"Father God, we just ask You to open Your wide, wide arms and look down upon us, Lord, and lead us, and let us know what we should do to stop this, this terrible, terrible holocaust"
About this Quote
The loaded word is "holocaust". It’s an intentional escalation, a rhetorical tripwire meant to snap the audience into a single, totalizing interpretation: what’s happening is not contested, not complicated, not a spectrum of beliefs, but mass atrocity. In American culture, that term functions like a siren; it compresses nuance into shock. The subtext is less about persuading opponents than solidifying the faithful, giving them language that sanctifies their outrage and casts compromise as complicity.
Context matters because McCorvey wasn’t just any celebrity voice. As the onetime "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade who later became a prominent anti-abortion activist, she embodied a conversion narrative that movements crave: the insider turned witness. This prayer reads like a public-facing altar call, using intimacy with God to claim authority over the debate, and using her own biography to imply: I have seen the heart of this story, and now I’m asking heaven to shut it down.
Quote Details
| Topic | Prayer |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
McCorvey, Norma. (2026, January 16). Father God, we just ask You to open Your wide, wide arms and look down upon us, Lord, and lead us, and let us know what we should do to stop this, this terrible, terrible holocaust. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/father-god-we-just-ask-you-to-open-your-wide-wide-86491/
Chicago Style
McCorvey, Norma. "Father God, we just ask You to open Your wide, wide arms and look down upon us, Lord, and lead us, and let us know what we should do to stop this, this terrible, terrible holocaust." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/father-god-we-just-ask-you-to-open-your-wide-wide-86491/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Father God, we just ask You to open Your wide, wide arms and look down upon us, Lord, and lead us, and let us know what we should do to stop this, this terrible, terrible holocaust." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/father-god-we-just-ask-you-to-open-your-wide-wide-86491/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.




