Posted on 02/05/2006 10:34:42 AM PST by Incorrigible
BY CONNIE SCHULTZ
With the simplest of gestures, any woman in America can lay her hands on the battleground here at home.
It's beneath the soft flesh of her own body, the area nestled between her hips where babies are conceived or not, carried to term or not. By merely resting her hand across her abdomen, a woman can find the combustible intersection of politics and religion where the mighty turf war is being waged.
If you listen only to those who scream the loudest, you might think that most Americans of faith believe abortion is a sin against God. It's a common misperception, and one that deeply troubles the Rev. Dr. Carlton Veazey, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and founded its Black Church Initiative.
"The majority of religious people in this country support choice, but you wouldn't know it by the noise and ink in the media from the other side," says the 69-year-old Baptist minister. "People tend to identify religious people with anti-choice, but that is the opposite of reality."
Polling last summer by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that while a majority of Americans want more restrictions on abortion, they overwhelmingly want to keep it legal. Even among evangelicals who were polled, fewer than half favored overturning Roe v. Wade. Only 15 percent said abortion should be eliminated.
None of these findings surprise Veazey, nor does he find them inconsistent with religious faith.
"I was raised by my father, who was also a minister, to believe in the moral agency of individuals, that they had a right to make moral choices. Choice is a God-given right. To have a child can be a sacred choice. By the same token, to not have a child can be a sacred choice.
"The woman may not be prepared to bring a new life into the world. She may not be able to provide for a child. She may decide, `My life is not where it should be."'
The willingness to empathize with a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy is what brings many of us to support the right to reproductive freedom. Even those who are certain they could never abort a fetus under any circumstances can understand why someone else would, if only they start to imagine a whole different set of circumstances in their lives.
What if I were a teenager? Or completely alone? In a violent or abusive relationship? What would I do if I knew there was something genetically wrong with the fetus inside me? What if I were pregnant from a rape? What would I do if I were pregnant and poor?
"I keep thinking of what Joycelyn Elders told me," Veazey said, referring to the former U.S. surgeon general. "That 70 percent of poverty in the black community can be traced to teen pregnancy."
So Veazey has taken his sermon to the road. On that, he had no choice, especially in light of Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court.
"We are going to become a theocracy if we aren't going to be more outspoken as religious progressives. One thing I have to give the opposition: They're very skillful in working the media."
Some of them are also emotional terrorists.
Earlier this week, I spoke with a 65-year-old grandmother who recently started escorting patients into an abortion clinic. A devoted member of the United Church of Christ, she told me that navigating women past screaming protesters has bolstered her faith and made her fiercely pro-choice.
"These people taunt and abuse these women. They scream, `You're murderers!' They don't even know why some of these women are there. They may be coming for counseling or diagnostic tests, but the protesters attack them anyway, as if they have all the answers for everyone in the world, as if they alone have the pipeline for God."
They frighten her, which is why she didn't want me to use her name. They will not, however, scare her away.
"I did not know the pain inflicted on these women," she said. "Women have the moral integrity to make these decisions for themselves. It's terrorism on their hearts."
It's also just another tactic in the war over who controls a woman's womb.
Feb. 3, 2006
(Connie Schultz is a columnist for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. She can be contacted at cschultz@plaind.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
The ethical disharmony and moral confusion that reign in our society have escalated the activity of criminals who commit a variety of heinous crimes—killing large numbers of people, raping women, and doing all sorts of terrible things. Yet, a sizeable portion of society is against capital punishment. Many people feel that these wicked adults, who have engaged in heinous, destructive conduct, should not be executed—a viewpoint that flies directly in the face of what the Bible teaches (Romans 13:1-6; 1 Peter 2:13-14). God wants evildoers in society to be punished—even to the point of capital punishment.Yet, we will not execute guilty, hardened criminals, while we will execute innocent human babies! How can one possibly accept this terrible disparity and the horrible scourge of abortion?"
Excerpted from the article "Abortion and the Bible" by David Miller, PHD, at Apologetics Press HERE
"Another insightful passage from the Old Testament is found in Exodus 21:22-25. This passage describes what action is to be taken in a case of accidental injury to a pregnant woman:
If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no lasting harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any lasting harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (NKJV).
This passage has been mistranslated in some versions. For example, some versions use the word “miscarriage” instead of translating the Hebrew phrase literally—“so that her children come out.” The text is envisioning a situation in which two brawling men accidentally injure a pregnant bystander. The injury causes the woman to go into early labor, resulting in a premature birth of her child. If neither the woman nor the child is harmed, then the Law of Moses levied a fine against the one who caused the premature birth. But if injury or even death resulted from the brawl, then the law imposed a parallel punishment: if the premature baby died, the one who caused the premature birth was to be executed—life for life. This passage clearly considers the pre-born infant to be a human being, and to cause a pre-born infant’s death was homicide under the Old Testament—homicide punishable by death.
Notice that this regulation under the Law of Moses had to do with injury inflicted accidentally. Abortion is a deliberate, purposeful termination of a child’s life. If God dealt severely with the accidental death of a pre-born infant, how do you suppose He feels about the deliberate murder of the unborn by an abortion doctor? The Bible states explicitly how He feels: “[D]o not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked” (Exodus 23:7). As a matter of fact, one of the things that God hates is “hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17).
(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)
This account has a ring of credibility. Snopes lies. Guess who I believe.
He's also deceiving people when he claims to represent the Baptist Church.
These fake Christians couldn't do so much harm, if there weren't stupid people willing to believe them.
I can't believe nobody has made the connection yet. This "minister" doesn't believe in the Judeo/Christian God. His God is the DNC and his bible is their talking points.
Remeber, only a few days ago did Obamma Barak (sp?) come out with his slap on the wrist to democrats to start attracting evangelicals.
Now we have "evangelicals" coming out for the holy temply of the DNC, abortion.
Soon, we'll see more "evangelical" ministers come out in support of gay marriage, removing any hint of religion from the public square etc.
The only way for the DNC to attract evangelicals is for some of them to be made to feel that their bible is wrong, their beliefs are wrong and the Church of the DNC is the only thing holy.
SO he would sacrifice the baby on the altar of presumed prosperity???
What God does he worship?
My God (through Jesus Christ) provides "...for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field"...and for me and mine as well, no murder involved.
Let's hope the left's societal/moral death wish never progresses to the point that a site like that is not a spoof.
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