Christian Democrats in the United States
Domestic Issues - Abortion Make abortion undesirable by providing healthcare, family planning services, well-managed adoption programs, education and child care, a living wage, and justice. Offer your hand, and people will choose life. As for moral edge-cases like the doctor saving the mother's life, we support the right of human beings to make difficult decisions in service of life to the best of their abilities when those decisions are presented by the face of death. Outside of these cases, regardless of our individual views on personal rights, we maintain that abortion is never a good choice in the wealthiest country in the world. We believe it is possible to construct a society in which abortion is not absolutely prohibited by law, but no one wants one. We seek to resolve real-world problems to decrease demand for abortion, and not to divide people with our religious views. Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
5:04 AM
On the one hand, a large part of society has accepted the robotic track that abortion is equivalent to birth control and only a manifestation of a woman's right to control her reproduction and to not be raped. Another large part of society has accepted the robotic track that women who are raped or who consider abortions somehow deserve the worst that life has to offer, and that they have to go it alone.
Somehow through it all, the women themselves are forgotten (like "Citizen Ruth") as competing interests seek power over them through shame. Both sides of this supposed "moral" debate pile the shame onto women, pushing them from a position of desperation into total moral isolation, in which they feel they have no options, into a sort of murder/suicide mentality, a self-negating and life-negating mentality. One can only guess how many women commit suicide rather than get abortions, or who commit suicide because they got abortions.
I am certain it can appear to some women, as it has appeared to me at times, that no human being on earth has any sympathy for what they're going through, that humanity judges they are weak for not knowing what to do, for not knowing how to go it alone.
They are the biggest tragedy of our time, equivalent in scope to the abortions which are morally and economically unnecessary in our country. The women are forgotten, they are used by society not once but twice, first used and manipulated by men, then used and manipulated in an abstract way by media. Who will recognize them for the mortal, frail, imperfect human beings that they are? Who will have compassion for them, and mercy on their souls? Jesus would, but would you?
The hardest thing for any sinner to do is to ask to be forgiven. But we must remember, we cannot find moral absolution by asking forgiveness of other human beings. We have to ask God.
All the bible-pushing, gun-toting, moralistic, judgmental and accusatory people out there who call themselves Christians only pile more shame on women considering abortions and those who have had them, and the natural resistance of humans to human authority causes those women to draw into themselves and further away from God.
That kind of unforgiving, ruthless and selfish attitude does not serve the goals of love in the world. It makes women less likely to recognize their own mistakes and ask God for forgiveness of those mistakes.
Love, not guilt or force, is the only way that humanity will ever open itself to the coming of the Lord and the kingdom of ends, in which the law is written not in books, but in our hearts. Forgiveness is a way to let a little more love into the world. If you know someone considering an abortion, or who has had one, let them know that you do not lord it over them, that you do not want to make them feel ashamed for the unchangeable reality of their life. Let them know you are there for them, to support them, to love them. Love is the only way to live in full the lives that God intended for us.
forgiveness
The most difficult thing a person can do is to change the mind about something so intimately bound up in life and personality and death as the subject of abortion. Women who have had abortions may have the toughest time that any person can have on the earth wrestling with issues of conscience.On the one hand, a large part of society has accepted the robotic track that abortion is equivalent to birth control and only a manifestation of a woman's right to control her reproduction and to not be raped. Another large part of society has accepted the robotic track that women who are raped or who consider abortions somehow deserve the worst that life has to offer, and that they have to go it alone.
Somehow through it all, the women themselves are forgotten (like "Citizen Ruth") as competing interests seek power over them through shame. Both sides of this supposed "moral" debate pile the shame onto women, pushing them from a position of desperation into total moral isolation, in which they feel they have no options, into a sort of murder/suicide mentality, a self-negating and life-negating mentality. One can only guess how many women commit suicide rather than get abortions, or who commit suicide because they got abortions.
I am certain it can appear to some women, as it has appeared to me at times, that no human being on earth has any sympathy for what they're going through, that humanity judges they are weak for not knowing what to do, for not knowing how to go it alone.
They are the biggest tragedy of our time, equivalent in scope to the abortions which are morally and economically unnecessary in our country. The women are forgotten, they are used by society not once but twice, first used and manipulated by men, then used and manipulated in an abstract way by media. Who will recognize them for the mortal, frail, imperfect human beings that they are? Who will have compassion for them, and mercy on their souls? Jesus would, but would you?
The hardest thing for any sinner to do is to ask to be forgiven. But we must remember, we cannot find moral absolution by asking forgiveness of other human beings. We have to ask God.
All the bible-pushing, gun-toting, moralistic, judgmental and accusatory people out there who call themselves Christians only pile more shame on women considering abortions and those who have had them, and the natural resistance of humans to human authority causes those women to draw into themselves and further away from God.
That kind of unforgiving, ruthless and selfish attitude does not serve the goals of love in the world. It makes women less likely to recognize their own mistakes and ask God for forgiveness of those mistakes.
Love, not guilt or force, is the only way that humanity will ever open itself to the coming of the Lord and the kingdom of ends, in which the law is written not in books, but in our hearts. Forgiveness is a way to let a little more love into the world. If you know someone considering an abortion, or who has had one, let them know that you do not lord it over them, that you do not want to make them feel ashamed for the unchangeable reality of their life. Let them know you are there for them, to support them, to love them. Love is the only way to live in full the lives that God intended for us.
Labels: abortion, forgiveness, shame
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