Posted on 03/20/2006 2:23:32 PM PST by madprof98
Those who seek to outlaw abortion often use the rhetoric of "protecting the most vulnerable and helpless" in our communities. Many of them are Christians who see their opposition to abortion rights as inextricably linked with their faith and their understanding of Christian ethics. After all, wouldn't a God of love and life want us to protect life wherever we found it?
If only it were that simple.
In practice, there are other questions we must ask. Does a God of love and life ever support war? Does such a God understand that some innocent civilians will die when we fight to protect our freedoms? In other words, does God approve when we make the decision to kill other people to protect our quality of life? What about when we kill to prevent genocide? Does God have a holy balancing scale that weighs intangibles like "intent" and "the greater good" or one that compares the number of innocent lives lost against the number of innocent lives saved?
We do not know. For every Christian with a "God Bless Our Troops" sticker on their bumper there is another with "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" on their rear windshield.
If my experience as a pastor is any indication, it is unlikely that the driver of either car would be making their point from the kind of complex theological arguments I learned in seminary. In practice, our upbringings, our biases and our circumstances have much more to do with what we believe God thinks; and we are often inconsistent.
How else could we spend millions of dollars to oppose abortion --- despite no clear biblical argument for or against it --- and ignore the overwhelming number of biblical texts that explicitly command us to care for the poor?
For the vast majority of Christians, it is not about consistency --- it is about convenience. Even those of us who speak passionately about protecting the weak often forget that our willingness to purchase cheap goods produced by exploited workers sentences children to poverty, disease, violence and death. The cars that we drive, the food that we allow to be marketed to children, the tax breaks we support or oppose, they all have a life-or-death impact on the most vulnerable among us. It is not only in war that we make decisions to value one life over another. Consciously or not, we do it every time we go to the supermarket.
The issue of abortion is not about whether life starts at conception. There are convincing arguments either way. The issue is which carries more weight: the life that may be in the embryo, or the life and needs of the woman in whose body that embryo was conceived?
After spending time in women's health clinics, I have come to realize that the "most vulnerable and helpless" who need our active protection are the women and couples who are faced with the agonizingly difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy. As a Christian pastor, I strongly support protecting the right of women to make this decision. Other Christian pastors have chosen otherwise, and our division on this issue is proof that there is no Christian consensus here.
The far right, however, has been able to set the issue of abortion apart from all of the other controversial, life-or-death decisions we make every day. Abortion is not a special case; and I pray that the guardians of our Constitution will continue to protect our freedom to choose our own priorities in all of these weighty matters.
The beliefs or prejudices of some, regardless of who has a majority, should not be used to take the choice out of the hands of the woman who will be the main bearer, perhaps the only bearer, of the consequences of her decision.
The Rev. C. Joshua Villines of Decatur is a regional spokesman for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. An ordained United Church of Christ pastor, he is completing a doctorate degree at Vanderbilt University.
He should demand a full refund from from his educators; they have left him morally bankrupt. Christianity is the single most consistent thing you will ever find.
....as for convenience, that is when one terminates a life so that you may drive a better car, or have steak instead of chicken this evening.
What an idiot. The Bible clearly says that man shall not kill innocent life. It also reveals that God is the author of life. Abortion is rebellion against God and murder.
2 posted on 03/20/2006 3:27:04 PM MST by MBB1984
Genesis 9:5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. YHvH demanded an accounting for the taking of life.
b'shem Y'shua
I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each
man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
This man is not a Christian; he is a socialist.
Incredibly arrogant guy, this writer. I can't even believe this crap:
After spending time in women's health clinics, I have come to realize that the "most vulnerable and helpless" who need our active protection are the women and couples who are faced with the agonizingly difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy.
I guess that's what "complex theological arguments" will do you, turn you into a total dumbass.
Like the concept or act of removing the unborn from the womb and throwing them away even existed back then. This sounds like Clinton-speak to me.
That said, I may be mistaken but I think there's a commandment that deals with murder. As a "pastor" he ought to be familiar with it.
Why yes He does, according to the Bible. There are many instances of God telling the Israelites to make war against various nations. He even tells them to wipe some completely off the face of the earth.
"How else could we spend millions of dollars to oppose abortion --- despite no clear biblical argument for or against it..."
How about the sixth commandment --- "Thou shalt not murder."
How about the numerous nations -- including Israel, that God punished with war, even to utter destruction, for sacrificing their children to Molech.
Lev 20:2 Moreover, you shall say to the Israelites, Any one of the Israelites or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech [the fire god worshiped with human sacrifices] shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. Lev 20:3 I also will set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him, and excluding him from My covenant] and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his children to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name. Lev 20:4 And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from the man when he gives one of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech [the fire god] and they overlook it or neglect to take legal action to punish him, winking at his sin, and do not kill him [as My law requires], Lev 20:5 Then I will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, him and all who follow him to [unfaithfulness to Me, and thus] play the harlot after Molech.
I challenge "Rev." Villines to pick a Bible up and read it sometime. Either his eyes will really be opened or he'll start blathering something about a god of love could not really do the things in the Bible. I hope he and those who think like him are not expecting the gods they make up in their minds to save them. They'll be disappointed.
The reason they don't see the truth is because they are blind to it. No matter how many times the Bible says it, they'll still refuse to believe it. Until the Holy Spirit opens their eyes, they just won't see.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=709083&mesg_id=709083
Whoa! didn't know the room was full of eavesdroppers! :)
he sounds like a secular humanist.he'd never open a Bible.
But he may like to read up on pacifist hero Henry Thoreau's reply to John Brown's actions in freeing slaves by use of
violence.
a peek at any sonogram will clear up the question in a moment.
in the absence of an image, one need only give honest consideration to the concept of murder, and just what, if any, class of human being is "life unworthy of life." again, the resolution will come to the honest in very short order.
defense of abortion is insanity.
A four leaf clover?
does anyone actually read the AJC??
I live in ATL and I dont know a single person who does...anoyone want to bet that as ATL metro population approaches 5m, that the AJC's circulation is lower in 2006 than in 1986 or even 1976??
William F. Buckley points out that this argument says pushing an old lady under a bus is no worse than pushing her out of the path of a bus. In both cases, you're pushing old ladies around, which is wrong.
Those boy scouts need a new method.
God knows why.
Nesher ge sher?:)
Whoa! didn't know the room was full of eavesdroppers! :)
Dang roof is falling apart.
Crap! My cat better shape up!
defense of abortion is insanity.
Pretty big fence to climb and dumb if you do.
Like there is for baby names there must be a book of names for liberal pressure/advocacy groups to choose from. Jeez, you can see 'em comming just by their name(s).
There ought to be a rule to put a (L) or (C) after these so called "public interest" groups, just like there is for elected officials (R) or (D).
Come to think of it, we don't need the L or C. If it is C, the media slips in a little reference to "right wing". If it is L, they say nothing.
"Absoloute nonesense, like the rest of the article. Replace 'Christians' with 'Muslims' and no paper in America would have printed this."
I have a good friend who writes conservative OP/ED pieces for the AJ-C. He just LOVES to get the uber-liberal readership riled up...and he does a good job of it, too. (Shamless Plug for my pal Bill Fallin!)
It never ceases to amaze me how people that want to murder babies are given so much print ink. The Culture of Death marches on. :(
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