On Abortion and Abortion Rights from a Christian perspective

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/05/on-abortion-and-abortion-rights.html

As a Christian, I believe that abortion is a wrong choice. Medical advance has made it relatively safe physically, and so it has become a birth control option among many. I consider life as a gift, sacred and precious, and the birth of a child, something planned, prepared for, and welcomed. My belief is rooted in the Christian scripture of the New Testament, around the teaching of Christ regarding marriage.

But if the rights of some individuals who are not Christian, or who do not practice any religion, can be taken away, so can the rights of anyone else the majority doesn't particularly like or favor. That's tyranny, by definition. Who's to say that a future congressional majority down the road might not have much of a liking for Baptists, or Episcopalians, or Hottentots or tongue-talking Pentecostals? The number of Americans who worship in a church of any kind on any given Sunday has now dropped into the mid-30% range.

[Moostache]

1. A reasoned and rationale explanation, and one I wholly support

Being pro-choice has never meant being pro-abortion, but is has ALWAYS been about respecting the agency of women over their bodies and reproductive decisions. Trying to reduce the number of abortions by SPENDING CASH on resources to offer expectant mothers and support to allow safer deliveries and pregnancies, rather than simply leaving poor or unprepared women to the wolves and red in claw will of nature, is also a bell weather marker for whether someone is morally opposed to abortion or is politically motivated to use the issue for power.

I have LONG asked the so-called pro-life crowd a simple question "How many crack babies have YOU adopted or placed for adoption?" Not ONE have had an answer for it.

Women who are not allowed bodily autonomy are second class citizens, at the behest of the state. That is also slavery or bondage - which the Constitution SPECIFICALLY outlaws in the 13th Amendment. There is no difference beyond timeline that anyone can believe forced pregnancies are anything less that state sanctioned female slavery.

File the fucking case today. Dare those cocksuckers on the SCOTUS to justify enslavement as a 21st century norm that even 19th century Americans acknowledges was morally WRONG!!!

[lees1975]

2. Yes! Exactly.

Instead of waiting around for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, if there were a sincere interest in actually doing something to lower abortion numbers, rather than just a political motivation, there should be enough services available and funded by those who oppose abortion to help as many women and save as many pregnancies as there were seeking the help. Of course, there will be those who are simply determined to have the abortion, which is also their choice, but I firmly believe that the Christian churches of this country, which have collectively accrued several billion dollars in debt and interest on fancy auditoriums and facilities that are used once a week for a couple of hours, would have the resources to fund services leading to as much as an 80% reduction in abortions. There are several very successful such ministries and programs. It requires commitment and investment, because the majority of women seeking abortions are doing so as a result of impoverishment circumstances, not birth control. I don't understand the resistance, especially among more conservative Christians, to giving a financial hand up to those who are desperate.

[Karadeniz]

3. Well written, as usual. But, when talking about the sanctity of human life, the scriptural view is

that human life consists of two elements, the basket and the light. The early churchmen didn't respect the physical body at all, except insofar as the body, the basket, responded to its soul energy, the light, and was used for the benefit of others. So, the Christian view on abortion would have to take into account at what time the soul entered the unborn body.

Departing from scripture, psychic mediums report to clients the presence on the other side of the spirit survival of miscarriages and the aborted. The message is usually that those spirits do not attach blame for that experience.

[lees1975]

4. There are Christian traditions which hold a similar view

But there is also Biblical support for life beginning at conception, rooted in a reformed or calvinist perspective and the idea of predestination. It's also in Jewish tradition, by extension to Christian tradition. I believe God tells Jeremiah, the Prophet, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Not a lot on which to rest a whole load of doctrine, but substantiation.

The Mormons believe that the soul does not enter the body until it is being born and while they have given themselves to conservative politics, they're not so intense about non-Mormons getting abortions because those won't be Mormon bodies for the "spirits" to inhabit. But they are very concerned about Mormons having them, because it denies the spirit-child an opportunity to inhabit a Mormon body. Makes for interesting politics.

The most difficult decisions involve rape or incest. There's no ability to make a good choice prior to the incident happening. And those kinds of situations are far more prevalent than reported. The fact of the matter is that pregnancy is just as likely to occur following a rape as it is after consentual sex.

[Karadeniz]

5. The surprising thing about so many religious conservatives is that they insist on governing

beliefs and behavior in the here and now, displaying no confidence whatsoever that there's a god system of perfect justice that can handle accountability for our lives. Just occurred to me: That's why so many political and religious conservatives indulge their lusts and greed! They probably think that as long as they haven't hit the front page, their god hasn't noticed! Isn't one of their favorite sayings, "Let go and let God"? But they don't let their god decide anything... they have to.

[lees1975]

6. True Christian faith is lived out by conviction, not by compulsion

but it's a power trip for a lot of preachers to get in the pulpit and run the lives of those who listen to them. That's why you won't find very many people under 40 in an Evangelical church, and why the typical congregation loses 5% of its attendance and membership every year. They haven't been preaching the gospel, they've been preaching the power and manipulation of politics and turning their churches into political action committees, which are not spiritual bodies but, by definition, are apostate.

And that's why many of them have fallen so easily for a moral pig like the former failed President 45. They don't care about sin or salvation, they care about power.

[Karadeniz]

7. Yep!!