Written June 2022
Roe versus Wade was just shot down by the Supreme Court, a
court President Trump was able to stock with conservative judges, with more
appointees than most presidents ever see. The outspoken Christian right voted
for Trump with this goal in view. And they are celebrating their calculated
victory. They won, abortion is no longer the law of the land, left in the hands
of individual states, many of whom had bills on hand to totally abolish the act
of abortion in their state. How can this
not be God’s will? Look how it all fell into place.
Certainly, I find abortion repugnant. I cannot think of a
reason why I would have chosen to have one, especially with adoption so much a
part of my family. But as certain as I am that I would not have chosen abortion
for myself, I cannot understand why I should stop someone else from having one.
What purpose would I have> Saving the unborn? But saving them for what, a
life of being unwanted, a life of poverty?
And what business is it of mine if my neighbor decides to cheat on a
test, steal paper from work, punch out an adversary or have an abortion. I am
not their keeper.
Do the anti-abortionists believe that they are somehow
adding points towards their salvation? Do they think that they are making the
world a better place for God? Ushering the return of Christ? Do they imagine
that young women will turn in droves towards the church as a result of this
loving act? I had a phone call years ago
from an anti-abortionist group asking me what I felt for the millions of babies
being killed. I said I believed God had those babies in heaven, and I was
concerned about the millions of women who felt compelled to that extremity. Who
is concerned about them? What provisions have been made by these celebrating
groups, for the women who can no longer get an abortion, who might even be
tried for murder?
Legislating morality hasn’t ever really worked. People still
murder and burglarize and defraud. And even harsh penalties (three strikes,
death penalty) haven’t kept people from continuing to break those laws. How do
we suppose making abortion illegal will actually stop abortions? We are all
sinners. Our best accomplishment is sin. Our entire character leans toward sin.
Tell us to not do something and we reach toward it. Sure, we can withstand some
temptations, but we all have our weakness. We all still bend toward sin, even
if it’s just thoroughly judging others, or putting up obstacles that keep them
from meeting the Lord.
My students believe that America is still a theistic
country, even though none of them are theistic, nor their parents or very few
people they know. They believe this because of the power the Christian Right
seems to wield. They have had front row seats watching the Roe Versus Wade
decommissioning. And they ask, what next? LGBQ+ rights? Birth control? They see Christians as being intolerant of
their rights, of enforcing “Christian” rules on non-believers. Where is the
equity in that? And when in history did it ever even work, to mandate everyone
behave as Christian, if not agree to become one? America was born out of people seeking to
have freedom from a state church, to worship, or not, as they deemed fit, not
as the state imposed it. And yet, here we
are today, having the religious right impose their beliefs on everyone else.
Jesus seemed unconcerned about the Roman rule or laws in His
day. He was more concerned with legalistic Jews keeping people from knowing
God, setting up false barriers and multitudes of laws that made it seem
impossible to please God. Jesus blew holes in all those laws. Not that God’s
laws were bad, just impossible to live, and when humans piled on with even more
laws – no one had a chance. So Jesus wasn’t a zealot trying to throw off Roman
rule. He didn’t make a cause against treatment of women or slavery or any ill
of His day. Instead, he walked and talked and ate with those people who had
been persecuted against. He made them feel loved and accepted by Him, even if
the world had pushed them away. Jesus focused on the heart, and heart
relationships. He knew how full of sin we are. He knew that no number of laws
would remove our sinfulness, even good laws. Instead, He did the one thing that
could be done for us. He took on Himself the sins of us all – every one of us
who has ever lived, every sin ever sinned – or was being sinned – or had yet to
happen. Jesus died for sin, once for all. And the sin question was removed from
the table. Now all God seeks to know is “what have you done about my Son,
Jesus?” He doesn’t ask if we’ve had an
abortion or are gay or an alcoholic or a judgmental, Christian right wing
Trumper. All He asks is if we’ve accepted the sacrifice of His Son in our
place. Period.
And even those who have trusted their life to Christ
continue to sin. I still thoroughly judge the right wing. I still struggle
forgiving those who set this whole Roe Versus Wade reversal into action. But my
forgiveness by God isn’t contingent on my sinlessness – because I can’t be
sinless. I am to trust more and more on God, and allow him to do His work in
my, in spite of my still raging sin nature. And regularly confess my sins so He
can be free to use me. But the saving is
over, occurring on that Cross 2000 years ago and made real in my life when I
accepted the gift when I was a teenager.
So I can accept that many of the anti-abortionists trying to push their
lifestyle on to un-believers is done so in good, but ignorant, belief that they
are somehow helping to usher in God’s Kingdom.
Problem is, we don’t usher in anything of God’s. And even if
the new law stopped all abortions going forward, it still wouldn’t stop sin.
And it still wouldn’t bring people to God. My young girls think that Christians
hate them for their lifestyle choices, and if the Christians hate them, why
would God love them? They believe that
they have to totally change who they are, scrub themselves clean from things
others call “sin” and they just see as part of their personality, before they
would be acceptable to God, and why would they? Why would they wish to be part
of a God who doesn’t accept them as they are?
And yet, God is a God of choice. He is also a God of mercy
and grace and lovingkindness and forgiveness. He does accept them right where
they are, based on the work of His Son on the cross. How sad that message is
blurred by well-meaning but legalistic and wrong-focused Christians.
July 2023
Again, a year later and many states have enforced extreme
anti-abortion laws. What they didn’t foresee is that many of the procedures
used in an abortion are also used to help women in the aftermath of a
miscarriage or other uterine related issues. There are doctors afraid to
perform the routine D & C procedure for fear of legal repercussions due to
their state’s new laws. This puts women’s lives at risk, women who were not
seeking an abortion, just seeking good medical care. The ripple effect has been
huge. The best conservatives can hope for is that they won’t be needing one of
these, often, life saving procedures anytime soon.
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