even hatred — and that saddens me. At least religious people should know that we see only baffling reflections of reality, and we are summoned as flawed folk to respect those who disagree, even while we try to live courageously and responsibly according to our values. Planned Parenthood has always helped me to try to do that. And for that I am deeply grateful. Thank you.