A Clarification on My Position
One of the comments in response to my last piece had me re-examining my premise. Thanks Mike for the gut-check! I remain convinced that the position I advanced regarding changing the abortion debate is solid but I feel that there needs some clarification on the spiritual stand side of the discussion.
I have always been a very results oriented person and prefer to carefully consider the entire picture when making decisions. With that said, I firmly believe that unless there 0ccurs a dramatic spiritual revival or awakening that the overall consensus on the issue of abortion will not change, thus the stalemate with the ill-conceived case of Roe v. Wade dictating the status quo.
As a Christian, my moral stand on abortion for any reason is unwavering.. I honestly believe it is wrong and that the "choice" horribly affects the aborting mother through guilt, shame and remorse. Not to mention that the decision disregards the possible role that God plays in turning things that the enemy meant for evil into something good. Although, I advocate our reconsidering support for legislation that achieves less than a full prohibition of abortion, in no way do I believe or endorse a retreat from our moral duty to still maintain the truth that it is still wrong in any situation, no matter how difficult the moral dilema to abort a child.
My rationale is best set forth in the following analogy:
Suppose you are in a boat with five other individuals in the middle of the ocean. In the water around you there are 100 children floating in the water around you. In order to save ANY of them you must have a majority. Understandably, you and two others are wanting to save ALL of them (for clarity, the boat is large enough to safely fit all of them). However, two of the adults are opposed to saving ANY of them, they counter that they are not wanted, too much trouble, will be a burden on the six adults and besides five of the kids are sick, too close to the rocks placing everybody in jeapardy and will die anyway. The one undecided adult is torn because he rationalizes the arguments and concludes that saving the five is too great a risk and sacrifice. He would probably join you and the other two adults and save the rest, but you and the other two are patently refusing to do anything unless ALL of the children are saved. The undecided adult just can't bring themselves to risk it for the five kids who are too much trouble.
This is a very simplified analogy, but it still makes the point; you either agree to save the 95 children while maintaining that it is wrong to leave the five remaining children or you continue to argue over the five while the 95 others perish.
Although I grieve for the children of the product of rape, incest and health of the mother; it doesn't make sense to ignore the possible saving of the other children who are being aborted simply out of selfish "birth control" reasons. Save as many as we can while maintaining that its wrong and upholding our moral stand. The alternative is to continue to engage in the stale-mate and waiting for the day when the Lord sovereignly gives us our one clear victory; but failing to take any steps in the meantime to save most of these children. I remain resolute that we need to change the argument.
posted by Jay @ 10:04 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Amen again, Jay. I think your lifeboat analogy is dead on. We recently had some of this same discussion among some friends at church before the election. In Oregon we had the choice for governor between a pro-choice Democrat, who wants no limit to abortion whatsoever, and a pro-choice Republican, who still favors parental notification and said he would sign any pro-life bills that came to his desk from the legislature. Some of the people in the discussion refused to vote for the Republican, because they said if he was elected the Republican party in Oregon would never nominate a pro-life candidate again--it would be permanent giving up of ground. They voted for a third party candidate who had no chance of winning and could only play the spoiler. (In my opinion the choice to nominate a pro-choice candidate was made in the primary, and we needed to deal with the choice we had now.)
My and my husband's stance was different. We could not feel that a protest vote for the pro-life third party candidate was the best use of our franchise. At this point, there is no ground for conservatives to give up. In Oregon, it's not a matter of all or nothing. It's merely a matter of nothing. Without the support of many conservatives on Tuesday, the Republican lost the election, and now we have another four years of a man who goes along with every scare tactic of NOW and Planned Parenthood to keep Oregon voters convinced that any limit at all to abortion is a threat to victims of rape and incest. We are sacrificing every bit of ground in this state because we are not willing to take that ground in steps small enough that we don't terrorize the liberal (and unbelieving) majority, who think that we want to merely impose our will on sinners, and not to help mothers and their children.
Oregon will not change its position on abortion, even something as thoroughly reasonable as letting parents know their 14-year-old is having a major medical procedure, unless there is a fundamental change in the character of its people. For that the Church must do its job, telling others about Christ, and be on its knees. My husband is very fond of quoting a line from the mini-series Jesus Of Nazareth, when John the Baptist says, "Before kingdoms change, men must change." This is about as true as it gets. As citizens, however, we must still do what we can to make right choices as a society. In light of that, I too believe we must save the 95 if we can, while continuing to try and persuade the rest of the boat to take the risk and save the 5 as well. If we are intransigent, so will they be; all will perish, and we will never have the chance to persuade anyone, or save anyone, for that matter.
Wow Kat, that quote from Jesus of Nazareth is so profound and true! Tell your husband that his favorite quote hit the mark here! I think that your story of what occurred in Oregon is so in line with what takes place all over the country and devoted Christians fall into it again and again. In the end, they become frustrated with the lack of progress on these crucial social issues that they either become disenfranchised and leave the political process all together or just become angry and bitter at the opposition. In either case they are missing the calling that they are to be salt and light. Unless we are engaged we can't have an impact, but if we become bitter and angry then we are an affront who loses all compassion for others who are lost.
Thanks again for your wise and insightful thoughts!
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